What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
— Edward Langley, Artist (1928–1995)
Occasionally I receive one of those funny forwards filled with quips and quotables, many of which come from Mark Twain, and some others as well. Recently one arrived with the quote above and given my interest in art, I decided to find out who this Edward Langley was, what kind of art he produced, and how he came to be sufficiently interested in politics to have become quotable.
Apparently, “What the country needs is more unemployed politicians” was credited, in 1982, to artist Edward Langley (1928–1995), or so claimed one website that I found. It could not provide me additional information on the man or the occasion for the quote. It continued to say that in 2000, political activist and professor Angela Davis used it citing an unspecified “1967” speech–thus suggesting that she was not properly referencing her sources. At any rate, all seem to credit Edward Langley. But who is Edward Langley?
He is not Edward Marion Langley born in London on March 27, 1870, who died in Los Angeles on May 11, 1949. This artist was abandoned by his parents in Australia, made his way to Canada, and travelled by canoe to the Gulf of Mexico! This information and the rest comes from Artists in California 1786–1940 by Edan Hughes. He became a US citizen in 1904 while working in Chicago with William Selig, developing the motion picture camera. He moved to Hollywood in 1917 where he became an art director for Thief of Bagdad, Three Musketeers, and Mark of Zorro among others. Edan Hughes says: “From 1921 until 1934 the Langley home in Los Angeles was a gathering place for artists and the film colony. When not busy with the movies, he was active in the local art scene. As a lecturer at local women’s clubs, he used his paintings and special lighting effects to show the moods of the desert.” Langley was painting in Japan when war erupted and was a prisoner there until 1943. He returned to California, lived in Salinas, Laguna, and La Jolla teaching painting classes until he died.
Interesting enough. But is this our quotable man?
Well, so far as I can find, there is no Edward Langley who was an artist, living on the planet from 1928–1995. Any Edward Langley who is not an artist alive during those years does not show up either. Anything you find on this quote on the internet links it to this fictional Edward Langley who was an artist. Well, the obvious next step in research is to go to an actual research location, like a library and dig deeper than Google, Google scholar, or even my university online library will permit me.
Moral of the story? There isn’t really one besides the fact that much of what you get in forwards is inaccurate, albeit fun, and deceptive–no matter how many people you forward it to there will be no, repeat no, financial windfall arriving in 3, 7 or 31 days. Enjoy what you read, but remember what Douglas Adams said, “Don’t believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.”
At least, I think he said it.
