Talk:Memphis Bound

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Gilbert and Sullivan Low‑importance

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Title (exclamation point)

Playbill gives the title with an exclamation point, as do most sources. I think the article should be titled with the exclamation point. Also, the sfn cite format makes it difficult for most editors to work with this article. I certainly was discouraged from adding a citation, and I think the citation format will hold this article back from being improved by additional editors. I suggest moving the cites up into the text in one of the usual formats. -- Ssilvers (talk) 19:05, 30 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your interest, Ssilvers! Though the Playbill website uses an exclamation point, their scans of the actual playbill don't. In fact, searching "Memphis Bound" Robinson on Google and Google Books, I can only find a very small handful of sources that do, and they're all from after 1980. Most mentions, and all contemporary ones, seem to favor no punctuation.

Sorry to hear about your difficulties with the sfn format—I started seeing it in some Featured Articles and was impressed by how it works. The nice thing about it is that it combines the usual short reference form with some nice features: it links to citations for reader-friendliness, and consolidates references automatically so that you never have to think about whether you've already cited, e.g., "Suskin, p. 431." I found the learning curve pretty straightforward…essentially it's just references in the text, but headed with {{sfn| instead of <ref>. What with the reference consolidation, it's saved me a good bit of time in the long run, so I've got to admit I'm glad I stumbled on it. -- Lemuellio (talk) 21:21, 30 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I believe that the sfn format will hold the article back, and so I think it is a very bad idea. Certainly, the existing FA articles about musical theatre do not use this format. As for the punctuation, Hischak, Jones and Mordden, major writers whom you cite, all use the exclamation point. These are not sloppy historians, and I am sure that they saw the original publicity and performance materials. -- Ssilvers (talk) 01:49, 31 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The show's preview program recently appeared at the Smithsonian Transcription Center: Program for MEMPHIS BOUND. This is the May 1945 preview, from Boston. It does not have an exclamation point in the title. — Molly-in-md (talk) 13:47, 27 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]