On plagiarism, who stole from who - did Wilson Mizner steal from Mae West (angry Judge: "Are you showing contempt of court?". A sassy Mae West: "no, I'm doing my best to hide it") or did Mae West (or her screenwriters) steal from Mizner (or have him on staff as a gag writer)?
Thank you for the close read! Always tricky when a con man is given credit, but his biographer seems to back him up. The Mae West line is from the 1940 movie My Little Chickadee, whereas Mizner expired in 1933. In Alva Johnston's The Legendary Mizners, he cited that quip and writes that "Mizner's thirty-year-old lines have recently had revivals in the movies." BUT Mizner also coined the phase "you sparkle with larceny" and "he'd steal a hot stove and come back for the smoke" (per Johnston) so the contempt line may well have been filched from even further back.
On plagiarism, who stole from who - did Wilson Mizner steal from Mae West (angry Judge: "Are you showing contempt of court?". A sassy Mae West: "no, I'm doing my best to hide it") or did Mae West (or her screenwriters) steal from Mizner (or have him on staff as a gag writer)?
Thank you for the close read! Always tricky when a con man is given credit, but his biographer seems to back him up. The Mae West line is from the 1940 movie My Little Chickadee, whereas Mizner expired in 1933. In Alva Johnston's The Legendary Mizners, he cited that quip and writes that "Mizner's thirty-year-old lines have recently had revivals in the movies." BUT Mizner also coined the phase "you sparkle with larceny" and "he'd steal a hot stove and come back for the smoke" (per Johnston) so the contempt line may well have been filched from even further back.