[Ads-l] [Non-DoD Source] Request help accessing New York Herald Tribune ProQuest database in 1951 (Variety 1951 would be helpful too) (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill CIV (US)]

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED


The Internet Broadway Theater Database has a listing for:

"Buy Me Blue Ribbons"    Empire Theatre, (10/17/1951 - 10/27/1951).  It ran for a total of 13 performances.

There was no actor named Robinson in the listed cast, but the producer was Jay Robinson, so presumably he was the non-adequate person in question.

> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Request help accessing New York Herald Tribune ProQuest database
>               in 1951 (Variety 1951 would be helpful too)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> ADS People: Your aid is requested for the exploration of a famous barb aimed at an actor by a theater critic. Here is a common modern
> version of the quotation:
> 
> He has delusions of adequacy.
> 
> Versions of the quotation appear in Cassell's Humorous Quotations (2001), Random House Webster's Quotationary (2001), Oxymoronica
> (2004), No Turn Unstoned (1983), and other references.
> 
> I think the theater critic was Walter Kerr, and the review was printed in The New York Herald Tribune in October 1951. The target text was:
> 
> [Begin extracted text]
> Mr. Robinson was game, all right. But what is gameness in a man who is suffering from delusions of adequacy?
> [End extracted text]
> 
> The goal is to gain access to the PDF containing the review so that a complete and accurate citation can be constructed. In addition,
> verifying the full name of the lacerated actor and the theater production would be useful.
> 
> The ProQuest New York Herald Tribune database (in 1951) is apparently available at the following institutions: University of Notre Dame,
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, New York City Public Library, and Princeton. It is available at other locations, but ProQuest does
> not release that type of information.
> 
> I found a match using the Variety database, but I do not have subscription to that fine database which costs $600 per year. When my book
> about quotations is transformed into a Hollywood blockbuster I will gladly pay the subscription fee. Until then . . .
> 
> If you have access to the Variety database at varietyultimate.com (or via ProQuest) and can share the PDF for the following article it would
> be very helpful:
> 
> Date: October 24th, 1951
> Periodical: Variety
> Article: Unknown
> Author: Unknown
> Database: Variety Page Scans at varietyultimate.com (also ProQuest) (Data obtained from search performed without database access. Page
> scans were not examined)
> 
> [Begin extracted text]
> Walter F. Kerr, guest critic of the Herald Tribune, after seemingly being hogtied by "Sleep of Prisoners," hit his stride with the "Ribbons"
> notice, getting off the prize quip of the week with the observation that Robinson "is suffering from delusions of adequacy."
> The reviewer has since maintained a readable, perceptive level in his notices.
> [End extracted text]
> 
> Thanks for your help,
> Garson
> QuoteInvestigator.com
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - Caution-Caution-http://www.americandialect.org
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

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