The Pajama Game

Trivia & History

Frank Loesser was asked to write the show. He turned down the offer but he recommended his friends Richard Adler and Jerry Ross.

In a 2003 interview, John Raitt said that Loesser wrote ”A New Town Is a Blue Town” and ”There Once Was a Man.” It is not clear that this is true. Susan Loesser did not mention it in her biography of her father, and the lyrics for the songs were not included in The Complete Lyrics of Frank Loesser, published in November 2003, nor was the possibility that Loesser wrote the songs even mentioned.

Richard Bissell, author of the source novel and co-author, later wrote a comedic novel titled Say, Darling that was clearly inspired by his experiences working on The Pajama Game. It was published in March 1957, and it was promptly optioned for the stage. In April 1958, the stage version, which retained the title of the novel, opened on Broadway.

The source novel was based on Richard Bissell's experiences as superintendent of his father's pajama factory in Iowa.

George Axelrod, F. Hugh Herbert and Abe Burrows were all approached about writing the book. All declined, thinking the source novel could not made into a good musical comedy. George Abbott, who had originally agreed to only direct, decided to co-write the libretto with Richard Bissell, author of the source novel

"Steam Heat" was written for John Murray Anderson's Almanac (1953) but was rejected.

In his memoir, You Gotta Have Heart, Richard Adler said that the score was written in five weeks.