by Marion Meade
32 MY HUSBAND SAYS: Dorothy Rothschild, “Any Porch,” Vanity Fair, September 1915, p. 32.
32 DOROTHY’S FIRST MEETING WITH FRANK CROWINSHIELD: Frank Crowninshield, “Crowninshield in the Cub’s Den,” Vogue, September 15, 1944, p. 197.
33 BUT HOW WILL WE EVER: Helen Lawrenson, Stranger at the Party, Random House, 1975, p. 57.
33 IF TO YOUR PAPA: Henry Rothschild untitled verse, ca. 1906.
34 I THOUGHT: Writers at Work, p. 72.
Three: Vanity Fair
35 FROM THESE FOUNDATIONS: Vogue Pattern Service, October 1, 1916, p. 101.
35 THERE WAS A LITTLE GIRL: Caroline Seebohm, The Man Who Was Vogue, The Viking Press, 1982, p. 60.
36 A SMALL, DARK-HAIRED PIXIE: Edna Woolman Chase and lika Chase, Always in Vogue, Doubleday & Co., 1954, p. 135.
36 IN THE WOMEN’S WASHROOM: Crow. ninshield, p. 197.
36 WE USED TO SIT AROUND: Writers at Work, p. 72.
37 I HATE WOMEN: “Henriette Rousseau” (Dorothy Rothschild pseudonym), “Women: A Hate Song,” Vanity Fair, August 1916, p. 61.
37 FIRST AND SECOND: Dorothy Rothschild, “Why I Haven’t Married,” Vanity Fair, October 1916, p. 51.
39 SHE LIKED HIM : Parker, “Big Blonde,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 188.
41 OH LORD: Cooper, p. 113.
41 IF SHE HAD FELT: Parker, “The Dark Girl’s Rhyme,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 78.
42 ONE CAN IMAGINE : Cooper, p. 113.
42 CHASE NEVER FORGOT: Chase and Chase, p. 135.
43 WHEN HE HAD UNEARTHED: Edmund Wilson, Letters on Literature and Politics, 1912-1972, Edited by Elena Wilson, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1977, p. 405.
44 HORN-RIMMED GLASSES: Crowninshield, p. 197.
45 IN HER FIRST COLUMN: Dorothy Parker, “A Succession of Musical Comedies,” Vanity Fair, April 1918, p. 69.
48 DOROTHY LATER SAID: Cooper, p. 113.
48 AFTER ONLY A FEW MONTHS: Parker, “The Dramas That Gloom in the Spring,” Vanity Fair, June 1918, p. 37.
48 BY SUMMER: Parker, “Mortality in the Drama,” Vanity Fair, July 1918, p. 29.
48 IT MAY BE: Parker, “The Fall Deluge of War Plays,” Vanity Fair, October 1918, p. 56.
49 IT ISN’T ONLY: “Henriette Rousseau” (Dorothy Parker pseudonym), “The People Who Sit in Back of Me,” Vanity Fair, July 1918, p. 46.
49 SINCE SHE DISLIKED: Writers at Work, p. 73.
49 “DEAR,” HE WROTE: Edwin Parker card to Dorothy Parker, January 1919.
Four: Cub Lions
52 ALTHOUGH SHE WAS FAIRLY PRETTY: Wilson, The Twenties, p. 33.
53 TOLD OF HER SON’S DEATH: Nathaniel Benchley, Robert Benchley, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1955, p. 28.
54 ON THE BASIS OF HIS WRITING: Parker, New York Herald Tribune, October 13, 1963, p. 20; Wolcott Gibbs, “Robert Benchley: In Memoriam,” New York Times Book Review, December 16, 1945, p. 3.
54 A SORT OF MAID: Robert Sherwood letter to Nathaniel Benchley, January 4, 1955, Robert Benchley Collection, Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University.
55 SHE PUT FORTH THE THEORY: Parker, “Are You a Stopper?” Vanity Fair, September 1918, p. 23.
55 IN THOSE DAYS: Crowninshield, p. 200.
55 BACK AT THE OFFICE: J. Bryan III, “Funny Man” (Part 2), Saturday Evening Post, October 7, 1939, p. 32
55 MARK MY WORDS: J. Bryan III, “Funny Man” (Part 1), Saturday Evening Post, September 23, 1939, p. 10.
56 AT FIRST CROWNINSHIELD: Crowninshield, p. 199.
56 I CUT OUT A PICTURE: Writers at Work, p. 73.
56 I DARED SUGGEST: Crowninshield, p. 163.
56 A LOVELY MAN: Writers at Work, p. 73.
56 AMAZING WHELPS: Crowninshield, p. 162.
56 LATER ON: Ibid., p. 199.
57 WALK DOWN THE STREET: Writers at Work, p. 73.
58 THEY WOULD VIE: Robert E. Drennan, The Algonquin Wits, The Citadel Press, 1968, pp. 81, 129; Wolcott Gibbs, “Big Nemo,” Part 1, The New Yorker, March 18, 1939, p. 24.
