There is nothing like a dame, exuberantly declares the song from the multicultural world of "South Pacific", and proclaims, too, that a dame is a specific American creation, one of the things worth fighting for in our culture. This book validates that claim. It celebrates the fast-talking dames of thirties and forties screen comedy, women of lively wit and brash speech who became the most impressive model of indepedent, articulate American womanhood. Coming of age during the depression, they were quick on the uptake and hardly ever downbeat. They seemed to know what to say and when to say it. They weren't afraid of slang nor shy of the truth. In their fast and breezy talk seemed to lie the secret of happiness, but also the key to reality.