tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.comments2024-02-10T21:11:00.659-08:00Early Sports and Pop Culture History BlogPeter Jensen Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00042588192094310236noreply@blogger.comBlogger155125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-57007369439476947952024-02-08T09:43:52.426-08:002024-02-08T09:43:52.426-08:00Good article! I recently learned that Mabel Fento...Good article! I recently learned that Mabel Fenton (her stage name) was my Great Great Aunt Ada Mae! I'm proud to be descended from such a talented performer. C. FieldsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-9521188319486318412024-01-31T19:30:23.695-08:002024-01-31T19:30:23.695-08:00Not a word about the beloved pink caramalized popc...Not a word about the beloved pink caramalized popcorn from Nutty Club, r.i.p. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-43177939931875277572024-01-24T19:54:43.056-08:002024-01-24T19:54:43.056-08:00In the 1932 film ‘No More Orchids’ Lyle Talbots gr...In the 1932 film ‘No More Orchids’ Lyle Talbots greets Carole Lombard with “If I had known you were coming I’d have baked a cake”.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-47987860483694844712023-12-17T21:57:29.262-08:002023-12-17T21:57:29.262-08:00The history of "White Elephant" gifting ...The history of "White Elephant" gifting was very interesting. I had no idea the swaping was so old. I have been to two of them and there was at least one "gift" that was so much fun, either because it was very nice or very amusing; Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-10521311786091019452023-11-12T23:08:23.025-08:002023-11-12T23:08:23.025-08:00Great work! I was brought here by a Popeye cartoon...Great work! I was brought here by a Popeye cartoon from 1938 called "Plumbing is a 'Pipe'". The pun implied by the quotation in the title seems likely to refer to an alternate shortened version of the phrase, where even the "lead" is dropped. Did you find any usages of that? In this case the usage would be ironic if that's indeed the pun, as the plumbing is quite difficult in the short.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-25093548055725075552023-10-06T18:19:43.532-07:002023-10-06T18:19:43.532-07:00Here in southwestern Pennsylvania, growing up in t...Here in southwestern Pennsylvania, growing up in the 1950s, I often heard my dad, a 1932 graduate of Waynesburg College (50 miles from Allegheny College), sing:<br />Kalla-garoo, garoo, garoo<br />Hi ix ba-zoo<br />Hikey-pikey, dolomon-ikey<br />Alla-ka-pi-kee bah!<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-89520433012278676202023-09-02T17:40:52.320-07:002023-09-02T17:40:52.320-07:00awesome article. well researched. thank you!awesome article. well researched. thank you!Russell Pirklehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15079326601198784770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-59502531160948040152023-08-22T18:34:37.909-07:002023-08-22T18:34:37.909-07:00The link for The San Francisco Call and Post, Dece...The link for The San Francisco Call and Post, December 11, 1913, page 9 is https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86064451/1913-12-11/ed-1/seq-9/ where St. Savar is referring to St. Sava. My only proof of this is that the timing makes sense in the newspaper, there is no other St. Savar, and I have found four historical references with this spelling:<br />1) https://books.google.com/books?id=PNc7AQAAMAAJ&lpg=PA43&ots=cgwKV3gSlf&dq=%22St.%20savar%22&pg=PA43#v=onepage&q=%22St.%20savar%22&f=false<br />2) https://books.google.com/books?id=-1UD_BpGNvEC&lpg=RA2-PA259&ots=JTuEAm6d-M&dq=%22St.%20savar%22&pg=RA2-PA259#v=onepage&q=%22St.%20savar%22&f=false<br />3) https://genealogytrails.com/ill/pike/milcolor70.html<br />4) https://champagnat.org/fr/bulletin/saint-mungos-academy-glasgow/Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12358777830063444212noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-22586274721302838422023-08-22T18:30:32.623-07:002023-08-22T18:30:32.623-07:00The source for the picture of Bozo Gopcevic is htt...The source for the picture of Bozo Gopcevic is https://archive.org/details/menwhomadesanfra00sanf/page/60/mode/1up?view=theater#Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12358777830063444212noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-67061316951849085282023-08-22T18:28:35.085-07:002023-08-22T18:28:35.085-07:00The source for the Gopcevic siblings newspaper pic...The source for the Gopcevic siblings newspaper picture is incorrect. It is actually San Francisco Call, Volume 105, Number 50, 19 January 1909 https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19090119.1.1Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12358777830063444212noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-80610483544400569262023-08-16T12:36:32.690-07:002023-08-16T12:36:32.690-07:00Interesting. You learn something new every day. Th...Interesting. You learn something new every day. That show appears to have debuted in late-1910, so it may have been derivative of the 1909 Ji-ji-boo song and play. Jinga Boo also takes place on an "exotic" island, so it appears to play off of the same, general theme of the earlier play and song.Peter Jensen Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00042588192094310236noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-90224896637633390982023-08-16T07:50:48.208-07:002023-08-16T07:50:48.208-07:00In 1910 there was a musical play called "Jing...In 1910 there was a musical play called "Jinga-Boo," could it have been related? http://www.ragpiano.com/comps/apryor.shtmlASTRIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08445337644102597353noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-45351914179675947362023-08-07T09:11:44.212-07:002023-08-07T09:11:44.212-07:00I stumbled on this while researching Septimus Winn...I stumbled on this while researching Septimus Winner, who is interred at Laurel Hill West Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, PA, where I am a volunteer tour guide