To Play To The Gas - Theatre Etymology - Part 27

n this day, if somebody says, "to play to the gas," it sounds like a car term. After all, there are things that happen with cars or trucks and they are said to add play to the gas pedal. However, the phrase to play to the gas is thought to have meant to make just enough money to get by, meaning that a theatrical production made just enough money so people were literally able to play their gas bills.

However, that exact definition does not seem to be found. In the fifth volume of Slang and its analogues past and present. A dictionary, historical and comparative of the heterodox speech of all classes of society for more than three hundred years. With synonyms in English, French, German, Italian, etc by John Stephen and William Earnest, "to play to the gas" is said to mean to play to small audiences. This was published some time between 1890 and 1904.

It is interesting that the phrase then appears in a 1906 Dutch publication known as Tall en Lettern. This means Language and Arts and seems to be by J.M.N. Kapteijn. The Dutch phrase is "Voor stoelen e n banken spelen" which translates to "Play chairs and sofas." However, it is not listed as that translation in English in the publication. Instead, it says that the phrase is the equivalent of "to play to the gas." It would seem that this is supporting that the phrase actually means to play to small audiences as it sounds like playing to chairs and sofas was something that was probably done in homes of people who held theatre there and thus had sitting rooms with a few chairs and one or a few sofas for friends.

It seems that the next time the phrase appears in recorded print is in 1933 in the book Earl Derr Biggers Tells Ten Stories by Earl Derr Biggers. It is said to have come from the October 7, 1922 edition of The Saturday Evening Post in a story called "Moonlight at the Crossroads." He wrote that one of his characters was talking to another called Maynard and said, "My dear sir, you can never appreciate the life I got into. For a short time all went well; then the houses fell off. We didn't play to the gas. Our salaries stopped, our pitiful luggage was seized for hotel bills, we ate but rarely. Somehow, we struggled on. I had never dreamed such misery could exist in the world. We managed to reach Dublin, and there my resistance gave out. I wired a friend for money to go home." This part of the story does have to do with people in the theatre and seems to support the phrase "to play to the gas" meaning to make enough money to get by.

The phrases can make sense when put together. Actors may have played to the gas, meaning a small audience that paid just enough for them to make enough money to pay the gas bill or make whatever they needed to get by. The phrase could have also changed meaning over the years as language does tend to change.

The word play has many definitions. When it is a noun, the word play seems to come from the Middle English noun pleye or the Old English nounn plega. When it is a verd, the word play seem to come from the Middle English verb pleyen or the Old English verb pleg(i)an. This can be comared to the Middle Dutch word pleien meaning to leap for joy, dance, rejoice, be glad.

The word gas was coined between 1650-1660 by the Flemish chemist J.B. van Helmont. It is thought that he coined the word based on the Greek word cháos meaning atmosphere.

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