Question: It's a common proverb that you would see pink elephants if you drink to much.

In particular there is [a quite memorable scene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJv2Mugm2RI) from Disney's 1941 "Dumbo" where Dumbo and his mouse companion receive a whole music show from pink elephants after they drank spiked water.

My question is if this proverb was in the English language before that movie or if that movie is somewhat the source of it, it is old enough to be after all.

Answer: 
The [Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeing_pink_elephants) about it sums it nicely: the first reference was by Jack London in 1913, in *John Barleycorn*. It may be derived from a 1890’s saying: *“being followed by pink giraffes”*.
"Pink Elephant" was used as an example of a *delirium tremens* hallucination since at least as early as 1896. The phrase "seeing snakes" or "seeing snakes in ones boots" had been the standard euphamism for such hallucinations since at least the 1820s. In about 1890, writers started exaggerating the "snakes" idiom to include colored snakes, colored rats, and various, increasingly elaborate combinations of colored snakes, monkeys, rats and other animals. There is at least one example of "being followed by pink giraffes" in print, but that does not seem to have ever been a common idiom. "Pink Elephant" became a dominant image (although by no means the only image) between 1901 and 1904.

<http://esnpc.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-colorful-history-and-etymology-of.html>