[Ads-l] Antedating of "Too cool for school"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Great citation, Steven. Here is an incremental update. The Dorothy
Kilgallen column appeared one day earlier.

Date: September 19, 1951
Newspaper: New Orleans States
Newspaper Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Article: The Broadway Bulletin Board
Author: Dorothy Kilgallen
Quote Page 19, Column 3 and 4
Database: GenealogyBank

[Begin quote]
Lionel Hampton turned down a chance to lecture at a West coast
university on the lexicon of jazz. He told profs he couldn't figure
out how to define the language of the hipsters without employing other
unintelligible terms. (If you're hip, you're just too cool for
school!)
[End quote]

Was Kilgallen using wordplay to reference an expression that was
already in circulation? Did she create the expression? I do not know.

Garson

On Fri, Jun 21, 2024 at 4:22 PM Steven Losie <stevenlosie at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL (OED3, 1985)
> (The OED also has a bracketed quote from 1981, because it references a
> literal school.)
>
> This may also deserve a bracketing, since it appears to reference an actual
> school, too:
>
> [begin quote]
> Lionel Hampton turned down a chance to lecture at a West Coast university
> on the lexicon of jazz. He told profs he couldn't figure out how to define
> the language of the hipsters without employing other unintelligible terms.
> (If you're hip, you're just too cool for school!)
> [end quote]
> Source: The News-Herald (Franklin, Penn.), 20 Sept 1951, p.4, col.7 (
> newspapers.com)
> Article title: Voice of Broadway
> Author: Dorothy Kilgallen
> https://www.newspapers.com/image/53744734/?match=1&terms=%22too%20cool%20for%20school%22
>
> The above quote is from the syndicated column "The Voice of Broadway"
> written by columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, and probably originally appeared in
> the New York Evening Journal. The quote was also published the same day as
> the above source in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Elmira (NY)
> Star-Gazette, both available on ProQuest. Four other newspapers that ran
> the column are available on newspapers.com, all published either the same
> day or the day after.
>
> [begin quote]
> [sub-headline] N'PORT TEEN TALK
> 1. Alvin and Eva are too cool for school.
> [end quote]
> Source: Alabama Citizen (Tuscaloosa, Ala.), 9 March 1963, p.2, col.3 (
> newspapers.com)
> Article title: Teen Talk
> https://www.newspapers.com/image/572251482/?match=1&terms=%22too%20cool%20for%20school%22
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org