[Ads-l] "And tell 'em * sent you!"

[Jonathan Lighter]

A current commercial ends with Cedric the Entertainer (formerly an
Anglo-Saxon king in the Trump tradition) jesting, "Tell 'em Cedric sent
you."

The template is rarely uttered seriously, thus making it a catch phrase.
I recall from some long, long forgotten B movie that it was stereotypically
connected with a new customer being steered to a speakeasy, where they'd
have to say, "X sent me" to gain admittance.

The pattern is hard to search for, but here is an early ex. It's the
caption of a cartoon in which a department-store customer is inquiring at
the information desk, so the line must already have been a cliche'.

1950 _Dallas Morning News_ (Jan. 2) 2: Fourth floor - and tell them Joe
sent you."

JL

-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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