JIMMY MACDONALD

(steps in. In his right hand he carries the sort of brief case preferred by gentlemen who travel in coffee and under his left arm he carries a small, very pink, and very cheap portable phonograph. TULIP doesn't hear him, goes back to the shelf again to get some napkins and some spoons which she polishes on the napkins and he, seizing the opportunity, opens the portable phonograph, starts the disc spinning and blatantly it begins to play the popular air of the moment, whatever that is by the time this play goes into rehearsal if it ever gets written, and if it's ever accepted for production, because God knows I'm through putting money in my own turkeys. So help me.

[no closing parenthesis]

-- Preston Sturges, main character's entrance description in Act I of A Cup of Coffee, the play on which the movie Christmas in July was based