59 THEREAFTER HE PLAYED: Woollcott, may have suffered from a testosterone deficiency.
59 ROSS HAD DEVELOPED: Drennan, p. 158.
59 WHERE’D YOU WORK: Jane Grant, Ross, the New Yorker and Me, Reynal & Co., 1968, p. 51.
60 F.P.A.’S BEAK NOSE: Drennan, p. 162.
60 NEVER MIND THE FLOSS: Bennett Cerf, Columbia University Oral History Research Office.
60 THE CLINGINC OAK: Heywood Hale Broun, Whose Little Boy Are You? A Memoir of the Broun Family, St. Martin’s Press, 1983, p. 6.
61 PERSHING, NOTICING HIM: Richard O’Connor, Heywood Broun, G.P. Putnam’s, 1975, p. 58.
61 A FEW MONTHS EARLIER: “Helen Wells” (Dorothy Parker pseudonym), “They Won the War,” Vanity Fair, January 1919, p. 39.
61 ALL HIS STORIES BEGAN: James R. Gaines, Wit’s End: Days and Nights of the Algonquin Round Table, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977, p. 28.
63 IT MEANT, SHE RECALLED: Cooper, p. 113.
64 THEY RESENTED: “Policy Memorandum Concerning the Forbidding of Discussion Among Employees,” to Francis L. Wurzburg from Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, and Robert Sherwood, October 14, 1919, in Robert Benchley Collection, Mugar Library, Boston University.
65 TO HIM THEY WERE: Frank Case, Tales of a Wayward Inn, Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1938, p. 61.
65 BENCHLEY’S HORROR OF LIBERTINES: Robert Sherwood letter to Nathaniel Benchley, January 4, 1955, Robert Benchley Collection, Mugar Library, Boston University.
66 ALL WE HAVE TO DO: Robert Benchley diary, Mugar Library, Boston University.
66 VANITY FAIR WAS A MAGAZINE: Writ. ers at Work, p. 74.
Five: The Algonquin Round Table
68 HE THEN SUGGESTED: Benchley, p. 143.
68 HE LABELED THE MAGAZINE’S ACTION: Robert Benchley letter to Frank Crowninshield, Robert Benchley Collection, Mugar Library, Boston University.
68 DOROTHY WAS DEEPLY MOVED: Writers at Work, p. 74.
69 BENCHLEY THOUGHT: John Mason Brown, The Worlds of Robert Sherwood, Harper & Row, 1965, p. 138.
69 R. BENCHLEY TELLS ME: Franklin P. Adams, The Diary of Our Own Samuel Pepys, vol. 1, Simon and Schuster, 1935, p. 241.
69 DOROTHY WAS PROUD: Writers at Work, p. 74.
69 BENCHLEY, AN ARDENT: Robert Benchley diary, Robert Benchley Collection, Mugar Library, Boston University.
70 DOROTHY AND BENCHLEY: Wilson, The Twenties, pp. 33—4.
70 FOR A SCENE: Lillian Gish and Ann Pinchot, Lillian Gish: The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me, Prentice-Hall, 1969, p. 224.
70 AN INCH SMALLER: Writers at Work, p. 74.
71 THERE WAS ALWAYS A LAUGH: Author’s interview with Marc Connelly.
71 MRS. PARKER, HE REMEMBERED: Author’s interview with Charles Baskerville.
72 HIGH SOCIETY WAS TO BE: Dorothy Parker, George S. Chappell, and Frank Crowninshield, drawings by Fish, High Society , G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1920.
72 “AND DOROTHY,” HE SAID: Wilson, The Twenties, p. 48.
73 THE PREVIOUS FALL: Scott Meredith, George S. Kaufman and His Friends, Doubleday & Co., 1974, p. 159.
74 AT THAT TIME : Case, pp. 61—5.
74 HE SAID TO PEMBERTON: Margaret Case Harriman, The Vicious Circle: The Story of the Algonquin Round Table, Rinehart & Co., 1951, p. 20.
