# Pulling actors off stage with big hooks

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pulling-actors-off-stage-with-big-hooks/176279>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 20, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pulling-actors-off-stage-with-big-hooks/176279 "2003-05-20T00:07:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pulling-actors-off-stage-with-big-hooks/176279/1 "2003-05-20T00:07:08Z")

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Looks like somebody got the OP with one o’them big hooks. Oh, the bitter irony . . .

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2003, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pulling-actors-off-stage-with-big-hooks/176279/2 "2003-05-20T02:10:20Z")

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The first cite of such a hook is 1907. The book _Old Bowery_ says that the first use of such a hook was in 1903 at Harry Miner’s Bowery Theater in NYC.

This courtesy of Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang.