More on Murphy (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

>From a 1959 interview with Howard Lindsey and Dorothy Stickney, who had
performed together for five years in the Broadway play "Life With
Father" about an upcoming TV show in which they were reunited:

"And we think things are bad in the theater," added Mr. L. "TV virtually
defies George Kaufman's 'Murphy's Law.' We all believe in it. It says
simply that, 'Everything that can go wrong - will.' " [I think Lindsey
is using "defies" in opposition to its true meaning, or perhaps said
"defines" and it was transcribed improperly.]

Kaufman was a broadway playwright (1910's - 1961), and a member of the
Algonquin Round Table.


>From a 1960 Newspaperarchive review of _The Snake Has All the Lines_ by
Jean Kerr (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1960).
"Mrs. Kerr, who has had a couple of hit shows, recalls some of her
experiences during out-of-town tryouts, quoting Murphy's Law, dreamed up
by writer Abe Burrows, which is simply that if "something can go wrong,
it will." "

Abe Burrows was a big wheel on Broadway from the 1930's through the
1980's.  He had a memoir published in 1980 which may shed some light --
the closest library to me with a copy is out of state.

Burrows' papers are in the NYPL, donated by his children James E.
Burrows (noted TV producer, director), and Laurie Burrows Grad (cookbook
author).


This adds further evidence, I think, to the case that the law has
origins in the theatrical community.
Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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