Google News Archive
13 May 1968, Pittsburgh (PA)
Post-Gazette, “Squirrel Cage” by Douglas Welch, pg. 41, col. 1:
And she said: “Why don’t you beguile me with something Mrs. William S. Paley has said lately? Every time I pick up a women’s magazine Mrs. Paley is saying something that makes me terribly proud I am a woman.”
And I said: “Well, of course, you know her most profound saying? She said that a woman can’t be too rich or too thin.”
And she said: “Oh, everyone knows she said THAT! For a while there, they were going to put it on our silver dolars instead of In God We Trust because it more nearly reflects our modern faith.”
22 July 1969, Long Branch (CA)
Press-Telegram, “Wonderful Washington” by Virginia Weldon Kelly, pg. B9, col. 3:
Usually the rich are very thin. There is a cliche currently in ultra society that no woman can be too rich or too thin.
6 June 1971, Elyria (OH)
Chronicle-Telegram, “After a fashion...Duchess of Windsor is forever young at heart” by Marian Christy, pg. C2:
Irreverently, two yelping, growling black pugs precede the Duchess’s entrance, challenging the stranger. Pandemonium is halted when the queenly Duchess slides back into a couch and issues soothing words.
One pug squats on a pillow on which has been needlepointed, “You can’t be too thin or too rich.”
17 September 1972, San Antonio (TX)
Light, “Cassini Carousel” by Igor and Oleg Cassini, pg. 10H, col. 1:
There’s an old saying that you can’t be too rich or too thin, but heiress Gloria Vanderbilt’s magazine editor husband, Wyatt Cooper, doesn’t agree. With Gloria down to 98 pounds, word is out that Wyatt doesn’t like it and there is some tension at home. He wants her to fatten up.
11 February 1973, San Antonio (TX)
Light, “Those Thin but Frantic Woman” by Judy Kelemesrid (Harper’s Bazaar), part IV, pg. 1, cols 1-2:
“You can never be too rich or too thin.”
Nobody is really sure who first uttered these immortal words. Some say it was Babe Paley; others, the Duchess of Windsor or Gloria Guinness. At any rate, for at least two decades now, that quote has been the watchword of those skinny frantic ladies who flit around town from fashion show to fancy lunch to fittings with their favorite designers.