"And in a dirty glass!" --- origin of trope?

[Sven of the Jungle]

I grew up watching Westerns, and a lot of parodies of Westerns. Once in a while, there'd be a scene where some grizzled old cowpoke sidles up to the bar and orders a shot of whiskey, 'in a dirty glass'.

Anyone know where this trope came from?

[The Second Stone]

Earliest I saw it was a Hope Crosby movie where Bob orders a lemonade in a tough guy bar, Bing elbows him and he adds "in a dirty glass" so he doesn't look like a sissy ordering lemonade.

[Dallas Jones]

It was already enough of a cliche by 1961 to put in an episode of The Flintstones.

"Bartender... rocks over rocks. And bartender... put that in a dirty glass."

[TriPolar]

deja vu

[AHunter3]

I'm pretty sure it was already a well-established trope when Bob Hope did it. That's how we immediately GET that he's countering the sissy image of ordering the lemonade* when he adds "...but in a dirty glass".


* and wasn't it a sarsaparilla, not a lemonade?

[qpw3141]

In the Kung-Fu TV series, the bartender would usually ask "Dirty[ or cloudy] or clear" when Cain ordered water.

I always wondered why, given the choice, anyone would want dirty water - did the cleaning process they used leave a taste or was it just more expensive?

[Chronos]

I'm pretty sure it was already a well-established trope when Bob Hope did it. That's how we immediately GET that he's countering the sissy image of ordering the lemonade* when he adds "...but in a dirty glass".

I don't know, it seems pretty "gettable" even without prior art. Dirt is tough.

For that matter, I'm not sure I ever have seen it with something like whiskey: It's always lemonade, or milk, or some other such "unmanly" drink.