Wall Street Lays an Egg

Wall Street Lays an Egg was a headline printed in Variety, a newspaper covering Hollywood and the entertainment industry, on October 30, 1929, over an article describing Black Tuesday, the height of the panic known as the Wall Street crash of 1929 (the actual headline text was WALL ST. LAYS AN EGG).

[1] It is one of the most famous headlines ever to appear in an American publication and continues to be noted in history books into the 21st century.

[2] "Laying an egg" is an American idiom, current particularly in 20th century show business, meaning "failing badly".

Variety was noted for the slangy, breezy style of prose in its headlines and body text.

According to author Ken Bloom, Variety publisher Sime Silverman wrote the headline.