[Ads-l] Joke: "He's too caustic." "Hang the expense! Get him!" (1930) (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill CIV (US)]

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

_Motion Picture News_ 11 Jan 1930 p 28 col 3

" Walter Winchell relates "a quip that Robert C. Benchley spread around the Fulton Theatre foyer the other first-night. It concerns the two Hollywood movie magnates who graduated to the Gold Coast from the Garment Centre. They were in conference trying to save a picture that lacked, what critics usually call, "a wallop." 

"If we could only get someone to fix it up," said one. 

'Why don't you get Jim Tully," suggested an executive. 

"Jim Tully is too caustic!" 

"Oh," thundered one of the magnates, "the devil with the cost, get him." "


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> Subject:      Joke: "He's too caustic." "Hang the expense! Get him!" (1930)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> A classic anecdote about Samuel Goldwyn depicted the famous producer misunderstanding the term "caustic".  Way back in 2011 I created
> an entry about this joke on the QI website with a first citation in "The New Yorker" magazine dated August 11, 1934.
> 
> Recently, Barry Popik created an entry on this topic with a wonderful first citation dated April 15, 1934 revealing that George Burns and
> Gracie Allen used a version of the gag in their comedy act.
> 
> Now, I've pushed the date back to May 20, 1930.
> 
> [ref]1930 May 20, The Oneonta Daily Star, The Cost, Quote Page 9, Column 2, Oneonta, New York. (Newspapers_com)[/ref]
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> The film producer was in difficulty about the leading man for his new film.
> =E2=80=9CWhat about So-and-so?=E2=80=9D he asked.
> =E2=80=9CHe=E2=80=99s too caustic,=E2=80=9D said the studio manager.
> =E2=80=9CHang the expense!=E2=80=9D roared the producer. =E2=80=9CGet him!= =E2=80=9D--Tit-Bits.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> Since, the periodical "Tit-Bits" was acknowledged the jest was in circulation sometime before this date. Here is a link to my entry and
> Barry's:
> 
> Caution-Caution-http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/04/12/too-caustic/
> 
> Caution-Caution-http://barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/too_caustic_to_hell_wit=
> h_the_cost/
> 
> Citations and feedback welcome,
> Garson
> 
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> The American Dialect Society - Caution-Caution-http://www.americandialect.org
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

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