Entry from
December 05, 2004
Get the hook!
"Get the hook!"
This was a cry from the audience to get a bad performer off the stage. Someone in the wings would get a hooked pole and hook the performer away.
"The hook" was reportedly introduced in 1903 at Harry Miner's Bowery Theater in New York City. Miner's was famous for its "amateur nights," where novice performers could take to the stage. I can't confirm that "the hook" began at Miner's in 1903, but here are some citations.
27 September 1906, New York Times, pg. 2:
"Get the hook," cried a delegate.
25 January 1907, New York Times, pg. 3:
In all parts of the house men arose, shouting, "Take 'em off," "Get the hook," "Away with 'em," "They're rotten."
12 January 1908, Chicago Daily Tribune, pg. B3:
Has the slang of "get the hook" reached you? It originated with the "amateur nights" in vaudeville, when aspirants are tried and usually found wanting. Sometimes the stage manager reached out with a hooked pole to pull the worst of them in. After the Washington start of "Miss Hook of Holland," one word in the title took on pertinency, for Frohman "got the hook" and jerked the principal two comedians out of it.
17 February 1929, New York Times, pg. 138:
AMATEUR NIGHT IS NO MORE;
EVEN ITS NAME IS CHANGED
But Some New Yorkers Can Still Remember
Audiences Shouting for "the Hook"
(...)
It is a question whether the "hook" started at Miner's or White's Atheneum - or somewhere else. The "hook," a long pole topped with a strong wire loop, was kept in a convenient corner off stage and few amateurs escaped its merciless pressure. "Give him the hook!" was a famous expression, shouted vociferously by displeased listeners when thrown vegetables failed to clear the stage. Often the management knew that some of the acts were terrible, and booked them for no other purpose than to bring the "hook" into play and get a laugh from the audience.
4 September 1932, New York Times, pg. SM8:
"Did they yell 'Get the hook'?" I asked.
"SAY," he answered, "that was long before the expression came into vogue. In those days, if an act did not please the audience and they booed, the scene shifters would close the wings on it. On one wing would be a large N and on the other a large G."
17 October 1937, Washington Post, pg. T1:
Eddie Cantor Looks Back
On 25 Years in Theater
(...)
I was a kid of 16. Discouraged, broke and hungry, I decided to make the first dollat in many weeks appearing at Miner's Bowery Theater on an amateur program. This really took nerve, because in those days a Bowery audience was more likely to holler, "Give 'im the hook," than to shout, "Bravo."
http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/A/AmateurNightorGetOutth1907.html
Amateur Night; or, Get Out the Hook
AKA {Amateur Night; or, Get the Hook}
(1907) American
B&W : 500 feet
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: (unknown)
The Vitagraph Company of America production. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.37:1 format. / The film was first advertised in trades or reviewed in April 1907.
Survival status: (unknown)
This was a cry from the audience to get a bad performer off the stage. Someone in the wings would get a hooked pole and hook the performer away.
"The hook" was reportedly introduced in 1903 at Harry Miner's Bowery Theater in New York City. Miner's was famous for its "amateur nights," where novice performers could take to the stage. I can't confirm that "the hook" began at Miner's in 1903, but here are some citations.
27 September 1906, New York Times, pg. 2:
"Get the hook," cried a delegate.
25 January 1907, New York Times, pg. 3:
In all parts of the house men arose, shouting, "Take 'em off," "Get the hook," "Away with 'em," "They're rotten."
12 January 1908, Chicago Daily Tribune, pg. B3:
Has the slang of "get the hook" reached you? It originated with the "amateur nights" in vaudeville, when aspirants are tried and usually found wanting. Sometimes the stage manager reached out with a hooked pole to pull the worst of them in. After the Washington start of "Miss Hook of Holland," one word in the title took on pertinency, for Frohman "got the hook" and jerked the principal two comedians out of it.
17 February 1929, New York Times, pg. 138:
AMATEUR NIGHT IS NO MORE;
EVEN ITS NAME IS CHANGED
But Some New Yorkers Can Still Remember
Audiences Shouting for "the Hook"
(...)
It is a question whether the "hook" started at Miner's or White's Atheneum - or somewhere else. The "hook," a long pole topped with a strong wire loop, was kept in a convenient corner off stage and few amateurs escaped its merciless pressure. "Give him the hook!" was a famous expression, shouted vociferously by displeased listeners when thrown vegetables failed to clear the stage. Often the management knew that some of the acts were terrible, and booked them for no other purpose than to bring the "hook" into play and get a laugh from the audience.
4 September 1932, New York Times, pg. SM8:
"Did they yell 'Get the hook'?" I asked.
"SAY," he answered, "that was long before the expression came into vogue. In those days, if an act did not please the audience and they booed, the scene shifters would close the wings on it. On one wing would be a large N and on the other a large G."
17 October 1937, Washington Post, pg. T1:
Eddie Cantor Looks Back
On 25 Years in Theater
(...)
I was a kid of 16. Discouraged, broke and hungry, I decided to make the first dollat in many weeks appearing at Miner's Bowery Theater on an amateur program. This really took nerve, because in those days a Bowery audience was more likely to holler, "Give 'im the hook," than to shout, "Bravo."
http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/A/AmateurNightorGetOutth1907.html
Amateur Night; or, Get Out the Hook
AKA {Amateur Night; or, Get the Hook}
(1907) American
B&W : 500 feet
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: (unknown)
The Vitagraph Company of America production. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.37:1 format. / The film was first advertised in trades or reviewed in April 1907.
Survival status: (unknown)