Great balls of fire!

An American exclamation of amazement or surprise dates from the late 19th century. One of its earliest citations is in an Iowa newspaper the Hawarden Independent, September 1893. Later, it was made famous by the syndicated cartoon strip Barney Google and Snuffy Smith. This hillbilly cartoon strip first appeared in 1919 and is still running today. The exclamation was also used several times by Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) in the movie Gone with the Wind (1939) set of course during the American Civil War. This was probably an anachronism, because there is no known citation for the expression as early as this. It was also the title of a famous rock ‘n roll song by Jerry Lee Lewis in 1957. See also Ball of fire, Google and Heebie-jeebies.