Beauty for Sale (1933)

Madge Evans: Letty Lawson

Photos 

Quotes 

• Bill Merrick : Hey Letty, how about you and me going down to Coney Island and shakin' a couple of legs?

  Letty Lawson : Not tonight, Bill. I feel kinda low.

  Bill Merrick : Aw, all you need is cheerin' up, babe, and I got just what the doctor ordered.

  Carol Merrick : Aw, Bill, can't you see she's all tired out? Why don't you park it in bed, kid?

• Bill Merrick : Shoot babe, I'm all ears.

  Letty Lawson : Well, as strange as it may be it's this way: I'm flat broke.

  Bill Merrick : Well that can be cured - as the man said when he looked at the ham.

• Letty Lawson : Can you imagine? All that row just because I want to work in a beauty parlor?

  Carol Merrick : I can see his point though. You oughtin' have to work anywhere. Why, you been brought up like a Persian kitten.

  Letty Lawson : Well, even a Persian kitten's got kitten toenails if she has to use 'em.

• Letty Lawson : I got a living to earn for two and I can't do it in Kentucky. You got to take your spoon where the soup is.

  Carol Merrick : Well, the soup's hot in New York, kid. You're likely to get burned.

  Letty Lawson : Oh, I'm not afraid. I know they don't play the game here the way they do back home. It's rough and tumble and catch as catch can. But, I can play it.

• Letty Lawson : I'm not as dumb as you think. In the past six months, I've shed a lot of small town standards. I didn't make the world the way it is; but, I got to live in it.

• Letty Lawson : What did she say?

  Carol Merrick : Not much; but, I felt as if I'd been stabbed with an icicle.

• Letty Lawson : There's only two things that frighten me: thunder and - counselors.

• Bill Merrick : I can't stand seeing you day-after-day like this without ever...

  Letty Lawson : Bill, let me go!

  Bill Merrick : Oh, don't be such a touch-me-not.

• Mr. Sherwood : Won't you come in?

  Letty Lawson : Oh, if I only hadn't been so carefully brought up.

  Mr. Sherwood : Well, let's see. My cook is 120 years old, Chinese, deaf, dumb and blind. Doesn't that qualify him for a chaperone?

  Letty Lawson : No. No, I'm afraid not.

  Mr. Sherwood : Well, come in and think it over, won't you.

  [Letty comes in] 

• Letty Lawson : I always used to have my birthday party under the Magnolia tree with a big, pink bow in my hair. And when bedtime came, I had to take it off - I always bawled.

• Mr. Sherwood : Let's see - Happy are we met...

  Letty Lawson : Oh, I know that one: Happy have we been. Happy may we part...

  Mr. Sherwood : And happy meet again.

• Carol Merrick : Can you do something for me, will ya? Give my face a good once over? I want to look my best tonight. The Big Moment and I are going to the mat over a very important deal.

  Letty Lawson : You know I will! Come on!

• Jane : Glory be, it's quitting time! I couldn't have stood another hour.

  Hortense : Jane, don't change your uniform yet. Go to Madame's office for a manicure.

  Carol Merrick : I thought the old cat sharpened her own claws.

  Letty Lawson : Meow!

• Carol Merrick : Do I look appealing?

  Letty Lawson : Oh, you look like a bouquet of baby's-breath. I hope you have good luck.

  Carol Merrick : I will or Freddy'll find his baby's-breathe is a snapdragon!

• Letty Lawson : Well, I didn't know a ship was like this! I've never been on anything much bigger than a rowboat. Your own bathroom and a closet bigger than a bedroom in Brooklyn.

• Carol Merrick : [showing off her new fur coat]  How's that for summer evenings on deck?

  Letty Lawson : I can just see you and Freddy in the moonlight.

  Carol Merrick : Not Freddy! He's chaperoned by his narrow-minded brother-in-law. Thank heaven! But, there'll be others on board that moonlight's just as becoming to!

• Letty Lawson : If you ever fall in love with a man that you can't marry...

  Carol Merrick : Oh, but I...

  Letty Lawson : I said if! If you do, run like a rabbit! For the best you'll get out of it is the worst of it. You don't want to have to hang around the back door of his life, begging for a handout. You don't want to have to sneak and hide and keep outta sight the way I do. And in the end, when he turns back to his wife and his home, you don't want to be kicked out in the sacred name of respectability - the way I was.

  [Letty stands up and kisses Carol on the lips] 

• Letty Lawson : I've been rushing like mad, ever since I got home.

  Jane : Doing what?

  Letty Lawson : Washing my hair, for one thing.

  Jane : On Saturday night? Why you got all day tomorrow to do it.

• Letty Lawson : Going to bed early?

  Jane : As soon as I put a million miles of new ribbon in my lingerie.

• Bill Merrick : I don't see what you wanted to come this way for. There's not even a hot dog stand.

  Letty Lawson : Oh, but its so peaceful!

  Bill Merrick : Yeah, about as peaceful as being buried alive and pretty near as pleasant.

• Bill Merrick : Letty, you didn't do anything you'd be ashamed to tell me?

  Letty Lawson : No, Bill, I didn't do anything I'd be ashamed to tell you.

  [licks her ice cream cone] 

  Bill Merrick : I guess I shouldn't have asked that; but, men are funny that way.

  [takes a bite from his ice cream cone] 

• Letty Lawson : My next appointment, Mrs. Sherwood, I - I'd rather not go.

  Madame Sonia Barton : Why what's the matter? Is she so difficult?

  Letty Lawson : Oh, no, no. It's not that. It's a purely personal reason.

  Madame Sonia Barton : There's no room in business for personalities. You must leave those to my clients. My employees must disregard them - so long as they remain my employees.

• Bill Merrick : Oh, come on Letty. Cheer up! It won't be long now - as the vet said when he bit off the puppy's tail.

  Letty Lawson : Oh, Bill, you do think of the most unappetizing things!

  Bill Merrick : Aw, the trouble with you is, you ain't got no sense of humor.

  Letty Lawson : And I'm gonna need one.

  Bill Merrick : You'll learn, baby, you'll learn. There's lots of things I'm gonna teach you! What do you know about that?

• Bill Merrick : Let's sit in the car. I can get closer to you that way.

  Letty Lawson : Oh, Bill! Not here!

  Bill Merrick : Oh, still so touch-me-not. Well, I kinda like it at that. I've had too many women throw themselves at me. But, when you cold babies do let go, oh boy!

• Letty Lawson : Carol, I can't! I can't marry him!

  Carol Merrick : Well, isn't it a little late, honey?

  Letty Lawson : I don't care. But, I'd kill him or I'd kill myself!

• Mr. Sherwood : You mean you're...

  Letty Lawson : Yes, I'm available! For the time being.

• Letty Lawson : [referring to Burt Barton]  Who is he?

  Carol Merrick : Sonia's son. He's the pineapple of her eye.