[Ads-l] Quip about celebrities and dark glasses

[Peter Reitan]

Precursor. Mark Hellinger's "Going to Town" column, San Francisco Examiner,  January 5, 1941, unnumbered page.

"Last but not least, we find the angriest man in America.  He's the celebrity who pulls his collar up and wears dark glasses so that nobody will recognize him.  And doggone it, nobody does!"

There's even an accompanying cartoon.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34846482/the_san_francisco_examiner/

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Monday, August 12, 2019 9:40:16 PM
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Subject: Quip about celebrities and dark glasses

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Subject:      Quip about celebrities and dark glasses
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Several researchers have examined a joke about celebrities and dark
glasses including Nigel Rees, Fred Metcalf, Fred Shapiro, and Barry
Popik. Barry found a citation dated October 8, 1948.

https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/a_celebrity_works_=
hard

I found two slightly earlier citations. The QI article is here:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/08/13/celebrity/

Here is the first citation, Perhaps a list member can do better.

[ref] 1947 July 12, The Times Recorder, Big Town Heat by Earl Wilson,
Quote Page 4, Column 5, Zanesville, Ohio. (Newspapers_com) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
WISH I'D SAID THAT: A celebrity, said Joseph Curtin, is a guy who
works all his life to become famous enough to be recognized=E2=80=94then go=
es
around in dark glasses so no one=E2=80=99ll know who he is.
[End except]

Garson

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