21x20 Media presents
Break a Leg
A 1921 racetrack curse became the theatre blessing documented backstage in 1948.
A curse became the blessing.
Robert Wilson Lynd printed “May you break your leg!” as an inverted racetrack wish in 1921. Edna Ferber used broken legs ambiguously in 1939, and Bernard Sobel stated the backstage rule plainly in 1948. The likely parent is the German Hals- und Beinbruch, recorded on stage in 1912 and among pilots in 1927; a proposed Yiddish source remains plausible, not proven.
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Studio21x20 Media
FormatAnimated short
Runtime1 minute, 11 seconds
Published
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