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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!astrovax!fisher!eosp1!robison
From: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison)
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: Re: Noel Coward joke
Message-ID: <1296@eosp1.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Dec-84 15:05:54 EST
Article-I.D.: eosp1.1296
Posted: Fri Dec 14 15:05:54 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Dec-84 02:37:26 EST
References: <421@digi-g.UUCP> <235@ptsfc.UUCP>
Reply-To: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison)
Distribution: net
Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton
Lines: 21
Summary: 

In article <235@ptsfc.UUCP> rjw@ptsfc.UUCP (Rod Williams) writes:
>  That's not the *true* story I heard. My version has it that a certain
>  Margot Asquith, daughter (?) of the British Prime Minister (whose first
>  name has momentarily escaped me) was conversing with Ms Harlow at a
>  Hollywood Party (maybe the same one :-)). Tiring of Ms Harlow's
>  misuse of her name as 'Margaret', and appalled at the temerity of
>  someone so *common* (and an ACTRESS too :-o) in using her first name at
>  all, the formidable Ms A. put on her iciest glare and announced:
>  "My name is pronounced Margoh - the 't' is as silent as the one in
>  Harlow".
>Rod Williams

Now we're getting close.  This is the way I heard it too, but Harlow
didn't say "margaret", she said "Dame Margot", pronouncing the "t".
The punch line (slight change, but I can't vouch for it -- "the t is
silent as in Harlow") is very compact and devastating.  If the story
is true, it is one of the greatest of all time comebacks, since it
can hardly have been panned in advance.

  - Toby Robison (not Robinson!)
  {allegra, decvax!ittvax, fisher, princeton}!eosp1!robison