Panama Hattie
Encyclopedia
Panama Hattie is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter
and book by Herbert Fields
and B. G. DeSylva. It is also the title of a 1942 MGM
musical based upon the play. The title is a play on words, referring to the popular Panama hat
.
The musical premiered on Broadway
at the 46th Street Theatre on October 30, 1940 and closed on January 3, 1942 after 501 performances. It was directed by Edgar MacGregor, with choreography by Robert Alton
and scenic design and costumes by Raoul Pène Du Bois
. The cast featured Ethel Merman
as Hattie, Arthur Treacher
as Vivian, Betty Hutton
as Florrie, James Dunn
as Nick, Phyllis Brooks
as Leila, Joan Carroll
as Geraldine, Rags Ragland
as Woozy, and Pat Harrington
as Skat. Among the dancers were June Allyson
, Doris Dowling
and Constance Dowling
, Betsy Blair
, Lucille Bremer
and Vera-Ellen
.
The show opened in the West End
at the Piccadilly Theatre
on November 4, 1943 and ran for 308 performances. It was produced by William Mollison with the entire production supervised by Lee Ephraim and dances by Wendy Toye
. The cast featured Bebe Daniels
as Hattie, Max Wall
as Eddy, Claude Hulbert
as Vivian, Frances Marsden as Florrie, Ivan Brandt as Nick, Georgia MacKinnon as Leila, Richard Hearne as Loopy and Betty Blackler as Elizabeth.
The musical was revived for several performances as a staged concert at Barbican Cinema 1
in London in 1996 as part of the "Discovering Lost Musicals" series directed and produced by Ian Marshall-Fisher. Louise Gold
starred as Hattie, with Jon Glover
as Windy. "Musicals Tonight!" series presented a staged concert of the musical in New York City in October 2010.
Hattie Maloney owns a night club in the Panama Canal Zone
where she also performs. Three sailors from the S. S. Idaho, Skat Briggs, Windy Deegan and Woozy Hoga, ask her to sing at a party they are organizing ("Join It Right Away"). Nick Bullet, Hattie’s fiance, is a wealthy Navy officer. They are about to meet his eight-year-old daughter Geraldine (Jerry), off the boat from Philadelphia. He tells Hattie, "My Mother Would Love You". Hattie, eager to make a good impression on her prospective stepdaughter, spends three weeks' wages on her elaborately frilly outfit. But when she arrives, Jerry makes fun of Hattie's clothing and way of speaking. Feeling that her marriage is off, Hattie gets drunk on rum ("I’ve still Got my Health"). Kitty-Belle, the daughter of Admiral Whitney Randolph, wants to marry Nick, and she schemes to end his romance with Hattie.
Florrie, a singer in the night club, develops a crush on Nick's very proper butler Vivian Budd ("Fresh as a Daisy"). Nick’s efforts to persuade Jerry and Hattie to get along with each other finally succeed, with Jerry making the still hungover Hattie cut the bows off her dress and shoes ("Let’s Be Buddies"). Jerry gives Hattie advice on how to behave like a lady at a party where she is to be presented to Nick’s boss, the Admiral ("I’m Throwing a Ball Tonight"). Admiral Randolph is to be presented with a cup, and his daughter Kitty-Belle suggests that Hattie might present it filled with goldenrod
. This gives Whitney hayfever; Hattie is blamed, and Nick is ordered not to marry Hattie.
Act II
The sailors from the S. S. Idaho uncover a spy plot involving saboteurs. Hattie swears off rum ("Make It Another Old Fashioned Please"). Hattie has it out with Kitty-Belle, whose boyfriend keeps being called in whenever Hattie is on the verge of hitting her. Meanwhile, Florrie continues to try to attract the romantic attention of Budd ("All I’ve Got to Get Now is My Man"). Hattie, two of the sailors and Budd meet regarding these various threads ("You Said It"). Mildred Hunter, Kitty-Belle’s best friend, turns out to be a terrorist ("Who would Have Dreamed"). She gives Jerry a secret package to put in Nick’s desk. Fortunately, Hattie overhears the plot to blow up the Panama Canal control room, finds the bomb and throws it out, saving the day. The grateful Admiral Whitney retracts his order and the sailors praise Hattie ("God Bless the Woman").