and volunteer podcaster (All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories and Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories). <br /><br />This is Laurel Hill's second "Stooge" connection, as Laurel Hill East has Robert Foerderer, the maker of "Vici Kid" leather, which is a name dropped by Curly in "Disorder in the Court". <br /><br />No, Ben Franklin is not here, although we have several of his grandchildren. Ben is at Christ Chruch Burial ground a few miles away in Center CityJoe Lexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05836298910702389319noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-27514404311928987872023-04-26T06:30:32.058-07:002023-04-26T06:30:32.058-07:00Given the details of the transition, dating the te...Given the details of the transition, dating the team to 1883 might deserve an asterisk or "league membership" caveat as well.Peter Jensen Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00042588192094310236noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-32874110195771586872023-04-26T04:28:20.344-07:002023-04-26T04:28:20.344-07:00I have no objection to dating the Giants to the 18...I have no objection to dating the Giants to the 1880 Mets, though it would cry out for a footnote. But were I to take on early franchise continuity as the windmill to tilt at, I would start with the Reds' marketing department's claim to dating to the 1869 Red Stockings.Richard Hershbergerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02635892502928435073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-50021742487281989572023-04-24T11:39:47.990-07:002023-04-24T11:39:47.990-07:00Thank you for sharing your expertise and thoughtfu...Thank you for sharing your expertise and thoughtful comments. <br /><br />As for your comment that "asking which franchise is a continuation of the old Mets is meaningless," that may be. In my earlier discussion of this topic ( https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2019/10/mets-might-be-giants-alternative.html ), I commented that some might see it as a "distinction without a difference," but if that were true, then it is equally true that the San Francisco Giants should trace their origin to the 1880 Mets, and not consider their founding date as being 1883. The reporting during that off-season, up to and including when they were admitted to the national League, of a direct tie between the Metropolitans and the later Giants seems interesting, at least to the extent it runs counter to the what appears to be a common notion that the Giants started playing baseball in 1883.<br /><br />As for Mutrie and the Metropolitan Exhibition Company playing the long game, by manufacturing a dispute, that thought crossed my mind as a possibility. The early rumors of financing from common backers, and the later comments about efforts to suppress knowledge of a connection suggest that may have been the case. But it is also true that only the Metropolitans of 1882 had a continuing relationship with the National League, through the Alliance, which would have made only new signings for that team secure during that off-season. It would have been a risk to sign new players to a newer league, when there was no current agreement among those leagues to respect each other's contracts.<br /><br />Given that, in the end, both leagues admitted teams owned by the same company, everything came out in the wash, and it is difficult to distinguish the one from the other. But if events had worked out differently, and the NL refused to admit a team owned by a group that also owned an AA team, then perhaps the Metropolitan Exhibition Company never would have finalized their backing of the "new" AA team under Mutrie, and just started a separate corporate entity to own the second team. In that event, it seems more likely that the current Giants would clearly have stemmed from the original Mets, and that the AA Mets would have been considered the newer team.Peter Jensen Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00042588192094310236noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-64712502006964497942023-04-24T09:30:14.542-07:002023-04-24T09:30:14.542-07:00My take has long been that the question of which w...My take has long been that the question of which was the new club and which a continuation of the old one is based on an anachronistic model of how sports franchises work. The question is meaningless in the context of 1883. The NL had vacated two franchises. The AA had expanded, creating two franchises. Both wanted one of their open franchises to be in New York. The Metropolitan Exhibition Company controlled the only professional grounds in Manhattan, as well as an established and successful independent team. The conclusion was obvious, that the Metropolitan Exhibition Company was the only viable candidate for both, and so they ended up with both franchises.<br /><br />What about all the kerfuffle in the fall with Mutrie? It might be a genuine disagreement that got resolved, but we should not dismiss the possibility that Day and Mutrie were playing the long game. Day had been in discussions with both the AA and the NL since 1881. Would the NL and AA accept the Metropolitan Exhibition Company holding a franchise in both leagues? This was a topic of discussion at the AA annual meeting in December of 1882. In the end they did, but this might not have been obvious to Day and Mutrie in the fall of 1882, manufacturing a dispute to obscure what was going on until the leagues were presented with a fait accompli. There is a long piece in the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette of January 7, 1883 that suggests just this.<br /><br />So in the event, they ended up with two franchises while having only one team's worth of players. Hence the trip up the Hudson to Troy, the largest collection of available and plausibly major league level players, sign as many as possible, collect other players as can be, and combined with the cream of the 1882 Mets, and you have yourself two teams' worth of players to divvy up between the NL and AA franchises. How they divided those players up is fascinating, but a topic for another day.