Someone Ought to Try This in New York

Our old friend Ben Hecht has agreed to appear before a literary society in a debate with his friend Maxwell Bodenheim:

When the evening arrived, Hecht walked to the foot of the stage and announced that the topic of debate would be—“Resolved: That people who attend literary debates are imbeciles.” He scanned the audience in silence. At last he said, “I shall take the affirmative. The affirmative rests.” He motioned to Bodenheim, who after an equally dramatic pause intoned, “I guess you win.” The pair beat their way out the back a hundred dollars richer.

From Ian Hamilton’s Writers in Hollywood .