Act 1
Act 2
and directed by Norman Z. McLeod
with choreography by Danny Dare
and musical numbers staged by Vincente Minnelli
. The film used only four of Porter's songs and substituted other songs. The cast featured Red Skelton
as Red, Ann Sothern
as Hattie Maloney, Rags Ragland
as Rags, Ben Blue
as Rowdy, Marsha Hunt as Leila Tree,
Virginia O'Brien
as Flo Foster, Alan Mowbray
as Jay Jerkins, Dan Dailey
as Dick Bulliard and Lena Horne
as Singer in Phil's Place. Songs used in the film are as follows:
television series broadcast a version on CBS
on November 10, 1954. Ethel Merman and Art Carney
starred.
in The New York Times
wrote that "By hiring a trio of knockabout comedians, Mr. De Sylva has given it all the advantages of a burlesque show...Everything is noisy, funny and in order." Merman "rolls though it with the greatest gusto, giving it a shake and a gleam and plenty of syncopation...The Merman hangs bangles on any song that comes her way."
"'Panama Hattie' was a typical example of turning a routine musical comedy into entertainment gold. Without her [Merman] there was no show, and the musical has rarely been heard of since."
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
and book by Herbert Fields
Herbert Fields
Herbert Fields was an American librettist and screenwriter.Born in New York City, Fields began his career as an actor, then graduated to choreography and stage direction before turning to writing. From 1925 until his death, he contributed to the libretti of many Broadway musicals...
and B. G. DeSylva. It is also the title of a 1942 MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
musical based upon the play. The title is a play on words, referring to the popular Panama hat
Panama hat
A Panama hat is a traditional brimmed hat of Ecuadorian origin that is made from the plaited leaves of the toquilla straw plant...
.
Productions
Pre-Broadway tryouts started at the Shubert Theatre, New Haven on October 3, 1940, and then at the Shubert Theatre, Boston on October 8, 1940.The musical premiered on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
at the 46th Street Theatre on October 30, 1940 and closed on January 3, 1942 after 501 performances. It was directed by Edgar MacGregor, with choreography by Robert Alton
Robert Alton
Robert Alton was an American dancer and choreographer, a major figure in dance choreography of Broadway and Hollywood musicals from the 1930s through to the early 1950s...
and scenic design and costumes by Raoul Pène Du Bois
Raoul Pene Du Bois
Raoul Pene Du Bois was an American costume designer and scenic designer for the stage and film. He was nominated for two Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction.-Career:...
. The cast featured Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman was an American actress and singer. Known primarily for her powerful voice and roles in musical theatre, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." Among the many standards introduced by Merman in Broadway musicals are "I Got Rhythm", "Everything's...
as Hattie, Arthur Treacher
Arthur Treacher
Arthur Veary Treacher was an English actor born in Brighton, East Sussex, England.Treacher was a veteran of World War I. After the war, he established a stage career and in 1928, he went to America as part of a musical-comedy revue called Great Temptations...
as Vivian, Betty Hutton
Betty Hutton
Betty Hutton was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedienne and singer.-Early life:Hutton was born Elizabeth June Thornburg, daughter of a railroad foreman, Percy E. Thornburg and his wife, the former Mabel Lum . While she was very young, her father abandoned the family for...
as Florrie, James Dunn
James Dunn (actor)
James Howard Dunn was an American film actor.-Biography:Born in New York City of Irish descent, Dunn was the son of a Wall Street stockbroker who, according to Dunn, "either had a million or nothing." He joined his father in his business for three years...
as Nick, Phyllis Brooks
Phyllis Brooks
Phyllis Brooks was an American actress and model. Brooks was born Phyllis Seiler in Boise, Idaho on July 18, 1915. She began her career in films at age 20, and had been known as the "Ipana Toothpaste Girl" due to her work as a model...
as Leila, Joan Carroll
Joan Carroll
Joan Carroll was a successful child star in movies between 1938 and 1948.-Biography:Born as Joan Felt, she became an accomplished child actress, scoring personal successes on Broadway in the hit musical Panama Hattie, and the 1940 film, Primrose Path, as Ginger Rogers's younger sister...
as Geraldine, Rags Ragland
Rags Ragland
Rags Ragland was an American comedian and character actor. Ragland first made his reputation in burlesque, where he was one of the house comics for the famed Minsky burlesque shows...
as Woozy, and Pat Harrington
Pat Harrington
Pat Harrington may refer to:*Pat Harrington, Sr. , Canadian actor*Pat Harrington, Jr. , his son, American actor*Pat Harrington , Canadian soccer player-See also:...
as Skat. Among the dancers were June Allyson
June Allyson
June Allyson was an American film and television actress, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a major MGM contract star. Allyson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss . From 1959–1961, she hosted and occasionally starred in her own CBS anthology...
