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Hildy Johnson is a cocky renegade reporter in Chicago. He has just gleefully quit his job to go to New York, marry the more mature Peggy, and work for her uncle’s advertising agency. During the play, the fraternal mob of newspaper reporters who populate the press room in the Criminal Courts Building have been awaiting the execution of convicted murderer Earl Williams. After Williams escapes, the reporters dash out to cover the story, leaving Hildy alone. He phones his former boss, Walter Burns,
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HILDY: Hello, Peggy.
PEGGY:: What was that, over the telephone?
HILDY: Nothing. I was just telling Walter Burns I was all through, that’s all. Hello, darling.
PEGGY: You haven't done something foolish with that money? Our money!
HILDY: No. No!
PEGGY: You still have got the rest of it?
HILDY: Of course. Gee, darling, you don't think for a minute—
PEGGY: I think I'd better take care of it from now on!
HILDY: Now listen, honey, I can look after a couple of hundred dollars all right. . .
PEGGY: Hildy, if you've still got that money I want you to give it to me.
HILDY: Now, sweetheart, it's going to be perfectly all right....
PEGGY: Then you haven't got it.
HILDY: Not-this minute, but I—
PEGGY: You did do something with it!
HILDY: No, no. He's sending it right over—Walter, I mean. It'll be here any minute.
PEGGY: Oh, Hildy!
HILDY: Listen, darling, I wouldn't have had this happen for the world. But it's going to be all right. Now here's what happened: I was just starting out to the house to get you when this guy Williams broke out of jail. You know, the fellow they were going to hang in the morning.
PEGGY: Yes, I know.
HILDY: Ah now, listen, sweetheart, I had to do what I did. And-and the same thing when it came to the money-(She turns away). Peggy ! Now listen. I shouldn't tell you this, but I haven't got any secrets from you. Do you know how this guy escaped? He was down in the Sheriff's office when Hartman-that's the Sheriff—and Eglehofer—that's this fellow from Vienna—
PEGGY: Hildy!
HILDY: Aw, now I can't tell you if you won't listen. I had to give him the money so he wouldn't give the story to anybody else. Jacobi, I mean. That's the assistant warden. I got the story exclusive—the biggest scoop in years, I'll bet.
PEGGY: Do you know how long mother and I waited, out at that house?
HILDY: Aw, Peggy, listen. You ain't going to be mad at me for this. I couldn't help it. You'd have done the same thing yourself. I mean, the biggest story in the world busting, and nobody on the job.
PEGGY: I might have known it would happen again.
HILDY: Aw, listen—
PEGGY: Every time I've ever wanted you for something—on my birthday, and New Year's Eve, when I waited till five in the morning—
HILDY: But a big story broke; don't you remember.
PEGGY: It's always a big story—the biggest story in the world, and the next day everybody's forgotten it, even you!
HILDY: What do you mean forgotten? That was the Clara Hamon murder—on your birthday. Now for God's sake, Peggy, it won't hurt to wait five more minutes. The boy's on his way with the money now.
PEGGY: Mother's sitting downstairs waiting in a taxicab. I'm just ashamed to face her, the way you've been acting. If she knew about that money—it's all we've got in the world, Hildy. We haven't even got a place to sleep in, except the train, and—
HILDY: Aw, gee, I wouldn't do anything in the world to hurt you, Peggy. You make me feel like a criminal.
PEGGY: It's all that Walter Burns. Oh, I'll be so glad when I get you away from him—you simply can't resist him.
HILDY: For God's sake, Peggy, I've told you what I think of him. I wouldn't raise a finger if he was dying. Honest to God.
Citation: Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, The Front Page, Covici-Friede, 1928, pp. 78-82.
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