Quote: I used to be Snow White but I drifted (attrib Mae West 1938)

[Dan Goncharoff]

I haven't checked this, but wiki quotes attributes the Snow White version to Mae West in the film 'I'm No Angel' from 1933.
—
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On Sat, Jun 29, 2013 at 8:03 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Quote: I used to be Snow White but I drifted (attrib Mae West
>               1938)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> The saying in the subject line is included in multiple references,
> e.g., The Yale Book of Quotations, The Quote Verifier, The Penguin
> Dictionary of Modern Humorous Quotations, The Oxford Dictionary of
> Humorous Quotations, The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations. The
> YBQ had the earliest cite in 1967. I located a cite in 1938, and the
> details are given on the Quote Investigator website:
> http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/06/29/snow-drift/
> There was a precursor joke that referencing white snow instead of the
> character Snow White. YBQ provided a citation in 1923. Here is an
> instance dated April 18, 1921 in "The Virginia Reel":
> [Begin excerpt]
> �She was as pure and as white as snow.�
> �Yes, but she drifted.� - Yale Record.
> [End excerpt]
> Perhaps Fred or LH knows whether the Yale humor magazine, the Yale
> Record, has been digitized or whether there are any plans to digitize
> it in the future.
> Garson
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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