Holy Toledo! Odd Sayings Explained
Loyal Dinner Topics reader Amy Broghammer was wondering about the origin of a couple seldom-used phrases. With Jon and Kate exhausting the airwaves with their “ubiquitous-ness” and the health care issues of America already explained, what better time than the present to delve into a completely trivial post! Of course, before you read on, I know you’ll want to sign up for our t-shirt giveaway if you haven’t already.
The first phrase in question is “Holy Toledo!” As one who is a frequent Googler of origins, I have come to realize that things like a phrase aren’t exactly confirmed with written or documented proof, so the answer is usually a hypothesis based on a little history and a little common sense.
In the case of “Holy Toledo,” it seems apparent that the phrase is in reference to the city in Spain, NOT Ohio (sorry, Midwesterners). There are several speculative stories surrounding the phrase, but I suspect it is something as simple as the fact that Toledo, Spain houses a number of churches and has been called the “Holy City of Toledo.” Because of this, someone likely took the name of the city in vain and it caught on as a much tamer phrase than shouting out a “JC” or “GD.” Again, that is my speculative suggestion, but from what I have read, I haven’t found a more sound reason.
The other phrase in question is “Heavens to Murgatroyd!” However you choose to spell it, I recall hearing the phrase from Snagglepuss of the Yogi Bear Show, but some research suggests it started much earlier than the 1960s. According to The Phrase Finder1,
“The first use of the phrase wasn’t by Snagglepuss but comes from the 1944 film Meet the People. It was spoken by Bert Lahr, best remembered for his role as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. Snagglepuss’s voice was patterned on Lahr’s, along with the ‘heavens to Murgatroyd’ line. Daws Butler’s vocal portrayal of the character was so accurate that when the cartoon was used to promote Kellogg Cereals, Lahr sued and made the company distance him from the campaign by giving a prominent credit to Butler.” 2
So there you have it. A 1944 film that no one remembers spawned a phrase used to a cartoon character two decades later that we still hear once in a blue moon a half century after that. Wondering about “once in a blue moon”? You can look that one up yourself!
Read on:
doToledo.org – Holy Toledo!…How it all Began
Able2Know.org – Origin “Holy Toledo!”
Phrases.org.uk – The Phrase Finder
- If you enjoy learning about phrase origins but don’t want to wade through the entire website, I highly suggest subscribing to The Phrase Finder’s email subscriptionwhere they email “A Phrase A Week” with the origin and explanation. Good times for nerdlingers like me ↩
- http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/heavens-to-murgatroyd.html ↩
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Work is a mess and far from living in domestic bliss at the current moment, I was so excited to come in and read this post! Dinner Topics isn’t just for dinner anymore, watercooler conversations will be a little more intellectual and/or trivial.