"OF ALL THE UNMITIGATED GALL!"

Since I was a teenager, I've used the phrase, "Of all the unmitigated gall!". I'm going to confess right now that I stole it from Joan Crawford as she uttered it in the movie Mildred Pierce.   Last year, during a Facebook thread squabble, a man used "Of all the unmitigated gall" in a response, and I chastised him for not attributing it to the writers of Mildred Pierce. He admitted that was where he'd heard it and also mentioned that I must be "really old" to know that reference.

At Rockwell, I had a love/hate relationship with the Union Committeeman, John, who was also a movie lover and prided himself as a "psychologist". He knew when I was "acting" as if I were furious and he would say which actress I was emulating for my "performance". One time, he and a worker, Marilynn, were in my office as I was dispensing disciplinary action to her.  Marilynn began crying and I stood up and said, "I'll give you the opportunity to compose yourself, Marilynn; I'll just step outside." John followed me to my secretary's desk and I said, "Go back in there and tell her that the waterworks don't work on me!" He said, "Is that Barbara Stanwyck or Rosalind Russell?" My secretary, Myra began laughing. I said, "No, that was more like my mother!"

My office was next to my Labor Representative Dave. Another time, John and Leo, the Zone Committeeman, were in my office and we were having a heated conversation and I hit the wall with my hand, knocking down a picture from the wall. Dave heard the commotion and rushed over and as the door was open, he walked in and asked if everything was OK. John said, "She's just doing her BEST Joan Crawford!" 

John DID know me well as he said, "When she's really mad, she crosses her arms and speaks in a very low voice; that's the only time I take her seriously!"