come up and see my etchings

[James E. Clapp]

GEORGE THOMPSON wrote:
> . . . 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.

Your recollection must be substantially correct.  Many years ago (1950's,
I'm pretty sure) there was a Broadway play called The Thurber Carnival,
which I know only from listening to the original cast recording in Iowa.  It
was a pastiche of readings and skits based upon Thurber's works, and
included a number that was basically pasted together from cartoon captions.
One of the lines (as *I* recall it), said by an obvious floozy with an
extreme Brooklyn accent, was "So we get to the lobby, and he says, 'You wait
here and I'll bring the etchings down.'"

Gee, I wish I could remember some of the others.

James E. Clapp