[Ads-l] guts and glory

[Ben Zimmer]

And then there's "no guts, no glory"...

---
New York Times, Aug. 30, 1945, p. 4, col. 2
We came in our own B-17, The Headliner, piloted by Capt. Mark Magnan of
Milwaukee, escorted by a single-engined Mustang fighter, No Guts, No Glory,
piloted by Capt. Sanford K. Moats of Mission, Kan., which was decorated
with nine swastikas, denoting that many enemy planes shot down by this ace
in European combat.
https://www.nytimes.com/1945/08/30/archives/shanghai-happy-casting-off-eightyear-japanese-yoke-shanghai-happy.html
---
South Bend Tribune, May 24, 1951, p. II2, col. 7 [Genealogybank]
Leave it to George Halas to get an A-1 quarterback for his Bear eleven.
Glad to see that Bob Williams can get in a year of pro football before
becoming a "no guts no glory" fly-boy.
---
Air Force Times, July 16, 1955, p. 22, col. 1 [Genealogybank]
Major Fred C. Blesse, double jet ace and 3596th Combat Crew Training
Squadron Commander at Nellis, was the leader. Idea for the team originated
from a book Major Blesse wrote, "No Guts No Glory," which was for use in
tactical fighter organizations throughout the entire Air Force.
---


On Sat, Jun 28, 2025 at 1:58 PM Jonathan Lighter <
00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> Not in OED.
>
> Surprising that the earliest exx. are not movie-related.
>
> 1937 John Franklin Carter _The Rectory Family_ (N.Y.: Coward-McCann) 158:
> Once, old Mr. Stocking, who...had fought in the Battle of Gettysburg came
> over and told us what it had been like. He was a tall man with a
> flowing white beard and a mild blue eye, and he gave us no guts-and-glory
> talk. He told us how he and a bunch of other men had hidden behind a stone
> wall and been scared to death and then had got up and fired at a lot of
> other men.
>
> 1939 _N.Y. Post_ (Oct. 30) 15: Mr. [Vardis] Fisher,... in "Children of
> God," has told a guts-and-glory tale of indomitable pioneers who could not
> be downed by starvation, murder, persecution, famine and plague.
>
> 1942 _Arkansas Gazette_ (Little Rock) (Nov. 15)  18: With Guns and Guts and
> Glory - It Will Make You Fighting Mad! ...It's raining STEEL, but they take
> it! WAKE ISLAND Brian Donlevy Robert Preston.
>
> 1944 _Detroit Times_ (Feb. 12) 22: JAP BRUTALITY, DEPRAVITY AVENGED...BY
> THE GUTS AND GLORY GUYS - FIRST TO LAND - FIRST TO FIGHT!  Battle Cry of
> Action! Supercharging The Blood! Fiery Smashing Drama!  GUNG HO! Starring
> Randolph Scott.
>
> 1947 _Daily Alaska Empire_ (Juneau) (Feb. 8) 5:  Ablaze with
> Guns...Guts...and Glory! YOU HAD TO BE FAST ON THE DRAW...to keep your land
> or your woman. Randolph Scott in ABILENE TOWN.
>
> Etc., etc.
>
>

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