Blue Moon

Yeah, I know.

Triple rhyme.

Oh, fuck.

Yeah.

WQXR notes the passing

of one of America's foremost songwriters,

Lorenz Hart, who died last night

at Doctors Hospital in Manhattan

from complications of pneumonia.

Mr. Hart was 48 years old.

For over 20 years, Hart and his partner, Richard Rodgers,

Rodgers wrote the music, Hart the words,

combined their respective geniuses

to create a string of musical-comedy hits.

Often referred to as America's Gilbert and Sullivan,

Rodgers and Hart will be remembered for such songs as,

My Funny Valentine, The Lady Is A Tramp,

Where or When,

With A Song In My Heart, Isn't It Romantic?,

My Heart Stood Still, Bewitched,

I Didn't Know What Time It Was, Manhattan,

and Blue Moon.

Here comes "grand."

I need a drink.

-Lorry. -I'll see you later, Mom.

All right. For the last time, put the letters on the table.

"If Laszlo and the cause mean that much to you,

"you won't stop at anything."

All right, I'll make it easy on you.

"Go ahead, shoot. You'd be doing me a favor."

Just remember, I got this gun pointed at your dick.

Oh. That's my least vulnerable spot.

Jesus Christ!

How many times have we seen that picture?

Worst line in Casablanca?

"Well, a precedent is being broken."

"A precedent is being broken"?

How can you break a goddamn precedent?

Do they even speak English over there in Hollywood?

Still, you have to love Claude Rains.

-He makes that picture. -Sure.

You know why he's so great?

He's a leading man, and he's short,

which proves you can be both.

And I love this.

He says to Ilsa,

"Mademoiselle, he's the kind of man that, if I were a woman

"and I were not around, I should be in love with Rick."

Think about it.

Whom does he end up with at the end of the picture?

Who's strolling away together arm in arm into the fog?

You're saying Rick and Captain Renault...

What do you think goes on over there

at the Free French garrison in Brazzaville?

That is a scene they can't show you.

Okay. Best line in Casablanca?

"Nobody ever loved me that much."

Isn't that magnificent?

Six words. "Nobody ever loved me that much."

And, really, who's ever been loved enough?

Who's ever been loved half enough?

Would you get me a shot?

Larry, you told me under no circumstances...

I'm just going to look at it.

Take the measure

of its amber heft in my hand.

-You told me not... -Just give me the drink.

Did I tell you what Elizabeth told me?

That's the girl I'm meeting here tonight.

-You mean the one you... -Eddie, Eddie, Eddie.

-What? -Show some class, all right?

Her mother is going to come walking in here any second.

-Sorry. -Seriously.

I... I adore this girl.

And, I'm telling you, this is beyond sex.

-What's beyond sex? -I don't understand it.

She's completely undeserving,

but isn't that the way it always is?

"Irrational adoration."

That's the phrase she came up with.

She's a poet, too. Did I tell you that?

Oh, and would you give me a shot of club soda?

I'll drink one and admire the other.

So, this girl...

You really, you know,

with a 20-year-old college girl, huh?

It is more complicated than you could possibly imagine.

Uh, leave the bottle.

It's a visual poem.

You're not giving me any details here.

You know what my secret goal is for the rest of this year?

-What? -I'm serious. Really.

My secret goal is to stop being so scared.

-Elizabeth Weiland. For... -Those are mine!

Jesus! That is all you get for five dollars?

Plus delivery, yes.

Lorenz Hart?

You know, I kind of think I've heard that name before.

You just earned yourself a dollar tip, kid.

A precedent is being broken.

Hey, she gave this to me.

Mailed it all the way from New Haven

because I said I wanted something

she'd actually touched.

Christ! It's like I'm 17 again,

except I never was 17.

I went directly from childhood to washed-up.

Eddie, get the kid a drink, would you?

No thanks. I'm... I'm working.

Oh, Christ, that's when you should be drinking.

What's your name? Sven, am I right?

-Troy. -Ooh, even better.

Listen, Sven, are you free tonight?

Eddie, would you get the kid a goddamn shot?

-Yeah. -'Cause I am throwing

an enormous party at my place.

All of show business is going to be there.

I've booked the Golden Gate Quartet.

I'm serious.

I want you to show up, bring a friend,

bring a dozen friends.

It's going to be like nothing you've ever seen before.

I'm up at the Ardsley, you know? 91st, on the Park.

Just tell the desk clerk

that you're with Lorenz Hart's party.

You're going to need to know the password.

-Are you ready for the password? -Mmm-hmm.

"Nobody ever loved me that much."

Slow! Oh.

Now that is a beautiful sight.

What, you don't drink?

You know that song?

Uh, no, no.

I really don't listen to the radio that much.

You said you know my name!

You don't know one

-Rodgers and Hart song? -I know...

I just can't really remember...

We were on the cover of Time Magazine!

My picture is on the wall right...

Eddie, where's my picture?

They move 'em around.

-What do you... -Well, how about

this one?

I know that one!

Worst goddamn lyric I ever wrote!

-You wrote that? -Wasn't even supposed

to be the title.

I like that song.

Hmm. I'll take my tip back.

I want you at my party, Sven!

Doc Bender said to me the other night,

after I told him I'd proposed to Vivienne again,

"She turned me down, again,"

he said... "Larry, make up your mind.

"Are you homosexual or heterosexual?"

I said, "Doc, I'm ambisexual."

He said... "What the hell does that even mean?"

I said, "It means I can jerk off

"equally well with either hand."

Oh, Larry! There's a lady present.

Well, women can use either hand, too.

But to be a writer, you have to be

kind of omni-sexual, don't you?

You have to have, inside yourself,

you know, everyone on earth.

Men, women, horses.

How can you give voice to the whole chorus of the world

if the whole chorus of the world isn't already inside you?

Eddie, what do you call a tireless,

relentless homosexual?

"Indefagitable."

To the great and glorious past, when it all mattered so much.

Mmm.

Keep playing. You're good.

Oh, thank you. I'm an aspiring composer.

"Aspiring"?

That means you're breathing, right?

Mmm.

I better take your name down in case I need a new partner.

Hey, did you go to the opening tonight?

Oklahoma! With an exclamation point, no less.

Fact. Any title that feels the need

for an exclamation point,

you want to steer clear of.

What did you say your name was again?

Uh, Morty Rifkin. But I go by the name of Morty Rafferty.

No one could possibly guess you're Jewish.

Wha'dja think of Oklahoma?

What did I think of Oklahoma?