Dorothy Parker and her legendary drinking buddies spawned many urban legends including her "One more drink" quote

One More Drink …

Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker, American poet, writer, critic, and satirist (1893—1967), was renowned for her sharp wit and often acerbic jibes—sometimes self-deprecating. Given the era and places in which she lived, the social dinner and party circuits were part of the package.

Parker’s penchant for drinking in excess was not a secret. Her biographer, Marion Meade, went as far as calling Parker an alcoholic.

One more drink and I’ll be under the host

Which leads to the following quote—one often ascribed to her, but never with an actual citation:

“One more drink and I’ll be under the host.”

In an era when social gossip ran amok, Parker was often credited with things she never wrote or said.

Perhaps the closest thing to a reliable (though much less than ironclad) source pointing to the origins of this quote and its attribution appeared in American writer, publisher, and humorist Bennett Cerf’s 1945 book of anecdotes, Try and Stop Me. In it, Cerf tells of an unnamed guest asking Parker if she had enjoyed a cocktail party that they’d both just attended. Parker’s alleged reply:

“Enjoyed it! One more drink and I’d have been under the host.”

Etched in History

Misattributions went even further, the most notable took the form of a quatrain so popular that is became emblazoned in a series of cocktail glasses, considered collectables by many.

I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I’m under the table,
After four I’m under my host.

It’s on the Internet so …

Do a Google search of this and both Parker’s own 1942 The Collected Short Stories of Dorothy Parker and Cerf’s Try and Stop Me show up as sources and are even cited in a reputable and long-established reference volume of quotations. As you’ve likely guessed by now, neither book features this ditty thereby proving, yet again, that you can’t believe everything you find on the Internet or, it seems, even in the dust-covered reference section of your library.

A possible, if not likely, precursor to Parker’s misattributed rhyme comes courtesy of a 1959 edition of the University of Virginia’s humor magazine, The Harlequin. It went:

I wish I could drink like a lady.
“Two or three,” at the most.
But two, and I’m under the table—
And three, I’m under the host.

Parker’s Drink of Choice

Adding insult to injury, the martini (or gin for that matter), were not Parker’s preferred poison. Her biographer, Marion Meade, notes that Parker was a scotch person. Yet, there exists a Dorothy Parker Martini Experience, a gin-based cocktail named after her, and even a brand of Dorothy Parker American Gin. The last of these, infused with rose petals and elderberries, hardly seems to evoke the hard-drinking image which Parker earned.

Given that much of the era’s storied alcohol-laced legends took place in the haze of Prohibition, chances are that neither Parker nor her contemporaries at New York’s Algonquin Club* (a famous haunt for her and a cadre of famous writer pals) nor those she schmoozed alongside in Hollywood paid much mind to what was filling their glasses and dissolving their livers.

The Algonquin Round Table

Before the dawn of social media, a famous (or infamous) group of influencers became known as the Algonquin Round Table.

Formed in 1919, these writers, actors, critics, and popular personalities met daily for lunch at New York City’s Algonquin Hotel. The self-proclaimed “Vicious Circle” included Harper’s Bazaar editor Art Samuels; playwright Charlie MacArthur; actor and comic Harpo Marx; drama critic Alexander Woollcott; and, of course, Dorothy Parker among its first five members. (All are pictured above.) During the following decade, 13 “charter members” would be joined by 22 luminaries who passed in and out of the circle of “Algonks”.

The Algonks’ often scathing social commentary of the day was compiled and spread throughout the U.S. through newspaper columns. Call it pre-Twitter tweeting.

Fun and Games

As a result of these luncheons, professional collaborations evolved outside the daily soirées.

In addition, members of the group would meet for games. For example, the Thanatopsis Literary and Inside Straight Club met on Saturday nights at the hotel for poker and cribbage.

Given the literary connection, no surprise that charades and word games were part of the fun, too. Among these the “I can give you a sentence” game challenged players to create humorous sentences based on a word. Consequently, it gave rise to Parker’s infamous take on the word horticulture. — “You can lead a whore to culture, but you can’t make her think.”

Algonk Legacy

By 1929 the group disbanded. However, its legacy remained.

The Round Table’s fame helped the Algonquin Hotel achieve landmark status from both New York City and the Friends of the Library USA. The original luncheon spot was demolished during a 1998 hotel remodel. However, both a plaque and a painting commemorate the history of the Algonks and their lunchtime gatherings.

Books and a movie (The Ten-Year Lunch) celebrated the personalities and fame spawned during the group’s decade in the limelight.

Algonk Reality

However, over time, members of the “Vicious Circle” turned on the group itself. Although several Algonks would create memorable careers, others were simply called out as celebutants of the day.

Dorothy Parker was perhaps the circle’s harshest critic. In comparison to contemporaries not part of the group—like Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald—she felt that the Algonks fell far short of greatness. Parker wrote: “The Round Table was just a lot of people telling jokes and telling each other how good they were. Just a bunch of loudmouths showing off.”

Dorothy Parker’s Literary Legacy

Despite a penchant for self-deprecation, Parker remains an enduring reminder of the excesses and creative energy of the Roaring Twenties.

Her acerbic, bawdy commentary and behavior has etched Dorothy Parker’s name on martini glasses and spawned urban legends. She inspired fictional characters for several playwrights and was herself portrayed in films.

Sometimes lost in the popular persona is the reality of Parker’s literary accomplishments.

When The New Yorker was founded in 1925, Dorothy Parker was on its board of editors and a regular contributor who helped create the magazine’s quintessential style. During her Round Table days alone, she published 300 poems and free verse. Parker also received the O. Henry Award for her short story, “Big Blonde”.

In the decades which followed, Parker would go on to receive two Academy Award nominations for screenwriting. Among these was the pre-Gaga, pre-Streisand (Babs, if you prefer) original version of A Star is Born.

Posthumously, Dorothy Parker’s birthplace home in Long Branch, NJ, was designated a National Literary Landmark by Friends of Libraries USA. She was also commemorated with a stamp by the U.S. Postal Service and elected to the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

Cheers then to a legend! No doubt she’d likely have joined you in that. But if you do raise a glass to Dorothy Parker, perhaps consider honoring her with whisky—her drink of choice. And leave the martini glasses and gin for those who aren’t in the know!

 

Portions of this article are excerpted from Ian Makay’s Food for Thought: The Pleasures of the Table: Primi Piatti.

 

                             

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