origin of the phrase "close but no cigar"?

Question

i understand the metaphor of this phrase but i would like to know where, when and by whom it was first use.

i am thinking it is by humphry bogart possibly in the maltese falcon

Answer 1

Where does the expression "close but no cigar" come from?

Vince Lombardi may have been overstating things a bit when he said "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." After all, not everyone wins, but life inevitably goes on. "Close, but no cigar" is a cliché, but it helps comfort those of us who don't always emerge victorious. Anyone who's ever lost at a card game or been aced out of a primo parking spot knows losing isn't fun. This is true now, and it was true when the phrase first came to prominence. According to Bartleby, the phrase likely originated at carnivals when cigars were given away as prizes. We can imagine fiendish carnival workers using the feel-good phrase as a way to get suckers like us with poor aim to try our luck again.

The Phrase Finder offers a slightly different story. The site states that the saying came from the custom of early slot machines awarding cigars to winners. A third theory comes from Take Our Word for It, which says nobody knows exactly how the phrase came about, but that it likely came to prominence at carnivals, specifically the game where players use a sledgehammer to ring a bell. Macho victors were given cigars, while the wimps were told they came close, but they would not be receiving any carcinogenic tobacco for their efforts.

No Cigar, is also the name of a Rockband from Oldenburg/Germany

Answer 2

It appears in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra of 1606, in the speech at the end of Act One in which Cleopatra is regretting her youthful dalliances with Julius Caesar: “My salad days, When I was green in judgment”. So the phrase came to mean “a period of youthful inexperience or indiscretion”, though it only became popular from the middle of the nineteenth century on. The link here is green, which had already had a meaning for a couple of centuries at least before Shakespeare’s day of someone youthful, just like the young green shoots of spring, and also of somebody who was as yet inexperienced or immature. Incidentally, for Shakespeare a salad wasn’t just lettuce with some dressing, but a much more complicated dish of chopped, mixed and seasoned vegetables (its name comes from the Latin word for salt); the word was also used for any vegetable that could be included in that dish. However, Jan Freeman pointed out in one of her word columns for the Boston Globe back in April 2001 that the expression has shifted sense in the US in the past twenty years or so. It now often refers to a period in the past when somebody was at the peak of their abilities or earning power, in their heyday, not necessarily when they were young. The shift isn’t so hard to understand when you think how few people actually know their Shakespeare.

Answer 3

It is from the carnival games of midway at state fairs and the like. The cigars were given as a prize for showing manly prowess-like using a sledgehammer to ring the bell. The carney would say "Close, but no cigar" to console the marks when they didn't win and to encourage them to try again.

Answer 4

It was used to explain the difference between the relationships Bill Clinton had with Hillary and Monica.

Answer 5

IDK... it sounds like something some old actor like Humphrey Bogart or Clark Gable would have said...or you could go with that carnival theory...