Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 22:20:25 -0400 From: "Barry A. Popik" Subject: Money Talks (movie title) MONEY TALKS is the title of a new movie starring Charlie Sheen and Chris Tucker. The full phrase is often "Money talks--bullshit walks." Does anyone have a "money talks"? I couldn't find it in Bartlett, nor in American Heritage. It was in, ah, Robert Hendrickson's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORD AND PHRASE ORIGINS: MONEY TALKS. Now a folk saying rather than slang, _money talks_ means that wealth is power, or money buys anything. Though it is probably older, no one has been able to trace the phrase back before 1910. J. D. Salinger used it in _Catcher in the Rye_ (1950): "In New York, boy, money really talks--I'm not kidding." I'm in New York and-- GEORGE WASHINGTON: Let us guess--you have an earlier citation? It's my quarter! I've stopped doing characters! Shut up! ABRAHAM LINCOLN: I'd quarter that fellow! GEORGE WASHINGTON: He's not making cents! SHUT UP! ALL OF MY MONEY! SHUT UP!!!! METROCARD GOLD: Can I say something? A METROCARD GOLD CANNOT, I REPEAT, CANNOT TALK!! METROCARD GOLD: Sorry. VISA GOLD: What about me? CREDIT CARDS CAN'T TALK EITHER! I'M GOING NUTS! AMERICAN EXPRESS GOLD CARD: Would you get to that earlier citation already? We're all overdrawn. This is from Puck, 31 March 1886, pg. 74, col. 3: THE GAMBLERS say "money talks." And so it does. As a conversationalist, money ranks very high. MASTERCARD: Thank you. MARINE MIDLAND DEBIT CARD: I knew he'd destroy Hendrickson. AT&T CALLING CARD: He sure took long enough. KINKO'S COPY CARD: Hey, where'd he go? FOOD EMPORIUM BONUS SAVINGS CLUB CARD: He's in the kitchen. It looks like he's going for the full half-gallon of "Death by Chocolate." BOBST LIBRARY PHOTOCOPY/ERC/ MICROFORM REUSABLE CARD: Poor guy.