Algonquin Round Table at 90: The Power Rankings

HOWARD MEGDAL: Last month, the Algonquin Hotel celebrated the 90th anniversary of the first meeting of the Algonquin Round Table, which dates back to a lunch held in Alexander Woollcott’s honor in June of 1919.

History has not been particularly kind to the Algonquin Round Table individuals, and unjustifiably so, I believe. For those who have greatly influenced writing that came after, their contributions seems lost. For those appreciated properly in their time, literary taste hasn’t quite come around to them much in the intervening decades.

As Dorothy Parker once said, “These were no giants. Think who was writing in those days—Lardner, Fitzgerald, Faulkner and Hemingway. Those were the real giants. 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, saving their gags for days, waiting for a chance to spring them….There was no truth in anything they said. It was the terrible day of the wisecrack, so there didn’t have to be any truth.”

With all due respect to Mrs. Parker, she is entirely too modest. Few could live up to the reputations of those four, particularly the latter three, in any era.

But in the rising and falling reputations that constitute literary history, where do these giants stand? Here are my unscientific rankings based on current fame, with comments on how justified or not these spots are.

1. Dorothy Parker – A much-deserved top spot, Parker was not only a wit, but her verse is as indispensable today as it was at the time. Her short fiction similarly captures female desire and melancholy quite well. It is a shame she didn’t write that novel- it probably would have sealed her literary reputation in a more concrete way. Top on the list, yet underrated currently.

2. Harpo Marx – as fine a phyiscal comic as has ever been, along with being a tremendous harpist. Not sure he deserves to be ahead of the creator of the finest magazine in the history of print, but there you are…

3. Harold Ross – Simply put, The New Yorker was his baby. He then edited it for 26 years, bringing the talent to the pages that define it. His legacy is still felt at the magazine- for instance, his 1925 hire, Katherine White, had a son you may have read (and certainly should have read): Roger Angell.

4. George S. Kaufman – His reputation has dimmed without Groucho Marx constantly around to sing his praises, but no one had more commerical success with witty plays than Kaufman- even Neil Simon pales in comparison. His work is principally accessible today through The Man Who Came to Dinner (based, incidentally, on Alexander Woollcott) and several Marx Brothers films (The Coconuts, A Night at the Opera). He is almost forgotten as a director; and no one discusses his role as drama critic. My favorite Kaufman story, and it is very brief: According to legend, on one occasion a press agent asked: “How do I get our leading lady’s name in the Times?” Kaufman: “Shoot her.”

5. Robert Benchley – Ludicrously underrated. He is the impetus for so many frameworks of American comedy, whether the S.J. Perelman/Woody Allen New Yorker shorts, or Calvin Trillin’s family-based pieces, or the entire career, essentially, of Dave Barry. Benchley did it first, and arguably did it better. He suffers from dying in 1945, and this missing out on television, where he would have thrived- after all, just nine years earlier he’d won an Academy Award for “How to Sleep”, a comedic short. There must be a Benchley revival, and soon.

6. Tallulah Bankhead – Her wit and beauty have faded from public view- a shame, really, as no Hollywood starlet can really lay claim to being a fraction as interesting in today’s world. Her name is known to an extra generation, as she lived well beyond World War II, and made scores of television appearances.

7. Franklin P. Adams – The man wrote a column from 1904-1941- and was to writers what Johnny Carson became to comedians. After all that, he’s known for a single poem today: Baseball’s Sad Lexicon. Another writer in need of further study.

8. Robert Sherwood – Would you believe Sherwood won Four Pulitzer Prizes, three for drama and a fourth for a tremendous history work about Franklin Roosevelt? And that he wrote speeches for FDR as well? And an Academy Award? It was pretty surprising to me that no one re-discovered Sherwood last year, when all the Obama/FDR comparisons were in vogue. But to make a modern equivalent, you’d need a more successful David Mamet to then write speeches for Obama, then write a history of Obama’s presidency. Entirely underrated.

