A little audience participation activity in the spirit of the season—

I was looking up the story behind terming a Broadway flop a turkey and discovered I can’t find anything definitive. The story I had originally heard was that any show that couldn’t sustain itself past the holiday season was termed a turkey. Good for consumption only during the holiday season I suppose.

Searching the internet, I came up with this quiz about turkeys in general which claims the term originates “After a show called “Cage Me a Turkey” that was so bad it closed before intermission on opening night.”

That story frankly doesn’t ring true for me.

I found another explanation on a listserv archivepost by Gerald Cohen that literally employed a turkey or the egg argument that doesn’t solve the mystery.

“Theatrical _turkey_ is traceable to burlesque theatre, but here a problem arises: we find reference both to _turkey shows_ and _turkey troupes_. Which one came first? Were the turkey shows so called because they were performed by turkey troupes? Or were the turkey troupes so called because they performed turkey shows? And whichever came first, why was _turkey_ used?”

Cohen later gives the best explanation I have found.

“In the mid-1920s _turkey (show)_ was extended from a strictly burlesque context to the legitimate theatre — a development apparently due to an unusual streak of bad quality that hit the legitimate theatre in Syracuse at that time. The road shows were derided in Syracuse as ‘turkeys,’ with clear reference to the itinerant (fly-by-night, grossly incompetent) turkey troupes of burlesque vintage. From Syracuse the extended use of _turkey_ ‘third rate production (in the legitimate theatre too)’ spread to New YorkCity and hence into standard slang.”

But that is merely the best explanation in terms of best research. I am interested in hearing what other stories are out there to back up the use of the turkey label. If you a story, I wanna hear it, so tell it in the comments section.