Algonquin Round Table News The Years With Ross by Thurber Gets A Reboot

The Years With Ross by Thurber Gets A Reboot

July 21, 2021July 21, 2021| Kevin FitzpatrickKevin Fitzpatrick| 0 Comment | 11:25 am
The Years With Ross
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The Years With Ross

The Years With Ross

James Thurber was not a founding member of The New Yorker, he joined about one year after the first issue rolled off the presses in February 1925. He was hired by cofounder Harold Ross because Thurber had newspaper experience, which counted more than a college degree to the ink-stained Ross. The two worked closely for the next several years and it was at the magazine that Thurber hit his stride as a writer. It was also while working for the magazine that he started publishing his cartoons, which made him equally famous.

The Years With Ross was the book of memoirs that Thurber wrote in the years after Ross died in December 1951. It is based on his memories (which a few insiders didn’t agree with). The book was a hit and continues to sell on the backlist of the successor to his original publisher. It also seems like every dozen years or so, sometimes more, a new edition comes out. If you tried to collect every edition and cover of The Years With Ross from 1959 to today, it would take up a small bookshelf. In 2001 Harper Perennial reissued the book with a new foreword by Adam Gopnik, the longtime writer for The New Yorker, who seems to get all the writing gigs when it concerns the magazine.

A new edition was brought out during the pandemic, in December 2020. It has a more colorful cover, using a stock news photo of Ross on the jacket. The photo is from the time Ross was in the public eye, testifying against public address announcements in Grand Central Terminal. It includes one of Thurber’s dogs.

The paperback still has 336 pages. It has stories about Charles Addams, Peter Arno, Robert Benchley, Ogden Nash, Dorothy Parker, and Alexander Woollcott. One thing it lacks is anything of value about Ross’ first wife, Jane Grant, who helped launch the magazine. She gets written out of any and all histories of The New Yorker, starting with this one. The book is a light read. It might also be useful if you plan to watch the upcoming Wes Anderson movie, The French Dispatch, which looks a lot like The New Yorker of the Harold Ross era.

Finally, a note to the HarperCollins art director. A cover blurb from the New York Herald Tribune is funny to see, since it has been defunct since 1966.

You can order the book here from Amazon, and the nine cents from Amazon will go to pay the hosting costs of this very website. More books about Round Table members are listed here.

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Marie Carroll, Robert Williams, Harry Bradley, Alfred White, John Cope and Howard Lang in scene from Abie's Irish Rose. Credit: Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library.

Centennial of Abie’s Irish RoseCentennial of Abie’s Irish Rose

May 12, 2022May 12, 2022| Kevin FitzpatrickKevin Fitzpatrick| 0 Comment | 2:23 pm

Marie Carroll, Robert Williams, Harry Bradley, Alfred White, John Cope and Howard Lang in scene from Abie's Irish Rose. Credit: Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library.

Marie Carroll, Robert Williams, Harry Bradley, Alfred White, John Cope and Howard Lang in scene from Abie’s Irish Rose. Credit: Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library.


Today the New York Times published a very thorough and detailed account of the centennial of Abie’s Irish Rose, a hit show 100 years ago that the Algonquin Round Table by turns roasted and scorned. The article quotes Robert Benchley and Alexander Woollcott, with a passing reference to another Vicious Circle member, Harpo Marx.

Opening a few days after St. Patrick’s Day 1922, Abie’s Irish Rose was the miracle show of the decade. Despite withering reviews and serving as the butt of jokes all over town, it ran for 2,327 performances—five years and five months. Anne Nichols wrote the unpretentious comedy allegedly based on a real-life story of a mixed-marriage she heard about. In her story, young Abraham Levy brings home from the war his blushing bride, Rosemary Murphy, a girl he met in France while she was entertaining the doughboys. But knowing how his family would take the news, he introduced her to his parents as Rosie Murpheyski. In the next act the Murphy clan comes over for a visit, and hilarity ensues.

The show appealed to audiences everywhere; at one time six road companies were touring the United States and others were in England and Australia. The playwright raked in more than $6 million and eventually had to cut down on the road companies because the income taxes were crushing her. All the major critics blasted the show, with the exception of Alexander Woollcott. One standout, and long-suffering, reviewer was Robert Benchley. He had to compose a few lines each week for a capsule review in Life. Among his finest gems were, “People laugh at this every night, which explains why democracy can never be a success,” and “Where do the people come from who keep this one going? You don’t see them on the streets in the daytime.”

