I wonder if this phrase has crossed the Atlantic?
"The Bums Rush" which is a commonly used slang in the UK for being indifferent or ignorant to somebody
Anybody take a guess where this originated?
Sounds like it came from the Music hall /early cinemas days from the nicknames of the seating areas in the music halls? perhaps another name for the "stalls" which would be the cheapest seats and all the poor people(BUMS) would rush in and claim them? (thats my theory?)and the well off would go into the "Dress Circle" or the "Gods" The boxes or highest tiers(the dearest seats) and ignore the lower classes in the cheap seats
Any improvements?

That's not quite what it means here. It means throwing someone out, though it can also mean simply rushing someone out because you don't want to deal with them (similar to, but I'm not sure about the same as, how you define it).

There are three guesses at this site, about halfway down the page.

Word detective offers a similar theory to one of the ones in the link above.

This page offers the same explanation as one of the ones in the first link.

I don't find any of them convincing, but some of them seem possible.

[This message was edited by methos5000 on 06-19-03 at 07:01 PM.]

Bedstor, I've always understood it to mean, as methos says, to throw someone out, rather than your meaning of ignoring them.

With no deep thought or detective work, I thought it was an American phrase, using "bum" as we Britons would say "tramp", the sort of character who would be rushed out of town as undesirable.

Blimey, I hope nobody relies on the third source given above for anything else; the explanations for 'mind your Ps and Qs', 'black market'and 'sleep tight' are complete rubbish and 'wet your whistle' fanciful. As to 'rule of thumb' there's no law condoning wife-beating in England, nor ever was.

'Bum's rush' is surely American isn't it? I've only heard it or seen it in American works. It makes no sense in British English ( how does a rush belong to a pair of buttocks ? ).'Bum' is only someone's rear end here and is a favourite 'rude word' with very young children.

To hurry to throw someone out of town though,without ceremony,'out on their arse' ('ass') on the grounds that they were vagrants or beggars would make perfect sense. We had laws about that long ago. Our Justices of the Peace Act dates from the C14 and is still in force ( though not that precise bit. That bit was updated in Elizabeth I's time and revised in the C19 new Vagrancy Acts ). Pub licensees always had that power; they can eject anyone, for any reason or none, their place being like a house ( hence 'public house' )

Cambridge City police used to return 'no' or 'very few cases' for cases of charges for public drunkenness in their reports to the justices; we found out that they were deporting many drunks unofficially beyond the City boundaries, so these were then drunk in the County's roads not the City's !

It must have existed in the States. I have good legal authority:
It happens to Laurel and Hardy in ' Way out West '.

[ Ps look like Qs when written.So they could be mistaken in script (or in accounts). However the abbreviation for pints and quarts would be pts and qts not ps and qs. Beer would not be in quart mugs in the UK, though a litre 'stein of 1, 75 pints is seen sometimes abroad; two imperial pints is too unwieldy; beer is only sold in pint glasses, by the pint or half ; nobody would be told to mind their quart and pint pots anyway, just their language or behaviour; incidentally we have no 'bartenders' only barmen/maids or 'barstaff'.
'Black Market' dates from the 1930's Depression; it's 'black' as in 'dark', 'secret', 'covert'.In WW2 it was the illegal 'market' in rationed food and goods.
Nobody ever tightened an old bed; the C17 'four poster' here has no provision for it for example; the aim was the reverse, to loosen and plump up the bedding if anything. One old meaning of tight is 'healthy, well' .
Some litre tankards, generally German, have a whistle in the handle, for attracting the barmaid's attention. They are rare. Try 'whistling 'in any place when your mouth is parched, though !
'Thumb' was settled as the maximum thickness of a rod for chastising apprentices. Beyond that it would be presumed an assault and not reasonable. However here 'rule' is likely 'measure' . A thumb is approximately,as a rule, one inch ( in French it's the same word, 'pouce'). A 'hand' is four inches and a foot is.... ?]

[This message was edited by FredPuli on 06-20-03 at 04:14 AM.]

Fred - wow... I have to admit I didn't look at anything else on the page in that third link... sloppy work on my part because many (most?) of the other explanations are ridiculous.

I would agree with Ewood on what the most likely explanation is (also given in the second link), but it seems that no one knows for sure.

Too modest Methos !It wasn't your site ! I am constantly surprised at the desperate ingenuity applied in explaining some sayings.They rival some of the explanations of nursery rhymes. I agree that it is a reference to vagrants being driven out, doubtless as bad for business, a source of crime, a nuisance or a burden on the community. It was the last two that necessitated the legislation all those years ago; and nuisance certainly applied in the leading US case of the sheriff of the county against Laurel S. and Hardy O. ( 'Round here we don't like folks messin'with our women')