[Ads-l] Quote: Born with a silver foot in the mouth

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Alice Farber wrote:
> I think the Ann Richards quote was "poor George, he
> was born with a silver foot in his mouth". Here's a
> link to the speech:
> http://gos.sbc.edu/r/richards.html

Quotation researcher Ralph Keyes discussed this quip in "Nice Guys
Finish Seventh: False Phrases, Spurious Sayings, and Familiar
Misquotations" (1992). He traced the expression back to Paul Crowell
circa 1966.

[Begin excerpt]
Ann Richards later scored a hit in her keynote address to the
Democratic convention by saying, "Poor George . . . he can't help
it—he was born with a silver foot in his mouth." Richards said this
line came to her via Lily Tomlin's writing partner Jane Wagner. Two
weeks before the Democratic convention, Citizen's Action president
Heather Booth used that line in a speech.

Over two decades earlier the same observation was made about Newbold
Morris, New York's patrician Commissioner of Parks (who once
recommended Central Park as a good place for homeless people to spend
the night). The New York Times' 1966 obituary of Morris credited its
own reporter Paul Crowell with observing, "Newbold was born with a
silver foot in his mouth."
[End excerpt]

Fred Shapiro has a 1964 citation in "The Yale Book of Quotations" that
also attributed the remark to Paul Crowell.

Here is an instance written by the syndicated columnist George Dixon
in 1944.The barb was aimed at Harold Ickes an administrator for F.D.R.

Date: November 10, 1944
Newspaper: Evening Herald (Republican and Herald)
Newspaper Location:  Shenandoah, Pennsylvania
Article: Washington Scene
Author: George Dixon
Quote Page 2, Column 4
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
Suppose Ickes was gone? What would I do on dull days? I'd have to
scurry around and do some work, that's what I'd have to do.

But, the way things transpired, I will always have him on tap when I
need him. And he never fails. If ever a man was born with a silver
foot in his mouth, it was old Harold.
[End excerpt]

Garson

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