The Algonquin WitsRobert E. Drennan "In the nineteen-twenties and thirties the hub of America's wit and humor was the famed Round Table in the Rose Room of the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. Gathering there regularly were some of the sharpest minds (and pens) of literature and the theatre: Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman, Franklin P. Adams, Alexander Woollcott, Heywood Broun, and Ring Lardner foremost among them. Frequent visitors to the Round Table were such luminaries as Marc Connelly, Edna Ferber, Noel Coward, John Peter Toohey, Harold Ross, Tallulah Bankhead, Harpo Marx, and Robert E. Sherwood. Collectively, they formed a group they themselves preferred to call the "Vicious Circle," with a poker-playing subsidiary called the Thanatopsis Literary and Inside Straight Club. For decades now, their bons mots have been quoted wherever urbane people gather, until many of them have become part of the language. Do you know, for example, who first said, "Let's get out of wet clothes and into a dry martini"? Or "All the things I really like to do are either immoral, illegal or fattening"? This delightful book has the answers--plus hundreds of other quotable sayings from the golden days of the Algonquin wits."--Jacket. |
Contents
Cast of Characters | 11 |
Robert Benchley | 41 |
Heywood Broun | 61 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
actor actress Aleck Woollcott Alexander Woollcott Alfred Lunt Algonquin Wits American answered asked Beatrice Kaufman Broadway Broun once Broun remarked called columnist comedy commented dinner Discussing Dorothy Parker drama critic editor Harold Ross Edna Ferber F.P.A. once Frank Crowninshield Franklin Pierce Adams George Kaufman going guest Harold Ross Harpo Marx Herbert Bayard Swope Heywood Broun Hotel House humor humorist Kauf Kaufman once Kaufman remarked lady Lardner Reader later letter look MacArthur magazine Marc Connelly Marx Brothers Miss Ferber movie never Neysa night Parker once Parker wrote party Peggy play player playwright radio replied reportedly Ring Lardner Robert Benchley Robert Sherwood Robeson Roosevelt Ross once Round Table seat Shuberts story Tablers Tallulah Bankhead telephone tell Thanatopsis poker Thanatopsis session theater things Thurber tion told took woman Woollcott wrote word writing Yorker editor Harold young