"It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it"

[Hollis Barnhart]

Another non-canonical form can be found in the film "Sweet Smell of
Success:"   "It's a dirty job, but I pay clean money for it."

Hollis Barnhart

American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on Saturday, September
17, 2005 at 10:15 AM -0500 wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: "It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it"
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>
>On Fri, 16 Sep 2005 16:50:05 -0700, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>>This passage from a popular Flynn / Reagan film may have contributed to
>>the saying:
>>
>>_Desperate Journey_ (Raoul Walsh, 1942) : "[JED FORREST, RCAF (Arthur
>>Kennedy).]
>>I didn't get into this war for fun, or adventure, or because it was
>>expected of me.  I got in because it was a hard, dirty job that has to
>>be done before I can go back to doing what I liked - before a hundred
>>million other people can get back to doing what they liked. It's no
>>bright game to me. It's a job - a job that has to be done as rapidly
>>and efficiently as possible."
>>
>>Quoted in Thomas Doherty, _Projections of War_ (N.Y.: Columbia U.P.,
>> 1993), p. 107.
>
>Didn't we establish about a month ago that the canonical form of the
>expression was popularized by private eye Nick Stone in the series
>"Tightrope" (1959-60)?
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer