- Stanley Maxton: When I left the hospital, I was a Happy Jack. I-I had myself a set of drums and a jalopy. The sun was shining and the road to LA was good.
- Narrator: Los Angeles, 5 AM. In another few hours, most of the 4 million people in the county will be going to work. Those are the Hollywood Hills and that's The Strip. It's just a piece of land that runs a mile and a half through Hollywood. The Sheriff's office watches over it.
- Stanley Maxton: Sonny was as good as his word. He paid for the drums and took me up to his place on The Strip - a fancy layout with all the fixin's, all the refreshments, liquid - and - otherwise.
- Delwyn 'Sonny' Johnson: Where are you gonna wind up beating a drum all your life?
- Stanley Maxton: Well, I figured if I saved up enough dough, in a few years, I could buy a little club of my own.
- Fluff: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you and good evening! You lovely, adorable, cash customers! Welcome to Fluffs casino on The Strip with branches in all principal countries. Tonight, again, I will hand you a fist full of high-class musicians, I've grabbed from the four-corners of the earth! Oh, I'm so proud of these boys, that I'm going to give them each a chance to show off. That trojan on the tom-toms: Hal 'Smoky' Stover... And now, that ever popular boy, that bombastic bass bomber: 'Pudgy' Pratt... A man who won his permanent apartment in the musical hall of fame: Barney Bigard... My partner at the piano, a great composer: Earl 'Fatha' Hines... That all-American trombonist, the sensational: Jack Teagarden... And at the trumpet, Mr. Dixieland, himself: Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong...
- Stanley Maxton: You play your cigarettes right and you'll find you got a steady customer. Here, honey, keep the change.
- Stanley Maxton: I work for an insurance company and I make triple what I could make in the band business.
- Fluff: I'll give you 20% over scale and look at the company you'll be, Jack Teagarden, Louis Armstrong.
- Stanley Maxton: They're real wonderful. They're the greatest cats in the world, but, no thanks.
- Fluff: That's what I say kid, "Be happy". But, then, again, I ask myself, "What's happiness? Can it buy money?" I've been havin' these arguments with myself ever since I started pounding the piano down at Coney Island.
- Fluff: No guy likes his girl being in love with somebody ahead of him. Even if that somebody is only a career.
- Vic Damone: [singing] I can't help it if that doggone moon above, makes me need someone like you to love.
- Fluff: Kid, it looks like you're on a spot.
- Stanley Maxton: You don't want somebody to throw a bomb in your place, do you?
- Fluff: Well, if it isn't an atom bomb, I think I could take it.
- Stanley Maxton: These guys don't play for laughs.
- Fluff: You were that good a salesman, eh?
- Stanley Maxton: I couldn't sell a dollar bill for 88 cents.
- Fluff: Let me tell you something. I found out a long time ago, that when you wrap up garbage, it don't smell so bad. And when it does smell, don't carry it around, dump it!
- Fluff: Listen, let me tell you something, this is a free country. You can work, play, pray, and think as you please. And if anybody tells you, you can't? Fight 'em!
- Stanley Maxton: Oh, that's easy to say.
- Fluff: Yeah, well, look! If you don't, you're gonna be licked all your life.
- Edna: Sure, I-I remember you Mr. Maxton, you play the drums the craziest!
- Edna: Mr. Maxton, I'm not doing anything. I know a swell place where we can eat. The food is the bitter end!
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