Green’s Dictionary of Slang

do-re-mi n.

money.

1917		Lib. Congress: Musical Compositions 3 1560/1: Huston (Walter): I haven’t got the dough, re, mi.
1922		Sat. Eve. Post 195 48: The boat from Manila comes in and we got a great mess of sisal and other stuff to trade in for the do-re-mi.
1929		J. Lait Broadway Melody 99: What to her must be a flock of dough-re-mi.
1929		M. Prenner ‘Sl. Terms for Money’ in AS IV:5 357: To avoid using the word money, the well-informed user of slang may use cush, darby, dirt, dinero (evidently Spanish), dough, do-re-mi, (a punning extension of dough).
1931		D. Runyon ‘Breach of Promise’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 40: It must cost him plenty of the old do-re-mi.
1932		V.F. Nelson Prison Days and Nights 23: They’re all out for the old do-ray-me.
1937		Flash! (Wash., D.C.) 13 Sept. 12/2: When the Cotton Club opens in September, even sepias with the necessary dough-re-mi won’t witness the [missing text] unless they’re guest of some of the stars.
1938		S. Fisher ‘You’ll Alway Remember Me’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2007) 179: Old man Clark had dough-ray-mi clutched in his right fist.
1949		(con. 1943–5) A. Murphy To Hell and Back (1950) 33: Do I get my do-re-mi, or do I take it out of your hide?
1952		(con. 1910s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 33: All I’m going out for is plenty of do-re-mi. [Ibid.] 179: Expensive, chauffeured automobiles singing out ‘dough-re-mi.’.
1954		(con. 1920s–30s) J.O. Killens Youngblood (1956) 410: Is that all Miss Josie love your father for? – the do-re-me.
1961		‘Do Re Mi’ in Lingenfelter et al. Songs of the Amer. West (1968) 570: If you ain’t got the do re mi, folks [...] Why, you’d better go back to beautiful Tennessee.
1968		J. Alard He who Shoots Last 217: Hand over all the dough-ray-me or ya blood’s gonna start runnin’ out on ya.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 107: Jews know what to do with that old do-re-mi.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 126: Frechette’s zeal in pursuit of other people’s do-re-mi soon led him to decide that the governor’s piece of the ice was too large.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 60: A dumb-ass black birdy told me there’s some dough-re-mi in there somewhere.
2015		‘Elvis Costello’ Unfaithful Music 329: [W]e headed for California with the intention of [...] making some ‘Do Re Mi’.