Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Unruly Excess: Labor, Race, and The Pajama Game

2021; Volume: 61; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/cj.2021.0086

2578-4919

Rebecca Burditt,

Japanese History and Culture

This article analyzes The Pajama Game (George Abbott and Stanley Donen, 1957), a film musical that superficially adheres to the political, ideological, and stylistic conservatism of the early Cold War era.I argue that moments of excess, or instances that serve no narrative or character-related function, appear through the presence of the Pepsi-Cola brand and the musical number "Steam Heat."I suggest that these extraneous elements had radical histories, with ties to the communist and activist movements of the 1930s.As a result, they transform this all-white, McCarthy-era text into one that resonated with both mainstream and marginalized audiences.