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Who really said it

A good speech should be like a woman's skirt: long enough to cover the subject, short enough to create interest

Not original to Churchill — an anonymous 1920 joke Unknown Anonymous American newspaper joke · in circulation by 1920
Disputed Free to reuse

Churchill probably did use the gag — a New York columnist reported it in 1942 and a 1943 column reported Frances Langford hearing him deliver it in London — but he did not invent it. It was already an anonymous American newspaper joke by 1920, twenty-two years earlier: the earliest known instance is a May 1920 Buffalo newspaper column, printed in quotation marks, comparing a column to a woman’s skirt. Variants applied to a bathing suit and a manuscript follow within months. The earliest version applied to a spoken address is June 1920 (C. H. McNider, South Dakota Bankers Association convention); the earliest applied to a campaign speech is Rep. Richard N. Elliott in October 1920.

Last verified 20 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“A good speech should be like a woman's skirt: long enough to cover the subject, short enough to create interest” Not originated by Churchill. An anonymous newspaper joke, in circulation by 1920: "A speech should be very much like a woman's skirt—long enough to cover the subject but short enough to be interesting."

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Winston Churchill. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Free to use, including in commercial and paid presentations — no permission or licence needed.

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In context

Evoking the themes of simplicity and creativity. Theme: "A good speech should be like a woman's skirt: long enough to cover the subject, short enough to create interest". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "A good speech should be like a woman's skirt: long enough to cover the subject, short enough to create interest". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Origin
Anonymous American newspaper joke
Contemporary variant
July 1920 — a manuscript and a bathing suit (Asbury Park Evening Press, 30 July 1920)
Earliest spoken version
June 1920, C. H. McNider · campaign speech Oct 1920, Rep. Richard N. Elliott
First Churchill credit
1942, in a newspaper column

A speech should be very much like a woman's skirt—long enough to cover the subject but short enough to be interesting. Rep. Richard N. Elliott, October 1920

The earliest known form applied to a campaign speech (a bankers’-convention talk by C. H. McNider predates it, June 1920). Elliott did not present it as his own invention either — by late 1920 this was simply a joke going round, which is exactly the condition in which quotations lose their authors and later acquire famous ones.

Quote Investigator — the 1920 to 1942 chain

How we traced it

  • Earliest known instance: columnist Gerald K. Rudulph, in The Buffalo Enquirer of 21 May 1920, applies the skirt simile to a newspaper column — and prints it in quotation marks, which signals a saying already in circulation rather than one he coined the full chain ↗.
  • The earliest spoken version follows a month later: in June 1920 C. H. McNider, president of a Mason City, Iowa bank, tells the South Dakota Bankers Association convention his talk will be ‘short enough to be interesting, long enough to cover the subject’.
  • A contemporaneous variant compares a manuscript to a bathing suit: the Asbury Park Evening Press of 30 July 1920 runs ‘short enough to be interesting and long enough to cover the subject’.
  • Applied to a campaign speech, the line was used by Indiana congressman Richard N. Elliott on 26 October 1920. The earliest Churchill attribution appears in a New York column in 1942, twenty-two years later, in the ‘lady’s dress’ form; a 1943 column reported Frances Langford hearing him deliver it in London.
Public domain

Free to reuse. The originating texts are anonymous American newspaper material from 1920 (with related 1881–1908 antecedents), published well before 1930 and therefore in the public domain in the United States; you may reproduce the 1920 wording in full. Because the joke is not Churchill’s, his estate’s copyright to 2035 is irrelevant to it. The one thing to avoid is quoting the 1942 columnist’s reported Churchill phrasing as though it were a verified Churchill utterance — that is a journalist’s paraphrase, and it is his text, not Churchill’s. This is not legal advice.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

The attribution problem

A more interesting case than the usual fake, because the credit is not simply wrong. Churchill probably did use a version of it — reported by a New York columnist in 1942 and, in 1943, by a column describing Frances Langford hearing him deliver it — but two decades after everyone else.

Used by Churchill, not coined by him borrowed, not invented

The first Churchill attribution is 1942, in a New York column reporting him. The joke is documented from 1920, so he was repeating a stock gag that was already circulating long before his premiership the chain ↗.

A newspaper column, then a speech drifted

The earliest known form (May 1920) compares a newspaper column to a skirt; a July 1920 variant compares a manuscript to a bathing suit; only by October 1920 does it settle on a speech.

Every element varies unstable

Skirt or dress or bathing suit; ‘create interest’ or ‘be interesting’ or ‘be attractive’; applied to a speech, a sermon, a letter or a column. There is no canonical form because there was no original author.

No substantive evidence unsupported

Ronald Knox is sometimes named — usually for the sermon version. Quote Investigator found no substantive evidence he used it.

An anonymous American newspaper joke in circulation by 1920 — used by a congressman that October, and not attributed to Churchill until 1942 the evidence ↗.

Context

Why it resonates

It survives because it is genuinely useful advice about speaking, smuggled inside a joke — cover the material, then stop. Advice that arrives as a laugh gets repeated far longer than advice that arrives as a rule.

It has also aged unevenly. The gag depends on a 1920s frisson about hemlines that has largely evaporated, leaving a line that lands today more as a period piece than as wit — which may be why it now travels chiefly as a Churchill anecdote rather than on its own merits.

He probably did say it. He just said it twenty-two years after everyone else.

The joke's twenty-two-year head start

May 1920: a newspaper column compared to a woman’s skirt (Buffalo Enquirer) — printed in quotation marks, i.e. already circulating. The earliest known instance.

June 1920: C. H. McNider tells a bankers’ convention his talk will be short enough to be interesting, long enough to cover the subject — the earliest spoken version.

July 1920: a manuscript compared to an up-to-date lady’s bathing suit (Asbury Park Evening Press) — a contemporaneous variant.

October 1920: Rep. Richard N. Elliott applies it to a campaign speech.

1942: a New York columnist reports Churchill using the ‘lady’s dress’ form — the first Churchill attribution (a 1943 column adds Frances Langford hearing him say it).

The gap between the joke and the famous name: twenty-two years.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Simplicity Creativity

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Long Enough to Cover the Subject, Short Enough to Be Interestingquoteinvestigator.com

The complete citation chain from the May 1920 Buffalo newspaper column to the 1942 Churchill attribution.
Quotes Falsely Attributed to Winston Churchillwinstonchurchill.org

The International Churchill Society’s standing list of misattributions, useful context for how many there are.

Popularly credited author

Why it gets pinned on Churchill

Winston Churchill

1874–1965 · British statesman, historian and Nobel laureate in Literature

Sir Winston Churchill is the great attractor of orphaned witticisms: any remark about oratory, brevity or wit drifts toward him eventually. In this case the drift had real help, because he probably did use the joke — which makes it a subtler problem than a pure fabrication. Using a joke and originating one are different things, and quotation sites almost never distinguish them.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Anonymous American newspaper joke, in circulation by 1920. Earliest spoken version C. H. McNider, June 1920; campaign-speech version Rep. Richard N. Elliott, 26 October 1920. First attributed to Churchill in a newspaper column, 1942.

MLA (9th ed.)

“A speech should be very much like a woman’s skirt.” Anonymous American newspaper joke, in circulation by 1920.

APA (7th ed.)

A speech should be very much like a woman's skirt. (1920). [Anonymous American newspaper joke].

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘A good speech should be like a woman’s skirt’?” Last verified 20 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/a-good-speech-should-be-like-a-womans-skirt/

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