The Algonquin Round Table was a group of New York City writers, critics, actors, and wits, but – unlike the round table used by King Arthur’s knights – it really was and is a round table inside midtown Manhattan’s Algonquin Hotel.
The group began to gather in 1919 as part of what is now a long-forgotten practical joke, and its members continued to gather and exchange wisecracks, engage in wordplay, and dispense witticisms that, through the newspaper columns of Round Table members, were disseminated across the country.
The charter members of the Round Table included the humorist and actor Robert Benchley; columnist and sportswriter Heywood Broun who was married to fellow member Ruth Hale a freelance writer who worked for recognition of women’s rights; playwright and director George S. Kaufman; critic, poet, screenwriter, and short-story writer Dorothy Parker; Alexander Woolcott, the critic and journalist who was the Woollcott was the inspiration for two fictional characters, namely Sheridan Whiteside, the caustic but charming main character in the 1939 play “The Man Who Came to Dinner” by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, and the snobbish, vitriolic columnist Waldo Lydecker in the novel “Laura”; and John Peter Toohey, the Broadway publicist whose practical joke was the genesis of the grouop.
Another view of the hotel’s lobby
In later years, members included the actress and famous lesbian Tallulah Bankhead; playwright Noël Coward; editor and playwright Beatrice Kaufman, who was married to George S. Kaufman; screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who was the first of ten screenwriters to work on the movie “The Wizard of Oz”; comedian Harpo Marx; and the actress Peggy Wood, whose screen credits included the role of the Mother Abbess in “The Sound of Music.”
Not all, however, was fan and games, despite the love members of the group held for charades, cribbage, poker, and the “I can give you a sentence” game, which spawned Dorothy Parker’s memorable sentence using the word “horticulture”: “You can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think.”
It’s important to note that not all of the group’s contemporaries were fans. Some critics accused them of logrolling and of rehearsing their witticisms in advance. Writer James Thurber, who lived in the Algonquin but was not a member of the Round Table, was a detractor of the group, and frequently accused members of being too consumed by their elaborate pranks.
Still, there was always that table.
Recognizable by the tall blue booth that curves around it, the round table had undergone a six-month refurbishment and has now been reinstalled in its original setting.
To celebrate the table’s return, the Algonquin Hotel, now a member of Marriott’s Autograph Collection of finer hotels, is welcoming a new era of thought leaders to hold court at this historic midtown spot.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
