[Ads-l] Antedating of "run it up the flagpole" (1956)

[dave@wilton.net]

Not in OED; GDoS has 1957.
 
Kaselow, Joseph. “Advertising Field: Guards Up, Men.” New York Herald Tribune, 12 November 1956, A5/1. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
 
"The [newspaper feature] writer said he would get back to the p. r. man and in a short while he did. And here, so help me, is what he said: 'I took it in to one of the editors and ran it up the flagpole, but nobody saluted; so I guess it’s dead.'"
 
Kaselow, Joseph. “Advertising Field: Sound and Fury.” New York Herald Tribune, 15 November 1956, A7/5. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
 
"The other day we had an item about a newspaper feature writer who turned down a story by saying he’s taken to the editors and run it up the flagpole, but nobody saluted. We played it up as a case of the creeping influence of Madison Ave. on the native—and what’s worse, the editorial tongu[e]."

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