Hi
I presume these gentlemen might be taking video, or if they are taking stills I'm curious, as its a lovely sunny day with plenty of light and can't understand the need for tripods.
Best wishes Steve Bromley
----- Original Message -----
From: Don Campbell
To:TramsDownUnder@...
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 10:32 PM
Subject: =TramsDownUnder= Re: Gunzels
The origin of the term has been discussed several time previously, even I think on these very pages.
The term originated at the Sydney Tramway Museum in the mid-1960's. The museum was then known in those days as the South Pacific Electric Railway or SPER. There had developed a habit among a group of working members to joke among themselves in exaggerated American accents, using American slang words that were not totally understood but sounded great when spoken.
The main influence was a pile of old American railway magazines called "Railroad" that a member had found and deposited in the museum's meal room. The magazine was noted for it's use of American railroad slang. For example, there would be a picture of a goods train guard standing beside the caboose, looking at his fob watch. The caption would read "The Brains consults his time piece, ready to give the Hogger the high-ball......." etc. Wow, what a fantastically bizarre use of words we used to think, and started to be use them in this silly banter we used amongst ourselves.
The other influence was American black and white movies, and a crime drama called "The Untouchables" that were shown on television. These were always watched avidly because you never knew when a tram might appear in the background of a scene. Word and phrases from "The Untouchables" were often very colourful and were added to the banter vocabulary. The word "gunzel" appeared in the "Maltese Falcon" movie. The "gunzel" character was a weedy unhappy looking bloke who cringed when Bogart confronted him.
In that 1960's-70's period, the tram fan movement had a very small proportion of it's fraternity who were conspicuous. The identifying features were shabby clothing and lousy dress-sense, at least two cameras, sometimes three, one at least usually very expensive for the times, generally carried about in an army surplus canvas gas mask bag. These people had limited social communications skills, but were encyclopaedic concerning the theory of tramways and trams, and once started, more adjusted members would find their eyes starting to glaze over after about five minutes of being "talked-at" by one of these people. "Normal" fans would bump into them all over the place, and while being civil and nodding a greeting to them, you desperately hoped they wouldn't get too close.
It happened at SPER one day that a prominent one of these people visited the museum on a work day, in what later became known as the full Gunzel costume and kit. The Maltese Falcon movie had recently been seen again on TV, and a group of SPER working members looked up, saw this bloke, and one quietly commented to the others "Oh oh, a Gunzel". The word was instantly recognised as being extremely apt and fell into use from then on.
Gunzels were also an identifiable type in Britain, but were known there as "Hairies" or "Gricers". They also still exist in Europe to this day. Attached is a picture from Vienna taken in 2003.
Regards,
Don Campbell, who, like us all, likes to think he's not a Gunzel, but probably is.
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