Tennis, anyone?

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Tue Dec 14 00:07:04 UTC 1999


     Does anyone know "Tennis, anyone?"?
     BARTLETT'S has "attributed" for Humphrey DeForest Bogart.
     The AHDOAQ has on page 473:

Tennis anyone?
--ANONYMOUS
The line is a proverbial theatrical device for getting characters off the
stage in a scene change.  Humphrey Bogart was said to have actually spoken
such a line in a play in the 1920s, but he denied it, and no one has found a
citation.

     I've been going through the joke books of the late Joey Adams.
Unfortunately, the jokes in them do not have citations.
     This is from STRICTLY FOR LAUGHS (1955), pg. 114:

     Three inebriates were talking.  One asked, "What time is it?"
     The other looked at his watch and said, "Itsh eightish."
     The second looked at his watch and said, "I'm nineish."
     The third guy piped up: "Tennish, anybody?"



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