[Ads-l] The cat's pajamas (1920) [Was: the bee's knees (1920)]

Sun Mar 24 15:27:32 UTC 2024

Apologies to all.
Thanks for looking at the newspaper page carefully, Dave.
I only clicked through the pages to reach the front page, and I saw
the Feb 6, 1918 date on the front page.
I missed the 1922 date on the newspaper page with "cat's pajamas".
Garson

On Sun, Mar 24, 2024 at 11:04 AM dave at wilton.net <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
>
>
> That's an error on the part of Newspapers.com. A page from another date (and maybe another paper?) has been inserted into the issue for 6 Feb 1918.
>
> Two articles on the page, including this one, are marked "© 1922".
>
> The other pages in this issue are the correct ones.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "ADSGarson O'Toole" <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Sunday, March 24, 2024 8:09am
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] The cat's pajamas (1920) [Was: the bee's knees (1920)]
>
>
>
> Interesting topic, Bonnie and Dave. Here is a citation for "cat's
> pajamas" in 1918 I just came across, but I did not find it first.
> Peter Reitan clipped it earlier this month.
>
> Date: February 6, 1918
> Newspaper: The Pageland Journal
> Newspaper Location: Pageland, South Carolina
> Article: The Efficiency Girl
> Author: I. Wright
> Quote Page 6, Column 1
> Database: Newspapers.com
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pageland-journal/142506229/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> The boss upstairs has seen him work before and he's told him that he
> can have any one in the whole place he wants to assist him. Wouldn't
> that beat the cat's pajamas? The efficiency girl! I-"
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Sun, Mar 24, 2024 at 6:59 AM dave at wilton.net <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> > I've found "cat's pajamas" from 17 July 1919. It's in a unit newsletter published by an Army hospital in Denver, an article about the unit's baseball team playing a team from the local Armour meat company:
> >
> > “Wieners, Fried Bacon, Salisbury Steaks for Loyal Rooters.” ’Tenshun, 21! (US Army General Hospital 21, Denver, Colorado), 17 July 1919, 1/6. ProQuest Magazines.
> >
> > “Say Medina,” said he, “this ball team of mine needs a lotta practice; so I’d like to have ’em come out here to the Coop every Thursday evening and stage a game with the soldiers boys. When we come out, we’ll bring something for the boys every time—some Armour food product you know. We’ll also bring along a couplea [sic] stoves on which we can cook the stuff and serve the hot wienies, fried ham sandwiches and such delectable food. Whad’ye say?”
> >
> > Well, what else could O’Brien’s Helper say but that he thought it would be the cat’s pajamas to have feed like that dished up to the fellows every Thursday.
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: "Bonnie Taylor-Blake" <b.taylorblake at GMAIL.COM>
> > Sent: Thursday, February 29, 2024 5:17pm
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: [ADS-L] The cat's pajamas (1920) [Was: the bee's knees (1920)]
> >
> >
> >
> > Several years ago, Ben shared with us this early use of "the bee's knees."
> >
> > > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/24666781/bees_knees/
> > > San Francisco Examiner, July 5, 1920, p. 2, col. 6
> > > First Delegate: "Well, now ain't that the bee's knees! Why, I'm having a
> > > swell time here, Swell. This is a great town."
> >
> > That piece, by Damon Runyan (!), may also contain the earliest
> > sighting yet (until someone corrects me) of "the cat's pajamas."
> >
> > I see that Jonathan Green shares a July 1921 usage of "the cat's
> > pajamas" as his earliest example of the expression. (Last I checked,
> > the OED had 1923.)
> >
> > https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/65sizni
> >
> > There, Jonathan notes that it was "coined, like many other similar
> > terms, by the US sportwriter T.A. ‘Tad’ Dorgan (1877–1929)." (Dorgan
> > was also a cartoonist.) That Dorgan often gets credit for this coinage
> > (and others) likely stems from W.L. Werner's "Tad Dorgan Is Dead,"
> > American Speech, Volume 4, Number 6 (August 1929), p. 430. Werner
> > lists "cat's pajamas" as "among the terms which the daily press
> > credits Mr. Dorgan with inventing," though -- as others have pointed
> > out -- Dorgan reused a lot of slang that he had heard from others.
> >
> > Anyway, Runyan's sketch
> > (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner-cats-pajama/142309144/)
> > uses "[ain't that] the cat's pajamas" four times, in addition to one
> > "the bee's knees." He also has his character saying, "the turkey's
> > tracks," "the horse's necktie," and "the beetle's business," but those
> > don't seem to have taken off. (This syndicated piece appeared in
> > several newspapers across the country.)
> >
> > Just below I've tacked on a few other appearances of "the cat's
> > pajamas" that predate that July 1921 usage. (BTW, at newspapers.com
> > there seems to be a 1918 sighting of "the cat's pajamas," but it's
> > misdated.)
> >
> > Finally, "the kitten's pajamas" was a thing, too, but I haven't found
> > instances of it appearing before 1921.
> >
> > -- Bonnie
> >
> > ----------------------------
> >
> > Ain't that the cat's pajamas!
> >
> > [A comment appended to a reprinting of "a New York clipping" about an
