A Thing That Made Me Go: Hmmmm . . . .

[klondike]

Lying awake @ 4 a.m. with a sinus headache, I found myself wondering: Who was the first actor (in an English-language film) to call a female co-star Baby?

I'm betting it'd have to be either Bogart or Mitchum (or p'raps as a dark-horse contender, Charles Boyer), but that's the extent of my deductive prowess!

[moira finnie]

Lying awake @ 4 a.m. with a sinus headache, I found myself wondering: Who was the first actor (in an English-language film) to call a female co-star Baby?

I'm betting it'd have to be either Bogart or Mitchum (or p'raps as a dark-horse contender, Charles Boyer), but that's the extent of my deductive prowess!

Chester Morris, the prototypical weisenheimer.
And a guy who'd probably throw a "baby" into every
verbal exchange, if they'd let him.

I'm guessing on the fast-talking Chester Morris as my dark-horse contender for using "Baby" in one of his smart aleck encounters with a female in anything from the creaky Alibi (1929) on to Red-headed Woman and into the Boston Blackie years. Btw, Alibi earned Morris an Oscar nomination, probably because of a very stagey turn by the actor at the end of this flick. Of course, now that I think of it, maybe "baby" turned up in some of the ad lib dialogue of Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer as well...

Hope your headache is better. Have you tried one of those microwavable gel masks that are supposed to help sinus headaches? My sis has one. I told her to wear it on Halloween, but she didn't see the humor in that. Go figure.

[feaito]

Hope your headache is better. Have you tried one of those microwavable gel masks that are supposed to help sinus headaches? My sis has one. I told her to wear it on Halloween, but she didn't see the humor in that. Go figure.

I suffer from chronic sinus headaches as well and in my case there's nothing like Ibupofren to cure it. Those masks help a little but they don't solve the problem.

[mrsl]

I think Jimmy Cagney or Robert Montgomery might be contenders for that first spot of calling a female 'baby'.

Anne

[jdb1]

I would think it goes back much earlier than that. Calling a girl "Baby" was in vogue during the 1920s, as was the new craze, "baby talk." Using "baby" may go back even earlier than that. The song "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby" dates from the late 20s. I'll bet there are silents where the word was used, but on title cards rather than spoken.

The nickname "Babe" has been used since at least the 19th Century. I'd guess that many old blues songs that use the word "Baby" began at least at the turn of the 20th Century, and certainly some of those songs were sung in early talkies, where characters might also addressed their girlfriends as "Baby." I don't see how any actor could accurately claim to be the first to have used it. I have a misty recollection of someone like Cliff Edwards or Jack Oakie saying it in something very early. I'm also getting a fleeting image of some cartoon character, possibly from one of the Fleischer studio's early sound cartoons, uttering the word.

[klondike]

Good points all, Brooklyn Gal; but I'm actually looking for a much simpler distinction.
So to that end, let me turn the focus up a little stronger, for a sharper image:
What was the title of the first commercially released, live action, English-language film in which a man called a woman "Baby"?

[Vienna]

Reading this thread, I was struck by that great US word, "WEISENHEIMER". What a great word!
I had an idea what it meant but looked it up anyway. A wise guy of course and so descriptive.

Also I had just watched a Chester Morris film which was a good little sleeper from 1947, BLIND SPOT. With Chester as a run down author whose publisher is murdered in his locked-from-the inside office. While drunk, Chester has come up with a story, with a solution to how the murder could be done. But now he can't remember.
Constance Dowling was in good femme fatale mode as the publisher's secretary and Steven Geray is another author who writes crime stories.
And all tied up very nicely in 64 minutes.

[Western Guy]

Well, tough to recall the first time the term was used onscreen, but probably the most painful and absurd useage was Charlton Heston's reference to Karen Black in the execrable AIRPORT '75. Notable perhaps since today we celebrate Ed Nelson's birthday.

[JackFavell]

The word WEISENHEIMER always makes me think of Warren Hymer. I know it's spelled differently, but I think the word should have been coined especially for him.

[intothenitrate]

Your mental process is contagious, JF. Not only will I make that same association from now on, I'll make it a point to step up my use of the word whenever the situation allows.

I recently watched a very young Chester Morris in The Divorcee. He looked like he was still metabolizing his teen age years. It's hard to pay attention to him with Norma Shearer in the same frame, but he turns in a really fine performance. I don't know why that surprised me, but it did.

Oh, and your avatar is hilarious. Well played.

[JackFavell]

Thanks, ITN! I'll have to check out the Divorcee again to see Chester Morris, I don't think I've ever seen the whole thing all the way through. Norma is indeed very beautiful in the film, I like her best when she's playing a pre-code, sexual being rather than her later more staid characters. Moira's probably running over to this thread as we speak, at the mention of Chet...

[charliechaplinfan]

Precode Norma, my favourite too. I'm quite partial to Chester Morris too.