“If they liked it once, they’ll love it twice” (Broadway adage)
“If they liked it once, they’ll love it twice” is a philosophy of Hollywood and Broadway, resulting in many sequels, revivals and copycat productions of a successful original. “We’ll heave the telephone through the glass door and smack her in the kisser with the grapefruit, they liked it once and they’ll love it twice” was written in Contact: An American Quarterly Review (1932) and the book Strictly from Hunger (1937), by S. J. Perelman (1904-1979). Perelman was referring to James Cagney‘s famous movie scene in The Public Enemy (1931).
Perelman’s line was about Hollywood, but the line also applied to Broadway.
Google Books
Contact:
An American Quarterly Review
Volume 1, Issue 1
1932
Pg. 47:
We’ll heave the telephone through the glass door and smack her in the kisser with the grapefruit, they liked it once and they’ll love it twice.
Google Books
Strictly from Hunger
By S. J. Perelman
New York, NY: Random House
1937
Pg. 39:
We’ll heave the telephone through the glass door and smack her in the kisser with the grapefruit, they liked it once and they’ll love it twice.
Google Books
Movie Love:
Complete Reviews 1988-1991
By Pauline Kael
New York, NY: Dutton
1991
Pg. 146:
But it’s familiar and repetitive—it’s a rehash. It makes you recall the old-Hollywood wisdom: If they liked it once, they’ll love it twice.
Google Books
Baseball in the Movies:
A Comprehensive Reference, 1915-1991
By Hal Erickson
Jefferson, NC: McFarland
1992
Pg. 57:
Given the usual Hollywood “they liked it once, they’ll love it twice” mentality, a Bad News Bears sequel was inevitable.
Athens (GA) Banner-Herald
‘Trial By Jury’
Fourth ‘Law & Order’ drama series, convenes its audience this week
Posted: Wednesday, March 02, 2005
By Frazier Moore
Associated Press
NEW YORK - There was a time when even two seemed like a lot. But “Law & Order” didn’t stop there.
Taxing the show-biz adage “If they liked it once, they’ll love it twice,” NBC went beyond “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (started in 1999) and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” (2001) to add yet a fourth edition, “Law & Order: Trial By Jury.”
Books & Culture
By Gerald L. Early
Secrets of the Talented Tenth Revealed
Stephen Carter’s second novel returns to the world of black & lites.
July 2007
Possibly inspired in part by the old Broadway adage that if they liked it once, they’ll love it twice, New England White bears a great deal of resemblance to Stephen Carter’s first novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park (2002).
Google Books
DownBeat—The Great Jazz Interviews:
A 75th Anniversary Anthology
By Frank Alkyer, et al
New York, NY: Hal Leonard
2009
Pg. 178:
(From a 1970s interview—ed.)
Given the old showbiz adage, “If they liked it once, they’ll love it twice,” aren’t there tremendous pressures placed on a performer who achieves great success, pressures to continue with what has proven so successful?
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New Blog Post Remake For Remarque.: The old show biz adage is: “if they liked it once, they’ll love it twice.” Or… http://bit.ly/aKeKXm
4:10 PM - 1 Jul 10