Concept of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

[Jonathan Lighter]

A search of NewspaperArchive and GB for "million people can't be wrong"
turns up nothing of significance.

JL

On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 7:16 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Concept of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I believe Ford use the phrase in early advertisements, before the
> song. Something like, "one million people can't be wrong"
> DanG
>
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 7:00 PM, George Thompson
> <george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: Concept of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > "Fifty-million Frenchmen *can't* be wrong!"
> > Except when fifty-million Frenchmen hold an opinion that differs from
> mine,
> > in which case there can be only one explanation, no?
> >
> > As to the origin -- I have read, many years ago, that it was a slogan
> coined
> > by a theatrical promoter who had brought a (maybe) famous French (maybe)
> > beauty to perform in this country.  If there were those who doubted her
> fame
> > or her beauty, well, "Fifty-million Frenchmen *can't* be wrong!"
> > This might have been Florenz Ziegfeld, whose wife was Anna Held, who I
> > believe to have been French, and a beauty, and a performer.
> > I will check further, later this evening.
> >
> > GAT
> >
> > On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 1:28 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 12:57 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com
> >
> >> wrote:
> >> > the plurality or majority of consumers cannot be wrong
> >>
> >> "Fifty-million Frenchmen *can't* be wrong!"
> >>
> >> Anybody else remember this one? That slogan goes back so far that,
> >> even though it was once an almost-everyday expression, I've never
> >> really understood what was behind the "wink," so to speak. I was too
> >> young to get it.
> >>
> >> --
> >> -Wilson
> >> -----
> >> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> >> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> >> -Mark Twain
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > George A. Thompson
> > Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ.
> > Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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