74 IN HER BOOK: Ibid., p. 21.
75 FERBER WAS SMALL: Julie Gold-smith Gilbert, Ferber, Doubleday & Co., 1978, p. 160.
75 SHE HAD KNOWN WOOLLCOTT: Gaines, p. 60.
76 YOU ALMOST LOOK: Harriman, p. 145.
76 THEY ALSO ENVIED HIM : Drennan, p. 16.
76 EDMUND WILSON SUSPECTED: Wilson, The Twenties, p. 49.
76 WELL, FRANK: Harriman, p. 145.
76 CONVERSATION WAS LIKE OXYGEN: Author’s interview with Marc Connelly.
77 ONE NIGHT, MARC CONNELLY: Harriman, p. 239.
77 WHEN RAOUL FLEISCHMANN CLAIMED: Drennan, p. 82.
77 WHEN A PLAYER: Ibid., p. 88.
77 HE WOULD BE SAFELY: Parker, “Big Blonde,” The Portable Dor
othy Parker, p. 190.
78 A CHAIR FOR EVERYBODY: Author’s interview with Marc Connelly.
79 SOME CHILDREN HERE: Dorothy Parker letter to Robert Benchley, September 1920, Robert Benchley Collection, Mugar Library, Boston University.
80 ANITA LOOS, NEWLY ARRIVED: Anita Loos, A Girl Like I, The Viking Press, 1966, p. 147.
80 IN BUT GENTLEMEN MARRY BRUNETTES : Anita Loos, But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, Brentano’s Ltd., 1928, p. 36.
81 HAVE SOME POWDER: Babette Rosmond, Robert Benchley: His Life and Good Times, Doubleday & Co., 1970, p. 11.
82 YOU MAY LEAD: Drennan, p. 121.
82 DID YOU EVER: Lillian Hellman, An Unfinished Woman, Little, Brown, 1969, p. 187 (Bantam edition).
82 SUCH DENUNCIATIONS : Wilson, The Twenties, p. 47.
82 DOROTHY ACKNOWLEDGED: Parker, “Not Enough,” New Masses, March 14, 1939, pp. 3—4.
82 NOT IF IT WAS BUTTONED UP: James Gaines taped interview with Dr. Alvan Barach.
83 PARKIE WAS: Author’s interview with Marc Connelly.
83 I’M ALMOST CERTAIN: Author’s interview with Rebecca Bernstien.
84 IN FACT, FRANK ADAMS: Adams, pp. 305, 314, 316, 330, 440.
85 “WELL,” ADAMS ANSWERED: Harriman, p. 19.
85 THAT’S ALL RIGHT, Drennan, p. 47.
85 A WAG PASSING: Gaines, p. 30.
85 SHUT UP: Harriman, p. 169.
85 PEGGY WOOD NOTICED: James Gaines taped interview with Peggy Wood.
85 I’M ENGAGED: Author’s interview with Marc Connelly.
86 BUT DON’T THEY EVER SEE: Harriman, p. 85.
86 WE JUST HATED: Author’s interview with Marc Connelly.
87 HE WAS, SHE NOTICED: Parker, “Not Enough,” New Masses, March 14, 1939, pp. 3—1.
87 ABSOLUTELY DEVASTATING : Donald Ogden Stewart, By a Stroke of Luck! Paddington Press Ltd., 1975, p. 100.
88 MONEY CANNOT FILL OUR NEEDS: Parker, “Song for the First of the Month,” Fales Library, New York University.
89 I AM ASHAMED: Dorothy Parker letter to Thomas Masson, ca. 1922, George H. Lorimer Papers, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
