Is that your sword or are you just glad to see me? (Mae West 1958)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The title of Fred's article in the Times Literary Supplement is "Just
glad to see me?" and readers will discover the following quotation in
the text:
[Begin excerpt]
Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?”
(attributed to Mae West)
[End excerpt]

The Yale Book of Quotations has an attribution to Mae West in a 1967
book, and a claim in a 2001 book that Mae West said the words in 1936.

Barry Popik has an entry on this topic and he lists a 1961 book with
"Is that your pipe in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?" The
words are not ascribed to West. He also has a 1967 attribution to
West. (It looks like there is a 1966 edition of the book.)

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/is_that_a_banana_in_your_pants_or_are_you_just_happy_to_see_me/

Below is the earliest cite I currently know of for a variant of the
joke. The words were attributed to Mae West in a 1958 book. The prop
was a sword and not a gun, pipe, or banana. I have not checked this on
paper yet (or any of the other cites mentioned above). The context
might be Catherine Was Great (1944) produced by Mike Todd on Broadway.

Title: The Nine Lives of Michael Todd
Author: Art Cohn
Year: 1958
Publisher: Random House, New York
Page: 193
(Google snippet view; Data may be inaccurate)

[Begin extracted text]
Barry, playing Lieutenant Bunin, was unaccustomed to carrying a sword,
and in the second act, during an embrace, his scabbard came between
him and his Empress.

A covert smile stole over Mae's face. "Lieutenant," she ad-libbed with
a Westian leer, "is that your sword or are you just glad to see me?"
[End extracted text]

Garson

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