, Doris Dowling
Doris Dowling
Doris Dowling was an American actress of film, stage and television.After her time as a chorus-girl on Broadway, Detroit-born Doris Dowling followed her elder sister Constance to Hollywood. Her first credited film role was that of Gloria, barfly and drinking companion to fellow alcoholic Ray...
and Constance Dowling
Constance Dowling
Constance Dowling was an American model turned actress of the 1940s and 1950s.-Early life and career:...
, Betsy Blair
Betsy Blair
Betsy Blair was an American actress of film and stage, long based in London.Blair pursued a career in entertainment from the age of eight, and as a child worked as an amateur dancer, performed on radio, and worked as a model, before joining the chorus of Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe in 1940...
, Lucille Bremer
Lucille Bremer
Lucille Bremer was an American film actress and dancer.Bremer was born in Amsterdam, New York and began her career as a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, aged 16. Bremer, along with fellow stars Vera-Ellen and June Allyson, appeared as a 'Pony Girl' in the Broadway musical Panama...
and Vera-Ellen
Vera-Ellen
Vera-Ellen was an American actress and dancer, principally celebrated for her filmed dance partnerships with Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye and Donald O'Connor.-Early life:...
.
The show opened in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
at the Piccadilly Theatre
Piccadilly Theatre
The Piccadilly Theatre is a West End theatre located at 16 Denman Street, behind Piccadilly Circus and adjacent to the Regent Palace Hotel, in the City of Westminster, England.-Early years:Built by Bertie Crewe and Edward A...
on November 4, 1943 and ran for 308 performances. It was produced by William Mollison with the entire production supervised by Lee Ephraim and dances by Wendy Toye
Wendy Toye
Wendy Toye, CBE, was a British dancer, stage and film director and actress.Beryl May Jessie Toye was born in London. She initially worked as a dancer and choreographer both on stage and on film, collaborating with the likes of directors Jean Cocteau and Carol Reed...
. The cast featured Bebe Daniels
Bebe Daniels
Bebe Daniels was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer. She began her career in Hollywood during the silent movie era as a child actress, became a star in musicals like 42nd Street, and later gained further fame on radio and television in Britain...
as Hattie, Max Wall
Max Wall
Max Wall , was an English comedian and actor, whose performing career covered music hall, theatre, films and television.-Early years:...
as Eddy, Claude Hulbert
Claude Hulbert
Claude Noel Hulbert was a British comic actor. He was the younger brother of Jack Hulbert. Like his brother, he was Cambridge educated and was a member of the Footlights comedy club as an undergraduate....
as Vivian, Frances Marsden as Florrie, Ivan Brandt as Nick, Georgia MacKinnon as Leila, Richard Hearne as Loopy and Betty Blackler as Elizabeth.
The musical was revived for several performances as a staged concert at Barbican Cinema 1
Barbican Centre
The Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. Located in the City of London, England, the Centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory...
in London in 1996 as part of the "Discovering Lost Musicals" series directed and produced by Ian Marshall-Fisher. Louise Gold
Louise Gold
Louise Gold is an English singer, actress and puppeteer whose career has spanned almost four decades.From 1977, Gold was a puppeteer and voice actress for The Muppet Show and Sesame Street, and she has performed voice and puppet work on various other Muppet films and specials...
starred as Hattie, with Jon Glover
Jon Glover
Jon Glover is a British actor. He has appeared in various television programmes including Play School, Survivors, the Management consultant in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Casualty, Bodger and Badger and Peak Practice....
as Windy. "Musicals Tonight!" series presented a staged concert of the musical in New York City in October 2010.
Plot
Act IHattie Maloney owns a night club in the Panama Canal Zone
Panama Canal Zone
The Panama Canal Zone was a unorganized U.S. territory located within the Republic of Panama, consisting of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending 5 miles on each side of the centerline, but excluding Panama City and Colón, which otherwise would have been partly within the limits of...
where she also performs. Three sailors from the S. S. Idaho, Skat Briggs, Windy Deegan and Woozy Hoga, ask her to sing at a party they are organizing ("Join It Right Away"). Nick Bullet, Hattie’s fiance, is a wealthy Navy officer. They are about to meet his eight-year-old daughter Geraldine (Jerry), off the boat from Philadelphia. He tells Hattie, "My Mother Would Love You". Hattie, eager to make a good impression on her prospective stepdaughter, spends three weeks' wages on her elaborately frilly outfit. But when she arrives, Jerry makes fun of Hattie's clothing and way of speaking. Feeling that her marriage is off, Hattie gets drunk on rum ("I’ve still Got my Health"). Kitty-Belle, the daughter of Admiral Whitney Randolph, wants to marry Nick, and she schemes to end his romance with Hattie.
