You noted in today’s column that “A spokesperson for K-Y jelly’s maker, McNeil-PPC…says the lubricant was introduced in 1919, which is at odds with trademark office records, so some skepticism is in order.”
This could be due to the fact that Johnson and Johnson bought out Van Horn and Sawtell in 1918–she may be thinking that it was not a J&J product until 1918 or '19.
“From Johnson & Johnson’s earliest days, sutures were a part of the product line. The suture business was expanded with the 1918 acquisition of the firm of Van Horn and Sawtell,…”
Yrs,
45ACP
I predict that this column will be included in Cecil’s next book, although it hasn’t been announced yet. I am also on record as predicting that this book will be titled The Straight Dope Goes to Hawaii.
This product was supposedly available only to “medical types” until 1981… but I didstinctly recall a reference to it in an album from pre-1970 from The Fugs, entitled “It Crawled Into My Hand, Honest”. This album is a joy for many reasons, but the track in question was called, “We’re both dead now, Alice”, and it is a nostalgaic tour through what the couple did when they were married and “alive”. One of the lines refers to “no more slurpings at the narthex” (if you don’t understand this, get out a dictionary and use your imagination), and another line says, “no more K-Y”. This is a (monaural) vinyl record from the 60’s… unless band members somehow got a prescription for the stuff!
First of all I am very honored to find out that my posting got the attention of Cecil Adams, a man I deeply respect for answering tough-to-answer questions. Although it would seem that this one has stumped the master, or at least turned out to be a question to which there is no answer.
It was a little disappointing for me to learn that Cecil had nothing to add beyond the findings of the SDMB. Even with my limited resources I checked into finding answers and came up with nothing. Apparently even pharmacists and gynecologists don’t know what the letters stand for.
With KY being an old product, and ownership changing hands, it is perhaps lost in the mists of time. All that seem to remain are hints of Kentucky and blood pressure machinery…
<<(1) K-Y jelly was originally sold just to medical types and wasn’t offered to consumers until 1981, which may surprise those who think it’s always been standard boudoir equipment. >>
In 1978, when I told a friendly therapist that my partner and I both thought Vaseline was too messy, he recommended K-Y, which we got – over the counter, no prescription – at the drugstore. (It worked.) So it was a consumer product by 1978, at least.
Cecil, KY was generally available in drugstores at least as long ago as 1973. I know because that’s when my then-girlfriend introduced me to it. Actually, she’d been my girlfriend for a couple of years and was kind of vague how she learned about it. But that’s another story…
We quickly became quite enthusiastic about KY. For Christmas 1974 (or maybe 1973), she and I gave six couples (good friends obviously… no, not THAT good friends; you have a dirty mind!) a gift of KY. It was really amusing: each of the couples had exactly the same reaction: They’d say “What is this stuff?..Oh, well, er, ah, thanks.” while obviously thinking “We don’t need this.” Then, about six or eight weeks later, all six of the couples approached her or me, kinda privately, with: “Say, you remember that Christmas present? Tell me, where do you get more?”