As my October 18 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME fades into post-parting recession, I decided to check today’s birthday notables and found among them one Judith Sheindlin, better known to daytime court potatos as Judge Judy (who could just as easily be charged as Celebrity Judy). By either alias, this is a judge who some might dismiss as a bit(ch) too much of a good thing….but who am I to judge? Hahaha. In any case, I like the title of her book, Don’t Pee on my Leg and Tell Me It’s Raining.
Whenever I hear the name Judy, I think of Cary Grant, who famously said Judy, Judy, Judy….or did he? Here is his testimony:
Grant’s mention of Garland leaves us short one Judy, so to round out the triumvirate of my Judy, Judy, Judy dissertation, I can think of no Judy less deserving of being overlooked than the wonderful comedic actress Judy Holliday of BORN YESTERDAY and BELLS ARE RINGING fame. She died much too young, but once encountered, there’s no forgetting what she left behind, as exhibited by this evidence from BELLS ARE RINGING:
Speaking of things never said it seems that Jimmy Cagney never said. “You dirty rat.” What he did say was…
But then he did set the record straight. The Frankie he refers to in this clip is Frank Sinatra.
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Love it, Don! I was unaware of that second clip – what a great Cagney coda!
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The first person I ever heard the “Don’t pee on my leg” etc. quote attributed to was Lyndon Johnson but it’s probably ages older than that. Likely it was invented by an anonymous quipster of the Stone Age and translated forward into most of the languages of men. It makes me aware of the inevitable fate of my most pithy observations–spilling from the mouths of soulless politicians of the future who will get full credit for inventing them. What a world, what a world.
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Despair not, Ricardo. All the pithy observations in your copyrighted books TRUTH OR BARE and IT’S GIRL SCOUT COOKIE TIME FOR LESBIANS AND ABORTIONISTS will survive you, or my name isn’t P. T. Barnum. And just to insure that they will be well read and long remembered, I hereby recommend them to my vast readership.
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I liked Judy Holliday singing “The Party’s Over” the best. She vocalized the emotion of the song very well. Thanks for sharing, mistermuse.
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Glad you like the song, which can be appreciated even more in the context of the movie. It’s one of half a dozen or more good songs in BELLS ARE RINGING. If you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth keeping an eye open for.
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Oh, I think fussing over exact wording can obscure the point of quoting, which is to get accurately at what someone says.
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Well, it could be argued that you can’t get more accurate than exact wording. On the other hand, literal exactness may, for one reason or another (such as changed meanings of words or context over time), not be up to the task of conveying the original flavor or wisdom. In other words, “circumstances alter cases” – but don’t quote me on that.
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