Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 20:28:18 CDT

From: Randy Roberts robertsr[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]EXT.MISSOURI.EDU

Subject: Sweet Patootie (PG-13)



David Bergdahl and ADSers:

I found the following citations in the Peter Tamony Collection. I

have omitted more recent materials.

From "Indoor Sports" by TAD (Thomas A. Dorgan) [syndicated cartoon]

"Sweet Patootie--did you see the face on Ada--she looks as though she

was in a gas attack without a mask." San Francisco Call & Post, 4

February 1918. "Say, Dan, I want you to take a slant at my gal's

photos--you ain't seen 'em yet, have ya?--she's some sweet patootie."

Ibid., 13 January 1919.



"Why Worry About Slang," American Speech, February 1928, "What do we

call our women of today? . . . hot patootie, the calf's lesson in

curves, sweet mamma, . . . "



Song title "Hot Patootie Wedding Night" ca. 1929, cited in Jack

Burton, The Blue Book of Broadway Musicals.



Song title "I'm Wild About My Patootie" ca. 1932, Columbia Record

Label, disc #14651-D. Vocals by Ora Alexander.



Song title "Sweet Patootie" ca. 1939, Decca record label, disc #7429

A. Sidney Bechet with Noble Sissle's Swingsters. Lyrics:

Now, I know a lady, she lives down by the jail,

Got a sign on the door, "Sweet patootie for sale".

Sweet patootie only thing she craves,

Sweet patootie, it just won't behave

Sweet patootie gonna carry her to her grave.

[There is more, but perhaps this is too much]



E. E. Cummings, "Exit the Boob," Esquire, volume 3, no. 6 (June 1935),

p. 33. This article by Cummings contains "This guy says just kick the

dictators in the patoot, boys, and live, live, live your life."





It is interesting that the earliest cites come from TAD. In

Leonard Zwilling, A TAD Lexicon, 1993, neither patootie, nor sweet

patootie, is included. Perhaps this is a term that was overlooked.



Randy Roberts

University of Missouri-Columbia

robertsr[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ext.missouri.edu