Althouse: Who was the first person to say "groovy" in a movie?

August 13, 2020

Who was the first person to say "groovy" in a movie?

50 comments:

Caroline said...: Perfecto. Feeling nostalgic today!; 8/13/20, 2:18 PM
JohnAnnArbor said...: Far out.; 8/13/20, 2:26 PM
readering said...: As almost always, Wikipedia covers the subject. But when did "Groovy baby" start?; 8/13/20, 2:35 PM
MBunge said...: I don't know who was the first, just who said it the best.

"Groovy." - Ash Williams.; 8/13/20, 2:37 PM
Oh Yea said...: So it wasn’t Mike Myers?; 8/13/20, 2:38 PM
J. Farmer said...: Andy Rooney being the first person to say “groovy” in a movie is cultural appropriation. That has a Jazz Age term. When I was growing up, “groovy” was the quintessential 60’s cliche.; 8/13/20, 2:50 PM
tcrosse said...: YORGOV; 8/13/20, 2:53 PM
Hippogryph said...: Ultimately, though, Bruce Campbell said it best.; 8/13/20, 3:01 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Groove me, baby; 8/13/20, 3:05 PM
madAsHell said...: On TV, I think it was Robin while he was checking out CatWoman's ass.; 8/13/20, 3:29 PM
robother said...: I may be just enough older than Ann to know that when the first generation hippies started using the term in the 60s it was ironic. "Far out!" on the other hand, was not (though by the 70s it was).; 8/13/20, 4:08 PM
Sydney said...: It started with Shirley Temple? Groovy!; 8/13/20, 4:10 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: I'd say @4:00 P.M. at a matinee, Pat Boone maybe.; 8/13/20, 4:46 PM
Rory said...: I think it came from the music world. Records were groovy.; 8/13/20, 5:02 PM
gilbar said...: robother said...
I may be just enough older than Ann to know that when the first generation hippies started using the term in the 60s it was ironic. "Far out!" on the other hand, was not (though by the 70s it was).

that's Totally Tripendicular! you'd be freaked to know how many 'slang words' are actually movie lines that people just thought sounded rad; 8/13/20, 5:16 PM
Mark said...: My guess would be sometime in the 1930s.; 8/13/20, 5:16 PM
Not Sure said...: tcrosse said...
YORGOV

In Breakfast at Tiffany's Mickey Rooney invoked the rule about replacing any letter with an L and became the first (and last) person to say "Gloovy" in a movie.; 8/13/20, 5:22 PM
Whiskeybum said...: "I know it when I'm feeling groovy,
It's kind of funky like an old time movie"

- Rock & Roll Soul
Grand Funk Railroad; 8/13/20, 5:32 PM
William said...: Who was the first person to use groovy in a sarcastic way to illustrate how dated something was. It's now a cringe word. Many older people are ashamed of the wanton way they threw that word around and do not like to be reminded of their youthful excesses. It just wasn't cool...."Cool" has had a long, long run.; 8/13/20, 5:35 PM
Leora said...: I knew it was old because it was in a Cab Calloway number recorded in the early 30's.; 8/13/20, 5:51 PM
Leora said...: It's right here in the Hepster's Dictionary
Here's a link to the sixth edition.
http://www.dinosaurgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/hepsters.html; 8/13/20, 6:05 PM
Birkel said...: Groovy is in the Heart
--Deee Lite; 8/13/20, 6:06 PM
Ann Althouse said...: “ I may be just enough older than Ann to know that when the first generation hippies started using the term in the 60s it was ironic. "

No. There was a short time, less than a year when it meant something really nice, like in the Mamas and Papas song.; 8/13/20, 6:12 PM
Ann Althouse said...: “ I need somebody groovy
Someone who's able to move me, yeah (yeah)
They gotta move me like they should
And when I find somebody, yeah
I'm gonna treat 'em good...”; 8/13/20, 6:13 PM
Kai Akker said...: J. Farmer, I don't think you were paying attention. Andy Rooney that was not. It wasn't even Mickey Rooney, who wasn't in "Miss Annie Rooney." That was Shirley Temple speaking the word. But you knew it supposedly originated in the '20s Jazz Age NOT, of course, from reading that in Wikipedia, but from your love of early jazz? Like Fletcher Henderson? Sidney Bechet? Johnny Longden? The way those musicians talked, you caught that? Groovy.; 8/13/20, 6:18 PM
rehajm said...: Andy Rooney being the first person to say “groovy” in a movie is cultural appropriation

