JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
This unusual promotional featured the perentially unsmiling and striking face of TAD (Thomas A. Drogan, 1877-1928), a cartoonist and sports writer and major contributor to the American slang vernacular.
[Source: advertisement in Moving Picture World, January 1919]
His contriubtions included such words/expressions as “appelsauce” (as an expression of hearing nonesense), “cake-eater”, “cat’s meow/pajamas (expressing high praise), “cheaters” (for eyeglasses), “dogs” (for feet),”dumbbell” (an unkind and slippy word for a not-smart person), “dumb Dora”, “drugstore cowboy” (for a do-nothing/loafer), “finale hopper”, “hard boiled” (for a street- and ordinary-tough, or detective), “nickel nurse” (a great nickname for a miser/cheap person), “skimmer” (for a hat), and of course the immortal phrases “Yes, we have no bananas” and “You tell ’em!”