Date:  Fri, 15 Aug 1997 23:35:44 EDT
From:  Larry Horn <LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU>
Subject: More on Monty

>From a letter to today's New York Times (8/15/97, A30):

  Your Aug. 13 movie review of "The Full Monty", on unemployed British
 steelworkers who turn to stripping, says the title comes from the slang
 for total nudity. Older readers might have recognized "Monty" as Field
 Marshal Bernard Montgomery, the dapper World War II hero. If the phrase
 now means total nudity, it is a reversal, like "bad" meaning "good". The
 original meaning was similar to "dressed to the hilt" (with medals and
 swagger stick)...

I can't vouch for the accuracy of the etymology advanced by the writer, a
Brooklynite named Paul Brodtkorb. And if anyone's wondering, that earlier
review assured potential viewers that the movie contained no "full frontal
montyism". --Larry