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Billy the Kid and Harry Truman: Humor Masters
January 15, 2009
One of the surprises of the Joe Vitale book I'm reading on P.T. Barnum is this: there is no evidence that Barnum ever said, "There's a sucker born every minute." According to Vitale, one of Barnum's competitors said it, but Barnum was a bigger name so the quote stuck to him. This leads me to several too-good-to-be-true quotes I found recently:
"My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference."
—Harry Truman
Great quote, but did he really say this? Could be, I'd like to know.
"I like to dance, but not in the air."
—Billy the Kid
This funny, but highly questionable quote came off an email someone sent me, but I've never ran across this quote from William Bonney. That doesn't mean he didn't say it, but I'd love to hear what Fred Nolan has to say about it.
"The deceased came to his death at the hands of an unknown party who was a damned good pistol shot."
—Judge Roy Bean
This sounds like Roy, but once again, I don't recall seeing it before. Gee, I wonder what the Old Vaqueros have to say about this?
"Originality is remembering what was said, but forgetting who said it."
—Old Vaquero Saying
One of the surprises of the Joe Vitale book I'm reading on P.T. Barnum is this: there is no evidence that Barnum ever said, "There's a sucker born every minute." According to Vitale, one of Barnum's competitors said it, but Barnum was a bigger name so the quote stuck to him. This leads me to several too-good-to-be-true quotes I found recently:
"My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference."
—Harry Truman
Great quote, but did he really say this? Could be, I'd like to know.
"I like to dance, but not in the air."
—Billy the Kid
This funny, but highly questionable quote came off an email someone sent me, but I've never ran across this quote from William Bonney. That doesn't mean he didn't say it, but I'd love to hear what Fred Nolan has to say about it.
"The deceased came to his death at the hands of an unknown party who was a damned good pistol shot."
—Judge Roy Bean
This sounds like Roy, but once again, I don't recall seeing it before. Gee, I wonder what the Old Vaqueros have to say about this?
"Originality is remembering what was said, but forgetting who said it."
—Old Vaquero Saying
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Comment by John Olthoff on January 15, 2009 at 9:01pm -
"Liberty Valance"...Jimmy Stewart says "if you have the truth and a legend...always print the legend"
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