Paul Erdos's Two-Line Functional Analysis Proof Legends hold that once upon a time, some mathematicians were rather pleased about a 30-ish page result in functional analysis. Paul Erdos, upon learning of the problem, spent ten or so minutes thinking about the original problem, and came up with a two-line proof.
I believe I read about this first in the biography The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, and it seems as though the internet maintains this legend (q.v. here, here, here).
This seems extraordinary, which leads me to some skepticism. I cannot seem to find any other reference to the actual proof or the problem. Is this simply an urban legend? Did it actually happen? What was the problem, and what was the original 30-page result?
 A: I sent Professor Purdy an email. I asked him what he recalled about the incident. With his permission I've copied his correspondence below. 

Dear Jacob,
Yes, I was there, and I'm the one who told the story to Paul Hoffman,
  who then included it in his book "The man who loved only numbers."
The 30 page proof was written by Jack Bryan just before Erdos came to
  visit, at Texas A & M University. The problem was written on the
  blackboard in the mathematics lounge and Erdos saw it and asked "Is
  that a problem?" I told him yes, and he went over and wrote a two line
  proof on the blackboard. It's the most incredible thing I ever
  witnessed, and that's why I told Paul Hoffman the story. Ron Graham
  told Hoffman to talk to me because I knew Erdos well.
Much later it became obvious that Erdos loved this story, and I asked
  him how he did it without knowing the subject. He said, smiling, "Oh,
  I was a good student at school!"
I have come to realize also that Erdos was one of those mathematicians
  who could tackle an unknown area as if he knew it. He also prized this
  ability in others. He once demonstrated to me that Fred Galvin had
  this ability. Fred was at the board and Paul asked him a question, and
  he answered it, and he asked Fred "Had you seen these things before",
  and Fred answered that he hadn't, and Erdos turned to me and said
  "See!"
George

A: There is another well documented story in which Erdos went to a seminar where an open problem in the topology of infinite-dimensional spaces was stated. I think it was something about determining the dimension (for a particular definition of dimension) of the rational points in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert cube, and that the problem or the seminar was by Hurewicz.   Erdos did not solve it in seconds, but he did so very quickly on the spot, while the seminar was going on. The solution was by his own combinatorial methods.
A: Yes, you are right. It was Jack Bryant, not Jack Brian. He might have retired by now. By the way, even before Erdos came to town, it was generally agreed that there must be a proof that was shorter than 30 pages, but not a two liner! Professor Don Allen talked to Erdos the next day to see if he could help with the research problem that had generated this result, but he reported to us later that unfortunately he couldn't. Don would doubtless remember the statement and proof of the two liner. 
Professor George Purdy
University of Cincinnati
george.purdy@uc.edu
