Happy Labor Day

I thought for Labor Day it was proper to post this song from the 1957 movie version of the Broadway musical The Pajama Game, which is about a labor strike.  And this particular song puts that strike in perspective -- "7-1/2 Cents," which is the amount they're striking over.  (Which also puts it in context for its time...) 

The stage musical which opened in 1954 was a huge hit, running for 1,063 performances, and it's been revived twice on Broadway, most recently with Harry Connick Jr. in the lead.  It's based on the novel 7-1/2 Cents by Richard Bissell -- and is part of my favorite "adaptation credit" in Broadway history.  (It's not a credit that was ever used, except in my mind, but it should be.)

The novel 7-1/2 Cents was, as I said, made into the stage musical Pajama Game.  As a result of that, Bissell wrote another novel, Say, Darling, which was a fictional story about the experience of a small town novelist adapting his first book into a Broadway musical (loosely but very clearly The Pajama Game, though of course with all the names and most of the details changed).  As it turns out, that book was also adapted into another Broadway show, Say, Darling, that had fun songs by Jule Styne and Betty Comden & Adolph Green.  However, it was not billed as a musical, but rather a play about a musical.

So, that means, in effect, the Broadway show Say, Darling, was -- a play about a musical based on a book about a musical based on a musical based on a book.

Not bad. 

By the way, the score for Pajama Game was written by Jerry Ross and Richard Adler, who also wrote Damn Yankees.

In this song and scene below, it features Jack Straw and Doris Day.  But also worth noting is that, although he doesn't sing in the particular number, at the 5:00 minute, a guy from management runs to the stage to say he thinks he has a way to end the strike.  That's the male lead of the show, played by John Raitt -- who is the father of Bonnie.