Yonduh lies de castle of de caliph, my fadder (attrib Tony Curtis 1961 Nov)

Thu Oct 20 12:02:09 UTC 2011

IMDb offers only one quotation from the 1951 film:

"Son of a noseless mother! Maggot-brained child of a jackass!"

JL

On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 1:42 AM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Yonduh lies de castle of de caliph, my fadder (attrib Tony Curtis
>              1961 Nov)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Serendipitously I came across a quotation (and pronunciation) that was
> discussed on the ADS list more than one year ago in July 2010. The
> topic was Tony Curtis and the perhaps apocryphal line that he uttered
> with a Bronx accent. Jonathan Lighter, Wilson Gray, Dave Wilton and
> others commented and gathered evidence and posted it to the list (some
> included below). There are different versions of the supposed line:
>
> "Yonder lies the castle of my fodder"
> "Yonda stands da castle of my fodda"
> "Yonda is my fadda's castle"
>
> In 1961 Life magazine gave the following version of the line: "Yonduh
> lies de castle of de caliph, my fadder." The magazine claimed that the
> words were spoken by Curtis in "The Prince Who Was a Thief".  I have
> not seen this movie.
>
> Has anyone on the list seen this movie? Are there cites before
> November 1961 that make this type of claim?
>
> Cite: 1961 November 17, Life, "Bee-yoody-ful Life of a Movie Caliph"
> by Shana Alexander, Start Page 161, Quote Page 170, Time Inc, New
> York. (Google Books full view)
> http://books.google.com/books?id=6FMEAAAAMBAJ&q=fadder#v=snippet&
> <Begin excerpt>
> Finally they blew the sand off something called The Prince Who Was a
> Thief, a preposterous adventure piece requiring a maximum display of
> supple beefcake and a minimum of thespian skill. At one point, the
> well-oiled hero emerged from a crocodile-filled moat, removed the
> dagger clenched between his teeth, flung a dripping arm toward an
> imposing heap of Arabian papier-mache, and declaimed,"Yonduh lies de
> castle of de caliph, my fadder," in accents of purest Bronx.
> Connoisseurs of cinematic goulash remember the scene with reverence.
> <End excerpt>
>
> Garson
>
> On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 10:22 AM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: rhythmic blends
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> According to Wikipedia (and many other sites), in the 1952 _Son of Ali
>> Baba_Curtis did utter the line, "This is the palace of my father, and yonder
>> lies the Valley of the Sun."
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Shield_of_Falworth#False_quotation
>>
>> Other sites state that his accent is not especially noticeable as delivers
>> the line.
>>
>> The same Wikipedia article also credits a remark by Debbie Reynolds made "on
>> television" with starting the tale about Curtis's line. It footnotes it, but
>> to _Leisure Ways_ magazine dated "1980s." A citation that is even vaguer
>> than the legend.
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>> Jonathan Lighter
>> Sent: Monday, July 12, 2010 6:50 AM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: rhythmic blends
>>
>> The movie in question was _The Black Shield of Falworth_ (1954).  I have a
>> distinct (i.e., possibly phony) recollection of reading long ago that Curtis
>> never uttered that line in the film (which remember even more vaguely).  But
>> he certainly did sound like Tony Curtis throughout, just as in _Taras Bulba_
>> (1962).
>>
>> A Google search, including GB, tends to confirm the line's absence. It may
>> have been popularized (SWAGging here) by somebody like Frank Gorshin in one
>> of his many appearances on the Sullivan show.
>>
>> Whippersnappers: Gorshin was an adept impressionist before he became "The
>> Riddler."
>>
>> Ultra-Whippersnappers: "The Riddler" was a villain on the old _Batman_
>> show.  The guy doing the current comic-book-style insurance commercials
>> beginning "Fellow citizens! As we speak..." is Adam West, formerly Batman.
>>
>> Non-whippersnappers: He's over 80 now.
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Sun, Jul 11, 2010 at 8:53 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      Re: rhythmic blends
>>>
>>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ---
>>>
>>> Speaking of Noo-Yawk-ish, remember when Tony Curtis was laughed at for
>>> saying, in some long- forgotten swashbuckler,
>>>
>>> "Yonda is my fadda's castle"?
>>>
>>> I didn't see the movie, whatever it was. So, I have no opinion - well,
>>> IMO, he probably *didn't* say it - as to what Curtis actually said.
>>> But, IAC, he was famous for fifteen minutes for *supposedly* having
>>> spoken thus.
>>>
>>> He probably got pretty tired of having to laugh it off, except when he
>>> was on his way to the bank.
>>>
>>> -Wilson
>>>
>>> On Sun, Jul 11, 2010 at 12:46 PM, Jonathan Lighter
>>> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>> > Subject:      rhythmic blends
>>> >
>>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ---
>>> >
>>> > Hilton Als (b. 1961) writes in the current _New Yorker_ of Al Pacino's
>>> > speech in the current _Merchant of Venice_:
>>> >
>>> > "Pacino...brings to Shylock that appealing New York City diction, a
>>> > combination of black, Jewish, and Puerto Rican rhythms."
>>> >
>>> > What, no Italian?  (Dutch used to be invoked, but now everybody knows
>>> that's
>>> > a stretch.)  I didn't notice any particular rhythmic substrates in
>>> Pacino's
>>> > film Shylock, except for "Jewish" - I guess Als means "Yiddish" (after
>>> all,
>>> > it *is* Shylock) - and I marvel at anyone's ability to isolate the
>>> others,
>>> > not just in Pacino's case but in NYC diction generally.
>>> >
>>> > Pop journalists like to mention "speech rhythms."  That seems to be the
>>> > preferred idiom for all dialectal and idiolectical elements that really
>>> > are too complex for pop-media discussion.
>>> >
>>> > It wasn't long ago - certainly in the '50s and '60s - that working-class
>>> > diction like Pacino's was usually considered "unappealing."  So some
>>> things
>>> > do change for the better.
>>> >
>>> > JL
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>>> truth."
>>> >
>>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> -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
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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