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

[Ben Zimmer]

Nice work on the Liz Taylor front, Garson. One biographer takes it back
even further:

---
https://archive.org/details/elizabethtaylorp0000cash/page/164/mode/2up?q=deodorant
Ellis Cashmore, _Elizabeth Taylor: A Private Life for Public Consumption_,
2016, p. 164
It was in the 1964 Meryman interview that Taylor first uttered a line that
could have served as her motto: "I have learned however that there's no
deodorant like success."
---

The interview with Richard Meryman was in the Dec 18, 1964 issue of _Life_,
with the quote appearing on p. 82, col. 1:

https://books.google.com/books?id=kFEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA82

--Ben


On Tue, 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>
> 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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>
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