I have a memory of reading somewhere sometime that “Is it bigger than a breadbox” was asked on a quiz show before Steve Allen used it.
I don’t care. For me, the interesting sociological fact is that the phrase caught on with the public after Allen said it on WML. I don’t know how often he actually used it, and from the quote I gave it appears that others may have used it teasingly to him even more than he used it himself. But there’s no doubt that the phrase attached to him like a leech (a book, Bigger Than a Breadbox: The Wit and Humor of Steve Allen came out in 1967) and the phrase still works forty years later.
It’s a bit like Bart Simpson’s “Don’t have a cow, man.” I have no idea if that was original to The Simpsons, and I know that they soon stopped using it except to make fun of the phrase later on, but it will always be a part of the culture.
I’m sure it would be of interest to samclem if the phrase had been used on a quiz show earlier. And I’m glad there are obsessive people who look into the origins of such things; that’s a valuable addition to our understanding of our language and our culture. It’s just not my obsession.
What interests me is that the IMDB says that Allen was a guest panelist on WML dozens of times through 1967, and he may have used the phrase more in the 1960s than earlier, especially if he was promoting his book. Those appearances could play a role in keeping the connection alive, just like 60s rock stars have to play their hit over and over.
I remember hearing that question on “20 Questions.” It could have been used, or even originated, in other quiz shows, but that’s my recollections. It was one of the early questions, to narrow down the size of the object. They couldn’t ask “Whether it is animal, vegetable, or mineral?” since the answer had to be Yes or No. So the first 3 questions (or 2) usually narrowed that down. Next came the size question.
The breadbox that I have (see a related thread) is plastic and is not vented. It is airtight. It can hold only one standard-size loaf. One night I saw a “Palmetto bug” trying to get in it, but even that obnoxious, despicable animal (well-known to squeeze as thin as a microbe, by which it can enter even closed screens) could not get in.
And then to square the circle, What’s My Line had on a breadbox manufacturer, with the celebrity panel trying to guess what product he made. Sure enough, someone on the panel asked if it was bigger than a breadbox, and the audience roared with laughter. His answer, of course, was that it was not bigger than a breadbox.
I’ve been watching What’s My Line for the past few years on The Game Show Network, and have seen several different panelists say “Is it bigger than Steve Allen’s Breadbox?”, or “Is it bigger than a breadbox?” on several occasions…
I’m sure it would be of interest to samclem if the phrase had been used on a quiz show earlier. And I’m glad there are obsessive people who look into the origins of such things;
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See, bread actually stales faster in the refrigerator than it does at room temperature - apparently, the key chemical process in staling (something called “starch retrogradation”) accelerates as temperature decreases. But refrigeration’s very effective at retarding mold growth. So in a humid climate, that results in an unpleasant choice on bread storage: less stale, but moldy, or more stale, but not moldy.
While the phrase caught on and was undoubtedly used on other shows, as noted by other respondents here, I’m pretty sure it originated on the Art Linkletter House Party show, which started out on radio and then switched to TV. An actual bread box was brought out into the audience and audience members would win what was in it if they guessed what it was. The object could be small enough to actually fit inside the bread box, or if it was bigger there would be a model, a certificate, or the like inside. They would start out be telling the audience if what was inside was actual size or “bigger than the bread box”.
Wow, the only breadboxes I have seen looked like upscale mail boxes. A bit larger than a standard loaf with a rounded top and a door that swings down. I’ll have to check with Martha on this.
I searched and found no hits for a connection between Art Linkletter and the phrase. I also searched Google Books and a couple of newspaper archives and found zero hits for anyone at all using the phrase in any way before 1953, which we know to be the year Allen did it on WML. (It’s on YouTube.)
The phrase “bigger than a breadbox” appears a couple of times but not as a question and not in a similar context.
Sixty-year-old memories are not very reliable. I should know.
And thirteen years ago, I almost posted my bewilderment at the very concept of a breadbox.
I grew up in their heyday, and they were NOT airtight. The ones my mom and grandma had were much larger than a loaf of bread (maybe 20" wide, 12" tall and 12-18" deep), enameled metal with an angled, ill-fitting door that may have closed, but with plenty of gaps. Oh, I forgot, they even had holes in the ends of the box.
So how exactly would they keep bread from going stale or moldy?
As I looked up one like granny’s, I was struck by how many different sizes they came in, which makes the “bigger than a breadbox?” idiom even more absurdist.
Wiki offers a poorly sourced but sensible-sounding opinion on how they were intended to work: Breadbox - Wikipedia
Remember that back in the Olden Dayes bread was baked daily. So the idea was to delay crunchy staleness in a preservative-free bread for a few hours. Not to protect a preservative-laden bread against mold for a few weeks.
Oh well, since the thread has been revived. I have a nice stainless steel breadbox. They are useful for keeping all sorts of things in. Curiously the expression about “bigger than a breadbox” has some limited circulation down here in Oz. I have no idea how or why, but I first encountered it in the late 70’s.
The point about bread and staling was mentioned by OxyMoron 13 years ago. When bread goes stale it is nothing to do with either drying out or microbial action. The starch grains begin to aggregate together to form larger grains. So the bread starts to become stiffer and loses the nice elastic and soft texture it had. As noted, this reaction is temperature dependant. And it works fastest at lower temperatures. If you want your bread to go stale as fast as possible, put it in the ordinary part of the refrigerator. Room temperature will slow the reaction down significantly, as will freezing the bread. Also, you can mostly reverse the reaction once by heating the bread. But you tend to end up with bread that will stale again very quickly and has a harder crust. My mother used to thaw frozen bread in a bag in the sun, and that would produce a fabulous result, getting to a perfect temperature to yield a near “just baked” bread again.
Modern mass produced breads tend to contain anti-staling agents. These slow the starch grain aggregation, and seem to produce breads that will retain a goodly proportion of their texture and elasticity for many days - even to the point where mould becomes the dominant issue. But they never seem to quite match a freshly baked traditional loaf, even when fresh themselves.
