#lynn fontanne
How many of you remember these two American Girl books?
The first of these, Oops!: The Manners Guide for Girls, was one of my favorites as a kid. This was the page about introductions.
Notice the whimsical names. Squidge Mealy. Daisy Dogdish. Mr. Butterball.
But that’s not why I’ve gathered you all here today.
The book was reprinted several years later under the title A Smart Girl’s Guide to Manners.
This was the introductions page. It might look benign. But take a closer look.
Kander? Fred(dy) Ebb?
Lynn Fontanne? Al Lunt?
Sarah Vaugh(a)n? Ro(d)gers? Hart?
Gilbert? Art Sullivan?
Okay…WHO LET THE THEATER NERDS OUT?!
(Oh, yes, and there’s Roy Rogers, a Ms. Evans, Loretta, and Lynn too.)
The Algonquin Round Table as drawn by Al Hirschfeld, 1920s.
Seated at the back left are Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt. Standing are Frank Crowninshield and Algonquin owner Frank Case. Seated, clockwise from the left, are Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, Heywood Broun, Marc Connelly, Franklin P. Adams, Edna Ferber, George S. Kaufman, and Robert Sherwood.
Others usually associated with the Round Table are Margalo Gillmore, Jane Grant, Beatrice Kaufman, Ruth Hale, Margaret Leech Pulitzer, Neysa McMein, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Harpo Marx, William B. Murray, Brock Pemberton, Harold Ross, Alfred Samuels, Donald Ogden Stewart, Frank Sullivan, Deems Taylor, John Peter Toohey, David Wallace, John V.A. Weaver, and Peggy Wood.
Al Hirschfeld via the Al Hirschfeld Foundation
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