Modern Proverb: Be nice to those you meet on the way up. They're the same folks you'll meet on the way down (antedating Walter Winchell 1932 July 8)

[Dan Goncharoff]

But who is Winchell's "scandal master"? Mizner?
DanG

On 7/17/2010 7:03 PM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole<adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Modern Proverb: Be nice to those you meet on the way up.
>                They're the same folks you'll meet on the way down (antedating
>                Walter Winchell 1932 July 8)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Thanks to Bill Mullins for searching and finding the 1935 cite.
>
> Thanks to Dan Goncharoff for responding and mentioning the multipart
> profile of Wilson Mizner in the New Yorker. I did know about that
> useful cite. The online New Yorker archive has it.
>
> Victor Steinbok wrote
>
>>   The thought remained unfinished in the post, it seems, but let me try
>> to complete it. Two GB hits, both supposedly in 1933, place the quote in
>> Reader's Digest and in "Golden Book Magazine". Both snippets clearly
>> show attribution to Walter Winchell (In Golden Book the attribution
>> fronts the quote, in RD it follows). Checking for "1933" shows August
>> and October 1933 issues for Golden Magazine and June 1933 issue for
>> RD--it's no guarantee of placement, but it does suggest authenticity.
>>
>> In any case, full credit here to Garson.
>>
>>
> Many thanks Victor. A part of my post was inadvertently cut out. The
> 1932 July 8, Pittsburgh Press cite was followed by two cites in 1933.
> All three cites attribute the quote to Walter Winchell. However, I
> have not been able to obtain a paper or microfilm copy of the Reader's
> Digest cite. So it's date is unverified (to me).
>
> I was able to check the Golden Book magazine 1933 cite on paper.
>
> 1933 August, The Golden Book Magazine, "So They Say", Page 116, Volume
> XVIII, Number 104, Review of Reviews Corporation, New York. (Google
> Books snippet view; Verified on paper)
>
> Walter Winchell: scandal master, on a life philosophy
>
> "It pays to be nice to the people you meet on the way up, for they are
> the same people you meet on the way down."
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=U5cXAQAAIAAJ&q=Winchell#search_anchor
>
> Garson
>
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