How old is the phrase: “the brains of the outfit?” Short answer: much older than I thought. It goes back at least to 1874.. But I still don’t exactly know and if anyone else does I couldn’t find it.
In researching David Stern I went idly looking for the earliest instances of the gangster film cliche “the brains of the outfit.” I figured it “must” be a 20th-century hard-boiled coinage, perhaps from around the time Little Caesar et al introduced most of the other gangster film tropes into the world.
The half-baked AI responses from google et al pin it to the turn of the 20th century. But thanks to newspapers.com and its very strong searchable digitization we can find ample 19th century usages. One notable one, from The Black Hills Daily Pioneer of Deadwood, Dakota on April 28, 1881:
In a story about an election that hinges on a feud with another newspaper we have the line:
How is it that the Plowman, the keen wire-puller and brains of the outfit, was permitted to cord up copied ordinances for which he was so magnificently compensated, to say nothing of odd hunded dollar jobs such as the mandamus case?
I was intrigued to see the front page advertisement next to the story: a full column devoted to Star and Bullock’s Store, which of course is the real-life inspiration for the characters in the show Deadwood. The level of language in the newspaper shows the hyper-literate verbiage of the show is no fiction.
Then there’s this from The Western Nebraskian of North Platte, Nebraska of August 20, 1874:
In a heated debate about founding a school board:
Dr. Longly was the brains of the outfit, and Street was the brass. [Cries of “that’s so!” “good boy” etc.] He thanked God Almighty that he was not made of the same material as Dr Longley.
That’s all I can find on the internet for primary sources. Google books has nothing; neither does Harpers from their 19th century archive.
So I paid up to get an Oxford English Dictionary subscription. Their entry for “outfit” doesn’t mention brains, but it does trace two usages (that honestly seem like one to me) that relate to this sense of the word:
4.a. colloquial (originally U.S.).
1833–
Any group of people engaged in the same occupation or belonging to the same organization (occasionally with the implication of being slightly disreputable or unconventional); spec. (a) a business firm or concern; (b) a group of musicians.
4.b. Chiefly U.S.
1848–
A hunting, travelling, exploring, or working party, together with its means of transport and equipment. Also: a team in charge of herds of cattle, etc.
For the former there are entries from 1833 and 1870. For the latter the earliest 1848 entry is actually from Thoreau: “Newspapers..than which nothing can be more acceptable to a backwoods people. It was really an important item in our outfit, and, at times, the only currency that would circulate.” (Ktaadn, & Maine Woods in Union Magazine Lit. & Art August 74/1)
When it comes to “brains” the relevant synecdochic usage entry seems to be this one:
II.4.a. colloquial. A person.
1844–
the brain(s): the person in control , the directing intelligence, the mastermind; the cleverest person (in a group, etc.).
That 1844 entry is the sentence: “The accomplished Mysseri… was, in fact, the brain of our corps.” Very close to “the brains of the outfit.”
That’s where the trail leads: The usages of “brains” and “outfit” emerged around the same time in the mid-19th century and were combined in colloquial speech at least by 1874. (But if I had to guess, earlier than that.)