
The fabulous Rollins sisters were operating a Paris-style salon for movers and shakers. Anyone seeking answers would do well to take a look at the 2023 lineup of Movers & Shakers, who are engaging in those issues head on: challenges to intellectual freedom, racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, food and resource insecurity, and a systemic lack of opportunity for those who are underserved. It was then exclusively applied to people in business and other positions of power for example, from the magazine Ebony, July 1962: 'Movers and shakers', along with the alternative 'shakers and movers', which was clearly coined in ignorance of the poetic original, began to be used commonly in the USA in the 1960s and 70s and later in other countries. It was hardly used at all until the American socialite and patron of the arts Mabel Dodge Luhan used it as the title of a volume of her autobiography, published in 1934. Nevertheless, although the first two lines of the poem became well known, the phrase 'movers and shakers' didn't begin to be used more widely until well into the 20th century, when it was taken up in the USA. The two men were admirers of each other's work and, judging from from their photographs, would have made a strong joint entry in a 'Spot the Victorian Gentleman' competition. The poem is by far O'Shaughnessy's best known work and it had a profound effect on Elgar, who set the complete poem without alteration. In that poem, which singles out poets and musicians as the bards that guide lay thinking, O'Shaughnessy coined the phrase 'movers and shakers':īy 'shakers', O'Shaughnessy didn't mean the Shakers that are an offshoot of the Quaker religion, more fully known as the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, but simply those who shake the foundations of conventional thinking by the strength of their imagination and vision. The work is a setting of Arthur O'Shaughnessy's 1874 poem 'Ode', from his Music and Moonlight collection. The public perception of the term began after the first performance of Sir Edward Elgar's popular choral work The Music Makers, at the Birmingham Festival in October 1912. There's no documentary evidence at all to link this expression to the playing of board games. However, as I've often had cause to mention, plausibility is the enemy of truth when it comes to explaining the origins of phrases. In a year (2009) in which the movers and shakers of the financial world brought us to the brink of ruin, it is worth a thought as to who the original movers and shakers were.Ī plausible guess is that it refers in board games like Snakes and Ladders those have shaken dice, moves and winners and losers.

The expression 'movers and shakers' is now most often applied to the rich and powerful in politics and business. What's the origin of the phrase 'Movers and shakers'? People of energetic demeanour, who initiate change and influence events. Business and work What's the meaning of the phrase 'Movers and shakers'?.