> > upcoming bout between boxers Sammy Good and Barney Adair, in The San
> > Francisco Call, 25 September 1920, p. 17, bottom of column 6.
> > https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19200925.2.280&srpos=1&e=-------en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN-%22cat%27s+pajamas%22-------
> > ]
> >
> > ----------------------------
> >
> > "Yes, that's the cat's pajamas, Sam!" nodded Jim Stubb ...
> >
> > [In "Up State Statistics Disclose Holiday Trade," Tobacco,16 December
> > 1920, p. 37. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Tobacco/ZgduqXKNrLsC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22cat's%20pajamas%22&pg=RA5-PA3&printsec=frontcover]
> >
> > ----------------------------
> >
> > "King" writes from Smith Thompson at Sebastopol, Russia, "While we
> > don't exactly claim to be the old cat's pajamas in everything still we
> > will not let the Alden pull a lot of bull about her class as a
> > baseball team. The Alden is not the best baseball ship in these parts.
> > The Chattanooga is and the Smith Thompson is a close second. We are
> > the best of the little packets known as the Black Sea Express. Pie and
> > cake five times a week. That's us."
> >
> > [In "U.S.S. Smith Thompson," Our Navy; the Standard Publication of the
> > United States Navy, January 1921, p. 25,
> > https://www.google.com/books/edition/Our_Navy_the_Standard_Publication_of_the/FIM9AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22cat's%20pajamas%22&pg=RA8-PA25&printsec=frontcover]
> >
> > ----------------------------
> >
> > BTW, "the cat's pajamas" also appeared in "Henry," Russell Cole's
> > comic strip, in May 1921,
> > https://www.newspapers.com/article/des-moines-tribune-cats-pajamas-comi/142315748/
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Oct 19, 2018 at 3:22 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > HDAS and OED have "the bee's knees" in the sense of "a superlative
> > > person/thing" from 1923. GDoS has it from 1922 (except for one questionable
> > > outlier -- see below), and Hugo gives some additional cites from that year
> > > in this English Stack Exchange thread:
> > >
> > > https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/47088/where-does-the-phrase-the-bees-knees-originate-from
> > >
> > > In that same thread, Phil M. Jones cites an example from 1920:
> > >
> > > ---
> > > The National, Nov.-Dec. 1920, p. 358, col. 3
> > > "How Movie Dope is Written," by Stewart Arnold Wright
> > > For lack of something better, I said to [Ernest] Hilliard, "Well, what do
> > > you think of this 'Annabel Lee' picture?"
> > > "It's the bee's knees," he replied. "If it doesn't knock Broadway on its
> > > ear, I'll kiss your Adam's apple in Wanamaker's display window at 12
> > > o'clock noon."
> > > https://books.google.com/books?id=ytVOAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA358
> > > ---
> > >
> > > Here it is earlier in 1920, quoting a delegate to the Democratic National
> > > Convention in San Francisco:
> > >
> > > ---
> > > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/24666781/bees_knees/
> > > San Francisco Examiner, July 5, 1920, p. 2, col. 6
> > > First Delegate: "Well, now ain't that the bee's knees! Why, I'm having a
> > > swell time here, Swell. This is a great town."
> > > ---
> > >
> > > Even earlier that year, in the Feb. 8, 1920 issue of the St. Louis
> > > Post-Dispatch, there are references to a vaudeville show called "The Bee's
> > > Knees" (presented by Joe Laurie, Jr.), but there's no indication of whether
> > > the show used it in the superlative sense or for some other fanciful
> > > purpose.
> > >
> > > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/24668442/the_bees_knees/
> > > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/24668460/the_bees_knees/
> > >
> > > I don't see anything clearly related to the superlative sense before that,
> > > though "bee's knees" did appear in various contexts as a kind of nonsense
> > > phrase, as noted by Hugo on English Stack Exchange as well as by The Phrase
> > > Finder:
> > >
> > > https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-bees-knees.html
> > >
> > > GDoS has a dubious cite dated to 1905 in a letter by the Australian folk
> > > singer Duke Tritton:
> > >
> > > ---
> > > 1905 Duke Tritton's Letter n.p.: I'm teaching Mary and all the Tin Lids in
> > > the district to Dark An' Dim, and they reckon I'm the bees knees, ants
> > > pants and nits tits all rolled into one.
> > > ---
> > >
> > > The full text of the rhyming-slang-stuffed letter can be found here:
> > >
> > > https://www.tsukuba-g.ac.jp/library/kiyou/98/12.yokose.pdf
> > >
> > > On Twitter, Jonathon Green says that further research has dated the letter
> > > to "somewhere in the teens":
> > >
> > > https://twitter.com/MisterSlang/status/1053315085228224513
> > >
> > > But even that would be an outlier given that there's no US evidence before
> > > 1920 (and there's no evidence that the superlative meaning of the phrase
> > > came from Australia). So either it's a case of independent invention, or
> > > Duke Tritton's letter was actually written later, in the '20s.
> > >
> > > --bgz
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
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>
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>
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