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

[Andy Bach]

And the immortal update by Meat Loaf
All Revved up and No Place to Go:

https://youtu.be/eWVmRvq50kQ?si=PxXHq6uQKOdzDhkg


Andy Bach
Afbach at gmail.com
Not at my desk


On Thu, Mar 7, 2024 at 2:32 PM Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:

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

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