Pal Joey Blog

celebrating Roundabout Theatre Company’s Broadway revival of Pal Joey, starring Stockard Channing, Martha Plimpton and Matthew Risch

November 10, 2008 | Catherine | Comments 1

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The Origin of Pal Joey

Dell Publishing’s book compilation of the New Yorker stories included this Victor Kalin cover.

The character of “Pal Joey” was the creation of renowned American writer John O’Hara. Starting with its October 22, 1938 issue, the New Yorker magazine began running O’Hara’s Pal Joey short stories. The stories were actually a series of letters from a low wattage, social-climbing nightclub singer, Joey, to his friend, a slightly better off entertainer named Ted. Joey would address his letters to “Pal Ted” and sign the letters “Pal Joey.”

There were a total of 12 Pal Joey short stories. The series ended with the July 13, 1940 issue of the New Yorker — the Broadway production opened five months later with a book by O’Hara.

John O’Hara, author of the Pal Joey short stories and the book of the original musical

Interestingly, the plot of the musical Pal Joey is never captured in the short stories, although the next-to-last installment, “Joey and Mavis,” concerns a wealthy older widow (Mavis instead of Vera in the show) who begins seeing Joey and lines up a nightclub engagement for him.
Here are some excerpts from the first Pal Joey story as it appeared in the New Yorker, complete with the intentional misspellings and grammatical errors O’Hara included to flesh out his Joey character:

Dear Pal Ted:
Well at last I am getting around to knocking off a line or two to let you know how much I apprisiate it you sending me that wire on opening nite. Dont think because I didnt answer before I didnt apprisiate it because that is far from the case. But I guess you know that because if you knew when I was opening you surely must be aware how busy Ive been ever since opening nite. I figure you read in Variety what date I was opening in which case I figure you have seen the write ups since then telling how busy Ive been and believe me its no exagerton. …
… I am a little sore at one of the papers because the local Winchell links my name constantly with the name of a very sweet kid that I go to the club and play golf with. Not that it isnt true. We see each other all the time and she comes to the hotel practically every nite with a party and when Im through for the nite we usely take a ride out to a late spot out in the country. Her father is president of the second largest bank. It is the oldest. The biggest bank was formally two banks but they merged. Her name is Jean Spencer and a sweeter kid never lived. I really go for her. …
… Just to show you I dont forget I inclose $30. Ill let you have the rest as soon as possible. Any time I can help you out the same way just let me know and you can count on me. I guess you kissed that fifty goodbye but that isnt the way I do things. But I guess you know that, hey pal?
All the best from
Pal Joey

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Ron | Nov 10, 2008 | Reply

I never knew any of this. This is one reason why I LOVE this blog, Catherine.