Act One Flashcards
Mary: But not here.
Hello, Johnny. Mary, have you got the next?
Johnny: Hey, McAdams
What? (wait) You better hurry up or we’ll get docked.
Johnny: You should worry.
Listen, I need the money…What do you want?
Johnny: Dancing…How old were you when you learned?
I don’t know. About seven. Seven or eight.
Johnny: Seven or eight. Did you learn that early?
That’s how old I was when I started dancing school.
Johnny: Oh, You went to a school for it.
Every God damn Saturday, till I went away to school.
Johnny: It took that long. Other guys it didn’t take that long.
It doesn’t take that long. You could learn in a couple of hours.
Johnny: Could you show me how? Lunch hour, could you show me?
I could show you how to waltz, but I wouldn’t here. The other guys would give us the razz.
Johnny: There’s nobody in the oil shack doorn lunch hour.
All you have to do is…Watch.
Foreman: What the hell are you two…? Get back to work you God damn lazy bastards. You, McAdams, I’ll turn you in to your old man.
We’re going, we’re going. (to Johnny) You’re an athlete. You could learn it in no time.
Johnny: Athlete.
If I could pitch a drop like yours - well, I’d still want to dance.
Beginning of act 3, Johnny and Red are about to dance.
Hey, Johnny, congratulations.
Johnny: Hyuh, Bob. You didn’t come back to the plant this summer.
No, I have to crack the books. I’m going to a tutoring school.
Johnny: A what?
Oh, I have to make up some studies.
Johnny: By rights you ought to get this…This is Bob McAdams. He showed me how to dance.
All I did was get you started. What’s your name, little one?
Red: Will I tell him?
Johnny: Sure. Her name is Theresa McDonald, but Red is what we call her.
How about a dance, Red?
Red: Ask my escort.
All right, escort?
Johnny: Sure. I’ll hold the baby while you dance with her.
Hey, a wisecrack. (dance) Where you from, Red?
Red: That’s for me to know and you to find out.
Are you Johnny’s girl?
Red: I consider that a personal question.
So do I. I don’t know what else you could consider it, Red.
Red: I consider the source of that remark.
You sound as if you were in a considerate mood tonight. Are you? If so, I have a car. Okay?
Red: Ask me no questions I’ll tell you no lies.
You ARE Johnny’s girl.
Red: Nobody’s Johnny’s girl.
What happened to Mary Stukitis?
Red: Oh, you know Mary?
Casually.
Red: Johnny’s got her on the brain.
Well, I don’t blame him for that.
Red: She’s a regular tramp.
Mary? No.
Red: Aah, you. You’re like him. Making excuses for her.
No, I just said she wasn’t a tramp.
Red: All right, where is she?
All right. WHERE is she?
Red: Her parents don’t know. Or maybe they do. Maybe they just ain’t telling.
Oh, she isn’t home any more?
Red: Since last Feb-uary. She left town with a traveling salesman.
Mary? I didn’t know that. Did she get married?
Red: Huh. April she wrote to Johnny for money.
How do you know?
Red: How do I know. He got drunk and told me, that’s how I know.
Johnny got drunk?
Red: He gets slopped all the time. You’re the McAdams that your father owns the steel mill.
Check.
Red: I thought I reccanize your name. THAT McAdams.
Johnny gets fried, eh? What about basketball? What about baseball?
Red: Dancing, that’s all he cares about any more. Him and I won four cups this year. We got an offer to go on the stage.
In a year’s time? A year ago Johnny couldn’t dance two steps.
Red: Don’t take the credit. He’s a natural dancer from the word go. All somebody had to do was start him. I guess it was you.
Are you going on the stage?
Red: We had an offer to, but my parents don’t wish me to leave home. My parents are very strict.
Then I guess it’s no use asking you again.
Red: What?
Oh, go for a ride. Drive up to the Stage Coach and have a highball.
Red: you gotta promise to bring me back in an hour. Anyway two hours.
Do you want to ask Johnny?
Interior of a speakeasy, only person in the room besides the help is Bob McAdams.
Georgetti.
Georgetti: yes, Mr. McAdams. A Planter’s Punch, sir?
Another Planter’s Punch. (Johnny enters.) Hyuh, Johnny.
Johnny: Hyuh, bob. I got your message.
I see you did. I was afraid you might have moved.
Johnny: How did you ever find out where I was living?
Easy. I called up and asked your mother.
Johnny: Yeah, they have a phone now…How’s your family? Your parents? Your sister?
They’re all pretty well, thanks. Connie got married last June.
Johnny: She did? Marry a guy from town?
No, fellow from Baltimore.
Johnny: Baltimore, eh? I guess everything’s all right at the mill.
Oh, sure. The old man’s running it by himself. What will you have?
Johnny: Nothing, thanks. I got a show tonight.
You sure have. From what I hear, you ARE the show.
Johnny: No. Don’t believe all you hear….What are you doing, Bob? I guess I should know, but I don’t.
I just started working downtown. Wall Street.
Johnny: Bond salesman?
That’s the idea. There’s nothing for me at the mill. As a matter of fact my old gent doesn’t want me at the mill. He said go out and get a job where the boss wasn’t my father. So I got this job, or anyway he got it for me.
