Movie Quote of the Day (‘The Hucksters,’ on Radio Advertising)

Victor Albee Norman [played by Clark Gable]: “Miss Hammer, take a memorandum. To Mr. Kimberly: Dear Kim, For four years I haven't been listening to the radio much. Paragraph. Kim, in that time, it's gotten worse, if possible. More irritating, more commercials per minute, more spelling out of words, as if no one in the audience had gotten past the first grade. Paragraph. I know how tough Evans is, and some of the other sponsors, but I think we make a great mistake in letting them have their own way. We're paid to advise them. Why can't we advise them that people are grateful for what free entertainment they get on the air, grateful enough to buy the product that provides good shows. But, they have some rights, Kim, it's their homes we go into, and they're not grateful to people who get one foot in the door by pretending to offer them music and drama, and then take too much time in corny sales talk. Paragraph. I want to go on record as saying that I think radio has to turn over a new leaf. We've pushed and badgered the listeners, we've sung to them and screamed at them, we've insulted them, cheated them and angered them, turned their homes into a combination grocery store, crap game and midway. Kim, someday, 50 million people are going to just reach out and turn off their radios [snaps fingers], snap, just like that—and that's the end of the gravy, for you, and me, and Evans. Sign it love and kisses, Vic.”—The Hucksters (1947), screenplay by Luther Davis, adaptation of Frederic Wakeman’s novel by Edward Chodorov and George Wells, directed by Jack Conway