1906–1976 · American newspaper columnist · "The Lyons Den", New York Post
Leonard Lyons was an American newspaper columnist, best known for the New York Post column “The Lyons Den”. Like most gossip columnists of his era he traded in anecdotes and one-liners gathered from around town, which is exactly how a joke with no owner ends up under a byline: in 1955 Jacob M. Braude’s Speaker’s Encyclopedia printed a three-children version of this quip as Lyons’s own reflection after the birth of his third son — while sourcing the item to Irving Hoffman of the Hollywood Reporter. The joke had been in print since 1946.