I just wanted to respond to the article on Alexander Woollcott and the people who didn't know who he was or why he was important. I suggest that you read "Smart Aleck" by Howard Teichmann, it's by far the best book on Woollcott. The Algonquin Round Table was created by Woollcott, Broadway plays had record runs or folded because of his witty comments and Charley Chaplin dedicated his movie "The Gold Rush" to him. Woollcott "discovered" the Marx Brothers, encouraged Will Rogers to write and do stand up, and he put books on the best sellers list just by talking about them on his radio show "The Town Crier" long before Oprah's book club. Woollcott knew EVERYBODY!! He was friends with Eleanor Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Oscar Levant, George Bernard Shaw, Orson Wells, Noel Coward, Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, Winston Churchill ... well you get the picture. I guess the only way to describe him is the nickname he had around the New York Times newsroom, "God's big brother".
|
