- Danny O'Neill: [hiding himself] What'ya think you're doing under this bed?
- Hank Taylor: Looking for a collar button.
- Hank Taylor: I'll buy you a cigar.
- Lester Chisholm: I don't like cigars.
- Hank Taylor: Don't you worry about it! I'll smoke it myself.
- Ellen Miller: Are you a musician, Mr. Chisholm?
- Lester Chisholm: Oh, I should have been; but, I was forced to give it up. I said 'music,' and Father said 'bottlecaps.' Father won.
- Ellen Miller: Look, this is a collection agency, not an escort bureau. Now, will you please get off my desk.
- Hank Taylor: That's a sordid little fellow, isn't he. Sordid little place. Must be a sordid life for such a lovely girl.
- Ellen Miller: Well, there's nothing sordid about it - except the people we deal with.
- Danny O'Neill: Seven years ago I must have broken a mirror; because *that* walked in and became my roommate. I was only a simple Freshman at the time...
- Ellen Miller: What are you now, a simple Sophomore?
- Danny O'Neill: Oh, now, Miss Miller, you're being a bit unkind. After all, we've worked hard to stay in College this long.
- Hank Taylor: He's right. Now, it's not easy for a couple of bright guys like us to go on flunking year after year.
- Ellen Miller: What in the world are you talking about?
- Danny O'Neill: Well, it's like this, you see, as long as we can stay in College, the band makes us a very comfortable living.
- Hank Taylor: That's right. Five, six thousand dollars a year. That's more than you can make on Wall Street!
- Danny O'Neill: She's very business-like, isn't she. I like that in a secretary. In fact, I'd like to have a secretary like that.
- Danny O'Neill: [singing] I never could do the conga, Could never get through the conga, But if you say do the conga, I ain't hep, to that step, But, I'll dig it...
- Ellen Miller: You really want me to work for you?
- Danny O'Neill: Sure. Would you like to?
- Hank Taylor: What's your salary?
- Ellen Miller: 18 a week.
- Hank Taylor: He'll double it.
- Danny O'Neill: Think of it, Hank. You'll go into your father's textile business. A cog in a great industry. Stamping your personality on miles and miles of tweed. Making the wheels turn, punching the clock, listening to the song of the looms.
- Danny O'Neill: [singing] Would you like to be the love of my life, for always? And always watch over me, To square my blunders, And share my dreams, One day with caviar, Next day with chocolate bars...
- Danny O'Neill: Your father was a textile man. So was his father before him. Why, you've got wool in your blood.
- Ellen Miller: Danny, don't you think you ought to be warming up.
- Danny O'Neill: I've been warmed up a *long* time.
- Lester Chisholm: [referring to Artie's manager, Miss Miller] I can't tell you what a jewel you have in this little girl.
- Artie Shaw: I'm finding out everyday.
- Lester Chisholm: And what an inspiration. You know, Mother actually thinks that every girl who's attracted to me is after the Chisholm money.
- Danny O'Neill: [singing in a Russian accent] Alvays and alvays, watch over me, Oh, play a pick and a pluck on the strings of your old balalaika...
- Lester Chisholm: He's miles away. Perhaps dreaming of some little girl on the Steppes of Russia. You can tell by this face, he's loved and suffered.
- Artie Shaw: Miss Miller can tell you all about the band.
- Lester Chisholm: Is Miss Miller hep - as you boys say?
- Artie Shaw: Hep as they come.
- Lester Chisholm: Fascinating, your swing jargon. I'm becoming hep to it myself.
- Artie Shaw: Well, see you later, Mr. Chisholm.
- Lester Chisholm: So long, gate - that's short for alligator.
- Hank Taylor: I'm much too busy to help Artie out. I'm working like a horse.
- Danny O'Neill: Working?
- Hank Taylor: Sure.
- Danny O'Neill: Not with Dorsey?
- Hank Taylor: No, no. He wouldn't change his style to suit me.
