Happy Birthday by Anita LOOS
LOOS, Anita. Happy Birthday: A Play in Two Acts. New York: Samuel French, 1947.
First edition. Loos wrote Happy Birthday for her friend Helen Hayes, “the first lady of American theatre”. The play was produced by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein 2nd, directed by Joshua Logan, and starred Helen Hayes as the heroine, Addie Bemis. Happy Birthday premiered at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City on November 1, 1946. It became a sensational comedy hit running for 72 weeks in front of packed houses, and it gave Helen Hayes her longest run on Broadway. The play also included the song “I Haven’t Got a Worry in the World” with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein 2nd. The production won Tony Awards in the categories of Best Actress in a Play (Helen Hayes) and Best Costume Design (Lucinda Ballard).
Happy Birthday is the story of Addie Bemis, a timid librarian who in the course of one night at the Mecca Cocktail bar in Newark, while in pursuit of her Prince Charming, an unsuspecting bank clerk, turns into a fabulous party girl.
This is a very attractive book in the dust jacket by Lily Cushing, depicting a rapturously intoxicated Addie surrounded by champagne bubbles.
3 b/w photographic plates (1 frontis), 113 pp. 8vo, original cloth. Previous owner’s name pencilled it to front endpaper. Very good in very good dust jacket (spine slightly faded; a few chips and nicks; 3 cm tear to the fold of rear face; not price-clipped. in clear, removable protective sleeve).
Anita Loos (1888-1981) was a legendary screenwriter, best-selling novelist and acclaimed playwright. She is best known for immensely successful Jazz Age novel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1926). The book went through numerous stage and film adaptations, including the 1953 film by 20th Century Fox, starring Marilyn Monroe in the leading role.