Algonquin Round Table

[Harp]

Parkerisms

:eusa_clap

 

[Tomasso]

Tallulah walked in, glanced around, and said, "There's less to this than meets the eye."

I'd like to see Dorothy and Tallulah in a cage match, with a couple bottles of scotch and some cocaine thrown in.

 

[Harp]

I'd like to see Dorothy and Tallulah in a cage match, with a couple bottles of scotch and some cocaine thrown in.

[bad] Tu facile oblectare te, Rambler.

Dorothy Parker

 

[HadleyH]

More Dorothy

"Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong,
And I am Marie of Roumania"

love that one lol

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Hadley -- Oh, that was a good one. I had forgotten that one!

karol

 

[Shearer]

Ah, I didn't notice this thread til today.

I love Dorothy & Co, and use one of her lines for my sig, which really goes "The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue."

There's also one from her ad work days which I didn't see here:

"Brevity is the soul of lingerie." lol

 

[Harp]

Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.

Dorothy Parker

 

[Shearer]

Also, there's a good book called Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin: Writers Running Wild in the Twenties.

It's a year by year look at the lives of Dorothy Parker, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edna Ferber and Zelda Fitzgerald that goes from 1920 to 1930. A lot of other folks from the period show up as well, and it reads almost like fiction.

 

[Harp]

I'll have to snag that one!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

At one point, Dorothy Parker had a caged bird which she named "Onan."


Someone asked her why the bird was called Onan.


"Because he spills his seed upon the ground" was Parker's reply.



(If you don't get it, read your Bible! )

.

 

[Harp]

A little bad taste is like a nice dash of paprika.

Dorothy Parker

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Parker's review of a Broadway play: "The House Beautiful is The Play Lousy."

.

 

[Fletch]

In 1926 Bob Benchley was assigned to review The Squall, a gypsy romance just opened on Broadway. The verdict was not positive.

Leading lady: Me Nubi. Nubi good girl. Nubi stay.

Benchley: Me Benchley. Benchley bad boy. Benchley go.

 

[anselmo1]

I am really amazed that no one mentioned another famous Algonquin Round Table member, Harpo Marx!

http://www.algonquinroundtable.org/members.html

 

[Shearer]

Good point! Here's Harpo, top center for anyone interested:

And in his own words:

"I've played piano in a whorehouse. I've smuggled secret papers out of Russia. I've spent an evening on the divan with peggy Hopkins Joyce. I've taught a gangster mob how to play Pinchie Winchie. I've played croquet with Herbert Bayard Swope while he kept Governor Al Smith waiting on the phone. I've gambled with Nick the Greek, sat on the floor with Greta Garbo, sparred with Benny Leonard, horsed around with the Prince of Wales, played Ping-pong with George Gershwin. George Bernard Shaw has asked me for advice. Oscar Levant has played private concerts for me at a buck a throw. I have golfed with Ben Hogan and Sam Snead. I've basked on the Rivera with Somerset Maugham and
Elsa Maxwell. I've been thrown out of the casino at Monte Carlo.

Flush with triumph at the poker table, I've challenged Alexander Woollcott to anagrams and Alice Duer Miller to a spelling match. I've given lessons to some of the world's greatest musicians. I've been a member of the two most famous Round Tables since the days of King Arthur -- sitting with the finest creative minds of the 1920's at the Algonquin in New York, and with Hollywood's sharpest professional wits at the Hillcrest.

The truth is, I had no business doing any of these things. I couldn't read a note of music. I never finished the second grade. But I was having too much fun to recognize myself as an ignorant upstart."

 

[Katt in Hat]

One of Parker's best...

¬øWhat fresh hell is this?

A line attributed many times to Shakespeare but actually it's from American author/critic/poet and wit Dorothy Parker. She is reported to have exclaimed "What fresh hell is this?" when her train of thought was interrupted by a telephone. She then started using it in place of "hello" when answering the phone or a knock at her door.

 

[Tomasso]

Good point! Here's Harpo,

Interestingly, the Marx Brothers all concur that their youngest sibling, Zeppo, was the funniest and wittiest member of the troupe, by far.[huh]

 

[Shearer]

Interestingly, the Marx Brothers all concur that their youngest sibling, Zeppo, was the funniest and wittiest member of the troupe, by far.[huh]

Admittedly, I'm not much of a Marx fan (feel free to beat me, Marx lovers!) but I always did love Harpo for some reason. Perhaps I need to take the brothers' advice and revisit some of their films.

 

[CharlieH.]

Good point! Here's Harpo, top center for anyone interested:

Harpo sure looks alot like Groucho in this picture.

 

[Shearer]

She then started using it in place of "hello" when answering the phone or a knock at her door.

So Dottie got the Jehovah's Witness/Mormon/Girl Scouts/energy saving window solicitors too.

I think I'll have to try this out as a greeting...