Labor of Love: the Sequel

Continuing our Labor Day Fest of little-known labor songs from Broadway musical, this is the song "7-1/2 Cents" from the movie version of the musical, The Pajama Game.  The Broadway show was a huge hit and had a very long run of 1,063 performances, around 2-1/2 years.  The score was by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, who also wrote a show that ran almost as long (1,019 performances) and has had a more memorable shelf-life, Damn Yankees.

The musical is based on the novel, 7-1/2 Cents, by Richard Bissell, who co-wrote the book of the musical with director George Abbott.  It's a romance about labor unrest at a pajama factory.

It all also plays a part in what I've long felt was the oddest credit of a musical, the show Say, Darling.  That show had a score by Betty Comden & Adolph Green and Jule Styne, and it had a respectable run of 332 performances.  It was based on a fictionalized novel of Richard Bissell's experiences adapting 7-1/2 Cents into The Pajama Game.  The Broadway adaptation of that was never officially called a musical, but rather "A Play About a Musical."  But to me, I've always thought that the actual credit is far better -- because it's really a play about a musical based on a book about a musical based on a musical based on a book.

Anyway, here are Doris Day, Jack Shaw and the company with "7-1/2 Cents" from The Pajama Game -- based on the novel 7-1/2 Cents.