# Where does the school prom come from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 19, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-school-prom-come-from/326857 "2005-10-19T03:41:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![copperwindow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@copperwindow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/copperwindow)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-school-prom-come-from/326857/1 "2005-10-19T03:41:39Z")
When did it first start? What is the point of it, etc? ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-school-prom-come-from/326857/2 "2021-04-16T20:43:04Z")
From [here](https://www.bustle.com/articles/79784-the-history-of-prom-where-did-this-weird-high-school-tradition-come-from) “The why of prom’s origin story is simple to answer. [Prom, short for promenade](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1987594,00.html), “the formal, introductory parading of guests at a party,” began in the mid-to-late 1800s at colleges and universities in the Northeast to promote social etiquette and manners in each year’s graduating class.” ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-school-prom-come-from/326857/3 "2021-04-16T23:43:28Z")
I would have thought prom would have been short for “promotion”. But more importantly, is this the longest interval between a question being asked and answered on the SDMB? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2021, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-school-prom-come-from/326857/4 "2021-04-17T17:55:24Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > But more importantly, is this the longest interval between a question being asked and answered on the SDMB? No, there was one that was 18 years, IIRC. That was a couple-three years ago and I can’t remember the subject. Couldn’t find it on a search, but I remember adding a post pointing out the length of time. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2021, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-school-prom-come-from/326857/5 "2021-04-17T18:09:41Z")
Memory came back; found the other thread: > [@Howard Hughes' estate--current status](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hughes-estate-current-status/2423): > > In “More of the Straight Dope” Cecil Adams (1988) said that, while the staes involed, CA and TX, have settled with Hughes’ heirs and assigns, the IRS had not yet settled. How about now? What’s the Straight Dope now after eleven years? This matter should have been resolved by now. Turns out that one was 16 years too. Or more specifically, 16years, 5 months. This one is actually 15 years, 6 months. So that other thread is still the longest. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2021, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-school-prom-come-from/326857/6 "2021-04-17T18:20:57Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > “The why of prom’s origin story is simple to answer. [Prom, short for promenade](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1987594,00.html), “the formal, introductory parading of guests at a party,” began in the mid-to-late 1800s at colleges and universities in the Northeast to promote social etiquette and manners in each year’s graduating class.” In the book “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter,” there’s a prom. It’s been awhile since I read it but IIRC the girl, Mick, asks and gets permission from her mother to hold it. > When the guests arrive, at first there is general pandemonium and chatter. Then Mick yells out for everyone to get a prom card and start signing up. One of the boys who asks her for a promenade is Harry Minowitz, a Jewish boy who is her next-door neighbor. Mick notices Harry because he is not wearing his usual glasses and therefore looks different. During Mick and Harry’s promenade around the block, a song comes into Mick’s mind and she starts singing. She tells Harry the song is by Mozart. He says that the name sounds German, and asks if Mozart is a Fascist or a Nazi. Mick says no, Mozart died a long time ago. Harry gets very worked up and says that if he saw a Fascist walking on the street he would kill him. Mick asks why, but Harry does not have time to answer her question because they are back at her house. > **[The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Part Two, Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis |...](https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/lonelyhunter/section6/)** > > A summary of Part Two, Chapter 1 in Carson McCullers's The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as... So prom cards are used to set up “appointments” to walk around the block together. The rest of the time they play records, dance, and have refreshments. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2021, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-school-prom-come-from/326857/7 "2021-04-17T18:28:02Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Turns out that one was 16 years too. Or more specifically, 16years, 5 months. This one is actually 15 years, 6 months. So that other thread is still the longest. And that thread’s OP was even able to see their question being answered. Very good. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2021, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-school-prom-come-from/326857/8 "2021-04-17T18:37:56Z")
I can’t find any information about what school prom Howard Hughes might have gone to. He did attend the Thacher School in California in his teens but regrettably they don’t mention anything about a prom.\* \*The school mascot is a toad, which is nice. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2021, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-school-prom-come-from/326857/9 "2021-04-17T18:55:42Z")
I wish they’d fix the spelling error in the thread title. It should be “skool”. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-school-prom-come-from/326857/10 "2021-04-17T20:31:46Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > But more importantly, is this the longest interval between a question being asked and answered on the SDMB? Well, I don’t understand why it wasn’t answered in 2005: my impression is that school proms have been steadily declining in importance over the years–thus people should have been more aware of the answer back then. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2021, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-school-prom-come-from/326857/11 "2021-04-17T22:57:49Z")
But now we can reap the benefits of a [2012 doctoral dissertation on the history of the school prom](https://escholarship.org/content/qt96n4586k/qt96n4586k_noSplash_fd13bedbe84ea91954990b661de1cf9a.pdf). > [@](#): > > Despite serving as a rite of passage for generations of high school students, the prom did not have that connotation for the college students who originated the tradition; they viewed proms as a celebration of their youthful campus lives rather than a preparation for their adult futures. My dissertation begins in the 1850s at Yale where proms grew from student pranks that were initially kept secret from adult administrators. Students there and on other campuses defied or fought against adult authorities to promote this student tradition. As my first chapter demonstrates, college students were interested in carving out an autonomous space for proms in their university, but they did not speak of the prom as a transitional rite. They were more occupied with the prom as part of a nationally converging collegiate culture. […] > > Prom only gained status as a rite of passage after being adopted as an annual tradition by high school students near the turn of the twentieth century […] > > The word prom is an abbreviation of promenade. Enjoying a promenade through a garden with musical accompaniment became a popular pastime in London during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These “promenade concerts” were a predecessor of the modern-day BBC Proms, an annual concert series in London. American university students adapted the promenade concert into a dance associated with students’ class year. […] > > Although Yale’s founders had banned dancing, the administration had relaxed on this point by the nineteenth century, and the junior ball became an annual tradition. > > This ball was a predecessor for Yale’s first promenade concert in 1850, when students added this event to the program of the Junior Exhibition. The exhibition grew from an older tradition of oral examinations; students delivered dramatic readings or orations before parents, classmates, and university officials. Although the speakers took pains to impress the audience with their erudition, their classmates found the speeches rather dull and instead preferred the interludes when a hired band would play. According to Yale chronicler Lyman Bagg, students were responsible for the cost of the music and instituted the promenade as a fundraiser so they could hire better bands to make the exhibition tolerable. After being a sporadic feature for a decade, the promenade became a mainstay of the Exhibition during the 1860s. > > However, there is very little description of the Exhibition’s promenade concerts because students associated prom more strongly with the promenade concert that grew out of a parody of the Junior Exhibition. […] > > In the next several decades leading up to World War I, as Yale students embellished their prom with added social events, the concept of prom attracted the attention of students at other universities who also began to adopt the prom as an annual tradition. […] > > While college students had viewed the prom as an expression of their youth, high school students saw the prom as a taste of adulthood. At high schools around the turn of the twentieth century, students were conscious of borrowing a custom from the older, more privileged students who attended universities, and associated that event with sophistication and maturity. This association was part of the prom’s appeal and was not limited to the prom. In general, dancing struck high school students as an accessible form of adult behavior.