John M wrote:
The one thing I've never understood, is why she and Marty didn't insist she be billed above the title in The Pajama Game. She'd been billed above the title almost back to her first film, and yet they let Warner Bros. change that with this one film. Very strange. It was a moderate hit on Broadway, but not the kind of iconic piece like "Oklahoma!" or "South Pacific," where you could say that the piece was the star and bigger than any one player. Doris was CERTAINLY bigger in the public's mind at that time than the show TPG was. Just a weird little decision.
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Actually, John, they just presented her billing in a different way. She
did have sole star billing in
"The Pajama Game," judged by the size of her name. There was no way that John Raitt's name would be the same size as Doris'. Warner Bros. posted billing very slyly to give Doris the edge. If you'll notice in
"Calamity Jane," Doris' billing is different than Howard Keel's. In
"Lucky Me," Doris Day's name is slightly different than Robert Cummings and Phil Silvers. Even in her debut in
"Romance on the High Seas," everyone's name is in caps and lower cases, but Doris' is in all caps, letting us know that even though her name comes "last," she is actually the star.
On the screen in
"Pajama Game," they show the title and then Starring Doris Day" in big letters, followed by smaller fonts for "co-starring Raitt, Haney and Foy, Jr." It's the same, in my opinion as "above the title." If Frank Sinatra had done the picture, his billing would have been the same as Doris' and Janis Paige would have been billed "co-starring" in smaller print.
I, too, wondered why Marty didn't fight for billing over Rock Hudson for
"Lover Come Back." Doris' boxoffice was much better than Rock's, but probably, out of respect for him, Cary Grant and James Stewart's long, distinguished careers, she accepted second, but EQUAL billing to them. It was also surprising that Rock and Doris allowed Tony Randall to receive third, but equal billing in LCB and SMNF. What was
that all about? Tony wasn't a top leading man, nor was he a boxoffice star.
I wonder what would have happened if Doris and Kate Hepburn had accepted
"The Children's Hour"? Elizabeth Taylor, who's boxoffice didn't come near Doris' got billing over Kate in
"Suddenly Last Summer." Because of that, Doris and Marty would have
insisted that Day be billed first over Hepburn and James Garner. Agree?
BTW,
"Pajama Game" is one of the most revived musicals in history. It's very popular on the summer stock, dinner theatre, college and high school circuits.
Uhm...I don't know how this happened....I thought I posted this in the Send Me No Flowers topic.....and I posted it in LCB. Okkkaayyy,sorry about that.
