The Broadway musical Pajama Game was based on Seven and a Half Cents . a comic novel about labor relations written by Richard Bissell . Doris Day stars as an employee at a pajama factory who becomes the spokesperson for her fellow workers when management refuses to give them a 7 1/2 cent raise. Complicating matters is the fact that Management is represented by handsome John Raitt , who happens to be in love with Day . A subplot involves Day 's freewheeling co-worker Carol Haney and her insanely jealous boyfriend, factory-manager Eddie Foy Jr. Many of the cast members from the original Broadway production ( Raitt , Haney , Foy , Reta Shaw , Peter Gennaro etc.) are retained for the film version, as are most of the Richard Adler / Jerry Ross songs: highlights include "Hey There", "Steam Heat", "Hernando's Hideaway", "There Once Was a Man". and the title song. The choreography is in the capable hands (and feet) of Bob Fosse . Pajama Game performed so well at the box-office that Warners immediately went to work on the filmization of the second (and last) Adler / Ross Broadway collaboration, Damn Yankees . — Hal Erickson