Dorothy Parker, who is not included in the article, was working for Ainslee’s at the time. She lumped it in with another play of a similar type. In September 1922, she wrote, “And then there came, in quick succession, The Rotters and Abie’s Irish Rose. Despite its having one night’s start on its opponent, The Rotters was defeated by Abie’s Irish Rose for the distinction of being the season’s worst play.”

As the Times points out, no modern theater company is currently interested in a revival of Abie’s Irish Rose. Which may be a good thing.

The Dorothy Parker reviews from the era are collected in Dorothy Parker Complete Broadway, 1918-1923.

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Dorothy Parker and the Earlier A. A. Milne BusinessDorothy Parker and the Earlier A. A. Milne Business

August 3, 2018August 3, 2018| Kevin FitzpatrickKevin Fitzpatrick| 0 Comment | 4:00 pm

With A. A. Milne back in movie theaters today, it’s time to revisit the beef that Dorothy Parker had with the author. The feud was flamed by her mentor, Franklin P. Adams, always known as FPA.

It’s common knowledge about what she thought about Winnie the Pooh, from Mrs. Parker’s book review published in The New Yorker, about The House at Pooh Corner, from October 1928:

And it is that word “hummy,” my darlings, that marks the first place in “The House at Pooh Corner” at which Tonstant Weader Fwowed up.

However, this is a year after Mrs. Parker had found herself in a mess about Milne. Her publisher, Boni & Liveright, were marketing her debut poetry collection Enough Rope with advertising copy, “America’s A. A. Milne is a lady. She is Dorothy Parker.” Not very smart.

Mrs. Parker wrote a response for FPA called “When We Were Very Sore.” This was published on March 10, 1927 in the New York World. She likely wasn’t paid for this verse, which is written in the Milne style. FPA had a lot of fun with this one. He quipped, “What lady was America’s A. A. Milne? Answer: That was no lady, that was Dorothy Parker.”

When We Were Very Sore

When We Were Very Sore

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117 Years Ago Today 1st Guests Arrived at the Algonquin Hotel117 Years Ago Today 1st Guests Arrived at the Algonquin Hotel

November 22, 2019November 22, 2019| Kevin FitzpatrickKevin Fitzpatrick| 0 Comment | 8:30 am

Today is the anniversary of the opening of the Algonquin Hotel in 1902. Guests 117 years ago checked into the newest hotel on the block, located at No. 59-63 West Forty-fourth Street. When the Vicious Circle launched a century ago in 1919, it was but just 17 years old.

For the 2015 book The Algonquin Round Table New York: A Historical Guide (Globe Pequot), an entire chapter is devoted to the history of the hotel, its ownership era, and legends. A brief excerpt about the early days in 1902 begins:

“It isn’t the oldest hotel on the block. Both the Royalton at No. 44 and the Iroquois at No. 49 opened in 1900. In 1901-1902 the Thompson-Starrett Company built the Algonquin Hotel for the Puritan Realty Company. Puritan bought the plot, 72 x 100 feet, for $180,000 in November 1901. Construction of the one-hundred thirty-six foot tall building took just seven months. Puritan Realty put up the money, $500,000, and Thompson-Starrett acted as the architects and contractors. Twenty-eight year-old architect Goldwin Starrett worked on the hotel with his brothers Theodore, Ralph, and William.

It opened as the Hotel Algonquin, named for the Native Americans who were populous in New England during the pre-colonial era. “Algonquin” was chosen at the suggestion of first owner Ann Stetson Foster, because the Hotel Iroquois was already next-door. “It will make a veritable Indian settlement,” she said.

The first guests checked in on November 22, 1902. The twelve-story hotel had 192 rooms and suites. A room and bath en suite cost $2 a day, while a three-bedroom suite with private hall, sitting room, dining room, three bathrooms, and library would set you back $10. Following extensive renovations in 2012, the hotel now has 181 rooms; of those 25 are suites.”

The hotel is local and national literary landmark. We lift a glass to its continued history, success, and achievements. Here is a great podcast recorded inside the hotel by Greg and Tom, The Bowery Boys.

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