[Ads-l] "Say good night, Gracie"

[Andy Bach]

O: Well, Stan, c'est la guerre ...
S: "La gaire"

On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 4:31 AM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Interesting topic, Ben. George Burns stated that the dialog was a myth
> in his 1988 book "Gracie: A Love Story".
>
> [ref] 1988, Gracie: A Love Story by George Burns, Chapter 5, Quote
> Page 161, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. (Verified with scans) [/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> It's a show-business myth that Gracie replied to my request to "Say
> goodnight, Gracie," by saying, "Good night, Gracie." In fact, that's
> probably one of the most misquoted lines in theater history. Maybe she
> said it once, but I don't even remember that. She simply said, "Good
> night." There were many reasons for that, the main one was that I just
> never thought of "Good night, Gracie." And now that I've thought of
> it, from now on she will have said it.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Someone compiled dozens of video segments showing the sign-off dialog
> during which George Burns says, "Say good night, Gracie", "Gracie, say
> good night", or simply "Say goodnight". Gracie Burns never replied
> with the widely attributed punchline within these two compilations.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k877AgQR0Ws
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hNqmuTvbik
>
> Ben gives a template:
>
> Person A: "Say good night, X"
> Person B: "Goodnight X.
>
> This is an instance of a more general template:
>
> Person A: "Say, X"
> Person B: "X"
>
> Person A: "Tell me, X"
> Person B: "X"
>
> Examples:
> Person A: "Say you love me"
> Person B: "You love me"
>
> Person A: "Please tell me you are happy."
> Person B: "You are happy."
>
> To my ear this sounds like vaudeville-style humor; probably earlier.
> But I haven't been able to determine a search pattern to uncover
> citations.
>
> Garson
>
> On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 11:12 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Perhaps Garson or one of our other quote-meisters could help figure this
> > one out.
> >
> > Wikipedia currently has the following unsourced section in its Gracie Allen
> > biography about the famous "Say good night, Gracie" exchange associated
> > with her and George Burns.
> >
> > ----
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracie_Allen#%22Say_good_night,_Gracie%22
> > The legend was born of their vaudeville routine and carried over to both
> > radio and television. As the show wrapped up, Burns would look at Allen and
> > say "Say good night, Gracie", to which she would usually simply reply "Good
> > night." But popular legend has it that she would say, "Good night, Gracie."
> > According to George Burns, recordings of their radio and television shows,
> > and several histories of old-time radio (John Dunning's On the Air: The
> > Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, for example), Gracie never used the phrase.
> > The confusion may have been caused by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Stars Dan
> > Rowan and Dick Martin used a similar sign-off routine wherein Rowan would
> > tell Martin to "Say good night, Dick." Martin's reply was always "Good
> > night, Dick." It seemed like something Gracie Allen would have said.
> > George Burns himself said as much in an interview years later, adding that,
> > surprisingly enough, no one ever thought of having Allen say "Good night,
> > Gracie". However, the former Burns and Allen head writer, Paul Henning, did
> > use the "say good night" bit in at least one episode of The Beverly
> > Hillbillies ("The Richest Woman", aired January 5, 1966, two years before
> > Laugh-In premiered. JED: "Say good night, Jethro." JETHRO: "Good night,
> > Jethro.")
> > ----
> >
> > A quick check of the newspaper databases reveals that the "Say good night,
> > Gracie" bit was associated with Burns & Allen before 1966. The earliest
> > clear-cut example I found, giving the full exchange, appeared after Allen's
> > death in 1964, in an unsigned editorial that ran in several papers with the
> > headline "Good Night, Gracie":
> >
> > ----
> > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/55325610/say-good-night-gracie/
> > Marion (Ohio) Star, Aug. 29, 1964, p. 6, col. 2
> > How was it George used to say, "Say goodnight, Gracie"? And she would say,
> > "Goodnight, Gracie." And all of us repeat it now, with a lump in the
> > throat, "Goodnight, Gracie." We loved you, too.
> > ----
> >
> > Another unsigned editorial, headlined "Say Good Night, Gracie," is similar
> > in form, but it doesn't explicitly say that Allen would respond to Burns's
> > "Say good night, Gracie" with "Good night, Gracie":
> >
> > ----
> > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/55325638/say-good-night-gracie/
> > Cincinnati Enquirer, Sep. 3, 1964, p. 6, col. 1
> > Her humor, refreshing and wholesome, is very nearly a lost commodity these
> > days. George, of course, was the perfect fall guy whose only escape from
> > Gracie's logic was the team's signature line of "Say good night, Gracie!"
> > ----
> >
> > Likewise, when Allen retired from television in 1958, a headline included
> > "Good night, Gracie" with no indication of the full exchange:
> >
> > ----
> > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/55325587/good-night-gracie/
> > Indianapolis News, Feb. 22, 1958, p. 7, col. 2
> > Good Night, Gracie
> > George Finally to Get His Own Laughs
> > ----
> >
> > This would all still fit with the claim on Wikipedia, that the exchange
> > between Burns & Allen was actually "Say good night, Gracie" / "Good night,"
> > and only after the fact was Allen's response remembered as "Good night,
> > Gracie." So, was the line misremembered that way before Allen's death in
> > 1964? And were there other instances of the "Say good night, X" / "Good
> > night, X" gag predating "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Laugh-In" that could
> > have reinforced the idea that Allen used the same formula?
> >
> > --bgz
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



-- 

a

Andy Bach,
afbach at gmail.com
608 658-1890 cell
608 261-5738 wk

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org