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1,000 Frenchmen can't be wrong

Posted by Gary Martin on March 15, 2008 at 09:57:

In Reply to: 1,000 Frenchmen can't be wrong posted by Dave on March 14, 2008 at 08:15:

: What is the origin of the expression, "1,000 Frenchmen can't be wrong"?

This is a reference to the discontent caused by the prohibition on alcohol in the USA in the 1920s. The 1927 song 'Fifty-million Frenchmen can't be wrong' alluded to the comparatively free and easy attitude to drinking in France.

The number of Frenchmen seems to vary whenever the phrase reappears. From what I've been able to look up, the population of France was only 40 million in 1927, and only a minority of those would have been men, but that's artistic license for you.

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