The Full Monty

[DaveH]

THE FULL MONTY

Where that film title came from

It seems that there are almost as many explanations as there are writers doing the explaining. A colleague in the dictionaries department at the Oxford University Press, who has had the thankless job of writing the entry for this expression, claims to have found sixteen different stories. A few of the more common ones are:

* a corruption of “the full amount”;

* a reference to bales full of wool imported from Montevideo;

* from a TV commercial for Del Monte fruit juice, in which one of the characters insisted on the full Del Monte;

* gamblers’ jargon meaning the kitty or pot, deriving from the old US card game called monte;

* the casino at Monte Carlo, in which the full monty would equate with breaking the bank;

* Field Marshal Montgomery on parade with all his medals;

* from Field Marshal Montgomery’s liking for a good breakfast in the morning;

* being supplied by the British tailors Montague Burton with a three-piece suit; or

* being provided with a complete wedding outfit from the same firm.

Field Marshal Montgomery, General Montgomery as he was during the Second World War, certainly had the nickname Monty (there was a film, you may recall, with the title I Was Monty’s Double, about a man who impersonated him). The stories about Montgomery mostly refer to his liking for a good breakfast, even in the desert during the North Africa campaign. It is said that the phrase was taken up after the War, presumably by ex-servicemen, as a name for the traditional English breakfast of bacon, eggs, fried bread, tomato, mushrooms, toast, and cup of tea. However, this is just as likely to be a rationalisation of an existing expression, but attached to a well-known public figure in the way such things often are. However, I have been told that it was in common use in transport cafés in the 1950s, so there may be something in it.

As 2 of these possible origins refer to Field Marshal Montgomery I have a personal preference for a different version.

Could "The Full Monty" refer to the thrashing that Monty's 8th Army of "Desrt Rats" gave Rommell's Afrika Corps in 1942, from the battle of El Alemain onwards?

Was it Hitlers desrt army that got "The Full Monty"?

[vox]

I heard today (from someone who has worked on Burton Street for many years) that the street was partly tarmacked and was stripped back to it's cobbles especially for the film.

Don't know whether that's true or not.

[Sheffield History]

 

[Sheffield History]

 

Remember the opening scene in The Full Monty where they're stuck on the canal with the car?

It was filmed down on Bacon Lane as you can see in this video on Youtube 
 

[History dude]

It's now 20 years old!

Just watched it on BBC 1 and hasn't Sheffield changed since it was filmed! It's nearly as dramatic a change as the Sheffield film at the start of the film.

[Sheffield History]

Get The Full Monty DVD's and books here at Amazon