A Tribute to the Name "George"

1906--

"GRAND OLD NAME"

"GEORGE" A PATRONYMIC HONORED AND REVERED.

Mr. Ade, Successful Author and Humorist, Gives Many Reasons Why This Should Be So -- Historical "Facts."

To the anniversary number of his friend, George M. Cohan's cheerfully crazy press sheet, "The Spot Light," George Ade contributes some reflections on the name George, the sum of his argument being that it's a grand old name for actor, author, manager or agent.

Have you ever figured out why people who wish to be emphatic say, "By George?" To swear by the Deity would be profane. To swear by Oscar or Herbert or Randolph would mean nothing. "George" has been adopted as the most important and awe-inspiring name that can be borrowed from the ordinary human list.

From the original St. George, patron saint of England, who is shown in his favorite lithograph to be fighting the syndicate, down to George Wilkes, the great trotting stallion, the name of "George" has always been the trademark of a live one. Every good Pullman porter is named George. If, when alighting at a one-night stand, you insist upon being hauled by "George," you will invariably get an upholstered hack, with the blanket neatly folded, and not as much hay as you might expect.

George III would have won if he had not given away so much weight in meeting the other George, adopted stepfather of George Washington, Jr.

George is from the Greek, meaning "husbandman" or "farmer." "My parents were in right, but how about George Marlon, George Beane, George Nash, George Considine and Georgie Caine?

When you begin to count them, it is wonderful bow the Georges loom up. There has been one George Francis Train in the last century, and George Alexander is to the English stage what George Dixon was to another department of art In this country.

When a woman wants to write under a man's name, she hurries to get in with the real Georges. Take the three greatest-George Eliot, George Sands and George Fleming.

Some people ask: "What's in a name?" Answer-"Everything." Can you see the Chicago public fighting to get into a show-shop to see a piece written by Egbert M. Cohan? And if my name had been Wilfred Ade, would I have been invited to write for the Spot Light? Suppose that George Bernard Shaw had been christened Sam Bernard Shaw, would "Man and Superman" have run all winter in New York? Think it over.

There's no use talking. "It's a grand old name."

--The Evening News, Ada, Oklahoma, August 9, 1906, page 4.