"Don't quit your day job" (1985)

[George Thompson]

The spirit of this phrase is at least 12 or 15 years older than 1972.
I recall in the late 1950s or possibly very early 1960s a guest on a
late night talk show (Jack Paar's) who had written a book on how he had
made a million in Wall Street.  This may have been the title of his
book, in fact.  Before taking to stock speculating, he had been a
professonal ball-room dancer.  The guest who followed him said (in
effect) I've got some advice for that guy: don't sell your dancing
shoes.

In this case, the message was, don't count on this run of good luck
lasting, as opposed to don't count on being successful at all.  But
still. . . .

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.