# Origin of "Wore white kid gloves..." **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 26, 2012, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-wore-white-kid-gloves/638960 "2012-10-26T18:29:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Geohough](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@Geohough](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geohough)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-wore-white-kid-gloves/638960/1 "2012-10-26T18:29:51Z")
I need help in recalling the origin of a phrase. I am unsure if it came from an old movie or an old television show, or possibly even from an old vaudeville routine. Over the years, my wife and I have frequently quoted the phrase, however now neither of us can recall from whence it came from. Nonetheless, we are both positive that it was not a creation of our own. The phrase is some perturbation of “wore white kid gloves, had a trace of an accent and walked with a limp”. We are even unsure in what context the phrase was spoken, however our general feeling is that it was done in a comic mood, possibly in reference to a suspect in a spy or detective story. Potential origins that we have considered are the ‘Dick Van Dyke Show’, 'Perry Mason" and various Marx Bros. films. Thus far however, none of these shows appear to be the source. Any help tracking this down would be gratefully accepted. Even if you don’t know where it originated, we’d be thrilled to hear that others have heard the phrase - for confirmation that we’re not crazy (or that our hallucination is shared). Thanks, geohough ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-wore-white-kid-gloves/638960/2 "2012-10-26T18:56:47Z")
That somehow sounds familiar but I can’t specifically place it. Could those have been “key phrases” from a [“Slowly I Turned”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slowly_I_Turned) bit. ---
**Author:** ![Geohough](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@Geohough](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geohough)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-wore-white-kid-gloves/638960/3 "2012-11-16T21:05:48Z")
And that phrase (and the resulting skit) seeming date from vaudeville. Perhaps the ‘…wore white kid gloves…’ also hails from that period. Unfortunately, the Internet is quiet on that possibility. Still, I’d love to hear from other folks who have a recollection of it (even a vague recollection). Thanks, ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-wore-white-kid-gloves/638960/4 "2012-11-17T09:29:41Z")
Sounds like something from _The Thin Man_ series of movies (Nick and Nora Charles). ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-wore-white-kid-gloves/638960/5 "2012-11-17T09:40:25Z")
This [column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2026/whats-the-origin-of-to-treat-with-kid-gloves)and [comments thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=129742) will probably be of interest. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-wore-white-kid-gloves/638960/6 "2012-11-17T14:06:51Z")
Reminds me of Mark Twain. [He bought a pair once.](http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/mtwain/bl-mtwain-innocents-7.htm) [And mentioned some later.](http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/mtwain/bl-mtwain-innocents-38.htm) > [@Mark Twain](#): > > Then the visiting “watch below,” transformed into graceless ladies and uncouth pilgrims, by rude travesties upon waterfalls, hoopskirts, white kid gloves and swallow-tail coats, moved solemnly up the companion way, and bowing low, began a system of complicated and extraordinary smiling which few monarchs could look upon and live. Then the mock consul, a slush-plastered deck-sweep, drew out a soiled fragment of paper and proceeded to read, laboriously: > > "To His Imperial Majesty, Alexander II., Emperor of Russia: > > “We are a handful of private citizens of America, traveling simply for recreation,–and unostentatiously, as becomes our unofficial state–and therefore, we have no excuse to tender for presenting ourselves before your Majesty–” > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > That somehow sounds familiar but I can’t specifically place it. Could those have been “key phrases” from a [“Slowly I Turned”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slowly_I_Turned) bit. That bit was also used in an episode of “I Love Lucy” but I don’t remember it word for word. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-wore-white-kid-gloves/638960/7 "2012-11-17T19:23:10Z")
> [@Geohough](#): > > …however now neither of us can recall from whence it came from… [nitpick] I feel compelled to submit this nitpick because of an interesting and startling double redundancy, and because I get to say “double redundancy.” The first “from” and the second “from” need not be used and are in fact incorrect. People get “whence” wrong a lot; it’s a good word precisely because it means “from where.” (I think it is a rare locative in the English language.) [/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-wore-white-kid-gloves/638960/8 "2012-11-17T20:27:15Z")
I don’t know whether it’s directly related or it simply was a coincidence when two different people were trying to come up with representative luxury items, but depending on who you listen to that was one of the items in the list given by Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, “The Great Captain”, when his employers asked him what the heck was he spending so much money on. The list he sent accounted for every penny he’d received but by listing purchases for luxury items such as, well, white kid gloves for every single soldier in his host (other acounts say “perfumed gloves” or “perfumed kid gloves”). The details on the actual list are lost / have been distorted in the recounting (and if anybody has the actual, original list, I don’t know where it is), but “the Great Captain’s accounting” has come to mean any accounting one isn’t really supposed to take seriously, specially when given in response to micromanagers (such as those hourly reports by which it turns out that nobody ever takes a break, factories clean themselves…) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-wore-white-kid-gloves/638960/9 "2012-11-20T15:11:09Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > [nitpick] > > I feel compelled to submit this nitpick because of an interesting and startling double redundancy, and because I get to say “double redundancy.” > > The first “from” and the second “from” need not be used and are in fact incorrect. People get “whence” wrong a lot; it’s a good word precisely because it means “from where.” (I think it is a rare locative in the English language.) > > [/nitpick] :smack: As I stumbled backwards from a restaurant chair, I remembered “locative” is a _case_ in Latin, so is implemented with nouns where motion is involved. It does carry on, nonetheless, in a few instances in English. I accordingly headed homeward–moving foreward and westward toward Riverside Drive–to type this correction. There I stomped computerwards and here are some examples that come to me. ETA: Isn’t there an Internet law–or is it a local Straight Dope one–that in every typographic or grammar correction a new one will be introduced? I know I’ve seen it somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-wore-white-kid-gloves/638960/10 "2012-11-21T02:50:06Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > ETA: Isn’t there an Internet law–or is it a local Straight Dope one–that in every typographic or grammar correction a new one will be introduced? I know I’ve seen it somewhere. Gaudere’s Law: **“Any post made to point out a spelling or grammar error will invariably contain a spelling or grammar error.”** Also called McKean’s Law: **“Any correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one grammatical, spelling, or typographical error.”** ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-wore-white-kid-gloves/638960/11 "2012-11-21T05:25:26Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Gaudere’s Law: **“Any post made to point out a spelling or grammar error will invariably contain a spelling or grammar error.”** > > Also called McKean’s Law: **“Any correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one grammatical, spelling, or typographical error.”** Also called[Muphry’s Law](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law), which predates them both. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-wore-white-kid-gloves/638960/12 "2012-11-21T05:42:46Z")
Thanks. Onward and Upwird.