In the late 19th century, Wisconsin newspaperman George Wilbur Peck wrote a series of columns about a fictional boy who was the personification of mischief. The popular character inspired stage and movie adaptations, and the term “Peck’s Bad Boy” came to refer to someone similarly incorrigible. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Peck’s Bad Boy”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
This is Debbie Habel calling from Vista, California.
Hi, Debbie.
Hi, Debbie.
I had a question. I was always curious about a phrase that both of my grandmothers used when I was growing up. And they were born in 1898 and my other grandmother in 1902 and lived in the Philadelphia area.
But whenever any of our grandchildren would act up or be a little mischievous, they would tell us, oh, you don’t want to be Tex bad boy. Or if they saw somebody doing something, they’d say, oh, there’s a Tex bad boy. And I always wondered about the origin of that phrase.
And so how are you spelling that?
I believe it’s P-E-C-K apostrophe S, bad boy.
Yep, Peck’s bad boy.
Yeah, there’s a story behind that. Peck’s bad boy was a character who did a whole lot of bad things, a little boy, in the newspaper columns of George Wilbur Peck, who wrote in the late 1800s and early 1900s. So this would fit the time frame that you’re talking about.
And Peck’s bad boy, little Henry Peck, was just as mischievous as you can possibly imagine. He would do things like stick stinky cheese into his dad’s hat. Oh, my gosh. Or one time he let a tiger out of the cage, you know, when the circus came to town. I mean, he was just sort of the personification of mischief.
And, in fact, there were a couple of movies based on these newspaper columns that came out in the 1920s, Peck’s Bad Boy. You can find them online. You can watch these really goofy, goofy old movies starring Jackie Coogan in one version.
I am going to look that up. That sounds so interesting. And I’m really happy to hear about this.
Yeah, Jackie Coogan in one version and Jackie Cooper in later one. So, yeah, he was a pretty naughty little boy. If you Google Peck’s Bad Boy, you’ll find an advertisement for the 1883 collection of Peck columns called Peck’s Bad Boy and His Paw.
And there’s a description here of the boy that I want to read to you. This last book from the prolific pen of George W. Peck is beyond all doubt the great humorous masterpiece. Peck’s bad boy is a holy terror. He is full from top to toe of pure, unadulterated cussedness. He hungers and thirsts after mischief. No day passes, but he invents and puts in practice some new form of deviltry.
Oh, my God. True rascal.
But I’m sure you all were never that bad when your grandmothers were talking about that.
No, yeah, it must have been an exaggeration. Well, I am definitely going to research that more, and I’d love to read more, and maybe see one of the movies would be fun.
Yeah, yeah, check out the movies.
I will. Thanks, Debbie. Good old-fashioned fun.
Thanks for calling, Debbie. Take care.
Yes. Bye-bye.
Thank you so much.
Okay. Bye-bye.
Peck’s bad boy. I don’t know if I was ever quite as bad as the guy in the books.
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