It's a case for Fred Shapiro!

[Fred Shapiro]

All right, here's my response.  This is the earliest example I have of the
"publicity" saying:

1950 Hortense Powdermaker _Hollywood the Dream Factory_ 241  The Hollywood
proverb that "The only bad publicity is no publicity" would seem to have
considerable truth behind it, even if publicity alone is not generally
sufficient to make a star.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Public Services     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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