Florrie, a singer in the night club, develops a crush on Nick's very proper butler Vivian Budd ("Fresh as a Daisy"). Nick’s efforts to persuade Jerry and Hattie to get along with each other finally succeed, with Jerry making the still hungover Hattie cut the bows off her dress and shoes ("Let’s Be Buddies"). Jerry gives Hattie advice on how to behave like a lady at a party where she is to be presented to Nick’s boss, the Admiral ("I’m Throwing a Ball Tonight"). Admiral Randolph is to be presented with a cup, and his daughter Kitty-Belle suggests that Hattie might present it filled with goldenrod
Goldenrod
Solidago, commonly called goldenrods, is a genus of about 100 species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Most are herbaceous perennial species found in the meadows and pastures, along roads, ditches and waste areas in North America. There are also a few species native to Mexico, South...
. This gives Whitney hayfever; Hattie is blamed, and Nick is ordered not to marry Hattie.
Act II
The sailors from the S. S. Idaho uncover a spy plot involving saboteurs. Hattie swears off rum ("Make It Another Old Fashioned Please"). Hattie has it out with Kitty-Belle, whose boyfriend keeps being called in whenever Hattie is on the verge of hitting her. Meanwhile, Florrie continues to try to attract the romantic attention of Budd ("All I’ve Got to Get Now is My Man"). Hattie, two of the sailors and Budd meet regarding these various threads ("You Said It"). Mildred Hunter, Kitty-Belle’s best friend, turns out to be a terrorist ("Who would Have Dreamed"). She gives Jerry a secret package to put in Nick’s desk. Fortunately, Hattie overhears the plot to blow up the Panama Canal control room, finds the bomb and throws it out, saving the day. The grateful Admiral Whitney retracts his order and the sailors praise Hattie ("God Bless the Woman").
Songs
Source: Panama Hattie Original Broadway ProductionAct 1
- "A Stroll on the Plaza Sant' Ana" - Ensemble
- "Join It Right Away" - Woozy, Skat, Windy, Ensemble
- "Visit Panama" - Hattie, Ensemble
- "My Mother Would Love You" - Hattie, Nick
- "I've Still Got My Health" - Hattie, Ensemble
- "Fresh as a Daisy" - Florrie, Skat, Windy
- "Welcome to Jerry" ("Welcome to Betty" London title)- Ensemble
- "Let's Be Buddies" - Hattie, Geraldine
- "They Ain't Done Right By Our Nell" - Florrie, Budd
- "I'm Throwing a Ball Tonight" - Hattie, Ensemble
Act 2
- "We Detest a Fiesta" - Ensemble
- "Who Would Have Dreamed?" - Janis Carter, Ty
- "Make It Another Old-Fashioned, Please" - Hattie
- "All I've Got to Get Now is My Man" - Florrie, Ensemble
- "You Said It" - Hattie, Budd, Woozy, Skat, Windy
- "God Bless the Woman"- Woozy, Skat, Windy
Film
The 1942 film version was produced by Arthur FreedArthur Freed
Arthur Freed was born Arthur Grossman in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a Jewish American lyricist and a Hollywood film producer.- Biography :Freed began his career as a song-plugger and pianist in Chicago...
and directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Norman Z. McLeod
Norman Zenos McLeod was an American film director, cartoonist and writer...
with choreography by Danny Dare
Danny Dare
Danny Dare was an American choreographer, actor, director, writer, and producer of the stage, screen, and film....
and musical numbers staged by Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...
