As in, “It’s a turkey,” or, more familiarly, “You turkey!”
In the first three decades of the 20th century, there were a lot more Broadway theaters than there are today, probably by a factor of five or so.
Then as now, tourists, and locals, too, swelled the audiences during the Christmas season. Then as not now, shows also cost a lot less to put on.
Accordingly, a very large number of shows opened every year in November, and even if they only stuck around until shortly after New Year, they were usually able to turn a profit, provided the house had been reasonably full.
What that meant was that an awful lot of awful shows opened every year around Thanksgiving. The critics at Variety, who were obliged to attend and review every one of them, took to calling those shows “turkeys.” And the term stuck.
Happy Thanksgiving from your friendly Prospect malcontents, and don’t consume too much tryptophan and drive!
A second Trump administration will cement a right-wing majority on the Supreme Court for a generation, and put our collective future in the hands of someone who will be virtually unchecked by our institutions. The country has shifted rightward, and the reverberations will ensue for potentially the next few decades. In this climate, a robust independent media ecosystem will be more important than ever. We're committed to bringing you the latest news on how Trump's agenda will actually affect the American people, shining a light on the stories corporate media overlooks and keeping the public informed about how power really works in this country.
Quality journalism is expensive to produce, and we don't have corporate backers to rely on to fund what we do. Everything we do is thanks to our incredible community of readers, who chip in a few dollars at a time to make our work possible. Any amount you give today will help us continue reporting on what matters to our democracy.
