‘Truman’ quote’s D.C. variant: ‘Solomon Scandals’ blog cited by noted amateur etymologist
Who was the first on Earth to utter a classic line, or something close to it: “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog”?
So far I’ve traced the witticism back to Donald Devine, a Reagan administration official, who can’t recall where he heard it. I suspect that someone Washingtonized a line in Samuel Gallu’s play Give ‘em Hell, Harry, with “in life” used originally rather than “Washington.” That would jibe with the opinion of Ralph Keyes, author of The Quote Verifier.
Now another quote tracer, Barry Popik (right photo), has more or less reached the same conclusion that Keyes and I have, along with the Harry Truman Library earlier. In so doing, the well-known etymologist cites an item in the Scandals blog—Truman dog mystery: Help for me from ex-Senator, but no solution, for which I talked to both Devine and former U.S. Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker.
“’If you’re going to stay in this town (Hollywood—ed.) and want a friend, go out and buy yourself a dog’ is cited from 1941,” Popik writes, “but the ‘Hollywood’ version never caught on. The ‘Washington’ version is cited from at least 1985.”
At least ‘85, eh? That’s from this blog, complete with the related Web link. (Thanks to Garson O’Toole for the Popik tip.)
You might also enjoy:- Truman and the ‘Get a dog’ quote—or nonquote
- Truman dog quote mystery: Help for me from ex-Senator, but still no solution
- ‘Solomon Scandals’ movie? D.C.-Hollywood link—and a family one, too, with a ‘Lassie’ angle
- Truman nonquote: ‘If you want a friend, get a dog’ — as used by corporate raider Carl Icahn
- About Helen Thomas: Oy! But keep her name on the SPJ journalism award
Truman dog quote mystery: Help for me from ex-Senator, but still no solution
Update: I’ve now traced the quote to a Reagan Administration official, who, however, can’t recall where he heard it. See addendum. – D.R.
For close to a year, I’ve tried to crack a Washington mystery. What’s the origin of the famous Truman quote, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog”?
In The Solomon Scandals, I put the line in the mouth of a talking Afghan Hound doing a Truman act at the Cosmos Club. But I alerted my novel’s readers that the quote is rather iffy—in fact, probably just a variant of a 1975 play’s line that appeared without “in Washington.”
Meanwhile I’ve succeeded in tracing the Washingtonized quote back at least as far as a June 1987 statement to the New York Times from then-Senator Nancy Kassebaum.
But where did the daughter of 1936 Republican presidential nominee Alf Landon—now Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker, following her marriage to Howard Baker, Jr., the former Senate minority leader—encounter the quote?
A gracious reply from Alf Landon’s daughter
I emailed her this week via her husband’s law office and received a gracious reply by phone.
“I’m sure it was in a paper,” she said, perhaps the New York Times or the Washington Post. Well, I’ve searched the Times as best I could through the Net. And now I’ll see if I can’t get a librarian or someone else to check the Post.
You might also enjoy:- ‘Truman’ quote’s D.C. variant: ‘Solomon Scandals’ blog cited by noted amateur etymologist
- Truman and the ‘Get a dog’ quote—or nonquote
- Truman nonquote: ‘If you want a friend, get a dog’ — as used by corporate raider Carl Icahn
- About Helen Thomas: Oy! But keep her name on the SPJ journalism award
- Deep Throat is dead—and so are the old rules of investigative journalism
Buying info and other basics
Vis-à-vis real life
Newest comments
David Rothman on TBD hyperlocal site’s traffic pops up during hostage crisis at Discovery Channel’s headquarters
Steve Buttry on TBD hyperlocal site’s traffic pops up during hostage crisis at Discovery Channel’s headquarters
Ornette on Sally Quinn, snobbery and the Mink Stole Ladies Syndrome
Recent Posts
- TBD hyperlocal site’s traffic pops up during hostage crisis at Discovery Channel’s headquarters
- The Solomon Scandals novel vs. online gossip about Skyline Towers and the intel community
- The decline—and future promise—of investigative journalism
- The Solomon Scandals’ bureaucratic setting—a few decades later
- A guide to the Solomon Scandals site
