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Classic Dialogue: Cocky's first meeting with Sammy.


As I've found it impossible to upload this onto the quotes section, I am pasting it in here.

THE FIRST MEETING BETWEEN COCKY WAINWRIGHT (Edward G. Robinson)
AND SAMMY HARTLAND (Fergus McClelland).

COCKY: “Well, I’ve seen some queer animals in the bush in my day, but I don’t recollect meeting one like you. Now…, err, …what would you be, I wonder, …two legs and no tail. A lobster, would you be? You’re as red as the reddest lobster I ever saw. Are you on your own?”

SAMMY: “Yes.”

COCKY: “Nobody else with you?”

SAMMY: “I ran away.”

COCKY: “Did you now? Well, I tell you what, you hop a long with me. Well, I don’t know where you’re making for, but I’m heading for Skoomerland.”

SAMMY: “Where’s that?”

COCKY: “South.”

SAMMY: “I’m going south, too. How far are you going? Not as far as Durban, I suppose?”

COCKY: “Durban?… Durban, South Africa?”

SAMMY: “Yes.”

COCKY: “No, I’m not going as far as Durban. I’m going 400 miles south. Any use to you?”

SAMMY: “Durban’s a lot further than that.”

COCKY: “Oh, about 2,500 miles. None of my business, but, …err, …where’ve you come from?”

SAMMY: “Port Said.”

COCKY: “Well, quite a way. About 2,000 miles, I’d say. Get any lifts?”

SAMMY: “Some of the way.”

COCKY: “Well, I should think you’d be a bit bored with walking. Would you like Juma to carry you for a bit?”

SAMMY: “No.”

COCKY (to himself): “Jumpin’ Jehosaphat! Port Said to Durban on his own! Would you believe it? Would you believe it?”

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Fantastic quote. I now try to use Jumping Jehoshaphat as often as possible...

This from google search:

On consulting the Oxford English Dictionary and the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, it seems clear that the name of the king of Judah (which also occurs in several other spellings, most commonly Jehosaphat) was used in the United States around the middle of the nineteenth century as a mild oath, a euphemism for Jehovah or Jesus. The phrase Jumping Jehoshaphat is first recorded from Mayne Reid’s Headless Horseman of 1866, but is probably older. It seems to have been in the tradition of exotic imprecations that Americans of that period were so fond of, with the repeated initial sound greatly helping its acceptance.

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Very interesting, Richard. I've often wondered where that exclamation came from and who Jehoshaphat was (and still wonder why he was famous for jumping).

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