Body and Soul Page #3

So-so.

How'd you like that quick knockout Charlie made?

I've seen knockouts before.

Everybody said it was sensational!

You ever meet Charlie personally, Mr. Quinn?

You shoot.

- This is Charlie Davis.

- Hello.

How about you take in a hand? You know, set up a few money fights now? Charlie's on his way up.

Charlie's a great fighter, Mr. Quinn. He's got the natural stuff. He's got the style...

- A little training...

- So what?

So what? He won the amateurs!

So what? Kids win this and that every day. Thousands of them.

One out of a hundred fights professionally, one out of a thousand's worth watching,

one out of a million is worth coffee and donuts...Now tell your boy to get himself an honest job.

Nobody's asking you for coffee and donuts!

You see that, Mr. Quinn? He's a natural fighter, you got a champion!

Throw me the balls.

Hiya, Pop!

Good evening, Ma!

Good evening, champion.

We had a delegation tonight from the poolroom. They congratulated your parents.

Well...it's better to win than to lose.

Surely...And the other boy, you hurt him good, champion?

It's only a prizefight, Ma. It's a sport!

A fine sport...A fine sport, indeed!

Quinn will take you on. He'll teach you to be a professional fighter!

All we gotta do is raise ten or fifteen bucks for equipment.

We can dig up the dough, and...

Evening, Mrs. Davis...evening, Mr. Davis...

- I'll see you later, Charlie.

- Yeah.

So now you'll be a professional sport and make a living hitting people.

Knocking their teeth out, smashing their noses, breaking their heads in.

Sportsman, this is what you want?

All right, Anna, if we're closing up, let's close.

20 years ago, I wanted to move to a nice place so our Charlie would grow up a nice boy and learn a profession.

But instead we live in a jungle, so he can only be a wild animal.

Do you think I picked the East Side like Columbus picked America?

It was possible to buy the candy store with a small cash-down payment...

A fine investment.

Next door a speakeasy, across the street a poolroom...

Loafers on the corner, children like wolves...

Could I help it that J.P. Morgan refused to advance me credit?

I would have opened a fancy store on Fifth Avenue...

We could have lived at the Ritz, Charlie would be wearing a monocle...

You think I want to spend the rest of my life selling kids two-cent soda?

"Mr. Davis, give me a penny candy, Mr. Davis, give me a pack of cigarettes, mind the baby,

make mine raspberry!"...

Well not me, Ma! Understand, not me.

I don't want to end up like Pop.

Don't talk that way about your father.

Let the boy alone. He don't mean what he says.

I'll let him alone like you do, to fight in poolrooms, to hang around street corners...

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