Out in Hollywood, where the streets are paved with Goldwyn, the word “sophisticate” means, very simply, “obscene.” A sophisticated story is a dirty story. Some of that meaning was wafted eastward and got itself mixed up into the present definition. So that a “sophisticate” means: one who dwells in a tower made of a DuPont substitute for ivory and holds a glass of flat champagne in one hand and an album of dirty post cards in the other.
ATTRIBUTION:
Dorothy Parker (1893–1967), U.S. author and humorist. As quoted in You Might as Well Live, part 3, ch. 6, by John Keats (1970).
From a speech given in 1939 to the left-wing Congress of American Voters: “Sophisticated Verse and the Hell With It.” Samuel Goldwyn (1882-1974) was a movie producer.
