Amateur Night in Dixie

[airbolt]

When something is particularly poorly organised or just incompetent , one way of describing it is " Amateur Night in Dixie"

Were Amateur Nights especially awful in Dixie? How Did the phrase Become prevalent outside the US?

[Quizmonster]

I suppose the go-gettin' northern Yankee incomers found things much slower and more 'laid-back' in the southern states of the USA than they were back home. Tight organisation generally tends to be less likely where temperatures are higher.
Consequently, an "amateur night" there would have been likely to be even more shambolic than a professionally-organised entertainment. My guess is that "an amateur night in Dixie" was a purely theoretical concept and did not refer to actual karaoke in Baton Rouge, say!
To be honest, I myself have never heard the phrase used here and would imagine it is still largely an americanism.

[frenchfriar]

as a Southerner, I offer this suggestion:
I doubt the phrase has anything to do with showbusiness. i imagine it was a Yankee slur against the Confederate generals, the "professionals" against the "amateurs"; and probably in a particular battle or military action. If so, it was in error, as many of the Confederate generals went to West Point, as the Northern ones did. However, there were many "amateurish" mistakes made on the confederate side. I have no idea how or why it would have travelled across the atlantic, though.

[Kingaroo]

As always, I think Quizmonster is right. The idea of a military source doesn't sound plausible (even though Yanks may well have felt Rebs were amateurs) because te phrase "Amateur Night" is definitely theatrical. It seems natural to emphasize the amateurishness of something by assigning it to a place known to be lackadaisical. Dixie is often poked fun at in the US. I imagine that the term got started in the movie business, and traveled across the ocean with many other Hollywood ideas and terms.

I just googled the phrase and found most uses on the first 2 pages were applied to performances (news shows, plays, production studio hierarchy, etc.) Personally, I'd never heard it used before (lifelong US).

[GrahamHill]

While the phrase "Amateur Night in Dixie" was certainly used during and after World War II to indicate a screw up or to use the correct acronym SNAFU (you supply the translation), I remember my parents using the phrase and telling me the origin was centered around Amateur Nights in local movie houses during the Depression and one of the most popular national radio shows, “The Original Amateur Hour". It was as big as "American Idol" is today and had some of the most outlandish performers.

The Depression as we all know was a desperate time; nobody had any money and when money and prizes were up for grabs every Saturday night at the local Bijou, and almost always broadcast by the local radio station, a lot of Americans were willing to do almost anything for fame and fortune. Theater groups and high school drama departments were very much part of the mix, thereby contributing to this phrase since if there was no money for gas often times across the Midwest down to California, why would you think there would be any spare cash for a new back drop to placate the local Corky St. Clair -- Christopher Guest's character in 'Waiting for Guffman"., down South in Dixie?

The South was the poorest section of the US for sure. Yet, some of America's most sophisticated song writers and performers, Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael to name two of the biggest, hailed from south of the Mason Dixon line. So, while it may have been unfair to characterize the whole region as the worst, that's what happened. The Grand Old Opry was just starting, and although its national radio audience was as big as any program from New York City or Hollywood, it was obvious the stars were right off the farms and down from the hills and not living on Park Ave or Beverly Hills.

[NeverKnowDoYa]

This phrase was used in S6E4 around 1:30 of Midsomer Murders, a show that couldn't be more "England is the UK" if it tried. That's all I've got. =)