Nobody Home

Nobody Home (1915), a musical comedy by Guy Bolton (book), Jerome Kern (music), others. [ Princess Theatre, 135 perf.] Vernon Popple (George Anderson) loves Violet (Alice Dovey) but cannot marry her without her aunt's consent. The aunt (Maude Odell), however, refuses, since she has heard that Vernon has been seen about town with the Winter Garden star, Tony Miller (Adele Rowland). Vernon's brother, Freddy (Lawrence Grossmith), arrives in town and Tony, who expects to go out on tour, leases her apartment to him. The tour is canceled, and all the characters meet at Tony's apartment, where misunderstandings lead to complications that are cleared up only in time for a happy ending. The show was originally to have been merely an Americanization of the English musical, Mr. Popple of Ippleton, but was drastically revised after a preview showed the early adaptation would not work. The F. Ray Comstock musical, while not without its faults, pioneered in presenting intimate, stylish shows at the tiny Princess and launched the series that became known as the Princess Theatre musicals.

1.  No one is paying attention, as in She threw the ball right past him, yelling "Nobody home!"
2.  The person being discussed is mentally impaired and so cannot understand, as in When the woman did not answer, he concluded it was a case of nobody home. Both usages transfer the absence of someone in a dwelling to absent-mindedness or mental deficiency, and are thought to have been invented by cartoonist and journalist Thomas Aloysius Dorgan ("TAD") around 1900. He often embellished his column with such punning amplifications as "Nobody home but the telephone and that's in the hands of the receiver," or "Nobody home but the oyster and that's in the stew."

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)