Gordon bennett

[Lil wisH]

hellooooooo!!!

me an me mate were finkin rite!!!!

who is gordon bennett
who is larry as in 'happy as larry'

and

who is joe bloggs

thanking you muchly

holly an ema

[JackDanielsU]

Happy as Larry

The earliest printed reference currently known is from the New Zealand writer G. L. Meredith, dating from around 1875:

"We would be as happy as Larry if it were not for the rats".

Almost all the other early citations are from Australia or New Zealand. For example, this from Tom Collins (the pen name of the popular Australian writer Joseph Furphy), in 'Barrier Truth (Broken Hill)', 1903:

"Now that the adventure was drawing to an end, I found a peace of mind that all the old fogies on the river couldn't disturb. I was as happy as Larry."

There are two commonly repeated contenders for the derivation. One is that it refers to the Australian boxer Larry Foley (1847 - 1917). Foley was a successful boxer who never lost a fight. He retired at 32 and collected a purse of �1,000 for his final fight. So, we can expect that he was known to be happy with his lot in the 1870s - just when the phrase is first cited

[JackDanielsU]

Gordon Bennett -

It is commonly thought that this refers to James Gordon Bennett. JGB was a real person. In fact, with the expansiveness that is appropriate for this story, two real people. The elder James Gordon Bennett was born in Banffshire, Scotland in 1795 and emigrated to the USA, eventually becoming a journalist and founding the New York Herald in 1835. Bennett had a natural talent for journalism and the paper flourished. He was unblushing in what was then seen as improper descriptions of his relationship with his wife - describing her 'most magnificent' figure and publishing details of their wedding and the birth of James Gordon Bennett junior in 1841.

James Gordon Bennett Jr. inherited his father's talents for journalism and controversy, not to mention his multi-million dollar estate - and he's the one the phrase refers to. He took over control of the New York Herald in 1866, by which time he was well into an enthusiastic and hedonist playboy lifestyle, indulging in spending the family fortune on air and road racing in the USA, England and France.


The expletive Gordon Bennett appears to be a minced oath. It is a version of Gor blimey, which is itself a euphemistic version of God blind me. That, combined with Bennett's famously outrageous lifestyle and newsworthy stunts, is sufficient to explain why his name was picked out.

[Grunty]

While Gordon Bennett was editor of the New York Herald, as Jack says, I believe he was the man who sent Henry Morton Stanley to find Dr Livingstone in Africa. I can well imagine the reply "Gordon Bennett, how do you expect me to find one British missionary in the whole of Africa?"