We always think of “eagle” when we think of “swoop,” but we don`t often think of “swoop” when we think of “eagle.” In the 1920s, the character of Gaston La Roche (or Larotta) became known as the “legal eagle” in the musical Wildflower and also as the “legal beagle” in one sentence – albeit in a piece of music in which his legal wisdom comes into play. In 1939, Groucho Marx`s petty lawyer, J. Cheever Loophole, may have helped revive the “legal eagle” of American slang in At the Circus. And in the 1940s, Earle Stanley Gardner`s mysterious lawyer, Perry Mason, seems to have been associated, at least temporarily, with the term “legal beagle.” It`s not clear if these three famous fictional Legal Eagles/Beagles are responsible for the emergence and popularization of “Legal Eagle” and “Legal Beagle” in American slang, but I think all three may have played an important role. Newspapers across Australia repeated the term “Legal Eagle” in connection with this musical for the next three years. There is obviously a slightly older reference to Wildflower and Gaston La Roche`s character, “the legal eagle,” in the Altoona [Pennsylvania] Tribune (October 27, 1923), but I don`t have a subscription to Newspapers.com where to find the instance. However, Google Books returns several matches older than the second Wiktionary match, which dates back to 1947. The oldest of these games is that of Wildflower, which has already been mentioned, although there are some doubts as to whether the lyrics containing “legal beagle” were included in the original version of the musical. The terms mean very similar things: legal competence, stubbornness/dedication, and cunning. Since both terms are usually used jokingly, they can be interpreted in a negative light in the right context, where the usage suggests ridicule because the “legal eagle/beagle” had just made a mistake.

But they are also sometimes used unequivocally to express admiration. The “corpse” quickly jumps to his feet – with a big smile on his face! It`s Perry Mason – and the tireless “legal beagle” has just solved one of the strangest cases of his career. A case based on the strange hint of a wax candle so important that it sends a man and almost the BAD MAN murder on the electric chair! Legal eagle n. A dedicated or cunning and extremely knowledgeable lawyer. Google`s Ngram graph for “legal beagle” (blue line) versus “legal eagle” (red line) for the period 1920-2005 looks like this: As the quote suggests, an eagle was a $10 gold coin and a double eagle was a $20 gold coin. The “legal” modifier in front of each name simply indicates that government specifications required the weight of each piece to meet the specification to be legal tender. The “legal eagle” here is not a lawyer or even a human being. 3. Did another famous beagle or detective dog inspire the legal beagle strike? A very early example of “Legal Eagle” in the United States appears Henry Gaston, The Little Lawyer; or The Farmers.” Mechanics`, Miners`s, Laborer, and Business Men`s Adviser and Legal Help and Legal Adviser (1880): The term “Legal Eagle” also appears in the December 2, 1940 and May 20, 1941 issues of Princeton Alumni Weekly.

A bookstore ad in Michigan Raw Review (1941) [combined excerpts] offers this temptation: Lloyd Paul Stryker, the legal eagle, landed a customer last week who had not only already confessed and pleaded guilty, but had also been convicted and convicted. In fact, after thinking about it, Mr. Stryker decided that while the case was a great challenge, it had its drawbacks, and he withdrew. The most intriguing case of “legal beagle,” however, is the one involving Perry Mason, the mysterious defender of Gardner`s many novels. The man and the phrase appear several times in the January 19, 1948 issue of Life magazine, this time in an advertisement for another Gardner novel, The Case of the Crooked Candle: BIANCA AND ALBERTO: He will hunt her like a beagle. BIANCA AND ALBERTO: [sung] We`d better trust the legal eagle. The earliest correspondence I found for “legal beagle” comes from an unidentified article in Publication of the American Dialect Society (1944) annotating the sentence [combined excerpts]: Now Electric Traction Hole-In-One Club, has a “legal eagle” A. L. Vencill, of the legal department of the Union Switch and Signal Company, negotiated a hole in a hit at the Edgewood Country Club, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 19, 1928.

The above examples suggest that “Legal Eagle” was ubiquitous in the United States. Slang at a time (1944) when “legal beagle” was just coming out of the door – at least as a popular term. But “legal eagle” and “legal beagle” appear at least in some versions of the lyrics of Wildflower, a musical that enjoyed considerable success in the United States and abroad after its debut in 1923.