City for Conquest (1940)

Arthur Kennedy: Eddie Kenny

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Quotes 

• Eddie Kenny : Danny, you're still pretty set on that kid, aren't you?

  Danny Kenny : You ought to know. She's a part of me by now. Like my right arm. Everything was going along so good until that sharpie came along and gave her a fancy line of gab.

• Eddie Kenny : Danny, I know Peggy and I certainly know you well. I can't exactly explain this to you, but call it applause, call it ambition, call it whatever you like, but it would take a lot more than a man to come between you two. You see, Danny, when she rubs her eyes open in the morning, she sees her name up in bright lights "Peggy Nash, Dancer." And all day long she keeps moving those lights around in different theatres and different cities. At night, she goes to sleep with the music of applause in her ears. And Danny, she can't see you and she can't hear you because she's blinded by those lights and deafen by that applause.

  Danny Kenny : It's like you nailed it, Ed. But, whatever it is, I'm not going to let it take her away from me.

• Danny Kenny : Well, look, kid. Here's the way I feel about it. Your business is like any other business. You either do it, or you don't. You're either a main eventer or a four-round preliminary boy. Look, down on Forsyth Street, you used to play by the hour, and I'd listen. And you'd tell me about those big shot composers who really took it on the chin and really went through the mill. Beethoven, who got the toughest break of all. Lost his hearing. He didn't quit, he didn't lay down. He just moved in and kept right on punching.

  Eddie Kenny : Yes, but then what? You work, you tear your heart out, and in the end, nobody's interested. Nobody wants to hear it. They're only interested after you're dead a hundred years.

  Danny Kenny : Ed, that's an alibi. That's an alibi used by guys who are afraid they can't deliver. But you can do it, and if it's good, they listen. They gotta listen!

• Eddie Kenny : Ladies and gentlemen... Once in each man's lifetime there comes a supreme moment. For me, here and now, this is it. Not only because of the generous way in which you have received my symphony, but because I can share this moment with one whose contribution to this music is far greater than any that I could have made. I am speaking of and to my brother. He truly inspired the music that you have heard tonight. For in his life story was a story of the great city as I felt it in terms of music. No, he's not a musician. He couldn't read a single note, but in his heart and soul there was such wealth of music. Music of the city. The music that led him on to glory, to conquest, to tragedy and defeat. But in that very defeat, he conquered. For of all the men that I have come to know, who have loved and lost, this boy retained a great nobility that far surpassed any possible conquest. Yes, my brother made music with his fists so that I might make a gentler music the symphony that you have heard tonight. It is his as much as mine. And so, with deep pride and gratitude, I dedicate this music to my brother, known to most of you, as Young Samson.