"Wanted for radio series: one girl who speaks New Yorkese, has bad diction and careless enunciation . . ."
This want ad, signed "Henry Higgins," ran for two days in three New York City newspapers; it drew more than 100 replies. Seven of the young women who applied displayed a suspicious literacy by insisting that their names were Eliza Doolittle.*
The "Henry Higgins" behind the ad was actually Jack Grogan of Manhattan's enterprising WNEW, who is about to launch an educational program called "How to Speak Better English." As each girl talked to Grogan she received a sort of preliminary test. This week,...
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