Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Okay, here's a question for the assembled masses. What, exactly, is the origin of the titular phrase up there? "Stars and garters" comes from the UK, of course, back a few hundred years ago, and the phrase (or something close) appears in Dickens' Bleak House, but much of the on-line references seem to cite (of all things) Beast, a character from "X-Men: The Last Stand" (2006). I've heard this phrase most of my life, and I'm a lot older than that.

Did it pop up in some earlier place, a cartoon or kid's book? My (non)wife and I both remember it, but can't place it.