unearths some literary gems.
From Life, 1921 [part 1]:
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There seems to be one act too many in the piece, and, if I wanted to be personal, I should say that it is the third. [Benchley]
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It ends by everyone accusing everyone else, without the slightest justice, of being to blame for the whole thing. According to the programme, Mr. Henry Baron is to blame. [ditto]
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It is a translation from the French, which means that people in it are constantly dashing off to catch trains which leave in exactly one hour. [ditto]
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Of "Princess Virtue" something good might have been said had it been different....The music is nice when it is first sung..., but during the first encore you begin to look at the cupids on the proscenium arch....When as delightfully insane a comedian as Hugh Cameron is available, he should not have to call a gendarme "the left side of an apple pie." [ditto]
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Mr. Shaun Glenville also had his name in [bold] type on the program. Maybe it was mourning. A great many dead jokes and long-buried comedy tricks were dragged out for his benefit at any rate. [ditto]
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Every one of its characters has been long since so standardized that no matter where on the road the play may be it can always pick up a spare part at the nearest stock-company theatre that will fit exactly. [ditto]
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He is not as young as Leonora, but looks older. In fact, they both look older. [Montague Glass]
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There is not much to recommend "Snow Blind" except the snow, of which there is a great deal. [Robert E. Sherwood]
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Its story has just about the same breadth as a geometrical line, and it takes considerably longer to reach a given point. [ditto]
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He had a habit of talking in fractions.
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[nonexistent book dept.] The Haunted Oyster
[Many more snippets attached. Note that the prescient illustration of a roomful of people who are all on the phone was 1921 conception of life at the future date of 1925!]
