Happy Birthday

The Oxford Companion to American Theatre | 2004 | 660 words | Copyright

Happy Birthday (1946), a comedy by Anita Loos. [Broadhurst Theatre, 564 perf.] Addie Bemis ( Helen Hayes), a mousy librarian, has fallen so in love with the young bank clerk Paul ( Louis Jean Heydt) that she follows him to the Jersey Mecca Cocktail Bar and there has her first drinks: some Scotch and a few Pink Ladies, which she has been told is a “tart's” drink. The alcohol sends her spinning but also liberates her from her inhibitions. These gone, she wins Paul away from a jezebel, Myrtle ( Jacqueline Page). Written as a vehicle for Hayes, it was her brilliant performance that lured playgoers to the Rodgers and Hammerstein production.

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Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Happy Birthday." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Happy Birthday." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-HappyBirthday.html

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Happy Birthday." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-HappyBirthday.html

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