<br /><br />Asking which franchise was a continuation of the old Mets is meaningless. The concept of franchise continuity is very abstract until you get reserve rights involved, they clarifying what organization is what from one year to the next. The reserve system had not yet developed to the point where this could help us. The popular fallback is to look at team names, but this is a red herring. The early NL disfavored colorful team names. The 1876 Athletics and Mutuals were grandfathered in, but otherwise it is all boring city names. This was to emphasize that these were the "representative" clubs for those cities, a practice that predates the NL. The AA was perfectly happy with colorful team names. So, for example, the Louisville club's official name was "Eclipse Base Ball Association." On the NL side, stuff like "Giants" was an informal nickname. So with the Metropolitan Exhibition Company holding franchises in both leagues, assigning the colorful name to the AA entry was the obvious decision. Richard Hershbergerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02635892502928435073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-67710436711214832932023-04-18T03:59:36.549-07:002023-04-18T03:59:36.549-07:00ahhhhhhahhhhhhAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-25185542959363665112023-04-11T15:06:10.959-07:002023-04-11T15:06:10.959-07:00Thorough and fascinating! You answered a question ...Thorough and fascinating! You answered a question that I always wondered....why not find a better slope? Now I know....thank you! -- L/BCIAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-6453004591821855302023-01-16T08:06:36.286-08:002023-01-16T08:06:36.286-08:00niceniceSureshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03032496029653225244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-25094317760550210972022-12-15T14:01:58.004-08:002022-12-15T14:01:58.004-08:00A variant on "to lose one's goat", f...A variant on "to lose one's goat", from Out West magazine, October 1911 (<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Out_West/0a1OAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=goat%20absconded" rel="nofollow">Google Books</a>):<br /><br />Why is slang? Did you ever back yourself up in to a fence corner, figuratively speaking, and ask yourself this succinct question? If you have, you found it to be a poser; and the more you thought of it the farther from a solution you seemed to be. Presently your "goat absconded," which, being translated, means you got "mad," In this state you vehemently protested that it didn't matter anyhow—we have it and that's all there is to it.<br /><br />(But I'm dubious that "one's goat absconded" was really in use; it sounds more like the writer being clever.)ktschwarznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-20729107950627988672022-12-08T13:29:50.760-08:002022-12-08T13:29:50.760-08:00A note as to the first two comments above posted b...A note as to the first two comments above posted by me on February 18, 2019. They were posted by me, for David Gold, after I inadvertently deleted his comments. Those are his comments - not mine.Peter Jensen Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00042588192094310236noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-79299520549451480412022-12-08T13:27:34.717-08:002022-12-08T13:27:34.717-08:00Thank you for the kind words.
As for Remington,...Thank you for the kind words. <br /><br />As for Remington, I am not an expert on that aspect of the potential early references, but others have addressed the issue in Comments on Etymology and elsewhere. There is a section on it in the book.<br /><br />What I understand, is that the HDAS (Historical Dictionary of American Slang) reference comes from an article published in 1988, which in turn relies on a reference published in 1910, but the 1910 reference doesn't specify a date, and no one else has since seen the letter at issue. <br /><br />He wrote about "doods" (in quotation marks, which he did not use in 1877, and different spelling) twenty years later.<br /><br />Bottom line is, no one can date the letter accurately, not even the people who first wrote about it, and it seems inconsistent with his writing style.Peter Jensen Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00042588192094310236noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-5700966730401450582022-12-08T09:53:15.774-08:002022-12-08T09:53:15.774-08:00Congratulations on the new book!
I noticed that ...Congratulations on the new book! <br /><br />I noticed that you're careful to say here that <i>dude</i> "first appeared <b>in print</b> ... on January 14, 1883". I don't mean to ask you to repeat your new book here, but could you clarify where you stand on the 1877 use by Frederic Remington in a personal letter, as quoted in RHHDAS and the OED? Real, fake, mistranscribed? (I'm aware that letter is only attested by a 1910 magazine article and is otherwise unverified.)<br /><br />The teenage Remington was attending a military academy in Worcester, Massachusetts at the time. Perhaps this usage was just very thinly spread in New England. ktschwarznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339541743624368462.post-7240591333654544312022-12-08T06:40:08.782-08:002022-12-08T06:40:08.782-08:00When Jesse Jackson ran for President in 1984, he w...When Jesse Jackson ran for President in 1984, he was accompanied by a filmmaker who made a documentary about the campaign. My favorite passage was a rally at a small town in rural Mississippi, where Jackson lined up with an entire slate of Black candidates; he had the crowd call out the candidate's name and office for every position on the ballot, from, yes, dogcatcher, on up to President of the United States. The very young guy running for dogcatcher was also very small and kind of raggedy, but like every other candidate in the line-up was visibly inspired & ennobled by the process. Nellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01969732734453586544noreply@blogger.com