The Strip (1951)

William Demarest: Fluff

Photos 

Quotes 

• 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 : 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.

• 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.