Daily Dialogue — May 20, 2019

Walter Burns: You can get married all you want, Hildy, but you can’t quit the newspaper business.
Hildy Johnson: Well, why not?
Walter Burns: I know you, Hildy. I know what quitting would mean to you!
Hildy Johnson: What would it mean?
Walter Burns: It would kill ya’!
Hildy Johnson: You can’t sell me that, Walter Burns.
Walter Burns: Who says I can’t? You’re a newspaper man!
Hildy Johnson: That’s why I’m quitting! I want to go someplace where I can be a woman.

— His Girl Friday (1940), screen play by Charles Lederer, play “The Front Page” by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, uncredited screenplay Ben Hecht, uncredited additional dialogue Morrie Ryskind

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Journalist. Today’s suggestion by @writersroompub.

Trivia: During the 1930s, Howard Hawks was hosting a dinner party when the topic of dialogue was brought up. He pulled out a copy of “The Front Page” to demonstrate the snappy exchanges between characters, taking the role of Burns. A female guest took the role of Hildy. While reading, Hawks realized the dialogue sounded much better with a woman reading, and quickly secured the rights for the film from Howard Hughes. Ben Hecht (the author of “The Front Page”) approved the gender change and the screenplay was put into production.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Reflective of the time when almost all journalists were men, here Hildy (Rosalind Russell) declares her desire to break free from the male environment of the newsroom.