42nd Street Quotes

Context

This line is spoken by Julian Marsh (played by Warner Baxter) in the movie 42nd Street, directed by Lloyd Bacon (1933).

This famous backstage musical gives us the story of Peggy Sawyer (Bebe Daniels), a wide-eyed girl from Pennsylvania who shows up in NYC with Broadway dreams. Miraculously, she lands a gig as a chorus girl in a musical directed by Julian Marsh, a hot-shot director who's gone broke thanks to the stock market crash.

Everything's riding on the musical being a success for Julian, since it's his last chance to make enough dough to not die a broke old man. When the leading lady breaks an ankle, Julian is forced to put Peggy in her place, and he gives her the quote as a pep talk. If it were us, this quote would just make us chew our nails… or pee in our pants.

Now go out there and watch the clip.

Where you've heard it

One of most recent references to this most musical-y of musicals was on House MD, when everybody's favorite cranky doctor tells a patient's dad that his son probably knows all the words to 42nd Street. (House does not mean this as a compliment.) There was also an episode of Animaniacs where Yakko sings "Shuffle Off to Buffalo," one of 42nd Street's big numbers.

Of course, our fave 42nd Street reference comes in a Big Lebowski dream sequence, when the Dude does a dance number with chorus girls who must've had Julian Marsh as a choreographer. Check it out here.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Quoting an old black-and-white musical isn't the most pretentious thing you could possibly do, but you're getting there.