. The film used only four of Porter's songs and substituted other songs. The cast featured Red Skelton
Red Skelton
Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...
as Red, Ann Sothern
Ann Sothern
Ann Sothern was an American film and television actress whose career spanned six decades.-Early life and career:...
as Hattie Maloney, Rags Ragland
Rags Ragland
Rags Ragland was an American comedian and character actor. Ragland first made his reputation in burlesque, where he was one of the house comics for the famed Minsky burlesque shows...
as Rags, Ben Blue
Ben Blue
Ben Blue , born Benjamin Bernstein, was a Canadian-American actor and comedian.Born to a Jewish family in Montreal, Quebec, at the age of nine, Blue emigrated to Baltimore in the United States where he won a contest for the best impersonation of Charlie Chaplin...
as Rowdy, Marsha Hunt as Leila Tree,
Virginia O'Brien
Virginia O'Brien
Virginia Lee O'Brien was a popular American actress, singer, and radio personality known for her comedic roles in MGM musicals of the 1940s.-Life and career:...
as Flo Foster, Alan Mowbray
Alan Mowbray
Alan Mowbray MM, , was an English stage and film actor who found success in Hollywood.Born Alfred Ernest Allen in London, England, he served with distinction the British Army in World War I, being awarded the Military Medal for bravery...
as Jay Jerkins, Dan Dailey
Dan Dailey
Daniel James Dailey Jr. was an American dancer and actor.-Early life and career:Born in New York City on December 14, 1915, to James J. and Helen Dailey, both born in New York City. He appeared in a minstrel show when very young, and appeared in vaudeville before his Broadway debut in 1937 in...
as Dick Bulliard and Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
as Singer in Phil's Place. Songs used in the film are as follows:
- "Hattie from Panama" (Roger EdensRoger EdensRoger Edens was a Hollywood composer, arranger and associate producer, and is considered one of the major creative figures in Arthur Freed's musical film production unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the "golden era of Hollywood".-Early career and work with Judy Garland:Edens was born in...
) - Chorus - "I've Still Got My Health" (Porter) - Ann Sothern
- "Berry Me Not" (Phil MoorePhil MoorePhil Moore is an American actor, rapper and comedian best known as the host of the Nickelodeon game show Nick Arcade.In 1992, Moore debuted as the host of Nick Arcade...
) [instrumental, danced by the Berry Brothers] - "Just One of Those Things" (Porter)- Lena Horne [from Jubilee]
- "Fresh As a Daisy" (Porter) - Virginia O'Brien
- "Good Neighbors" (Edens) - Red Skelton, Rags Ragland, Ben Blue and Chorus
- "Let's Be Buddies" (Porter) - Sothern with Jackie Horner, and O'Brien with Alan Mowbray
- "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All HereHail, Hail, the Gang's All Here"Hail, hail, the gang's all here" is the popular refrain from the 1915 American song, "Alabama Jubilee" made famous by Fred Astaire.The lyrics were written by D. A. Esrom to a tune originally written by Arthur Sullivan for the 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance...
" (Arthur SullivanArthur SullivanSir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
; Theodore F. Morse) [instrumental] - "Did I Get Stinkin' At the Savoy" (E. Y. Harburg and Walter Donaldson) - O'Brien
- "The Sping" (Moore and J. LeGon) - Horne [danced by the Berry Brothers]
- "The Son of a Gun Who Picks on Uncle Sam" (Harburg and Burton Lane) - Company
Television
The Best of BroadwayThe Best of Broadway
The Best of Broadway is a 60-minute television anthology series telecast on CBS from 1954 to 1955 for a total of 9 episodes.*Episode 1: The Royal Family *Episode 2: The Man Who Came to Dinner...
television series broadcast a version on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
on November 10, 1954. Ethel Merman and Art Carney
Art Carney
Arthur William Matthew “Art” Carney was an American actor in film, stage, television and radio. He is best known for playing Ed Norton, opposite Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden in the situation comedy The Honeymooners....
starred.
Reception
Brooks AtkinsonBrooks Atkinson
Justin Brooks Atkinson was an American theatre critic. He worked for The New York Times from 1925 to 1960...
in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote that "By hiring a trio of knockabout comedians, Mr. De Sylva has given it all the advantages of a burlesque show...Everything is noisy, funny and in order." Merman "rolls though it with the greatest gusto, giving it a shake and a gleam and plenty of syncopation...The Merman hangs bangles on any song that comes her way."
"'Panama Hattie' was a typical example of turning a routine musical comedy into entertainment gold. Without her [Merman] there was no show, and the musical has rarely been heard of since."
Further reading
- Schwartz, Charles. "Chapter: Inner Turmoil" Cole Porter: a biography, pp. 207–08, Da Capo Press, 1979, ISBN 0306800977