January 24th, 2022 -- by Bacchus
Gay With Midol
I am old enough, just barely, to remember a time when there were elders and Middle-Americans so innocent that they still used the word “gay” in its “happy, joyous” sense. But not, boldly and extravagantly, in print:
I found the vintage advertisement so cheerfully proclaiming Sally’s transformation in the pages of Redbook, specifically the July 1958 issue.
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Shorter URL for sharing: http://www.erosblog.com/?p=28583
Shorter URL for sharing: http://www.erosblog.com/?p=28583
Midol changed ingredients many times and is now available in a range of formulations. In 1958, it contained the amphetamine relative cinnamoylephedrine (cinnamedrine).
https://archive.org/details/sim_rn_1959-08_22_8/page/n23/mode/2up
There are a few reports from the 1980s about cinnamedrine being abused as a stimulant and causing dependence. They weren’t so bothered by that sort of thing in the 1950s and actually marketed it as a “mild stimulant”. The smile probably got painful after the first 14 hours.
Thanks, Hug! I actually had a vague notion that Midol used to contain something a bit more impressive than NSAIDs and caffeine, but I didn’t have time to chase that down before posting. I appreciate you doing the work!
It hasn’t been long since “gay” had a different meaning. The Flintstones cartoon series had a theme song boasting, “We’ll have a gay old time”, and the older Christmas song “Deck the Halls” urges “Now we don our gay apparel”, and then there’s the old Yankee Doodle tune, “…and we’ll ALL feel gay when Johnny comes marching home”….
Maybe your readers have other examples?
Indeed, it has not been all that long. As I intimated in my post, there were old people and deeply-sheltered midwesterners still using the word in its “happy, joyous” sense when I was a “yute”. And much though I like to adopt the aging shouts-at-clouds curmudgeon pose, I’m not all that old yet…
Bacchus my friend, you have managed to tickle my funnybone, which is not so easily accomplished these days.I wanted to let you know that I caught and appreciated the somewhat obscure term that (knowing your former vocation), you likely pulled from a bit of a sleeper movie, that has managed to become a bit of a classic. For those younger visitors to your fine blog, who may not have had the fortune of viewing this film, I would urge them to web search for a video grab from the exchange between Vinnie Gambini and Judge Chamberlain Haller in which the word yute
Have not seen that movie in decades! Recently re-encountered “yutes” on social media and it tickled my fancy for humorous slang. But I couldn’t remember quite why it was so funny to me! My Cousin Vinnie, of course, thank you.
I accidentally hit the “submit comment” button before I could recommend to your younger viewers to web search for “Vinnie” and “yutes”, “yoots”, “utes”, or even “youts” to find a gif or short video grab. I can still picture the exchange in my mind after all these years. I read where the American Bar Association listed it as the 3rd highest ranked realistic trial movie of all time.