Frequently Asked Questions
“Don’t think I’m not incoheret.” — Harold Ross

Were Tallulah Bankhead, Noel Coward, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Quentin Reynolds, James Thurber, E.B. White members of the Round Table?

No. They were friendly with some of the members of the Vicious Circle, they were not part of it.

But the Wikipedia entry says (insert random name here) says so-and-so was a member?

It is Wikipedia and anyone can edit anything wrong onto the “research” pages. This is the list of members.

But I have the Al Hirschfeld print that shows Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne there?

Hirschfeld drew his famous caricature of the group more than thirty years after they split up.

Did Dorothy Parker say, (insert remark here)?

Possibly. Many quotes are attributed to Mrs. Parker that she didn’t really say. I suggest you read Bob Drennan’s excellent book, “The Algonquin Wits: Bon Mots, Wisecracks, Epigrams and Gags” (Citadel Press, 1989). It has pages of Vicious Circle cracks.

Did Harold Ross start The New Yorker alone?

No. He had his wife, Jane Grant (his first of three wives) behind him. She pushed him to get it off the ground. In later years, Ross said “without Jane Grant there would be no New Yorker.”

Is the table in the Algonquin Hotel the original Round Table?

No. Sometime after the group split up the hotel lost the table. The one in the Round Table Room today dates to 1998, when the lobby was renovated.