[Ads-l] "All dressed up and no place to go" - 1910, perhaps as early as 1901?

[Peter Reitan]

The earliest example of the expression I could find in print is from 1910, in a travel story written by a Northern California teacher.

It appears in print regularly and often during and after 1910.

The earliest example in print recounts events that apparently happened in 1901.  Other details in the story are accurate, but it can't be certain whether the story is exactly as it happened, or embellished with a new idiom.

The expression appears to have been popularized by its use on stage in a play called "The Girl of My Dreams" later in 1910.  The expression was added to the play by an actress named Nita Allen.  The expression had been used in song lyrics earlier that year in a play (Madame Sherry) written by the same team who wrote "Girl of My Dreams," but I found no specific references to the use of the phrase in the earlier play.

Shortly after 1910, there were at least three songs with titles with variants of "When I'm All Dressed Up and No Place to Go."  One of those songs appears to have been very popular.  And the comedian who sang the song brought it to England in 1916, and introduced the expression there.

https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2024/03/all-dressed-up-and-no-place-to-go.html



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