Swing! (1938)

Dorothy Van Engle: Lena Powell

Quotes 

• Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : She told me all about you.

  Lena Powell : Really?

  Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : Yes. She told me that you'd gone through school and graduated from college and you knows everything!

  Lena Powell : Oh, no, Mandy. Not everything. Just a few things.

  Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : Well, most everything! She says how you was a telegrapher and work in a office and what do you do, honey? Run one of them typewriters? Ticky Ticky. Tick. Like a white girl?

  Lena Powell : Oh, but they're plenty of colored girls operating typewriters now, Mandy.

  Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : Sho nuff?

  Lena Powell : Oh, yes!

• Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : Does you work for white folks, honey, or colored?

  Lena Powell : A colored man! The producer of this show.

  Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : That's grand. I sho glad to see our folks gettin' on.

• Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : Oh, I forgot to tell ya. You know your Mammy done moved out of Alley C since you left.

  Lena Powell : Oh, yes, she wrote me.

  Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : A better house - in Alley G.

  Lena Powell : That's fine.

• Lena Powell : Don't you know it's not dignified or becoming for a lady to go around fighting?

  Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : Oh, of course, it ain't, honey. I never did before. But, when I see'd them with their heads together, a browsing' and a cooin', and their eyes closed like they were so much in love with each other, I just went crazy and crazier. He all dressed up in suits that I bought him with money in his pocket! And she turns around and calls me a funny lookin' greasy cook. Mmm, chile, you'd fought too if you felt like I did.

• Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : But, you know, it's funny, sometimes I find myself thinkin' about him now and wonderin' what he's doin' and who's takin' care of him and given him their money.

  Lena Powell : Terrible.

  Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : What way?

  Lena Powell : Why, giving a man your money. What manner of a man isn't that would accept money from a woman?

  Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : Hmm, all manners of men in Birmingham, honey.

  Lena Powell : Oh, no, Mandy, not all. You'd just been going with the wrong kind.

  Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : I guess yous right. But, thems the only kind that would pay any attention to poor me.

  Lena Powell : Now, you mustn't see things that way at all, Mandy. No real man would ever think of such a thing. If he really cared for you, he'd rather give you some of his money.

  Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : Sho 'nuff?

  Lena Powell : Of course! And that's the kind you're going with from now on.

  Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : Sho nuff! You know, I'd like to have a good man, honey.

  Lena Powell : Well, you just be patient. You'll meet him someday. Who knows? He may be waiting for you now. Just around the corner.

  Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : Sho 'nuff. What corner, honey?

• Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : I know'd how you feel. Him all raggedy and no good for nothin' but playin' the piano.

  Lena Powell : Oh, can he play the piano? I mean, does he play good and swing and jazz?

  Amanda 'Mandy' Jenkins : Oh, he can play anything, honey. That's why they talk about him so. You know what they says about a man that plays a piano, he ain't good for nothin' else.

• Ted Gregory : But, Lena?

  Lena Powell : Never you mind; but, just listen to me. I know Mandy can put it over; because, she got just what this show needs: Swing!

• Ted Gregory : This show can't get to first base without a blues singer and a Mammy lead. They look for it in this type of show. And Cora Smith is the best one in the whole negro race.

  Lena Powell : You're right. Oh, isn't it terrible. Just as we were about to get started too.

  Ted Gregory : I'll hear it now from all sides. They said I couldn't do it. Of all the colored shows that have gone by the board, no negroes ever produced one. From Williams and Walker to Green Pastures. They've all been sponsored by white men. No negroes ever been in on the money, nor the profits.

  Lena Powell : But, we're not whipped just yet. We're only checked. I don't know. I feel as though we're going to make it yet. Now that Cora's out of it, I feel sort of relieved. Strangely, relieved.