Talk:Will it play in Peoria?/Archives/2012

Coining of the phrase
The article current states this phrase was "widely believed" to be coined by Groucho Marx in the "vaudeville era", which is horribly imprecise. As a first attempt to document a reliable source for this information, I cite this print attribution to John Ehrlichman from 1969:


 * Cited in
 * Cited in

This was specifically refuted with some recalled history but no clear origin in:



I suspect Remer's piece is just a letter to the editor (the webpage doesn't make this clear), but it supports the vaudevillian origin. I found plenty of claims that Marx originated the line, but no specific, reliable sources yet, even for the claims themselves. We obviously need much better sources. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 12:08, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Paristopeoria.jpg
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BetacommandBot (talk) 18:03, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Encyclopedic tone?
"Pollsters and big business recognize Peoria, Illinois, as the average American city—and by some quirk of cosmic humor, it is (or was)... statistically. So, because of the sound of the name, the image the sound evokes, or simply because of cold, hard statistics, Peoria appears in movies and books, on television and radio, and in countless advertisements as a generic place name." Really? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.188.131.67 (talk) 20:31, 5 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Which statement is called into question, albeit anonymously? Is it the first sentence ("Pollsters and big business recognize Peoria, ...") or the second sentence ("... Peoria appears in movies and books, ...")? The former appears to be discussed at some length in the section "Peoria as a test market." As the section on "Peoria in popular culture" grows in size, the latter will become self-evident. PlaysInPeoria (talk) 23:03, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

"Marine made a common mistake; he judged Peoria the way Peorians in the late 20th century usually seemed to judge themselves. That is, dull, banal, and provincial. But just ask older residents of Peoria, and they will tell about whiskey, gambling, prostitution, and whatever else goes into making a city 'wide open.' Only since the 1950s was the lid put on Peoria; but the reputation, and thus the gibes, has existed since vaudeville." This seems to address the reader directly and should be reworded to sound more encyclopedic. Dannysjgdf (talk) 21:37, 3 May 2009 (UTC)


 * The paragraph in question apparently was derived from a referenced source of information. Any copy-editing probably should be based on the original source, in order to ensure accuracy. PlaysInPeoria (talk) 23:03, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Peoria in popular culture
I would argue that the section on "Peoria in popular culture" serves a useful purpose by collecting in one easy-to-read section a diverse series of snapshots of how the world views Peoria.

The variety of references to Peoria supplement and even expand upon the points found in "Peoria as metaphor" and "Peoria as a test market." As this section grows, its value will increase.

However, the intent of this section was diminished significantly by the removal of the original introduction, which read as follows:

Pollsters and big business recognize Peoria, Illinois, as the average American city—and by some quirk of cosmic humor, it is (or was)... statistically. So, because of the sound of the name, the image the sound evokes, or simply because of cold, hard statistics, Peoria appears in movies and books, on television and radio, and in countless advertisements as a generic place name.

The section "Peoria as popular culture" provides the sort of anecdotal evidence and viewpoint not found in the other, more traditional sections of this article.

PlaysInPeoria (talk) 22:48, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Not in "A Night At The Opera"
The attribution "The phrase (...) was popularized in movies by Groucho Marx" is wrong, as is the citation [2] it links to, which reads "Marx asks the question in A Night at the Opera."

Groucho never mentions Peoria in "A Night At The Opera." He may have used the phrase elsewhere (citation needed, as we say) — but he can't be said to have "popularized [it] in movies."

I haven't taken the step of deleting this inaccuracy, but someone should, maybe by tearing a couple of inches off the entry.

--Secret woid (talk) 17:16, 4 February 2011 (UTC)