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Radio Show Contest | Department Store
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If adjusted for inflation, the $25,000 grand prize would be equivalent to approximately $460,000 in 2020.
Sturges helped invent the gadget sofa demonstrated in the department store scene.
The set to this movie was open because Sturges loved visitors to observe what he was shooting.
This film was based on a play called "A Cup of Coffee" which Preston Sturges wrote in the summer of 1931. The play also features a character named Jimmy MacDonald who works for a coffee company and enters a contest for a rival company with the slogan "If you can't sleep at night it isn't the coffee, it's the bunk." Much of the play's plot and supporting characters were changed for the film, but the dialogue between Jimmy and his girlfriend about his slogan is repeated almost verbatim. "A Cup of Coffee" was never produced in Sturges' lifetime, but it was eventually staged by the New York theater company Soho Rep in a production that opened in March of 1988, fifty-seven years after the play was written and twenty-nine years after Sturges' death.
Franklin Pangborn's character is named Don Hartman--a typical Sturges in-joke, as Hartman was a fellow writer on the Paramount lot.
"Jimmy MacDonald: If you can't sleep, it isn't the coffee. It's the bunk."
"Dr. Maxford: [to Hartman] Of all the confounded... [knock] Dr. Maxford: [shouts] Come in! Jimmy MacDonald: How da you do, sir? I suppose I have the honor of addressing Dr. Maxford, I presume? Dr. Maxford: That's right. And this is my announcer Don Hartman. Jimmy MacDonald: Well, Mr. Hartman. It certainly is a pleasure to meet you. I've certainly enjoyed your personality on the air. Don Hartman: [pleased] Eh, congratulations to you! Jimmy MacDonald: Thank you. Here's the telegram, Mr. Maxford... uh, Dr. Maxford. Dr. Maxford: Yes, yes, yes. [reading] Dr. Maxford: Oh, yes... "great pleasure... informing you..." "$25,000!" "Kindly call and pick up your check." [to Hartman] Dr. Maxford: Bildocker has a great sense of the dramatic. You aren't by any chance a *coffee* drinker, are you, Mr. MacDonald? Jimmy MacDonald: Yes, sir, I certainly am. Dr. Maxford: Well, that's surprising. You don't by any chance drink *my* coffee, do you? Jimmy MacDonald: Well, no, sir, you see I... eh... Dr. Maxford: Oh, yesss . That sounds more natural. Jimmy MacDonald: But I could easily change. Dr. Maxford: That won't be necessary, Mr. MacDonald. I wouldn't want anybody to think that I had any *base commercial* motives in all this. I just *give* money away, because I can't *sleep* at night. I have a guilty conscience. Jimmy MacDonald: That's my slogan! The one I *won* with. Well... I guess you know all about that. Dr. Maxford: A guilty conscience, eh? I can see that my money is well spent. [staring blankly at Jimmy] Dr. Maxford: That's a *great* slogan. Jimmy MacDonald: No - no, sir. If ya can't sleep at night, it isn't the coffee, it's the bunk. Dr. Maxford: I beg your pardon? Jimmy MacDonald: It's a pun. Dr. Maxford: It certainly is. [staring blankly again] Dr. Maxford: It's *great*. Jimmy MacDonald: Thank you. Dr. Maxford: I can hardly wait to give you my money. [to intercom] Dr. Maxford: Bring me that contest check."
