when did red carpet become synonymous with vip treatment? who started it? why?

Dear saikungboy,

Thank you for this question. It seems that the origin of red carpet
goes back a lot further than I had imagined...

The Cambridge English dictionary states:
"The red carpet is a special official welcome that is given to an
important guest, esp. in which a long red floor covering is put down
for them to walk on.
We'll roll out the red carpet for the Senator.
The minister was given the red carpet treatment."

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=red*1+10
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Online Etymology Dictionary has a short entry for red carpet, stating
that:

"...the custom for dignitaries is described as far back as Aeschylus
"Agamemnon"). "

http://www.geocities.com/etymonline/r2etym.htm
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A search on Aeschylus reveals that he lived 525-456 BC and that in one
play a wife laid out a red carpet as a welcome for a returning king.

http://www.methuen.co.uk/aeschylusplays2.html
_______

A short comment about the historical use of red and royalty is found
at the Institut National de la Langue Française. The use of red carpet
has now "trickled down" from royalty to visiting dignitaries,
ceremonies involving VIPs such as the Oscars and as you say, the term
has become synonomous with VIP treatment in general.

http://www.cnrs.fr/cw/en/pres/n391couleng/html/n391coula03.htm
_____

I also assume that a carpet would have provided a practical benefit in
past centuries when surfaces were more likely to be unsealed.
 
Search strategy:
"dictionary of idioms"
"red carpet" etymology

I hope this is what you were looking for, please select clarification
if there is anything else you would like me to investigate.

Regards,

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Request for Answer Clarification by saikungboy-ga on 29 Jul 2002 01:31 PDT

This practice must be more recent than 500 BC.  What I want to know is
whether a particular person "revived" this practice, and why.

So far as I know, the Whitehouse did not begin giving its vips red
carpet treatments until well into the 1930's. Red carpet is big with
Oscar, but when did Oscar begin this practice, and why?

You see, what I want to know is when did the red carpet begin to
trickle down from royalty to mere celebrity?

---

Request for Answer Clarification by saikungboy-ga on 29 Jul 2002 01:32 PDT

Furthermore, of all the colors in the world, why did red get picked? 
Why not gold, which is evidently more regal?

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Clarification of Answer by ozguru-ga on 29 Jul 2002 11:17 PDT

Dear saikungboy,

Sorry. I provided the first reference to the use of red carpet, as the
number of references over history and different countries indicated
that the use of red carpet for non-royalty VIPs was an extension of
its use for royalty, rather than a new tradition - started by any one
person.

For example in the United States, it would have been initially used
for the highest ranking dignitary - presidents:

This link describes its use in 1821 :
"...President James Monroe was entertained in 1821 at Prospect Hill
(now Arcadia) on Waccamaw with a real red carpet rolled out to the
river. "

http://www.ego.net/us/sc/myr/history/gtown.htm
______

This article describes soggy red carpet at Roosevelt's inauguration in
1937 :-)
http://www.weatherwise.org/inaugday.html

______

However, significantly before the first Academy Awards 20th Century
Limited used the association of red carpet with VIPs for marketing
purposes:

"The 20th Century Limited debuted in 1902 as the New York Central's
luxury train, operating between New York and Chicago. It traveled the
smooth “water level route” alongside the Hudson River and the shores
of Lake Erie. The railroad would roll out a crimson carpet to welcome
passengers to the train, giving rise to the phrase the “red carpet
treatment.”"

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0855843.html
______

I will keep searching for verification that a red carpet was used "...
When the first Academy Awards were handed out on May 16, 1929...
during a banquet held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt
Hotel." However, the images I have been able to find are not very
detailed (and black and white).

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=www.oscar.com/images/100x100/100_ceremonyhistory2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.oscar.com/legacy/ceremony.html&h=100&w=100&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522first%2Bacademy%2Bawards%2522%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8
_______

I will continue to work on the aspect of Why red? As the link I
provided earlier described, purple has also historically been
associated with royalty - originally due to its rarity.

Regards,

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Clarification of Answer by ozguru-ga on 03 Aug 2002 03:08 PDT

Dear saikungboy,

This may a contributing factor to the crossover of royalty's use of
purple to red. However, from the histories of colors and dyes, it
seems that Tyrannian purple was favored by the Romans and Scarlet or
red has been the British royal color. As the links show, red was
associated with status (not only royalty) from very early times...

“1464 - Italy - Although actually Scarlet from the Kermes insect,
"Cardinals' Purple" was introduced by Pope Paul II and was considered
the first luxury dye of the Middle Ages. “
http://www.coloryourcarpet.com/History/DyeHistory.html
_____

Various Histories of Dyes:

Straw.com Timeline of dyes
http://www.straw.com/sig/dyehist.html

Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: Interesting modern history of dyes
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1987/6/87.06.06.x.html#b

http://inst.augie.edu/~srmoeckl/vis.htm
________

Roman Egypt 22
“Of the native magistrates in the cities, the first is the "Expounder
of the Law" - who is dressed in scarlet”
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/romanegypt1.html

A quote from the 5th Century Anglo Saxon Invasion of England:
“There is also a great abundance of cockles, of which the scarlet dye
is made; a most beautiful colour which never fades with the heat of
the sun or the washing of the rain”
http://www.mkno.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/bede1.htm

600-800AD clothing.
'This sort of glamorisation for either sex consists in fine linen
shirts, in scarlet or blue tunics”
http://www.angelcynn.org.uk/clothing_christian.html
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I assume that the technology for applying gold to fabrics - was never
well developed... obviously gold's association with status has
continued with jewellry.

Regards,

Reddish colours, and in particular a deep purpley-red colour, were
particularly prized in Greek and Roman times for the very simple
reason that they were extremely expensive and difficult colours to
obtain. Today, with modern dyes and chemical engineering plants we can
produce all shades and hues relatively simple and cheaply, but until
recently mankind had to rely upon natural sources to provide
artificial colouration.

The purple cloth worn by Roman Emperors, for example (and by the way
the death penalty was imposed for anyone else daring to wear the
Imperial colour without permission) was produced from the dried shells
of a particular kind of shellfish and then mixed with human blood. It
required 10,000 shells to produce a single gram of the dye, hence its
rarity and value.
http://www.cnrs.fr/cw/en/pres/n391couleng/html/n391coula03.htm

As to when the Imperial purple became a European Royal red, I have not
been able to completely find out. In England it possibly stemmed from
the ascension of the House of Tudor in the late 15th Century; Henry
Tudor united (by marriage) the two great warring dynasties of the
House of York (symbolised with a white rose) and the House of
Lancaster (a red rose), and he was very careful to make his own symbol
a rose of both red and white. It's feasible he chose to wear red and
white robes for a similar reason.
http://www.geocities.com/tudorhist/

Regardless of the origins of Royal Red, within 100 years Henry VIII
was frequently pictured wearing red robes, usually trimmed with
ermine.
http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=henry+viii+red

This might answer some of the "why red, not gold" part of your
question!

Regards
iaint-ga