I need to know who first said the following AND I need more evidence
than a mere oppinion from a stranger that it is attributed to Huey
Long: "Say anything you want about me as long as you spell my name
right"

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Request for Question Clarification by mvguy-ga on 09 Jun 2003 11:49 PDT

The saying (or something very similar) has been attributed to these
people, among others:

Harry Truman
http://www.ralphkeyes.com/niceguys/excerpt.htm

George M. Cohan
http://www.lifeisajoke.com/quotes5_html.htm

Charlie O. Finley
http://members.tripod.com/~rcboatpond/my_favorite_quotes.htm

Huey Long
http://www.goines.net/Poster_art5/poster_119.html

P.T. Barnum
http://cornell-magazine.cornell.edu/Archive/2002janfeb/depts/Correspondence.html

Liz Taylor
http://www.lisbonne.com/jb.html

See also this article, which lists Mae West, Will Rogers, Mark Twain
and Oscar Wilde as other possibilities:

I Don't Care
http://www.nku.edu/~turney/prclass/readings/3eras1x.html

Would you accept as your answer the strong likelihood that the first
speaker of this saying is unknown?

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Clarification of Question by miacid-ga on 09 Jun 2003 12:08 PDT

Yes, given your excellent citations, I will accept the answer that the
strong likelihood that the first speaker of this saying is unknown?
Thank you!

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 09 Jun 2003 13:35 PDT

A leading and recent book of quotations attributes this line to one of
the persons mentioned by mvguy.  It also states the year and the
context in which this line was said.  (I have also found this
information repeated in a couple of places online.)

Would you prefer my citation of a specific originator of the
quotation, or the list provided by mvguy?

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Request for Question Clarification by mvguy-ga on 09 Jun 2003 15:11 PDT

I suggest you accept Justaskscott-ga's answer, as it appears that he
came up with something better than I did.  I'm also curious to find
out what info he has.

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Clarification of Question by miacid-ga on 09 Jun 2003 16:12 PDT

I prefer the citation of justaskscott-ga giving a specific originator of the
quotation. Thank you.

Hello miacid-ga,

The following entry can be found in The Oxford Dictionary of
Quotations (Elizabeth Knowles, Ed.  5th Ed.  New York: Oxford
University Press, 1999), p. 224:

"I don't care what you say about me, as long as you say something
about me, and as long as you spell my name right.

to a newspaperman who wanted some information about Broadway Jones in
1912

John McCabe George M. Cohan (1973)"

The word "something" in the quotation is in italics.

The same information, apparently from The Oxford Dictionary of Modern
Quotations, is provided on these two pages:

"Re: Help--John De Lorean (?) quote", message by Jo Ann Malina in
<alt.quotations> (1999/01/05)
Google Groups
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=3691b54a%240%2419088%40nntp1.ba.best.com

"The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations" [under entry for George
M. Cohan] [Note: This page is very long and takes a long time to load]
Electronic Library of Fund Koap
http://www.koapp.narod.ru/english/diction/book7.htm

Perhaps George M. Cohan was at least half-serious when emphasizing
that his name should be spelled right.  It is likely that his name was
misspelled "Cohen" by some writers.  (If you search for "George M.
Cohen" on Google, you'll see that some writers make this mistake
today.)

Indeed, there is a story, which may or may not be true, that a hotel
was mistakenly informed that his name was "Cohen", and told him that
the hotel did not allow Jews.  Cohan supposedly responded along these
lines: "You thought I was Jewish and I thought you were American.  We
were both wrong."  This quotation or something like it is found on a
few pages, including this one:

"Re: Question: Pepsi One", message by Mary Elizabeth in
<rec.food.cooking>(1998/11/01)
Google Groups
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=363CE6BB.3C1C723D%40orph.org

In any event, I hope that this information is helpful.

- justaskscott-ga


Search strategy:

Browsed index of The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations until I found the
entry for Cohan under the word "say".

Searched on Google, Google Groups, and Ixquick for:

cohan "say something about me"
"george m cohan" cohen jewish

Helpful and interesting.