Pago Pago is the capital town of American Samoa. It is actually a village area that is often mistaken to be a city of this south Pacific territory of the United States of America.Pago Pago is a mixture of colorful semi-urban communities, a small town, tuna canneries, and a harbor surrounded by dramatic cliffs, which plunge almost straight into the sea.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pago_Pago
2."She's going to take me to a little place she's got in Lake Placid-just for three weeks."
In northeast New York in the Airondack Mountains, Lake Placid is a village that surrounds Mirror Lake. It is a very famous resort and sports center. The 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics were held in the village and the U.S. Olympic training center is there. Lake Placid also boasts a summer theatre and music festival. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Placid,_New_York
3."I saw this holly, framed green amongst the pine trees. I remembered what you had written about "Tess" and "Jude the Obscure". It was the nicest present I could bring you."
Jude the Obscure and Tess are the last of Thomas Hardy's novels published in book form in 1895. The book was burnt publicly that same year. The character of Whiteside is largely based on Alexander Woolcott, who wrote Mrs. Fiske: Her views on the Stage, in 1917, and based it on actress, Minnie Maddern Fiske, who played Tess in 1897. The holly could be intended by Kaufman and Hart as an esoteric reference to Wollcott's admiration for Fiske who stood under a holly tree in a fairly significant scene in the novel, Tess. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tess http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Came_to_Dinner
4."My dear boy, when I talk about murder I get paid for it.I have made more money out of the Snyder-Gray case than the lawyers did, so don't expect to get it for nothing."
In the spring of 1927, the notorious trial in which Ruth Snyder, a long island house wife, was accused of conspiring with her lover, Judd Gray, in the muder of her husband. Gray, a salesman helped Ruth whack, poison, and choke her husband, Albert, to death. It attracted huge public interest, fueled by the 180 reporters assigned to cover the proceedings. The media frenzy continued until the defendants were executed by electric chair in January 1928, Snyder becoming the first woman executed in New York State in the 20th century. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Snyder
5." What news, Banjo, my boy? How's the picture coming? How are Wacko and Sloppo?"
Banjo was modeled after Harpo Marx, and there is a dialogue reference to Marx's brothers Groucho and Chico. When Sheridan Whiteside talks to Banjo on the phone, he asks him, "How are Wackko and Sloppo?"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Came_to_Dinner
6,7."He took fourteen hundred dollars from Sam Goldwyn at cribbage last night, and Sam said "Banjo, I will never play garbage with you again.""
Sam Goldwyn was a prominent American film producer, arriving in the States in 1896. He formed the Goldwyn Pictures corp. which later merged with Metro pictures, ultimately becoming Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He later produced many famous films independently.Samuel Goldwyn was also known for malapropisms, paradoxes, and other speech errors called 'Goldwynisms' ("A humorous statement or phrase resulting from the use of incongruous or contradictory words, situations, idioms, etc.")http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Goldwyn
Cribbage, or crib, is a card game traditionally for two players, but commonly played with three, four or more, that involves playing and grouping cards in combinations which gain points. Cribbage has several distinctive features: the cribbage board used for scorekeeping, the eponymous crib or box (a separate hand counting for the dealer), two distinct scoring stages (the play and the show) and a unique scoring system including points for groups of cards that total fifteen.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cribbage
8."He's tried to fire Sandy twice, out at the factory, but he couldn't on account of the Wagner Act, thank God!"
Also known as the National Labor Relations Act, this bill was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt on July 5, 1935. After the National Industrial Recovery Act was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, organized labor was again looking for relief from employers who had been free to spy on, interrogate, discipline, discharge, and blacklist union members. In the 1930s, workers had begun to organize militantly, and in 1933 and 1934, a great wave of strikes occurred across the nation. The goal being to guarantee employees “the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection.” http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=67
9."By the way, has he had his teeth fixed yet? Every time I order Roquefort cheese I think of those teeth."
Roquefort is a sheep milk blue cheese from the south of France, and together with Bleu d'Auvergne, Stilton and Gorgonzola is one of the world's best-known blue cheeses. Though similar cheeses are produced elsewhere, European law dictates that only those cheeses aged in the natural Combalou caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon may bear the name Roquefort, as it is a recognised geographical indication, or has a protected designation of origin.The cheese is white, tangy, crumbly and slightly moist, with distinctive veins of green mould. It has characteristic odor and flavor with a notable taste of butyric acid; the green veins provide a sharp tang.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roquefort
10."That's my message to you Big Lord Fauntleroy!"
Maggie's insult is a play on words. She refers to Little Lord Fauntleroy.Little Lord Fauntleroy is the first children's novel written by English–American playwright and author Frances Hodgson Burnett. "Little Lord Fauntleroy" is now most often used as a term of derision. It describes a pompous spoiled brat, usually a young male, who takes his wealth and privilege for granted (while this is obviously not consistent with the original character, it is inspired by the perceived self-righteousness of the little lord, and an assumed odiousness in his overweening goodness).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Lord_Fauntleroy
11."Stop acting like Zazu Pitts and explain yourself."
Referring to Maggie's acting "like a love-stick highschool girl", Zasu Pitts was first a silent-screen heroine, then a daft-headed character actress in US films from the 20s through the 50s. She with the timid, forlorn blue eyes and trademark woebegone vocal pattern and fidgety hands,her trademark gesture was seen in all of her fingers aflutter at once.Called by some "the greatest tragedienne of the screen." Appearing in over 500 films. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0686032/bio
12."Here's a cable from that dear friend of yours, Lorraine Sheldon."
Underwater cables allowed people to communicate almost instantaneously over thousands of miles. Newspapers could report on events from around the world within hours. By the 1920s, with the help of early fax machines, papers could even print photos of those events at the same time. One of the fastest and most reliable ways of communication, reaching places not otherwise reached by more conventional forms. Also known as telegram, wire, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_gram
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