What is the origin of the phrase" Keep It Simple"

Posted by Joe Coughlin on May 11, 2001

In Reply to: What is the origin of the phrase" Keep It Simple" posted by earl on November 27, 2000

: : This phrase has been borrowed, rearranged and added to and many variations exist, I would like to know where it all started. e-mail me directly if you have "the" answer, or post it if you think you do.
: : Thanks,
: : Earl
: I inadvertantly mis-spelled the phrase (i need glasses I think) " Keep It Simple "

I don't know if the was "origin" but back in the late 1970's The Wall Street Journal ran a series of Poster Type pages, full newspaper pages, conveying ideas.

One was entitled "Keep it Simple" and began (and I don't know if this is exact but it's close)

Get your hand off of my knee. Mother's dead. Will you marry me? I want a divorce.
Ideas and situations are best confronted and conveyed by keeping it simple. That way, no one is in doubt about what it is that you are trying to say.
Do you want the upper hind portion of a hogs leg, thinly sliced and fried in a pan, together with cooked unhatched avian embryos .... or Ham and Eggs?

And it went on and on.