A Lunch That Lasted a Decade

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The Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street, New York City

By Megan McKinney

They began lunch together on a June day in 1919 in New York’s Algonquin Hotel and continued the same noon meal as a group virtually every day for ten years. The “they” were an assemblage of New York City writers, critics, actors, and wits. And at these luncheons they engaged in “wisecracks, wordplay, and witticisms,” which—because several of the regulars were newspaper columnists—appeared in the New York media of the era and throughout the nation in syndication.

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The table was oval rather than round to make room for the number of then current celebrities who lunched directly below their group illustration.

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A closer look at the illustration above the Algonquin Round Table.

The Round Table included those who were so well known at the time that their fame has survived over the years. This would surely be true of writer and wit Dorothy Parker, below.

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Dorothy Parker

Such enduring quotes as “Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses,” first printed in the New York World of August 16, 1925, helped to create Dorothy Parker’s lasting image as wit and writer of the era.

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Harold Ross

Harold Ross nearly exactly 100 years ago co-founded The New Yorker magazine with his wife, Jane Grant. Both were Round Table members.

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Jane Grant

Robert Benchley

Round Table regular Robert Benchley was a humorist, writer, critic, actor and film director. And he was especially known for his essays in The New Yorker.

Tallulah Bankhead

A sometime member of the Algonquin Round Table was actress Tallulah Bankhead. Others included drama critic Alexander Woollcott, actor/comedian Harpo Marx, playwrights Marc Connelly and Sir Noël Coward, novelist Edna Ferber, stage designer Norman Bel Geddes. playwright/producer George S. Kaufman and sportswriter Heywood Broun,