Algonquin Round Table
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The Algonquin Round Table was a group of some of the most brilliant writers of the 1920s and 1930s, though it endured long after that.
They met for lunch every day at a round table at New York City's Algonquin Hotel and traded quips, many of them still repeated today. The group was formed at the suggestion of Dorothy Parker, who was living in the Algonquin Hotel at the time.
There was no formal membership, so people came and went, but the primary early members included Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woollcott, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman, Edna Ferber, Franklin Pierce Adams and Harpo Marx. Others, including actors and entertainers, visited. Since some of the members were popular columnists who repeated some of the conversations in their columns, the quips got wide circulation. Sometimes they were unkind.
One story is that when Dorothy Parker was informed about the death of President Calvin Coolidge, she replied, "How can they tell?"
A movie about the circle was entitled Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. There was also a play about it called "Vitriol and Violets."
The lobby of the Algonquin hotel leaves their table set with namecards of the famous people who sat there. There is also a mural depicting one of the famous lunches.
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- Robert Benchley: A Profile in Humor (http://www.davidpietrusza.com/benchley.html)