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

[Mullins, Bill CIV (US)]

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

The same anecdote (with slightly different wording) appears in Winchell's "On Broadway" column that appeared in the _Scranton [PA] Republican_ 9 Jan 1930 p 5 col 2 (Newspapers.com).

"Then there's a quip that Robert C. Benchley spread around the Fulton theater 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 hell with the cost, get him." "

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY RDECOM
> AMRDEC (US)
> Sent: Friday, October 23, 2015 9:06 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Joke: "He's too caustic." "Hang the expense! Get him!" (1930) 
> 
> ----
> 
> _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. The= y were in conference trying to save a
> picture that lacked, what critics usu= ally call, "a wallop."=20
> 
> "If we could only get someone to fix it up," said one.=20
> 
> 'Why don't you get Jim Tully," suggested an executive.=20
> 
> "Jim Tully is too caustic!"=20
> 
> "Oh," thundered one of the magnates, "the devil with the cost, get him." "
> 
> 
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

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