come up and see my etchings

[TERRY IRONS]

On Wed, 30 Jun 1999, GEORGE THOMPSON wrote:

>         In a recent message, Barry Popik gave a source for this catchphrase
> from 1936 and speculates that it is an adaptation of Mae West's line,
> "come up and see me sometime".  Another allusion from about the same
> time, or slightly earlier or later, is a James Thurber cartoon, one
> which I haven't actually seen for many years.  As I recall it, it
> showed a typically wimpy balding thurberesque man speaking to a
> pretty young woman who's sitting in a lobby-like setting.  The man is
> saying something like "You just wait here and I will bring my
> etchings right down."  This suggests that it was a voguish phrase in
> the mid-30s.
>

I'm not sure about the Thurber cartoon reference, but in act I of A
Thurber Carnival, in WORD DANCE--PART I, the following dialogue occurs:

First Woman.  We got as far as the elevator and then he said, "You wait
here and I'll bring the etchings down."
Second Man.  He knew all about art, but he didn't know what you like.


The ref just happened to click because we did this show last year  as
part of the Morehead Theatre Guild's season.  We reprised excerpts from
Thurber for a Habitat for Humanity fundraiser this spring.

This summer we're doing the Wizard of Oz.  And I'm the Lion.  I just hope
I have the nerve.



Virtually, Terry
(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)
Terry Lynn Irons        t.irons at morehead-st.edu
Voice Mail:             (606) 783-5164
Snail Mail:             UPO 604 Morehead, KY 40351
(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)