[Ads-l] If you have a message, call Western Union (variant Samuel Goldwyn 1943)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Way back in 2012 I initiated a thread about the quotation in the
subject line. Several researchers had already explored the quotation.
Some progress was made back in 2012. Bill Mullins found a new citation
dated April 13, 1943 and shared it on the thread.

Now I've found a 1940 citation and created a Quote Investigator
article located here:

All I Want Is a Story. If You Have a Message, Send It by Western Union
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/05/11/send/

[Begin acknowledgement]
Great thanks to the pioneering efforts on this topic by previous
researchers including Bill Mullins, Barry Popik, Fred Shapiro, Nigel
Rees, and Ralph Keyes.
[Begin acknowledgement]

Garson

On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 6:21 PM Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      If you have a message, call Western Union (variant Samuel Goldwyn
>               1943)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> If you have a message, call Western Union.
> If you've got a message, send a telegram.
>
> The lines above are classic rebuffs delivered by hardheaded Hollywood
> producers to idealistic writers who have created didactic scripts for
> plays or movies. The words have been attributed to a variety of people
> and many of them were not Hollywood producers.
>

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