Fuller’s earth, n.² — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Fuller’s earth n.²

[the Fuller Bros., contemporary impresarios and owners of many theatres and cinemas + ? SE earthy]

(N.Z.) New Zealand.

1912		Truth (Wellington) 6 Apr. 6: Of statesmen great there is a dearth, / Thre isn’t one on Fuller’s earth, / And that’s why we’re raving.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 307: Fuller’s earth [...] New Zealand: theatrical and cinematic: from ca. 1912. Punning on the Fuller brothers, who, ca. 1910–30, owned a great number of N.Z. theatres and cinemas.
1938		Press (Christchurch) (McNab Sl.) 2 Apr. 18: ‘Captain Cooker’ is well known, better known than ‘Fuller’s Earth’ as a synonym for New Zealand (from the theatrical family).
1966		Encyc. N.Z. 1 763: At one stage Dowling Street, Dunedin, where the [Fuller] ‘firm’ had two theatres running simultaneously, was jestingly known as ‘Fuller’s earth’.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 47/1: Fuller’s Earth New Zealand; Fuller Brothers theatres and cinemas spanned the land 1910–30. – a Fuller’s any vaudeville show.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].