Shinola
Founded | 1903 |
---|---|
Products | shoe polish |
Shinola is a defunct American brand of shoe polish. The Shinola Company, founded in Rochester, New York in 1877 as the American Chemical Manufacturing and Mining Company, produced the polish under a sequence of different owners until 1960.[1] "Shinola" was a trade name and trademark for boot polish.[A] The suffix -ola is a popular component of trade names in the United States.[B] It was popular during the first half of the 20th century and entered the American lexicon in the phrase, "You don't know shit from Shinola," meaning to be ignorant. The brand name was acquired by the retail company Shinola in 2011.
History
George Melancthon Wetmore (August 31, 1858 – June 10, 1923) was born in
Shinola polish was noted for its distinct dark green tin with red and gold lettering. The tin came with a patented key "for the convenient lifting of the lid". Shinola was produced in several colors: black, white,
Known by 1917 as simply The Shinola Company, the firm saw success expand globally, selling especially well in Europe, during the rise of
In 2011, venture capitalist Tom Kartsotis bought the rights to the brand name, and created a new retail company. The company was founded in 2012, and produces watches and leather goods.[9][10]
Cultural impact
Shinola was immortalized in colloquial English by the phrase "You don't know shit from Shinola", which during World War II became widely popular and a barracks staple.[2][5] Some have even theorized that the popular expression was a long term detriment to the brand's identity.[11] Nevertheless, the company did try to find other evocative promotional phrases, e.g., "Your shoes are showing", which they used in advertisements.[4]
- In the 1979 film comedy The Jerk, the character Navin R. Johnson (played by Steve Martin) is tested by "Daddy" (Richard Ward) on whether he knows the difference between shit and Shinola before leaving home.[12][13][14]
- The phrase was used to a similar effect in Cleopatra Jones.[13]
- The 1992 movie Basic Instinct features Gus telling Dr. Lamott, "Most times I can't tell shit from Shinola, Doc. What was all that you just said?"[15][16]
- Dolly Parton wrote the song "Shinola" – which also uses a lyric that plays on the colloquial phrase – for her 2008 Backwoods Barbie album.[17]
- Ween released a 2005 B-side and unreleased odds and ends compilation album – titled, Shinola, Vol. 1 on Chocodog Records – which plays on the colloquial phrase.[18][19]
- The phrase has been grist for the mill for various musicians and artists. See Shinola (Energy Orchard album), an album by early 1990s Irish band Energy Orchard; Shinola (John Scofield album), a live album recorded in 1981 by jazz musician John Scofield;[20] Shinola, an indie rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina that existed from 1994–1997;[21][self-published source] and Shynola, a group of visual artists from the UK that had exhibitions titled "Shinola".[22]
- Comedian First Amendment constitutional decision by the Supreme Court of the United States.[23]
- Rapper MF DOOM referenced the phrase in the lyrics written for "Figaro" on the 2004 collaborative album Madvillainy.[24]
- Television show The Golden Girls Season 7 Episode 2: Rose: ”You know, back in Minnesota, I was known as the Sherlock Holmes of St. Olaf.” Dorothy: ”Figured out which one was Shinola, did you, Rose?” Rose: ”The hard way.”[11]
- In The Pope of Greenwich Village, "Paulie, the truth is this horse don’t know shit from Shinola. None of them do."[2][25]
- In Raising Arizona (1987) it surfaced as "Aw, he don't know a cuss word from Shinola."[2]
- In the fourth part of the Thomas Pynchon novel Gravity's Rainbow, the character "Pig" Bodine provides a lengthy explanation of the phrase "to know shit from Shinola" for a German character named Säure Bummer.[26]
References
Notes
- ^ The original trademark was filed by the “2-in-1 Shinola-Bixby Corporation” in 1929.[2][3][4]
- ^ "The 'ola' suffix is popular in the USA as part of trade names, e.g. Crayola, Granola etc. This leads to the pronunciation of Shinola as shine + ola. That spoils the alliteration a little as it would work better as shin + ola."[5]
Citations
- ^ ISBN 978-0-9821090-7-6.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-41-537182-7.
- ^ a b "Trademark Status & Document Retrieval". uspto.gov.
