Motto: live a fast life, die young and be a beautiful corpse (Irene L. Luce 1920 August 25)

Sat Apr 14 16:25:48 UTC 2012

On Apr 14, 2012, at 11:41 AM, Garson O'Toole wrote:

> The motto: "Live fast, die young and leave a good-looking corpse" is
> often connected to the actor James Dean who died at 24. The Yale Book
> of Quotations and The Quote Verifier both cite a 1947 book by Willard
> Motley containing the statement: "Live fast, die young, and have a
> good-looking corpse!"

This reference to "Knock on any Door" shows up in various places on the web, e.g. http://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2010/02/real-origin-of-live-fast-die-young-and.html, which also observes this trivium concerning the respective ethnicities of Motley and his (anti-)hero, Nick Romano (played by Bo's father John Derek in Ray's movie, with an attorney played by Bogart):   
===================
Back then, it was unusual for an African-American author to write a book in which the central characters were white. But Motley was ahead of his time in terms of color-blind thinking and the book became a popular bestseller.
When some color-sensitive critics complained about a “Negro” writing about white folks, Motley responded: “My race is the human race.”

===================

As for the variations in the line, I find the "leave a good-looking/beautiful corpse" more natural (as well as more familiar) than its apparently more authentic "be" or "have" variants.  I think of my future corpse (regardless of its beauty quotient) as something I'll be leaving rather than being or having.  It is a metaphysical question, to be sure, and relates to the fact that it's notoriously difficult to attach tense markers to pronouns.

LH

> 
> Here are some earlier instances of the general expression.
> 
> Cite: 1920 August 25, Riverside Daily Press, Did Not Want to Be
> Bothered with Husband, [Dateline: Los Angeles, Aug. 25], Page 2,
> Column 4, Riverside, California. (GenealogyBank)
> [Begin excerpt]
> Letters from Mrs. Irene L. Luce, to Oscar B. Luce, won a divorce for
> the husband here today.
> "I can't be bothered with a husband," one letter said.
> "I intend to live a fast life, die young and be a beautiful corpse,"
> Mrs. Luce wrote.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> Cite: 1921, University of Washington Plays: First Series, Selected and
> Edited by Glenn Hughes, "These Wild Young People" by J. M. O'Connor,
> Jr., Start Page 49, Quote Page 59, (Quote also found on pages 53,
> 55-56, and 60), University of Washington Press, Seattle. (Google Books
> full view)
> http://books.google.com/books?id=EBQuAAAAYAAJ&q=corpse#v=snippet&
> [Begin excerpt]
> Cyrillo. What do you consider wild?
> Patricia. Oh, to play around and be petted a lot, smoke in public and
> all that. I read in a paper once about a man who got a divorce from
> his wife on the strangest grounds. She said she couldn't be bothered
> with a husband, intended to lead a fast life, die young, and be a
> beautiful corpse. I think that's a fascinating philosophy. It's my
> program.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> Cite: 1924 January 9, Monmouth College Oracle [Newspaper of Monmouth
> College], Creed of a College Man, Page 4, Column 2, Monmouth,
> Illinois. (NewspaperArchive)
> [Begin excerpt]
> Creed of a College Man.
> Live a fast life, die young, and have a good-looking corpse.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> Cite: 1924 July 08, The Kingston Daily Freeman, The Office Cat by
> Junius, The Young Folks' Creed, Column 4, Page 7, Kingston, New York.
> (NewspaperArchive)
> [Begin excerpt]
> The Young Folks' Creed
> Live a fast life, die young, and  have a good-looking corpse.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> Cite: 1924 July 12, The Charleroi Mail, [Freestanding quotation in a
> box adjacent to front page banner], Charleroi, Pennsylvania.
> (NewspaperArchive)
> [Begin excerpt]
> THE YOUNG FOLKS' CREED.
> Live a fast life, die young, and have a good-looking corpse.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> 
> In May 1925 the phrase "live well" was substituted for "live a fast
> life" in a variant called "Patty's creed".
> 
> Cite: 1925 May 2, Riverside Daily Press, Tower of Jewels, Page 14,
> Column 7, Riverside, California. (GenealogyBank)
> [Begin excerpt]
> Little Patty's creed: Live well, die young, and have a good-looking corpse.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> 
> By July 1925 the shorter phrase "Live fast" was sometimes used instead
> of "Live a fast life".
> 
> Cite: 1925 July 31, The Rockford Morning Star, Star Dust, Page 10.
> Column 2, Rockford, Illinois. (GenealogyBank)
> [Begin excerpt]
> A CREED
> Live fast, die young, and be a good looking corpse.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> 
> A variant in 1930 substituted "live hard" for "live fast".
> 
> Cite: 1930, Only Saps Work: A Ballyhoo for Racketeering by Courtenay
> Terrett, GB Page 26, The Vanguard Press, New York. (Google Books
> snippet view; Not yet verified on paper; Data may be inaccurate)
> [Begin excerpt]
> There was an old cowboy proverb (it is probably forgotten in these
> lizzie days of pure-bred Herefords, irrigated alfalfa fields, and
> Sears, Roebuck riding breeches) that it was glorious to "live hard,
> die young, and make a hell of a good-looking corpse."
> [End excerpt]
> 
> 
> In 1947 the book "Knock on Any Door" by Willard Motley was reviewed in
> the New York Times and the philosophy of the main character, Nick
> Romano, was reproduced for newspaper readers.
> 
> Cite: 1947 May 4, New York Times, Disciple of Dreiser by Charles Lee,
> [Book review of "Knock on Any Door" by Willard Motley], Page BR3,
> Column 2, New York. (ProQuest)
> [Begin excerpt]
> How does handsome Nick react? Conscious of what reform school did to
> him, conscious of his wicked ways, he is still enamored of easy money
> and easy sex. He deliberately rejects conscience, boasts of his creed
> - "live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse" - achieves
> all three objectives.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> 
> In 1949 the expression appeared in advertisements for the movie based
> on the book.
> 
> Cite: 1949 May 26, Rockford Morning Star, [Advertisement for film:
> Knock on Any Door], Page 27, Column 7, Rockford, Illinois.
> (GenealogyBank)
> [Begin excerpt]
> He knows all the angles, loves all the girls, hates all cops. His
> code: Live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse!
> [End excerpt]
> 
> 
> In 1974 a biographer of James Dean claimed that Dean used the
> expression. The biographer connected the words to the film version of
> "Knock on Any Door" directed by Nicholas Ray.
> 
> Cite: 1974, James Dean: The Mutant King: A Biography by David Dalton,
> GB Page 274, Straight Arrow Books, San Francisco. (Google Books
> snippet; Not yet verified on paper; Data may be inaccurate; The quote
> does appear in the 2001 edition of the book which is visible in a
> Google Books preview)
> [Begin excerpt]
> Jimmy was also fond of quoting a line from Nick Ray's Knock on Any
> Door. "Live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse."
> [End excerpt]
> 
> Garson
> 
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