The Pajama Game–Part Four

Having established the romance between Sid and Babe, notwithstanding the fact that he has to fire her for sabotaging a machine, the show moved onto the secondary characters. As part of the union rally, Gladys agrees to dance with two men in a very sexy song and dance number called, “Steam Heat.” I am sure that Hines understood that it was just for the union cause, but what a number. Here is a video clip from the movie.

Hines is given an opportunity to show why he loves his work. In a very humorous song, called “Think of the Time I Save,” Hines describes how he saves time in his own life (with awful consequences). Here is an audio clip from the original cast recording.

Gladys now becomes part of the plot. Around her neck, she wears a key that opens the secret cabinet in Hasler’s office. In order to find out what is hidden there, Sid offers to take Gladys out to anyplace in town. He intends to get her drunk and take the key. She tells Sid that she wants to go to Hernando’s Hideaway and proceeds to explain to him, in song and dance, just what kind of a place it is. Please watch this video clip from the movie twice; once to see how good a dancer Carol was; then to watch the “little boy lost” expression on John Raitt’s face. Here is “Hernando’s Hideaway.”

This brings us to the final big choral number of the show (other than the finale), where the union members are considering striking in order to get a raise of “Seven and a Half Cents.” Here is a video clip from the movie.