pals

I see that Pal Joey, the venerable Rodgers & Hart musical, is once more playing in New York. The musical is based on a novel by John O’Hara, and in fact O’Hara wrote the book for the original musical (though this new performance is using a new book).

O’Hara was famously touchy and insecure and obnoxious. Harold Ross at the New Yorker hated him and hated publishing his stories, but they were big hits with the magazine’s readers so Ross had no choice. In the late Thirties O’Hara was the highest-paid writer in the New Yorker’s stable, which didn’t keep him from writing the following letter to Ross: “I want more money I want more money I want more money I want more money I want more money I want more money I want more money I want more money I want more money I want more money I want more money.” Once when Ross rejected one of O’Hara’s stories O’Hara wrote back and told him he was rejecting his rejection letter.

Anyway, when Pal Joey was a big hit on Broadway in 1940 a couple of friends ran into O’Hara at a restaurant and told him, “John, we just saw Pal Joey again and it was even better than the first time!” O’Hara replied, “What the hell was wrong with it the first time?”

UPDATE: I found the letter to Ross here. “Dear Harold: I have decided to reject your rejection of this piece and to give you a chance to read it over again.”