A Song Is Born (1948)

Danny Kaye: Professor Hobart Frisbee

Photos 

Quotes 

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : Yes, what is it?

  Miss Bragg : The taxi is here.

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : Taxi? What taxi?

  Miss Bragg : Miss Swanson's or mine?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : It's all yours, Crabapple Annie!

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : What are you gonna do?

  Honey Swanson : I'm going to show you what yum-yum is. Here's yum.

  [kisses him] 

  Honey Swanson : And here's the other yum.

  [kisses him again] 

  Honey Swanson : And here's yumyum.

  [gives a long kiss that knocks him backwards onto a chair] 

• Professor Traumer : Wonderful thing: research.

  Professor Oddly : It is the searchlight of truth.

  Dr. Elfini : Without research, people would still think the earth was flat.

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : Oh, that's ridiculous.

  Dr. Elfini : And they would still look upon the tomato - as a poisonous fruit.

  Honey Swanson : There, you see! And I want you to look at me, Professor Frisbee, as another tomato.

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : What?

  Honey Swanson : Just another tomato.

  [turns around, sashays up the stairs] 

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : The Germans, of course, use the letter H for our B natural, meaning B flat when they say B.

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : If you'll just stand here, Miss Totten, and when I give you the mating call...

  Miss Totten : Yes!

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : You - give it right back to me.

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : I actually heard Rimsky-Korsakov played on a washboard...

  Professor Gerkikoff : A washboard?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : A bicycle pump...

  Professor Traumer : Bicycle pump?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : A plunger of some sort and pots and pans.

• Honey Swanson : Okay, where do I sleep?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : I beg your pardon.

  Honey Swanson : Where do I sleep?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : I don't know. Where do you usually sleep?

  Honey Swanson : I'm usually in Brooklyn, but tonight I'm going to sleep here.

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : What are you reading here, Magenbruch?

  Professor Magenbruch : That's one of the books I procured this afternoon.

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : "Jazz: Hot and Hybrid". That's very interesting. I should like to read it after you're through with it.

  Professor Magenbruch : Yeah. I particularly like the chapter on hot rhythm. Holds strange fascination for me.

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : That's good. Now that we're all agreed, in the vernacular I heard last night, let's start on the down beat and take off. Is that the correct way of phrasing it?

  Louis Armstrong : That's a good deal.

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : Miss Honey, may I present Miss Bragg, our housekeeper.

  Honey Swanson : Hi. This must be your apron I'm wearing.

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : Oh, this suitcase came for you with a message.

  Honey Swanson : Yeah? What message?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : I don't know.

  Miss Bragg : The message was it's getting hotter and hotter and stay in the icebox like a good little salad.

• Honey Swanson : What are you talking about? This is research, isn't it?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : Is it?

  Honey Swanson : Sure and I'm the guinea pig.

• Tommy Dorsey : It could have been Mel Powell or Hamp.

  Lionel Hampton : Yeah, they're experts at that jive.

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : Well, then perhaps you gentlemen could help me.

  Lionel Hampton : Oh, sure. Mel and I used to play a lot of that stuff with Benny Goodman.

• Professor Magenbruch : Is this the music here?

  Mel Powell : Oh, no. We don't use any music.

  Lionel Hampton : We haven't got anything written down, Professor.

  Professor Magenbruch : Well, we can't play without music.

  Lionel Hampton : Well, Benny Goodman used to.

  Professor Magenbruch : Benny Goodman? I never - Frisbee, did you ever hear of him?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : No, no, I haven't.

• Tommy Dorsey : Can anyone here blow a clarinet?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : That's quite simple. Our Professor Magenbruch plays the clarinet.

  Charlie Barnet : Well, does he, Professor? I hardly think...

  Tommy Dorsey : He's apt to be a little too square.

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : He's quite proficient. I assure you.

• Honey Swanson : What about your work? It isn't even finished. There are a lot of things we haven't even touched on.

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : Well, make no mistake, Miss Honey, I shall regret deeply the absence of your keen mind. But, unfortunately, it's inseparable from an extremely disturbing body.

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : I'm afraid I must ask you to leave.

  Honey Swanson : Leave here? Why?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : I want you to look at this project, this history of music, as a voyage, a long, hard tedious voyage. And when the Foundation first launched its vessel, it wisely followed an old rule of the sea. No women aboard. Consequently, they chose a crew of single men with nothing to distract them from the course they were about to sail.

  Honey Swanson : Say, Junior, you couldn't stop walking up and down here?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : For the last four days, Miss Honey, we have been doing nothing but just drifting. The needle of the compass no longer points to the magnetic pole. It points, if I may say so, to your ankles.

  Honey Swanson : Oh, come now, Admiral, a bunch of grown men. They've all seen a pair of ankles before.

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : Not in nine years, they haven't. Except for the singularly uninspired underpinnings of Miss Bragg.

  Honey Swanson : Well, if you think I'm bothering them, I'll sit on my legs.

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : I, too, have been acutely aware of your presence.

  Honey Swanson : You have?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : But fortunately, I'm strong enough to be able to resist its demoralizing effects.

  Honey Swanson : Oh, really?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : I admit at times it was quite a struggle, but...

  Honey Swanson : Like when?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : Well, twice to be exact. The first time when you leaned over my shoulder to explain the meaning of the word riff.

  Honey Swanson : And the second time?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : I'm not finished with the first time. You leaned over my shoulder, and I felt your breath on my ear.

  Honey Swanson : And?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : And the second time, you were standing up against the window with the sunlight in your hair.

  Honey Swanson : But you didn't do anything about it.

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : Yes, I did. I left the room.

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : Very interesting gentlemen, but our whole project seems to be suffering from some sort of vibration.

  Dr. Elfini : What do you mean?

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : I'd like to talk to Miss Honey alone.

• Miss Bragg : Professor Frisbee, either that woman leaves this house, or I do.

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : Are you speaking of Miss Honey?

  Miss Bragg : I am. Ever since that woman crossed this threshold, a prairie fire of orgiastic events has swept through this house.

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : I'm a perfectly normal man with perfectly normal instincts.

  Honey Swanson : An awful high boiling point.

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : Miss Honey, I - it will probably be a long time and I thought perhaps - well, that is - I - would you yum me just once more?

• Honey Swanson : Maybe it sounds crazy, but to me, you're a regular yumyum type.

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : A yumyum?

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : I always thought I was married to my music. I thought the only thing could stir me was Piatigorsky on the cello, Heifetz on the violin, Toscanini conducting a symphony. And then - then you.

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : [pouring coffee in a cup]  How do you take it?

  Miss Bragg : Just jav, no cow.

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : Just what?

  Miss Bragg : Black.

  Professor Hobart Frisbee : Oh. Sugar?

  Miss Bragg : Straight.

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : Now, our hope is, in the words of Mr. Armstrong, that this particular music might send you out of this world.

• Professor Hobart Frisbee : You've given us a fine course in the theory and practice of being a sucker.