Johnny: You living in the city?
Yes, I have an apartment with two other guys. We just moved in. Over on 37th street. Four rooms and bath. We got a two-months’ concesssion on a two-year lease. After we get moved in properly we’re going to have some parties, so you’ll see it. Not bad. Near the Lexington Avenue subway, Princeton Club, a couple of good speakeasies. Grand Central, if you have to get away. Not bad.
Johnny: This is a new place for me. I had a hard time getting in.
Didn’t you mention my name?
Johnny: When they gave me a chance to, I did. I guess they didn’t like my looks.
Yeah, they’re funny here. The first time I came here it was with my old gent. A lot of HIS friends come here. My favorite is Dan Moriarty’s, but they don’t allow women.
Johnny: They must be the only ones that don’t…Not that I been going there very long, just since I been in honest-to-God Broadway shows. But - well, I don’t know.
You got anything good in the show?
Johnny: Yeah. There’s one. I got one line up. I gave her a little lay when we were in New Haven, but nothing, you know, serious. If she has a date, all right, and if I have a date, all right.
Yeah, I guess there must be plenty of it.
Johnny: Yeah. Yeah.
You know who I always thought you’d get together with?
Johnny: Well, I can guess.
Mary Stukitis
Johnny: If there would have been anybody it would have been her.
Do you ever run into her?
Johnny: Mary? No…..And I guess I think of her on the average two, three, four times a day.
In other words, you’re in love with her.
Johnny: But I’m not. You know….I got you to show me the waltz, remember?
Sure. I brag about it all the time.
Jones: Emil. Georgetti. We’ll be two, please.
Hello, Mr. Jones.
Jones: Oh, hello there.
(standing up, extending hand) I’m Bob McAdams.
Jones: Oh, of course. Hello, Bob. Good to see you. Are you in New York now?
Yes sir, I just started.
Jones: How’s that father of yours? Son of a gun owes me a letter. How’s your mother?
Fine, thanks.
Jones: And Connie got married. I knew that. I was sorry I couldn’t get up for the wedding.
How’s Mrs. Jones?
Jones: Oh, very well thank you. The twins just got back from Europe. I spose you knew they were at Bryn Mawr.
Yes, I did. This is my friend Johnny Anton.
Jones: Well, nice to see you, Bob. Regards to the family. Like to buy you a drink, but I’m waiting for somebody right this minute.
That’s all right. We have to go, too. I mean, we have to go. Check, please.
McAdams, enjoying life, turns around and sees first, a girl, then, recognizing her, Mary.
Hey, Mary?
Mary: Who is it?…Bob. Bob McAdams!
This is swell. How are you. Come on, sit with me. Where you headed for?
Mary: Home.
Home? I thought you lived in Philadelphia.
Mary: Not any more. You don’t keep up to date. Do you live in New York?
Sure. I’ve been living here almost a year. Do you know who I see all the time? Johnny Antonelli. Johnny Anton, of course.
Mary: I saw him in his show.
Didn’t you go backstage? I have a lot of friends in the show, thanks to Johnny, of course. But he’d be disappointed if he knew you saw the show and didn’t go back.
Mary: I couldn’t. I was always with somebody.
You say always?
Mary: I’ve seen it three times.
You better not let him find that out. What are you doing, I mean have you got a job?
Mary: Yes, I’m a model.
Where? Bergdorf Goodman’s? I know a model there.
Mary: No, a smaller place. It’s called Elise Brennan, you probably never heard of it.
No. Where do you live? Are you in the phone book?
Mary: Yes. Under the name of Mary Stewart. East 65th street.
Mary Stewart. You know what happened to her.
Mary: She was beheaded.
Yes, I was going to say she lost her head. Stewart, eh? Well, that’s not so far from Stukitis.
Mary: It’s about as far as Lithuania to Scotland.
(laughing) Not bad. Listen, you’re not married or anything, are you?
Mary: No, I’m still single. How about you?
Oh, me? Marriage is the farthest thing from my thoughts.
Mary: I’ll bet.
Well listen, Mary, how about dinner some night? If I call you up are you going to be busy for the next six months or would you like to reminisce about the old home town?
Mary: Any time.
How about weekends?
Mar: What do you mean?
Well, next Sunday, for instance. I share an apartment with these two friends of mine and we have a cocktail party almost every Sunday.
Mary: Weekends I’m almost always free.
Well good, how about this Sunday? I’ll get Johnny to come.
Mary: Oh. Well, I don’t know.
Why? Don’t you want to see Johnny?
Mary: Well, you don’t have to have him on account of me.
You’d rather he didn’t come.
Mary: Well - I wouldn’t have much to say to him.
Okay, we don’t have to have him. You come, and then you and I go some place for dinner.
Mary: All right, fine. I’d like to go out with you. Talk.
Swell. And not just once or twice, huh?
Mary: Well, there’s one thing, though, Bob. I’m liable to break a date at the last minute.
Who doesn’t?
Mary: Well, I just don’t want you to get sore.
Listen, don’t get me wrong. I don’t delude myself that you’ve been sitting her in New York waiting for good old Bob McAdams to take you out.
Mary: Sixty-fourth street. I get off here. Are you in the phone book?
East thirty-seventh street. Any time after five-thirty.
