Rhapsody in Blue (1945)

Herbert Rudley: Ira Gershwin

Quotes 

• George Gershwin : I'm alright! My headaches gone, and I can play!

  Ira Gershwin : Don't overdo it, George.

  Oscar Levant : Take it easy, fella'.

  George Gershwin : Why should I take it easy? I feel wonderful! Now we can finish the score of the picture and get on with something else. I'd like to try a ballet, or maybe a string quartet, or better yet... I'd like to set The Gettysburg Address to music.

• Ira Gershwin : Mr. Music.

  George Gershwin : Mr. Words.

• Ira Gershwin : [Leads a toast at a party]  Let's drink a toast, to Max Dreyfus our host. Discoverer and friend of those who compose, our best musical shows, here goes.

  Lee Gershwin : It rhymes.

  Julie Adams : Ira, you're a poet. The poet laureate of Tony's Spaghetti.

• George Gershwin : Well, what do know? At last I got the job. Relief pianist at a theater.

  Ira Gershwin : Who do you relieve?

  George Gershwin : Chico Marx.

  Ira Gershwin : Chico! He's the best pianists in the whole neighborhood.

• George Gershwin : Work is a compulsion. It's an obsession. And there's so much I want to do.

  Ira Gershwin : What are you trying to prove, Georgie? You've already done...

  George Gershwin : Don't you see, Ira? It's only with my music that I can prove my right to live. I must write... and I can't even hear it inside me anymore.

• Paul Whiteman : The number was really wonderful. All we've got to do is get the public blues-conscious.

  Ira Gershwin : He's sold on the blues. He won't give them up for anybody. He knows what he wants, Paul. He'll go on.

  Paul Whiteman : We'll go on. The blues will go on.

• Paul Whiteman : I think I'm going to give a jazz concert smack-dab in Aeolian Hall. I'm going to make a lady out of jazz.

  Ira Gershwin : The "Blue Monday Blues" in Aeolian Hall?

  Paul Whiteman : Better than that. George, I want you to write a serious concert piece. Based on the blues.

  George Gershwin : A serious piece that's blue, too? Blue themes and jazz rhythms? Of course.

  Max Dreyfus : You'll lose your shirt, Whiteman. Those highbrows will laugh you right out of Aeolian Hall.

  George Gershwin : A Rhapsody in Blue.

• Ira Gershwin : The nearer we get to the coast, the faster the train goes.

  George Gershwin : Speed, how I love it. Listen to the wheels, Ira. Gotta-make-time, gotta-make-time,gotta-make-time, gotta-make-time.

  Oscar Levant : [from outside the door of the cabin, pretending to be a porter, singing]  Folks with plenty of living, de locks on de door.

  [knocks, talking] 

  Oscar Levant : De Porter, sah.

  George Gershwin : And what critics said "Porgy and Bess" was too high brow?

  Ira Gershwin : Come in.

  Oscar Levant : [George and Ira laugh to see it's Oscar]  Ya sah. Ya sah. Ya sah.

• Ira Gershwin : Mr. Dreyfus and a friend of his are in the steam room. They should be about cooked.

• Paul Whiteman : I may be kind of batty, but this looks mighty good to me.

  Max Dreyfus : Why, it's as blue as blue Monday.

  Ira Gershwin : Hey, that's a good title.

  George Gershwin : Not bad. "Blue Monday Blues". Let's go down on the stage and run it through.