A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from May 17, 2011
“Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money even to get beat with”

“Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money even to get beat with nowadays,” joked humorist Will Rogers (1879-1835) in a newspaper column on June 29, 1931. The joke has has been repeated by many people, from politician Ronald Reagan to news reporter Dan Rather.
 
         
Wikipedia: Will Rogers 
William Penn Adair Rogers (better known as “Will” Rogers) (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer and actor and one of the best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s.
 
Known as Oklahoma’s favorite son, Rogers was born to a prominent Cherokee Nation family in Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma). He traveled around the world three times, made 71 movies (50 silent films and 21 “talkies”), wrote more than 4,000 nationally-syndicated newspaper columns, and became a world-famous figure. By the mid-1930s, Rogers was adored by the American people. He was the leading political wit of the Progressive Era, and was the top-paid Hollywood movie star at the time. Rogers died in 1935 with aviator Wiley Post, when their small airplane crashed near Barrow, Alaska.
 
29 June 1931, Indiana (PA) Evening Gazette, Will Rogers column, pg. 5, col. 5:
Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money even to get beat with nowadays.
 
22 June 1936, Clearfield (PA) Progress, “Will Rogers Said,” pg. 9, col. 5:
Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money even to get beat with nowadays.
 
1 June 1958, New York (NY) Times, “Campaign For Campaign Money” by David Sarnoff, Magazine, pg. SM12:
“POLITICS,” Will Rogers wryly observed, “has got so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to get beat with.”
 
7 November 1963, Aberdeen (SD) American-News, “Earl Wilson On Tour,” pg. 4, col. 5:
REMEMBERED QUOTE: “Politics is getting so darned expensive that it costs a fortune just to get beat!”—Will Rogers
 
Google News Archive
29 April 1988, Milwaukee (WI) Journal, “Money still gives unfair advantage as nation seeks new president,” pg. 10A, col. 2:
“Politics has got so expensive,” humorist Will Rogers wrote in 1931 “that it takes a lot of money just to get beat with.”
 
3 November 2004, Washington (DC) Post, “Red, Blue and Maybe: Timid Television” by Tom Shales, pg. C1:
“Politics is so expensive,” Rather had colloquially noted, “it takes a lot of money just to get beat with.”
 
Google Books
Safire’s Political Dictionary
By William Safire
New York, NY: Oxford University Press
2008
Pg. 88:
The assessment by Will Rogers in a mid-1920s newspaper column has never been truer: “Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money even to get beat with.”
 
The Notes:
Ronald Reagan’s Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom

By Ronald Reagan
Edited by Douglas Brinkley
New York, NY: HarperCollins
2011
Pg. 244:
Politics—got so expensive—takes—lot—money just to get beat.

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityGovernment/Law/Military/Religion /Health • Tuesday, May 17, 2011 • Permalink


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