Thursday, June 13, 2013

Fleeting Fame


Consider the following:
  1. Whittaker Chambers
  2. Rube Goldberg
  3. Neville Chamberlain
  4. Booker T. Washington
  5. Wallace Beery
  6. Amelia Earhart
  7. Willie Sutton
  8. Ronald Colman
  9. Betty Boop
  10. Ngo Dinh Diem
  11. Jack Anderson
  12. Eric Hoffer
  13. Lenny Bruce
  14. Dean Acheson
  15. Dorothy Parker
Mention those famous names in front of an audience nowadays and you'll have a sizable portion of people who won't recognize many of them. In some cases, that is simply a sign of changing fashions and with others it signals a decline in the knowledge of history. Whatever the case, it is important for speakers to remember that fame is fleeting and making assumptions about celebrity can be dangerous.

3 comments:

Dan in Philly said...

Betty Boop rocks.

Steve Layman said...

I'm with Dan

Michael Wade said...

Both of you are dangerous.

Michael