9. Edna Ferber – principally known for her collaborations with Kaufman, and Showboat, of course. So Big, the 1925 Pulitzer winner, is essentially forgotten by history. Her relative lack of fame by Algonquin standards says more about the range of talent than anything negative about Ferber.

10. Alexander Woollcott – I think Woollcott suffers from several factors in being little-read today. For one thing, so much of his work was contemporary commentary, leaving it inherently dated. For another, he was among the most famous men in American when he died in 1943- but like Benchley, that death meant missing television. Woollcott’s writing is frequently called ornate- but so full of wit, it reads to me like verbal Art Tatum music. Alas, he may get further buried by history.

Honorable mention: Heywood Broun – Tremendous sportswriter, whose work I frequently access when researching one piece or another. Also a crossover, who wrote movingly on Sacco and Vanzetti. When the Sacco and Vanzetti case is revisited in popular film, we’ll hear about Broun again.

Marc Connelly – Another Pulitzer winner and collaborator with Kaufman. That he survived latest of any within the group meant he was famous through his death in 1980. His work deserves a retrospective as well- if it will happen is another question entirely.

JILLIAN LOVEJOY LOWERY:  The idea of the Algonquin Round Table always fascinated me – after all, what’s better than sitting around and engaging in banter with brilliant minds?

Howard’s assertion that history has not been kind to many of these personalities is sadly accurate, but that certainly doesn’t diminish their greatness.  It almost seems that there must have been a curse on these folks, because not a one gets the credit that he or she so richly deserves.

It’s hard to pick favorites, but here’s my attempt to rank the top 10 members of the Algonquin Round Table.

1. Dorothy Parker.  Easy.  There are few people wittier or more quotable.  Parker never really got the recognition that she deserved, but, then again, it didn’t seem like she cared so much.  Good for you, Dorothy Parker.  In so many ways, I aspire to be you.
2. Harold Ross.  He made the New Yorker, one of our most enduring and intelligent publications.  Think of the enormous impact he’s had on readers and writers alike.  There’s no way he deserves anything less than the second spot.
3. Harpo Marx.  Let me be honest – I’m not hugely into the Marx brothers.  That said, I recognize their enormous influence.  I also recognize that Harpo is, to many folks, probably the most recognizable person on this list.  So, I am putting my own personal feelings aside and allowing him to be number three.
4. Robert Sherwood.  Winning the Pulitzer is a big deal.  He did it FOUR times.  That’s insane.  Four times.  It doesn’t even sound possible.  But it is, and he did it.  That’s how good he was.  It’s a travesty that this man isn’t a household name.  I should write a boom on him, and hopefully it will make us both insanely famous.
5. Robert Benchley.  Howard said it above better than I could, so I’ll spare you all.  Very influential, mysteriously forgotten about.  We would all be far less funny had he never existed.
6. George S. Kauffman.  This guy was something of a superstar.  Playwright/director/producer/critic.  Lots of commercial success, many plays turned into films, worked with all of the greats.  Hell, he was one of the greats.
7. Tallulah Bankhead.  Bankhead was a fascinating woman – outspoken, quick and irreverent.  Surrounded by scandal and open about her promiscuity, she was both liberal and liberated.  No one today comes close to her talent or brazenness.
8. Alexander Woollcott.  Again, Howard’s description is dead-on.  Woollcott is not standing the test of time, but, boy is he fun to read.  Mean-spirited, too.  Think Perez Hilton, if Perez could actually construct a good sentence.
9. Edna Ferber.  Yet another Pulitzer Prize winner, though she only managed to score one.  Nevertheless, she was a prolific writer who held her own at the Round Table, despite an ongoing feud with the prickly Woolcott.
10. Franklin P. Adams.  OK, time to fess up.  I ranked this guy last because I have no idea who he is.  I’m sure he was lovely, though.  Howard seemed to think so.  Sorry, Franklin P. Adams!

Tags: Alexander Woollcott, Dorothy Parker, George S. Kaufman, Harold Ross, Robert Benchley, The New Yorker

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