89 YOU SIT AROUND: Thomas Masson, Our American Humorists, Moffat, Yard and Co., 1922, p. 277.
90 SHE HAD EYES: Author’s interview with Margalo Gillmore.
90 PENNILESS, TALKING: Nancy Milford, Zelda, Harper & Row, 1970 (Avon edition), p. 93.
90 THIS LOOKS LIKE A ROAD COMPANY: Wilson, The Twenties, p. 48.
90 SHE WAS VERY BLONDE: Milford, p. 94.
92 IT WAS FINE: Parker, “Big Blonde,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 193.
92 A GREAT PARTY: Adams, p. 299.
Six: Painkillers
93 I HOPE THIS PLACE: Bryan, “Funny Man,” October 7, 1939, p. 32.
93 YALE CLUB: Benchley, p. 163.
94 IT’S STOPPED: Helen Thurber and Edward Weeks, Selected Letters of James Thurber, Little, Brown, 1981, p. 121.
95 MY WHOLE LIFE: Bryan, “Funny Man,” October 7, 1939, p. 32.
95 HARRIS WAS SILENT: Benchley, p. 159.
96 EDMUND WILSON BELIEVED: Wilson, The Twenties, pp. 46—7.
96 HE WHISPERED : Alexander Woollcott, “Our Mrs. Parker,” in The Portable Woollcott, The Viking Press, 1946, p. 180.
96 IF HE HAD BEEN A WOMAN: Sheilah Graham, The Garden of Allah, Crown Publishers, 1970, p. 109.
96 EACH TIME HE LEFT: Parker, “Big Blonde,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, pp. 192—3.
97 WE’D BUILD: Parker, “Day-dreams,” Life, June 29, 1922.
98 IN A SEIZURE: Dorothy Parker letter to George H. Lorimer, May 1922, George H. Lorimer Papers, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
99 SOME SUMMER EVENING: Parker, “Such a Pretty Little Picture,” The Smart Set, December 1922, p. 76.
100 A DOZEN YEARS LATER: Dorothy, Parker letter to Burton Rascoe, ca. July 1934, University of Pennsylvania Library.
100 NOTHING PLEASED HER: Writers at Work, p. 79.
101 MARC CONNELLY SAID: Allthor’s interview with Marc Connelly.
101 EVERYONE WHO KNEW HIM: New York Times, April 22, 1956.
101 HAVING CONVINCED HIMSELF: Ben Hecht, Charlie: The Improbable Life and Times of Charles MacArthur, Harper & Brothers, 1957, p. 26.
102 ADORING HIS WILD SENSE OF HUMOR: Alexander Woollcott, “The Young Monk of Siberia,” in The Portable Woollcott, p. 222.
102 SINCE PLAYING MATCHMAKER: Woollcott, “Our Mrs. Parker,” p. 187.
103 GOD DAMN NEW YORKER!: Hecht, p. 77.
103 MY GOOD MAN: Jhan Robbins, Front Page Marriage, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1982, p. 30.
103 THE ATRACTION: Author’s interview with Marc Connelly.
103 IT SEEEMED CLEAR: Loos, A Girl Like I, p. 130.
103 DOROTHY, MEANWHILE: Parker, “A Well-Worn Story,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 77.
104 NEYSA MCMEIN PRESENTED: Author’s interview with Marc Connelly.
104 SHE WAS DISTRAUGHT: Charles MacArthur’s next publicized affair was with the English comedienne Beatrice Lillie. He and Carol Frink were divorced in 1926, after a long dispute and after Frink and MacArthur had come to a satisfactory financial arrangement. In 1928 he married actress Helen Hayes. In 1935, Frink sued Hayes for one hundred thousand dollars on the ground that the actress had alienated MacArthur’s affections while he was still married to her. At the three-day hearing in Chicago, Frink declared MacArthur was getting fat and bald. She wouldn’t take him now, she remarked, if he came in a box of Cracker Jack. Upon withdrawing her suit, she was ordered to pay court fees amounting to one hundred dollars.
104 LIPS THAT TASTE: Parker, “Threnody,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 74.
104 IT’S NOT THE TRAGEDIES: Writers at Work, p. 82.
104 FRANK CROWNINSHIELD SAID: Marc Connelly, Voices Offstage: A Book of Memoirs , Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc., 1968, p. 92.
105 EVEN WOOLLCOTT: New York Times, November 7, 1922.
105 HER APARTMENT: Parker, Ainslee’s , March 1923.
106 WHISKEY: Parker, “Big Blonde,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 201.
107 A LITTLE BIT OF THEATER: Author’s interview with Marc Connelly.
107 SOME PEOPLE BELIEVED: Author’s interview with Margalo Gillmore.
107 WHAT’S THE MATTER: Jane Grant, Ross, the New Yorker and Me, Reynal and Co., 1968, pp. 120—1.
108 SHE WAS, NEYSA DECLARED: Neysa McMein, “The Woman Who Is a Design,” Arts and Decoration, October 1923, p. 14.
109 SOMETIMES SHE FELT: Parker, “Epitaph,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 79.
109 LIKE YOUR PIE: Parker, “Too Bad,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 179.
110 WHO WAS THERE: Parker, “The Dark Girl’s Rhyme,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 78.
III A FEW MILLION: Parker, Ainslee’s. June 1923.
