When You're Right ... you're Right ... or are you???

Last night I found some wonderful quotations about folks ... they are not the most complimentary statements ever made, and many of them have been proven to be HUGELY erroneous in their outlook ... As I read them, I realized how often the smug self-righteous stance taken by "authorites" and those in positions of power and influence are proven false ...

As proof that sometimes when you think you're right, and you act accordingly, history will prove you delightfully WRONG, I would offer the following statements about folks who proved their critics not just a LITTLE bit wrong, but who proved them HUGELY WRONG ...

For starters - a talent scout for MGM said in 1928 of Fred Astaire:
"Can't act, can't sing, balding slightly ... can dance a little."

Headmaster of Pembroke Lodge School of a student named Alec Guiness:
"You're not the acting type."

A rejection letter to John Le Carre, author of The Spy who came in from the cold:
"He hasn't got any future."

H.M. Warner dismissed "talkies" in 1927 saying:
"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"

A rejection letter for "The Diary of Anne Frank":
"The girl (Anne) doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the curiousity level."

The following comments were made about an obscure band based out of Liverpool:
"Don't send them. They're so bad they'll spoil it for the others." - about a pending trip to Germany.
"To be frank Mr Epstein, we don't like your boys' sound ... Groups of guitarists are on the way out." - rejection letter from Dick Rowe of Decca Records in 1962
"We don't think The Beatles will do anything in this market." - rejection letter from Capitol Records in 1964.

Roy Disney (brother to Walt) speaking of Mickey Mouse in the 1930's:
"He's passe. Nobody cares about Mickey any more. There are whole batches of Mickeys we just can't give away. I think we should phase him out."

Keith Moon, drummer for The Who to guitarist Jimmy Page about a rock band he was forming:
"You'll sink, not like a lead balloon, but even faster, like a lead zeppelin." (the in question would be named : Led Zeppelin!)

A rejection letter to William Golding for "Lord of the Flies" in 1954 read in part:
"It does not seem to us tha tyou ahve been wholly successful in working out an admittedly promising idea."

Head of a Drama school to a young Lucille Ball, on acting:
"Try another profession. ANY other ..."

New York city DJ Jerry Marshall commenting on the "fad" of rock'n'roll in 1956:
"Maybe next year it will be Hawaiian music ..."

Model Agency Boss Walter Thornton talking about Lauren Bacall:
"Never will Betty Becall attain a caviar and champagne lifestyle."

An anonymous MGM Producer after seeing the first screening of The Wizard of Oz:
"That "rainbow" song is no good. It slows the picture down."

A commentary on H.G. Wells' "The Invisible Man":
"The scientific machinery is not very delicately constructed, and the imagination of the reader is decidedly overtaxed."

MGM Producer's reply to Louis B. Mayer's offer of the film rights to "Gone With the Wind":
"Louis, forget it. No Civil War picture ever made a nickel ..."

A Modelling Agency's advice to Marilyn Monroe in 1944:
"You'd better learn secretarial work or else get married."

A Broadway Producer turning down Arthur Miller's Play "Death of a Salesman":
"Who would want to see a play about an unhappy travelling salesman?"

Jack Warner's rejection of an aspiring actor named Clarke Gable:
"What can you do with a guy with ears like THAT??"

And perhaps there is no more indicting proof of the foolishness of "those WHO know" than the following comments about an up and coming musician by the name of Elvis:
"I never knew a guitar player worth a damn." - Vernon Presley his father.
"You ain't going no where son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck." - Jim Denny of the Grand Ole Opry on firing him after his first performance.
"I tell you, Elvis can't last!" - Jackie Gleason in 1956.

Over and over, those who seem to "know" are proven wrong ... and the stinging rejection of others turns in to overwhelming achievement and success ... Just look at the decision by the makers of M&M candy NOT to have their candy featured in a little film called "ET: The Extra Terrestrial" M&M's loss was Reeses' Pieces gain ...

It just proves that when you're right ... sometimes you're grievously WRONG!!!! And those of us who have endured with sting of rejection, will survive and prosper ...

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