Re: RARA-AVIS: AA Fair

From: Karin Montin ( kmontin@sympatico.ca)
Date: 19 Oct 2004


I'm reading Deadfolk. The main character, Royston Blake, drinks with his mates at the Paul Pry. On first reading Larry's message, I thought Charlie must be an Erle Stanley Gardner fan, but I guess he's actually reflecting the popularity of another Paul Pry, from the play of the same name by John Poole. Apparently it's a fairly common name for pubs. Is that right, Charlie?

Most likely Gardner was a Poole fan. Is his Paul Pry an idle, meddlesome fellow who does a lot of eavesdropping?

"Paul Pry An idle, meddlesome fellow, who has no occupation of his own, and is always interfering with other folk's business. (John Poole: Paul Pry, a comedy.) The original was Thomas Hill." http://www.bootlegbooks.com/Reference/PhraseAndFable/data/951.html

"John Liston was the leading comic actor of the first half of the 19th century. In 1825, with 20 years of experience behind him, he created his masterpiece character, Paul Pry, in John Poole's farce of the same name. Pry is a man consumed with curiosity, an interfering busybody unable to mind his own business. With his striped trousers, hessian boots, tail coat and top hat, Liston moulded Pry into a uniquely endearing character. Most memorble was the umbrella that Pry conveniently left behind everywhere he went so that he would have an excuse to return and eavesdrop."
< http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/collections/object.php?object_id=672>

At 10:29 PM 18/10/2004 -0500, Larry Newton wrote:

>I've read a number of Cool & Lam books and I like each and every one. If you get a chance, you should also read Gardner's other non-Mason characters. He's written a bunch of others (Lester Leith, Ed Jenkins, Paul Pry, etc.) both before and after the Mason stuff was written.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
$9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/kqIolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->

RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
  Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 19 Oct 2004 EDT