The Algonquin Roundtable was a group of famous wits and associates that regularly gathered for lunch (sometimes dinner), cocktails (prohibition laughed at), stories, poker and verbal jousting at the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan in the 1920s. Such luminaries as George S. Kaufman, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, "Harpo" Marx, Edna Ferber ("Show Boat", more later), James Thurber, Robert Sherwood, Franklin Pierce Adams, Alexander Wolcott, Marc Connelly and Harold Ross were regulars. Many others like Noel Coward, George Gershwin and Anita Loos ("Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"...but marry brunettes) attended from time to time. By the mid '20s, getting invited to join the roundtable for even one day would be a dream come true in literary and theater circles, and bring immediate renown, as the group goings on were closely followed. Groucho Marx, Irving Berlin and H.L. Mencken were invited to be regulars, and probably attended a few meetings, but thought it would become a time eater and there would be constant pressure to come up with witty quips and comebacks. Besides, Mencken spent most of his time in his beloved Baltimore (more on Mencken soon---will have a whole posting on the "Sage of Baltimore", the ultimate iconoclast of the 1920s). Plus, who could compete with Dorothy Parker, Benchley, Wolcott and Kaufman in the witty quip and humorous putdown dept.? Maybe Groucho and Mencken, but we'll never know. Oh the fun they missed.
The group started in 1919 as a roast of powerful NY Times theater critic Alexander Wolcott, who was always boasting of his war exploits. It was so successful and fun that it continued for over 10 years. The acerbic Wolcott became the "King Arthur" of the roundtable. The legacy was wide, including the founding of the "New Yorker" by member Harold Ross, and many members like Parker and Benchley writing for the new magazine. The group liked their time together so much that they pooled their money and bought an island in a lake in Vermont as a summer retreat.
The circle faded away by 1930 as the Great Depression took grim hold, and such core members as Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, George Kaufman, Edna Ferber, Robert Sherwood, Anita Loos, Ruth Gordon and of course Harpo Marx and his brothers drifted off to Hollywood to write and make movies. But the legend continues. The actual roundtable is still there, in the Algonquin dining room, ready for the ghosts to sit for lunch, cocktails, verbal jousting and high jinks.
Here is a wonderful video ("The 10 Year Lunch") on the Algonquin Roundtable that I found on youtube, about 50 minutes but worth every one. Just to hear Dorothy Parker's witty asides is enough reason to watch. Such members as actress Ruth Gordon and writer Marc Connelly were still alive to be interviewed. Narrarated by sports writer and broadcaster Heywood Hale Broun, son of newspaper writer Heywood Broun, one of the members. There are a few ads for Geico etc. that I can't get rid of, but they can be skipped after a couple of seconds:
• Video Link