"Play it again, Sam"

[Fred Shapiro]

On Thu, 21 Sep 2000, Miller, Jerry wrote:

> Barry: I'm not sure what the problem is with the quotes site, but you might
> want to try "Sam, play it." Bogart never actually says "Play it again, Sam"
> in Casablanca. Allen (and many others) "cleaned" it up to suit their own
> purposes.

Ralph Keyes says the following in his book "Nice Guys Finish Seventh":

The most famous of all misquoted movie lines appears neither in the script
nor the film of _Casablanca_.  The closest words are, "Play it, Sam.
Play 'As Time Goes By.'"  These words are uttered by Ilsa (Ingrid
Bergman), not Rick (Humphrey Bogart).  Later Rick does say, "If she can
stand it I can.  Play it!"  After years of hearing his words misquoted,
the cowriter of _Casablanca_'s script -- Howard Koch -- speculated that
"'again' simply underlined the average person's nostalgic memory of the
scene (so familiar on posters and on the covers of film anthologies) in
which Bogart sits drinking and brooding while Dooley Wilson sings, 'As
Times Goes By.'"  In _The Spoilers_, a 1956 movie, Anne Baxter did say,
"Play it again, Sam."  This line later became the title of a Woody Allen
play and movie.  Describing how he imitated Bogart as a teenager, Woody
Allen wrote, "I was walking like Bogart, talking like Bogart, curling my
lip and saying, ... 'Play it again, Sam.'  (I know he never actually said
'Play it again, Sam,' but I said it enough for both of us.)"

As for the "problem" with the quotes site, I think Barry is pointing out
with his characteristic graciousness that there is a Search button that if
clicked searches the entire Yale University Press site.  There is at this
time no searchable database of quotations on the site.  I will see if YUP
can remove the Search button.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Public Services     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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