I won’t debate the origins either way but I think it was Dresden Germany that a shop proclaimed to be “Gunzel Farmacia” (or whatever the correct German term is for a pharmacy). So I suppose it was the name of the proprietor.
It is on video, but not worth the bother of trying to find.
Regards,
On 21 Apr 2018, at 4:17 pm, Dean Filgate tramgunzle@...> wrote:
> Mal Rowe - never sure about the rules for capitalisation of the names of points of the compass
FYI, compass points and seasons are always capitalised, as are proper nouns..
Changing the subject (or steering it back towards youthful memories), thanks Mal for the link about the origin of the term "Gunzel" - and here's my two cents worth:
My first encounter was in the early 1980s (possibly late 1970s) after I had joined the ARHS (Vic. Div.). Whilst on a tour, our train disgorged its photographers in a suitably vacant paddock and then set-back for a 'run-through' photo run/opportunity. In those days, tours booked-out sections for 'total occupation' to allow for this type of movement. Not being a photographer, I remained on board with a few others - most of whom proceeded to display various body parts through open windows, no doubt to 'enhance' the photos being taken. One chap beside me was screaming "GUNZELS ! GUNZELS !!". Once he had satisfied this seemingly primeval urge, I asked him what that was all about. He (from memory, Peter Keen) then explained the Maltese Falcon connection, and how Humphrey Bogart had referred to Sidney Greenstreet's gun-slinging henchmen by the (intentionaly) unflattering term, and by tenuous connection, the photographers were 'shooting' the train. Fair enough. In this (rail tour) case, the word was being used derogatorily, but in a more humourous way than insultingly.
My second (and multiple) encounter was a couple of years later, when I joined the Melbourne tram enthusiast movement. The term was rife within those circles, and being bandied-about with much pride (and joviality) - in the most Australian manner, as with calling a redhead "bluey" or a bald bloke "curley".
When I eventually managed to find a dictionary definition, it said "catamite"; I admit that I then had to look that one up, and received a surprise - but I put that particular translation down to arrogant American ignorance.
Going back to Sam Spade, he DEFINITELY used the term - as a slight - to describe gunmen/gun-carrying henchmen, and I have NO DOUBT that this is how it entered the Australian vernacular - and was positively EMBRACED by the tram fan fraternity.
However, my more recent research has revealed a darker side to this whole episode. The Maltese Falcon was originally published in serial form (as were the original Sherlock Holmes stories). In wanting to portray the seedier type of life led by the characters, the author Dashiell Hammett had clashed with the editor of Black Mask magazine (Joe Shaw) - who took to editing-out anything that was even vaguely sexually-vulgar. Hammett took great exception to this, and was forever trying to 'sneak one past' Shaw, and in 'Falcon' (from September 1929) he succeeded.
Spade, indignant at being virtually frog-marched to Gutman, casually drops the insult - implying that bootlegger had liaisons with his male 'employees' - at that time, taken as one of the most cutting of jibes ("you're not a real man"), and in most other circumstances would bring a response of hot lead from any 'self-respecting' gangster of the 1930s. Either Shaw assumed that "gunzel" meant 'hired gunman' (or similar), or else Hammett had managed to hoodwink the editor. In either case, the author was 'victorious', and readers 'in the know' would have been suitably amused (or scandalised !). At that time, 'gunzel' had only one meaning - a young boy procured for homosexual purposes, the word itself derived (circuitously) from the German diminutive for 'goose' (I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to the connections thereof).
I would hazard that this will not be the last word on this subject, but for my money "Gunzle" means - exclusively - "rail enthusiast", and particularly "tram enthusiast"; and I prefer the spelling "gunzle" over "gunzel", the latter looking like an Americanism (or should that be "Americanizm" ?), which in turn conjures-up the undesired alternative.
X=X=X
Virus-free. www.avast.com