According to a 1910 New York Sun article, actor-manager William Gillette created the pseudonym for an actor doubling in a second role in his 1908 play Ticey (aka That Little Affair of Boyd's).
[2] According to a 1916 New York Times article, Winchell Smith insisted on having the pseudonym used in Brewster's Millions and later used it in other plays including Via Wireless.
In Players de Noc's production of The Full Monty, about a group of men who try their luck as male strippers, a member of the production's orchestra, not wanting members of his church to find he was involved with such a risqué play, had his name credited as George Spelvin.
The one-act play The Actor's Nightmare by Christopher Durang features a main character named George Spelvin, and the January 27, 1942, episode of Fibber McGee and Molly ("The Blizzard") features a visit by a stranger calling himself George Spelvin (played by Frank Nelson).
The columnist Westbrook Pegler used this name in his writings; one of his books of collected columns is titled George Spelvin, American.