In 1925 it was the title of a Broadway play, The Fall Guy, by James Gleason and George Abbott, starring future Hollywood character actors Ernest Truex and Dorothy Patterson.
A related term was "patsy", which typically (but not exclusively) referred to someone set up before the fact to take a fall, as opposed to simply being left "holding the bag" when something went wrong in carrying out a crime.
Senator from New Mexico who served as Secretary of the Interior during Harding's years in office, became notorious for his involvement in the infamous Teapot Dome Scandal.
[citation needed] By the 1950s the use of the term had morphed in the context of unions and industrial society to refer to the low man on the totem pole as one to whom the unpleasant tasks in a job or situation would be assigned.
[citation needed] By the 1950s and 1960s, "fall guy" could be used in lieu of "whipping boy", someone to be ritually pilloried in the absence of (or avoiding punishing) a more specifically responsible party.