Meaning of Showbiz

Origin: 1945

It was a spectacular year for world history--and for the American language. We won the war in Europe and Asia, establishing new national boundaries which even now remain mostly in place. We added the atomic bomb to our arsenal and our language--and began to learn to live with it. But our word of the year is even more powerful than that. We turned to peace with pent-up energy for entertainment, a dominating element of the Americanized world today. The end of the war was, in short, a time for showbiz.

And Variety, the slangy entertainment newspaper, had it ready for us even before V-J Day ended the war in the Pacific. A headline on May 30 announced "Cantor's Showbiz Tribute." In its June 13 issue, the paper commented, "Big-league baseball already had rearranged its team travel schedules to a minimum. However, show biz has done nothing about this yet."

Showbiz was an abbreviation of show business, an old and honorable American term that had been around since at least 1850. So the clipped showbiz could have remained part of just one publication's style. But it caught on elsewhere because its breezy informality suited the increasing brashness and informality of its subject.

In the years since 1945, atomic weapons thankfully have never been used in war, but American showbiz became such a powerful cultural weapon that today the remotest corners of the globe know about Hollywood, MTV, and Madonna.

from - http://www.answers.com/topic/entertainment-industry