what is the origin of the phrase Gordon Bennett?

Answer 1

Gordon Bennett! is a common expression or exclamation in British English that connotes surprise or shock. A typical usage, for instance, might be "Gordon Bennett! Look at the size of that." A comic-book character, Gordon Bennett, is based on the expression.

According to Cassell's Dictionary of Word & Phrase Origins, the phrase is a euphemism for the blasphemous expression "Oh God!". A famous newspaperman James Gordon Bennett, Jr. is said to have originally inspired the particular form of this phrase.

Bennett — the son of James Gordon Bennett, senior — was a New York newspaper proprietor and playboy during the late 19th and early 20th centuries who became widely known in North America and Europe for his extravagant lifestyle and shocking behaviour. He has been described by the Dictionary of American Biography as having been "one of the most picturesque figures of two continents". For example, he arrived late and drunk at a party in the mansion of the family of his fiancée, socialite Caroline May, and then urinated into a fireplace in full view of his hosts. The engagement was broken off immediately, and the subsequent notoriety caused Bennett to move to France. This incident appeared in the Guinness Book of World Records under "Greatest Engagement Faux Pas." -

Answer 2

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.
(Gordon Bennett being a wealthy American whos behaviour was notorious in the late 19th century)

Answer 3

undle

Answer 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gordon_Bennett%2C_Jr.