Swing! (1938)

Carman Newsome: Ted Gregory

Quotes 

• Ted Gregory : You know and I know, that while a colored show maybe and is supposed to stay within a prescribed scope, we must, if we hope to get anywhere, deliver something within that scope, that the public will like and come to see, that is entirely different from what an audience has come accustomed to seeing and hearing. That, my people, is what I'm hoping of giving them. So, I want all of you to do your best.

• Ted Gregory : But, Lena?

  Lena Powell : Never you mind; but, just listen to me. I know Mandy can put it over; because, she got just what this show needs: Swing!

• Ted Gregory : This show can't get to first base without a blues singer and a Mammy lead. They look for it in this type of show. And Cora Smith is the best one in the whole negro race.

  Lena Powell : You're right. Oh, isn't it terrible. Just as we were about to get started too.

  Ted Gregory : I'll hear it now from all sides. They said I couldn't do it. Of all the colored shows that have gone by the board, no negroes ever produced one. From Williams and Walker to Green Pastures. They've all been sponsored by white men. No negroes ever been in on the money, nor the profits.

  Lena Powell : But, we're not whipped just yet. We're only checked. I don't know. I feel as though we're going to make it yet. Now that Cora's out of it, I feel sort of relieved. Strangely, relieved.