111 I DON’T SAY: Parker, “What a Man’s Hat Means to Me,” advertising brochure for John B. Stetson Co., Philadelphia, 1923. Robert Benchley Collection, Mugar Library, Boston University.
111 “EVERYONE,” MRS. FORD: Mercedes de Acosta, Here Lies the Heart, Reynal & Co., 1960, p. 140.
112 AMID CRIES OF GENERAL HORROR: Wilson, The Twenties, p. 115.
112 ONCE, THE STORY GOES: Joan Givner, Katherine Anne Porter: A Life, Simon and Schuster, 1982, p. 176.
113 THE WORLD AND ITS MISTRESS: F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925, p. 61.
113 HE SEEMED IRKED: Jonathon Yardley, Ring: A Biography of Ring Lardner, Random House, 1977, p. 261.
114 MAGGIE SWOPE: E. J. Kahn, Jr., The World of Swope, Simon and Schuster, 1965, p. 292.
114 SCOTT FITZRERALD: Matthew J. Bruccoli, Margaret M. Duggan, and Susan Walker, eds. Correspondence of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Random House, 1980, p. 135.
114 A SOCIAL SEWER : Andre Le Vot, F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography, Doubleday & Co., p. 122.
115 ADDIE KAHN: Mary Jane Matz, The Many Lives of Otto Kahn, Macmillan, 1963, p. 235.
116 I KNEW IT WOULD BE TERRIBLE: Parker, Life, July 21,
1927, p. 7.
116 NO MATTER WHERE I GO: Ibid.
116 JESUS CHRIST : Ring Larder, Jr., The Lardners: My Family Remembered, Harper & Row, 1976, p. 171.
117 I WAS CHEATED: Parker, “My Home Town,” McCall’s, January 1928, p. 4.
117 FIRPO’S HOUSE: Neysa McMein as told to Dorothy Parker, “When I Painted Luis Firpo,” New York World, September 9, 1923, p. 10.
117 IT WAS “A HORRIBLE DUMP”: Robert Benchley letter to Gertrude Benchley, August 27, 1923, Robert Benchley Collection, Mugar Library, Boston University.
118 COMPELLED TO OFFER: Woollcott,, “Our Mrs. Parker,” p. 191.
Seven: Laughter and Hope and a Sock in the Eye
119 THINK HOW FRIGHTENED: Cooper, p. 61.
119 DECENT PEOPLE: Parker, “Such A Pretty Little Picture,” Smart Set, December 1922, p. 77.
120 GOOD LORD: Ibid.
120 DOROTHY THOUGHT: Wilson, The Twenties, p. 47.
121 SHE HAD MAJESTY: Ibid.
121 HE DESCRIBED HER: Ibid., p. 345.
121 LADY, LADY: Parker, “Social Note,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 104.
122 THREE BE THE THINGS : Parker, “Inventory,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 96.
122 AFTER A PERFORMANCE: Stewart, p. 126.
123 THE DISTANCE: Case, p. 351.
123 I WAS SITTING: Author’s interview with Ruth Goodman Goetz.
124 HER CHARACTERS: Elmer Rice, Minority Report: An Autobiography, Simon and Schuster, 1963, p. 203.
124 SHE FELT “SO PROUD” : Dorothy Parker interview, Columbia University Oral History Research Office, June 1959.
125 RICE FOUND HER: Rice, p. 204.
125 WITHOUT QUESTION: Author’s interview with a source who does not wish to be named.
126 THIS, NO SONG: Parker, “Ballade at Thirty-five,” Life, June 26, 1924; The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 105.
126 IT WAS A SIMPLE TALE: Rice, p. 203.
127 DON’T YOU WORRY: Elmer L. Rice and Dorothy Parker, Close Harmony, (Copyright 1924 under title Soft Music.) Samuel French, 1929.
128 GERTRUDE LATER ADMITTED: Rosmond, p. 9.
128 BENCHLEY HIMSELF LATER: James Thurber, The Years with Ross, Signet Books, 1962, p. 173.
129 WHICH SHOWS now MUCH: Benchley, p. xv.
129 LIFE COMES A-HURRYINC: Parker, “For R.C.B.,” The New Yorker, January 7, 1928, p. 21.