Mystery Solved!

[stoutfellow]

One of my father's catch-phrases, when I was a kid, was "Smile, Luigi!", intended to jolly a moping child (e.g., me) out of the dumps. I never knew where it came from; by the time I got around to asking, his memory had faded enough that he couldn't tell me. Yesterday, it occurred to me to raise the question on the American Dialect Society mailing list, and they came through: the phrase probably comes from the old radio show "Life with Luigi", about an Italian immigrant in New York City. (I gather it was in the same vein as Leo Rosten's "H*y*m*a*n K*a*p*l*a*n" stories.) The phrase was used by Luigi's German-immigrant friend Schultz, voiced by Hans Conried.

So. One more mystery solved.

Comments

[mmegaera]

Oh, fun. Maybe you can ask the Dialect Society one for me.

In our family when I was growing up, when a person was being too much of a slowpoke (especially but not exclusively when playing cards), one got called "Mildred." As in "come on, Mildred!" I don't know if this is peculiar to our family or not, but it would be interesting to find out if it isn't. (there is no one amongst my relatives named Mildred, to the best of my knowledge)

[stoutfellow]

I've passed your question on to the list; I'll let you know if I hear anything.

[mmegaera]

Thanks!

[stoutfellow]

I never did get back to you, did I? Unfortunately, the ADS list wasn't too helpful. The only response I got was a reference to the Urban Dictionary, identifying "Aunt Mildred" as "The go-to name Americans use for their aunt, or other distant female relative, when they don't want to use a real name".

Sorry.

[mmegaera]

Oh, well. Thanks for trying, though!

(my aunt was named Punch, not Mildred [g]).