[Ads-l] "Winning is the best deodorant"

Tue Dec 19 20:38:43 UTC 2023

That’s great!  It’s especially poetic that the trajectory connects Melina (“Never on Sunday”) Mercouri with John (“Any given Sunday”) Madden.

LH

> On Dec 19, 2023, at 3:34 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Interesting topic, LH. Excellent citation, Ben.
> Apparently, John Madden employed a close variant of an existing remark
> about success. Below is an instance attributed to thespian Elizabeth
> Taylor in 1970.
> 
> [ref] 1970 October 19, Lebanon Daily News, The Voice of Broadway by
> Jack O'Brian (Syndicated), Quote Page 17, Column 2, Lebanon,
> Pennsylvania. (Newspapers_com) [/ref]
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> Melina Mercouri quote: "It is easier to live in sin if you have money.
> Somehow the world does not think so badly of you." . . . Liz Taylor
> said it more succinctly: "Success is a great deodorant." True.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> An entry in "Simpson's Contemporary Quotations" claims that Elizabeth
> Taylor spoke the adage on television on April 6, 1977.
> 
> [ref] 1997, Simpson's Contemporary Quotations: The Most Notable Quotes
> Since 1950, Revised Edition, Edited by James B. Simpson, Section:
> Actors and Actresses, Person: Elizabeth Taylor, Quote Page 437, Column
> 1, HarperCollins Publishers, New York. (Verified with scans) [/ref]
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> Elizabeth Taylor
> 8280 Success is a great deodorant.
> ABC TV 6 Apr 77
> [End excerpt]
> 
> Garson
> 
> On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 2:57 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu <mailto:laurence.horn at yale.edu>> wrote:
>> 
>> Thanks, Ben.  I know Madden gets undue credit for the turducken, so it’s nice if this evens the score.  I would have bet it was around before ’88, but apparently I’d have lost.
>> 
>> LH
>> 
>>> On Dec 19, 2023, at 2:50 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Looks like Madden gets the credit for this one. Earliest I see on the
>>> databases is this:
>>> 
>>> ---
>>> "Television's Winning Team / CBS' Madden, Summerall Just Keep Getting
>>> Better"
>>> Tom Gilmore, San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 12, 1988, p. E2 [ProQuest]
>>> [Pat Summerall] asked Madden late in the game if he thought there was any
>>> truth to rumors that Bill Walsh might retire. Madden said the rumors may
>>> have had validity earlier in the season, especially after the 49ers
>>> suffered a 9-3 loss to the Los Angeles Raiders. Things have picked up
>>> recently, Madden said. "Winning is a great deodorant. It covers up so many
>>> things."
>>> ---
>>> 
>>> Other sportswriters quoted Madden similarly over the next few days.
>>> 
>>> --Ben
>>> 
>>> On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 2:11 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Garson et al.,
>>>> 
>>>> Can anyone push this quote (also cited as “Winning is the great
>>>> deodorant”) back before football coach/announcer John Madden or basketball
>>>> point guard/coach Jason Kidd, to each of whom it regularly gets
>>>> attributed?  Or if not, does Madden (who I’m assuming antedated Kidd on
>>>> this) get the credit?
>>>> 
>>>> LH
>>>> 
>>> 
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