Jimmy Durante Quotes (11 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Jimmy Durante: 11 quotes 3 likes

Famous Jimmy Durante Quotes

“Be awful nice to 'em goin' up, because you're gonna meet 'em all comin' down.”

Jimmy Durante

As quoted in The New Speaker's Treasury of Wit and Wisdom (1958) by Herbert Victor Prochnow, p. 409
Variants:
Be nice to people on your way up, because you're going to meet them all on your way down.
As quoted in A Quote for Every Day (2011) edited by Peter A. LaPorta, p. 41
Be nice to people goin' up, because you're going to meet them all comin' down.
Be nice to 'em goin' up, because you're going to meet them all comin' down.

“Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.”

Jimmy Durante

Famous sign-off line to all his radio and TV shows, the meaning of which he never publicly revealed, leading to much speculation and many theories. Only after his death did it become public knowledge that it was reference to his first wife, Jeanne Olson, who died in 1943, and that Calabash was a private name between them for Calabasas, California, where she spent much of the final years of her life.

“Don't put no constrictions on da people. Leave 'em ta hell alone.”

Jimmy Durante

As quoted in Low Man On A Totem Pole (1941) by Harry Allen Smith, p. 185
Variant: Why can't everybody leave everybody else the hell alone?

“Politics is developing more comedians than radio ever did.”

Jimmy Durante

As quoted in Informationweek issues 699-702 (1998), p. 497 http://books.google.com/books?id=cDxVAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Politics+is+developing+more+comedians+than+radio+ever+did.%22&dq=%22Politics+is+developing+more+comedians+than+radio+ever+did.%22&hl=en&ei=mre7TbTaFJCcgQfJk6noBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA

“I don't know where it's going, but I'm sticking with it!”

Jimmy Durante

Said after joining chorus girls in a conga line onstage, as quoted in "Tips on Tables" by Robert W. Dana (30 March 1951) http://www.bigbandsandbignames.com/durante.html

“Mentioned as one of Durante's aquaintences, usually introduced in a boisterous manner, as quoted in Current Biography : Who's News and Why (1946) by Anna Rothe, p. 168”

Jimmy Durante