(1887-1943 Drama Critic for The New York Times)

Aleck Woollcott, one of the most prolific frama critics The New York Times, was an owlish character whose caustic wit either joyously attracted or vehemently repelled the artistic communities of 1920's Manhattan.

"All the things I really like to do are either immoral, illegal, or fattening."

 (1892-1972 Co-Founder of The New Yorker)

Originally a singer, Jeannette Cole Grant, or "Fluff" as her New York Times friends called her, was a sharp journalist who advocated female autonomy and a woman's right to enjoy herself as an individual.

"As I peered at him from across the table, slumping over his poker hand like a misshapen question mark, I decided he was really the homeliest man I'd ever met - he'd have to be good with that face and figure," said upon meeting future husband Harold Ross at a poker game."

 (1829-1951 Founder and Editor of The New Yorker)

Harold Ross was a heavy drinking, cigar smoking, and poker playing high school dropout who cursed liberally (except in the presence of females), and made no attempt toward exhibiting any kind of social tact.

"A genius can do readily what no one else can do at all."

 (Columnist for the Herald Tribune, the World, and the Post)

"Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory."

 (Drama critic for LIFE, humorist, writer)

"It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous."

 (Playwright)

From Jane Grant's memoir, Ross, The New Yorker, and Me.
"One day Marc was holding forth at Tony's, our favorite drinking hangout, when a rival wag came in and stopped at his table. As he stood over Marc, the newcomer gently rubbed Marc's bald head, then said: 'Huh, that feels just like my wife's behind.' Marc stroked his head, throughtfully. 'Why so it does,' he said.

 (Novelist)

"Being an old maid is like death by drowning, a really delightful sensation after you cease to struggle."

 (Actress)

"Age only matters if you're a cheese."

 (Playwright)

Written in a telegram to William Gaxton, star of Kaufman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Of Thee I Sing, after a particularly uninspired performance later in the run: "WATCHING YOUR PERFORMANCE FROM THE LAST ROW. WISH YOU WERE HERE."

 (Drama critic for Vanity Fair, short story and prose writer, poet)

"Brevity is the soul of Lingerie, as the Petticoat said to the Chemise."