Richard Adler and Jerry Ross–The Pajama Game

The Broadway show was supposedly about the friction between labor and management; union demands versus company profits. The title of the book by Richard Bissell was 71/2 Cents, which was the hourly increase that the union was demanding in its negotiation with the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory. Unbeknownst to the union, the head of the factory (Myron Hasler) has been showing the increase on the company books but pocketing the cash for himself.

The plot is fairly simple: Sid Sorokin, an outside expert on labor strife, is hired to keep a lid on factory production while negotiations are on-going with the union. When a union member (Babe Williams) tries to sabotage the machinery, he has to fire her. Eventually, Sorokin finds out about the secret books, convinces Hasler to grant the pay raise in return for Sid’s silence, rehires Babe and avoids the strike.

However, the plot is overpowered by two love stories. The main love story is about Sid and Babe. Sid, played by John Raitt, is a professional manager who goes wherever there is a need for his services. His bags are always packed; he doesn’t stay in any place long enough to put down roots; his professional strength masks a deeply lonely individual. When he comes to Sleep-Tite, he meets and falls in love with Babe, the leader of the union grievance committee, played by Janis Paige. She is an attractive but head-strong young woman. We get the impression that her personality is so strong that she has scared off all of the eligible bachelors in the town.

While Sid and Babe are on opposite sides of the labor dispute, we immediately feel the respect that each has for the other. By respect, we mean that they both have strong personalities but that neither person feels threatened by the other. They see the world as a level playing field, where they are equals and each is a match for the other. This permits them to peel off the veneer and get down to the person inside the shell. They find out that they both are decent people with the same set of values, who just happen to be on two sides of a business issue. While it is never said, we get the feeling that Sid has found his spiritual home and would rather quit his job than give up Babe.

The second love interest is between Vernon Hines, the factory efficiency expert, played to the hilt by Eddie Foy, Jr., and Gladys Hotchkiss, secretary to Myron Hasler, also played to the hilt by Carol Haney. Hines is overly jealous of Gladys but deeply in love. If he can control himself around her, we know that they will live happily ever after.

We need to take an officials’ time out at this point. You may recall from Yankee Doodle Dandy, seeing Jimmy Cagney/George M. Cohan admiring his billing outside the theatre one day; he gets into a lively discussion with a passerby, named Eddie Foy, a famous dancer and comedian of his time. In the movie, the part of Foy is played by his son, Eddie Foy, Jr. The movie was made in 1942.

The musical of The Pajama Game premiered in 1954; the movie was made in 1957. Eddie was way too old for the movie; but he was so good, it didn’t matter. By the way, both movies were produced by Warner Brothers.

The Broadway show was choreographed by Bob Fosse; the orchestrations were created by Don Walker, the same man who did the orchestrations for Carousel.

When the movie of The Pajama Game was made, Ray Heindorf was the music director, and Nelson Riddle was an orchestrator (same man who did such wonderful arrangements for Frank Sinatra).

Back to our story.

The best way to get a feeling for the score is to listen to two initial pieces of music—the Overture from the musical and the trailer for the movie.

First, we will provide an audio clip of the Overture.

Next, we will provide a video clip of the trailer.