- ^ a b c "What is shinola, as mentioned in a certain old saying? 1940S, 1950S, 1960S, CULTURE & LIFESTYLE, VINTAGE ADVERTISEMENTS". Click Americana. February 5, 2020. Retrieved May 28, 2021.
- ^ a b Martin, Gary (2015). "Doesn't know shit from Shinola". Phrase Finder. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
This phrase is typical of the barrack room vulgarity of WWII, which is where it originated. Other "doesn't know" phrases, also mostly from the military are, "doesn't know his arse from a hole in the ground" (or elbow, or a hot rock, or third base), "doesn't know enough to pee downwind", "doesn't know whether to scratch his watch or wind his ass". The tone is lifted a little by the English conductor Sir Henry Wood who expressed a similar opinion with "he doesn't know his brass from his woodwind".
- ^ Book of Industrial Rochester (PDF). Rochester, NY: Rochester Chamber of Commerce. 1919. p. 89.
- ^ Commercial America staff (July 1912), "Shinola Polish and Polishers". Commercial America. 9 (1):33
- ^ Popular Mechanics ad, 1945, p. 248
- ^ a b Klara, Robert (June 22, 2015). "How Shinola Went From Shoe Polish to the Coolest Brand in America". AdWeek.
- ^ "Our Story". C.A. Zoes Manufacturing. Archived from the original on December 5, 2016. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
- ^ a b Kovanchik, Kara (January 4, 2017). "POP CULTURE: 11 Golden Girls References Explained for Younger Viewers". Mental Floss. Minute Media. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
Perhaps that's why the [Shinola] brand eventually went out of business; the Shinola folks couldn't come up with an advertising slogan that was more memorable than the insult.
- ^ "Shit from Shinola: The Jerk" (Video). Retrieved December 18, 2016 – via YouTube.
- ^ a b Phunky Phil. "Shit from Shinola in the Movies" (Video). Retrieved December 18, 2016 – via YouTube.
- ^ "Script, The Jerk". Retrieved December 18, 2016.
- ^ "Basic Instinct". imsdb.com.
- ^ "Basic Instinct". Wikiquote. Retrieved December 18, 2016.
- ^ Parton, Dolly (September 2, 2008). "Dolly Parton - Shinola (Official Music Video)" (Video). Retrieved December 18, 2016 – via YouTube.
- ^ Moerder, Adam (September 21, 2005). "ROCK EXPERIMENTAL: Ween: Shinola, Vol. 1 CHOCODOG • 2005 7.6". Pitchfork.com. Retrieved December 18, 2016.
Dean and Gene issue an odds-and-sods collection of previously unreleased archival material
- ^ Shteamer, Hank (November 14, 2012). "COUNTING DOWN: Ween Albums From Worst To Best". Retrieved December 18, 2016.
- ^ Greenland, Tom (March 2, 2010). "John Scofield: Shinola". allaboutjazz.com. Retrieved August 27, 2013.
- ^ "Shinola". www.backporchrevolution.com. December 18, 2008. Archived from the original on May 28, 2021. Retrieved May 28, 2021.
- ^ Rutledge, James: BBC, "Filmmakers Shynola get animated with Collective.", August 29, 2003, Accessed online, May 27, 2015 Archived December 19, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "George Carlin, Filthy Words". Exploring Constitutional Conflicts. Retrieved December 18, 2016.
The following is a verbatim transcript of "Filthy Words" (the George Carlin monologue at issue in the Supreme Court case of FCC v. Pacifica Foundation) prepared by the Federal Communications Commission...
- ^ "Madvillain - All Caps lyrics". Genius.com. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
Take it from the TEC-9 holder/They bit but don't know their neck shine from Shinola
- ISBN 978-0-9903923-0-9.
- ^ Pynchon, Thomas. Gravity's Rainbow (1995) [1973]. London: Penguin Books. pp. 687-688. ISBN 978-0-1401885-9-2
Further reading
- Miss Cellania; Painter, Thomas H.; Schaepman, Michael E.; Schweizer, Wolf; Brazile, Jason (February 11, 2014) [2007]. "Spectroscopic Discrimination of Shit from Shinola". Annals of Improbable Research.
- Popular Science (September 1945), Vol. 147, No. 3 ISSN 0161-7370p 248
External links
The dictionary definition of know shit from Shinola at Wiktionary