Biography
Norman Shrdlu
A nonsensical credit name most likely referring to jazz entrepreneur and producer Norman Granz, similar to another nonsensical alias Etaoin.
Both names are derived from a nonsense phrase known in the era of type-casting machines, "etaoin shrdlu." These 12 characters are the most frequently used in the English language and therefore positioned as the first two lines in type-casting machine keyboards.
When an error was made, rather than fixing it, operators used to let fingers run over the two lines, thereby creating an easy-to-spot "code" for proofreaders to manually fix later in the process. However, sometimes this "code" was not spotted by the proofreader and would go on to be printed in newspapers. Therefore, this code became a well-known symbol for nonsense.
Both names are derived from a nonsense phrase known in the era of type-casting machines, "etaoin shrdlu." These 12 characters are the most frequently used in the English language and therefore positioned as the first two lines in type-casting machine keyboards.
When an error was made, rather than fixing it, operators used to let fingers run over the two lines, thereby creating an easy-to-spot "code" for proofreaders to manually fix later in the process. However, sometimes this "code" was not spotted by the proofreader and would go on to be printed in newspapers. Therefore, this code became a well-known symbol for nonsense.