where did the term "peanut gallery" come from?

Hmm?

From the old TV show Howdy Doody. The Peanut Gallery was the section where the on-air live audience of kids sat.

Welcome to the boards, youngster.

Cap’n Crude. You youngster you. :slight_smile:

The upper balcony in theatres in the 1890’s were called peanut galleries. That’s the origin of the term. People sitting there would eat peanuts, sometimes pelting bad acts with shells and perhaps whole nuts.

There’s a staff report on this:

What’s the origin of the expression “peanut gallery”?
Apr-19-1999

www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpeanut.html

A Staff report from last century about an expression from the one before that.

There isn’t a link on that page to the message boards.

Ancient history, huh?

Tris