You ever notice how so many young people confuse me with that guy from National Velvet? The average dog is nicer than the average young person...; 8/13/20, 6:27 PM
Quaestor said...: What a regrettably pointless bit of trivia. Who besides a prisoner on death row could work up even a microgram of enthusiasm for the question? Where are we going with this thing anyway? And how can we recover our collective dignity? Quaestor will tell you how -- a new groovy question. No one cares who said it first. What matters is who said it and made it stick. Quaestor's nomination: "Groovy."; 8/13/20, 6:39 PM
Steve from Wyo said...: From the free dictionary:

in (or into) the groove 1 performing well or confidently, especially in an established pattern. 2 indulging in relaxed and spontaneous enjoyment, especially dancing. informal
A groove is the spiral track cut in a gramophone record that forms the path for the needle. In the groove is first found in the mid 20th century, in the context of jazz, and it gave rise to the adjective groovy , which initially meant ‘playing or able to play jazz or similar music well’.; 8/13/20, 6:42 PM
PluralThumb said...: " In joinery, a groove is a slot or trench cut into a member which runs parallel to the grain. A groove is thus differentiated from a dado, which runs across the grain. Grooves are used for a range of purposes in cabinet making and other woodworking fields. "

Groove (joinery) - Wikipedia

Or,

Simon and Garfunkel; 8/13/20, 6:48 PM
Fernandinande said...: "For a groovy parent trains a groovy child, and the groovy child must be father of a groovy man; and what a few generations of groovy men can do is a marvel to think of. They robbed us of America, they nearly handed over India to Nana Sahib, ..." -- The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, 1864; 8/13/20, 7:20 PM
Fernandinande said...: A Dictionary of Slang, By Charles Godfrey Leland · 1889
Groovy - settled in one's habits, old-fogyish, limited to certain view.; 8/13/20, 7:23 PM
bagoh20 said...: Young people from the 60s are like young people today: they think they invented stuff when all this did was discover what their parents already knew.; 8/13/20, 7:34 PM
rcocean said...: Was that Peggy Ann Garner at the end? She was groovy in A Tree grows in Brooklyn. Surprised "Groovy" was an old hip (read black) phrase from the early 40s. I just assumed in was some hippy thing.; 8/13/20, 8:03 PM
rcocean said...: Good Lord was there anyone less hip than Shirley Temple and Danny kaye?; 8/13/20, 8:03 PM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: I always liked "Miracle on 34th Street" but it never once occurred to me to describe it as "groovy." I realize the word was used in the trailer before "groovy" had acquired hippie connotations, but it clearly meant "hip and happenin" in the '40's. It would have been more appropriate to describe, say, a film noir or Ella Fitzgerald as groovy, rather than a Christmas movie.; 8/13/20, 8:26 PM
Ann Althouse said...: The OED definition is "Playing, or capable of playing, jazz or similar music brilliantly or easily; ‘swinging’; appreciative of such music, ‘hep’, sophisticated; hence as a general term of commendation: excellent, very good."

The earliest printed use is from 1937:

1937 Amer. Speech 12 46/2 Groovey, name applied to state of mind which is conducive to good playing.
1944 Sat. Evening Post 13 May 89/2 A boy or girl who is really ‘groovy’ is ‘skate wacky’ or a ‘skate bug’.
1946 M. Mezzrow & B. Wolfe Really Blues 52 When he was groovy..he'd begin to play the blues on a beat-up guitar.
1948 Cosmopolitan Dec. 163/1 ‘I pitched a no-hit game last summer,’ said Georgie. ‘Hey, groovy,’ said Sally.
1951 W. Morum Gabriel ii. vii. 225 The boys have a groovy number they want to put across.
1951 W. Morum Gabriel ii. viii. 243 It's damned silly to say that. Just because I was extemporising Bach—feeling a bit groovy.
1958 Spectator 11 July 67/2 That was a good record..cool and groovy.

There's also the slightly earlier expression "in the groove" ("a style of playing jazz or similar music, esp. one that is ‘swinging’ or good; a time when jazz is played well; more widely, one's predilection or favourite style... something excellent or very satisfying. slang (originally U.S.)."

1932 Melody Maker Oct. 836/1 Having such a wonderful time which puts me in a groove.
1933 Fortune Aug. 90/2 The jazz musicians gave no grandstand performances; they simply got a great burn from playing in the groove.
1935 Hot News Sept. 17/1 The Boswells are not in the hot groove....; 8/13/20, 8:30 PM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: William said...
Who was the first person to use groovy in a sarcastic way to illustrate how dated something was. It's now a cringe word."

It was a cringe word by the late '70's, when I attended an all-girls Catholic high school. We had a hip (in his own mind) priest who wore his hair long, insisted that we address him by first name only, and liked to say "groovy." We rolled our eyes and smirked. By that time, "groovy" had been relegated to the same dusty slang closet where "daddy-o" and "23-skidoo" languished.

That's the problem with anybody over the age of 24 or so who tries to win over kids by being cool. You'll never get the slang right. Best to just act like an adult.; 8/13/20, 8:33 PM
Marshall Rose said...: MBunge was first....

Bruce Campbell said it best, Army of Darkness...; 8/13/20, 8:33 PM
Ann Althouse said...: A nice Madonna song (from "Desperately Seeking Susan") is "Get Into the Groove."; 8/13/20, 8:33 PM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: 80's slang sure died quickly. When's the last time you heard anybody say "Rad" for cool and "grotty" for gross? 1989, probably.; 8/13/20, 8:36 PM
ken in tx said...: Farm out! man, out'a state! our sarcastic reply to people who said 'groovy' in the 70's.; 8/13/20, 8:44 PM
Fernandinande said...: The earliest printed use is from 1937:

Except for the instances of both groovy and groovey printed and published in the late 1800's. The OED references you post are often not very accurate.; 8/13/20, 8:52 PM
Birkel said...: Madonna was best in "Vision Quest" starring Matthew Modine.; 8/13/20, 9:14 PM
Francisco D said...: J. Farmer said...
Andy Rooney being the first person to say “groovy” in a movie is cultural appropriation. That has a Jazz Age term. When I was growing up, “groovy” was the quintessential 60’s cliche.

Good Lord. I feel old.; 8/13/20, 10:04 PM
PubliusFlavius said...: You be looking groovy
in a sixties movie
Maybe tell the press you died.

Little legend baby
try your very best to hide.
A green tinted sixties mind.

Green Tinted Sixties Mind-Mr Big

Luv me some Paul Gilbert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hr0rBXILMY; 8/14/20, 12:08 AM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: Ann Althouse said...
A nice Madonna song (from "Desperately Seeking Susan") is "Get Into the Groove."

8/13/20, 8:33 PM

Groove was OK. "Groovy" was completely passe by the time that song came out.; 8/14/20, 12:10 AM
tomaig said...: Peter Fonda in "Easy Rider" when they stopped at the commune, telling the head hippie, "You're doing your own thing in your own time; it's groovy."; 8/14/20, 4:06 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: "Cringe Worthy"... is that like those chuckleheads wearing ball caps backwards?; 8/14/20, 5:55 AM
Mark O said...: I agree with Ann. Groovy made a comeback in the 60's and was acceptable slang for a brief time.
I recall with some fondness the mocking of "far out" and "right on" as hipsters turned them into "farm out" and "white on."
But yesterday's gone.; 8/14/20, 8:25 AM
Bilwick said...: I think you've come up with the theme of AOC's convention speech: "Socialism is, like, groovy. Like. You know?"; 8/14/20, 11:37 AM