Formula for Pajama Game, my newest movie-related obsession:
Mix together . . .
- One part each Bob Fosse choreography and “Workers Unite” message:
- One part each butch Doris Day and Bonnie Raitt’s dad:
- One huge part pixie show-stealer Carol Haney (more on her in a moment)
- Stir well, add steam heat.
I didn’t know anything about Carol Haney before seeing The PJ Game. She had a close working relationship with Bob Fosse and Gene Kelly, appearing in virtuosic (but minor, sometimes uncredited) dancing roles in the film version of Kiss Me Kate, as well as in Kelly’s On the Town, Summer Stock and Invitation to the Dance. She was also a choreographer in her own right, with Broadway shows Funny Girl and Flower Drum Song to her credit.
The 1957 film version of The Pajama Game gave Haney her first major movie role as Gladys, the secretary to the boss of the Sleeptite Pajama factory – a role she originated on Broadway three years earlier. When Haney first appears on screen, she sports a short, Jean Seberg-meets-Peter Pan haircut. My first thought was that she – or the directors – were trying to make her look like Shirley MacLaine, who had already appeared in three films (including the high-profile Hitchcock film The Trouble with Harry and Best Picture winner Around the World in Eighty Days) before PJ Game‘s release. Turns out it was the other way around. Haney was directly responsible for MacLaine’s rise to stardom, in a turn of events worthy of the “Chorus Girl Becomes Star Overnight” kind of headline:
Still, I’m glad Haney wasn’t replaced in the film – she steals every scene she’s in, particularly in my favorite bit from the movie, the busy, dizzy “Once a Year Day”. I watched the film on July 4th, and I can’t think of a musical number that better captures a summer party in small town U.S.A. Haney’s Gladys at first refuses to dance, then (about 2 minutes into the clip below) reluctantly comes up with a couple of quirky moves that become the motif for the whole number. It ends in a pure gleeful frenzy, with her signature move serving as the song’s exclamation point.
Here’s a Muppet Show version, just because:
Sadly, Haney died at the young age of 40. Her role as Fosse muse/dancer was later filled by Gwen Verdon and Ann Reinking. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone quite like her.