Have you ever heard that the expression came from the billiards halls originating some time in the 30’s or 40’s? I read somewhere that the expression was:
“It ain’t over till the fat lady SINKS.” The fat lady was the eight ball. I.E. the game isn’t over until the eight ball goes in.
Never hear that story until now.
Main problem would be that if it was such a common expression in the 1930’s, one would have expected to have found at least a single example of it or some variant of it before the 1970’s. That’s just the way phrases and words seem to travel, especially in the 20th century.
By the way, a link to the original column is appreciated, What’s the origin of “the opera ain’t over till the fat lady sings?” as it allows others to read along.
As a bit of evidence that it might not have been about pool, there was also the expression “Church ain’t out 'til the fat lady sings” which was current in and around the same time frame. Both expressions seems to relate to the same kind of sentiment, which has not much to do with pool.
Well, although almost every expert agrees on the source of this one (as per Cecil’s column), I heard that this originated with Starbuck’s, where a drink made with cream rather than milk was called “fat.” Sometimes, the cream would go bad, and so they said “it was all over when the fat latte stinks.”
I also heard that the expression arose amongst the Temperance League, where Sadie Thompson would chop up bars with her axe, and her friends would say talk about when “the fat Sadie swings.”
My cousin (on my mother’s side) swears that she heard that it began when the toy called Slinkie lost popularity, and so the “fad lately springs was over.”