- Danny O'Neill: I just hooked up with a terrific European outfit. I never dreamed such things could be done to music.
- Danny O'Neill: After I quit Whiteman...
- Hank Taylor: You quit Whiteman?
- Danny O'Neill: Sure. Too big a band for me. If I'd a stayed with him, I'd of lost my individuality. Same thing happened to Bix.
- Lester Chisholm: Shall we continue, while we're in the groove.
- [singing off key]
- Lester Chisholm: Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me, Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee; Beautiful dreamer, queen of my song, List while I woo thee with soft melody...
- Lester Chisholm: I thought we might have a quiet evening of music - just you and I, alone. I always say there's nothing like duets to make a home a home.
- Lester Chisholm: What would you suggest?
- Danny O'Neill: Well, first of all, line up a number.
- Lester Chisholm: That's a good idea; but, off hand, I can't think of...
- Danny O'Neill: Oh, sure, you remember the "Rolling Back to Mammy on the Big River Blues".
- Lester Chisholm: "Rolling Back to Mammy on the Big River Blues"?
- Hank Taylor: That's it! He's got it!
- Danny O'Neill: He's got it!
- Hank Taylor: I wonder what's going on out there?
- Danny O'Neill: It sounds as if she's giving somebody an audition.
- Hank Taylor: I never heard of Shaw with a mandolin section?
- Hank Taylor: Makes you feel good, doesn't it. You know, self sacrifice. Doing unto others.
- Danny O'Neill: That's the life.
- Hank Taylor: Yeah, but, a little self sacrifice goes a long way. We ought to think of our own careers, for a change. After all, we are the intimate friends of Shaw's backer.
- Danny O'Neill: [at the piano] Listen to this. La-da-da-da-da. Da-da, Da-dah...
- Hank Taylor: You're gonna like this Chis. This is back to the good earth. Full of sweep! Play that, Danny.
- Lester Chisholm: I like that. What's it called?
- Danny O'Neill: "Hoedown, the Bayou." You hear that? That's New Orleans.
- Lester Chisholm: I visited there for three weeks. I don't recognize it.
- Hank Taylor: You don't?
- Danny O'Neill: Why, that's the spirit of New Orleans. I can almost smell the delta.
- Hank Taylor: I *can* smell the delta. Can't you smell the delta?
- Lester Chisholm: I have a slight cold.
- Hank Taylor: Well, nothing that your mandolin won't cure. You pick this up, Chis, pick it up, boy.
- Danny O'Neill: Hell, yeah! Come on, son. The train won't wait.
- Hank Taylor: That's it! That's it! Now, we're sailin' up that river. On to Memphis. Chattanooga. Hold on, Chis!
- Danny O'Neill: Hear them steamboat whistles blowin'? Tote that barge, pull that bale. There's a cabin in the cotton. Solid South! Solid North! Solid Jack!
- Lester Chisholm: Solid Jack?
- Hank Taylor: Right. Wagon wheels creakin' westward. Now, we're rollin' past that junction. On to Kansas! Cincinnati!
- Lester Chisholm: Cincinnati! My home town.
- Danny O'Neill: His home town! Your home town! Everybody's home town! Cincinnati!
- Danny O'Neill: [singing] He tried to jazz up his mandolin, But never could quite control it, He always brought Bach and Handel in, When it took a lick, He always broke a pick, Poor Mr. Chisholm, You're quite a gay, old blade...
- Danny O'Neill: [singing] I hope in your horoscope, There is room for a dope, Who adores you.
- [long kiss]
- Ellen Miller: [in a fake Russian accent] Vas good?
- Danny O'Neill: Vas per-fect.
- [longer kiss]
- Ellen Miller: Believe me, Bud, my outfit are killers. Just what you need for one-nighters.
- Hep Nightclub Owner: Can they pack 'em in like Dorsey?
- Ellen Miller: Solid, Jack!
- Hep Nightclub Owner: Murder!