Algonquin Round Table

[The Mad Hatter]

After World War I, Vanity Fair writers and Algonquin regulars Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and Robert E. Sherwood began lunching at the Algonquin. In 1919 they gathered in the Rose Room with some literary friends to welcome back ascerbic critic Alexander Woollcott from his service as a war correspondent. The lunch was intended as a put-down of Woollcott’s pretensions (he had the annoying habit of beginning stories with, “From my seat in the theatre of war…�), but it proved so enjoyable that someone suggested it become a daily event. This led to the daily exchange of ideas, opinions and often-savage wit that has enriched the world’s literary life and its anecdote collections as well. George S. Kaufman, Heywood Broun and Edna Ferber were also in this august assembly, which strongly influenced writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.

Though society columns referred to them as the Algonquin Round Table, they called themselves the Vicious Circle. “By force of character,� observed drama critic Brooks Atkinson, “they changed the nature of American comedy and established the tastes of a new period in the arts and theatre.�

http://www.algonquinhotel.com/AboutUs/round_table.htm

 

[Harp]

Lunch with Dorothy Parker would be interesting....

 

[CharlieH.]

Wha's this? A previously unheeded thread about the Algonquin Round Table from 2 years ago? How can this be?

I'll say... I would've loved to sit at the table with Dorothy, Alexander, Robert and Harpo, although I think they would've wisecracked me to death.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

Interested in having lunch with the "Vicious Circle"? Watch the movie "Mrs. Parker and The Vicious Circle" made in 1994.

Not a bad movie, tells the lives and times of the Algonquin Round Table participants. Honestly, I haven't seen this movie in over a year, but I do remember that I did enjoy it Anyway, information on it can be found, as always, on imdb.

It has, IMO, a kind of random cast, with stars like Heather Grahm, Andrew McCarthy, Gwenyth Paltrow, Martha Plimpton and Lily Tomlin, just to name a few. But it works. It's interesting to see this mish mosh of people together. But, that's what makes the viscous circle what it is. I should watch this again, but one of the things I do remember is some of the actors were believable.

So, for you lovers of the literary world, if you haven't already seen it, this might be an enjoyable film for you.

 

[CharlieH.]

That's interesting! Thanks for the tip.
(If Wallace Shawn is in it, then it must be good!)

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

That's interesting! Thanks for the tip.
(If Wallace Shawn is in it, then it must be good!)

No problem CharlieH. It's sad, I had totally forgotten about this movie until I saw this thread. I'm gonna have to watch it again, for when I watched it a few years ago I had not been into the vintage scene. I might now have even more of an appreciation for it, and the clothes

 

[Harp]

No problem CharlieH. It's sad, I had totally forgotten about this movie until I saw this thread. I'm gonna have to watch it again, for when I watched it a few years ago I had not been into the vintage scene. I might now have even more of an appreciation for it, and the clothes

Haven't seen this... Blockbuster, grab a Cole Porter track, and a brandy.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

Haven't seen this... Blockbuster, grab a Cole Porter track, and a brandy.

That sounds like the perfect evening. I might add, light a fire, it's absolutely, ridiculously cold here in the northeast!

 

[Harp]

That sounds like the perfect evening. I might add, light a fire, it's absolutely, ridiculously cold here in the northeast!

Heard Winter finally arrived in NE! Bundleup. Here in Chicago, it is quite
nice-around 35*, so I can't complain.

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

I haven't heard of any of this, but I'll have to take a look into it all. Sounds interesting. It would definitely be interesting seeing someone play Harpo Marx as a real person and someone playing Will Rogers as well

 

[Jay]

Didn't James Dean stay at the Algonquin in the early 50s?

 

[Mike in Seattle]

I haven't heard of any of this, but I'll have to take a look into it all. Sounds interesting. It would definitely be interesting seeing someone play Harpo Marx as a real person and someone playing Will Rogers as well

The scene with Harpo Marx is pretty fast...and is played like the movies' version of Harpo - running around chasing a girl, honking a horn. 30 seconds or, if even that. But definitely a good movie.

 

[Tomasso]

It's a good flick but................

..........I just couldn't get into Jennifer Jason Leigh's Dorthy Parker accent. [huh]

 

[Mike in Seattle]

True, it was a little...moany/whiney...but the delivery was great. Parker could pop off with these great quips and lines at the drop of a hat. I had trouble seeing Campbell Scott and thinking "He's playing Robert Benchley?" I guess it's the old Hollywood trade-off when making a movie about real people. Certain names are bigger draws, and it comes down to a choice between taking one who look the part and can't act, or going with the better talent. Do you want a good actor who looks nothing like the person in question and can deliver a great performance, or someone of meager talents with the right look?

 

[LadyStardust]

Oh, I love this and all the people it included! I have an enormous book of historical anecdotes lying around somewhere, and I believe there were several which occured at the Table. If for some reason I'm remembering incorrectly, I do at least know for certain, it contained at least a dozen stories on Parker alone. I'll have to see if I can locate it! Thanks for bringing this up!

 

[Harp]

Oh, I love this and all the people it included! I have an enormous book of historical anecdotes lying around somewhere, and I believe there were several which occured at the Table. If for some reason I'm remembering incorrectly, I do at least know for certain, it contained at least a dozen stories on Parker alone. I'll have to see if I can locate it! Thanks for bringing this up!

...for my money, the Algonquin Round Table would not have been
so famed without Dorothy Parker. She made that lunch crowd glow.

 

[jazzzbaby]

I have a couple of OLD Vanity Fair books that came out annually.
They would celebrate the celebrities, politicians, writers, etc...for the year.
There is a wonderful article on the Algonquin Round Table.

I too adore Dorothy Parker, and I enjoyed the film, "Dorothy Parker & The Vicious Circle as well.

In many of my readings on actresses/actors of the early 1920s there usually is mentions of the Algonquin Circle if the actors lived in New York.

They were a unique clique!

 

[Mahinatakataka]

Dorothy Parker and The Viscous Circle

Thanks for regenerating interest in this, Mad Hatter...

Here, here on that, Harp. Parker was a kind of center of gravity for the Circle.

We've stayed at "The Gonq" a couple times. I'd highly recommended it to anyone wanting a truly "vintage experience" in NYC. Older buildings can hold onto the energy and feel of time. This one does and has it "in spades" in terms of personality.

Parker gets remembered for her epigrammatic poems and witticisms, but she had an extensive body of work that included screenplays (e.g. A Star is Born, 1937), short stories and some of the most lively theatre and book reviews ever written. She once said of book she'd reviewed, "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."

If you haven't read her short stories, start with "Big Blonde." Here are some of titles from her collections of stories and poems, titles enticing in themselves. Each collection a time capsule and a funny, tragic and unflinching look at the life of the human heart:

Enough Rope
Sunset Gun
Laments for the Living
Death and Taxes
After Such Pleasures
Not So Deep as a Well
Here Lies
Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker

She left her estate to the Dr. Martin Luther King foundation (she detested segregation and racism). There is a memorial garden dedicated to her in my home town (Baltimore) at the NAACP headquarters.

Quite a writer - quiet a person - and the Algonquin Round Table (the meetings of the "Viscous Circle") was quite a "moment" in history.

 

[Tomasso]

Take a listen to some of Ms. Parker's work.

 

[Fletch]

(the meetings of the "Viscous Circle")

I really do hope you mean Vicious...