"According to Bob," remembers Abbott, who said Fosse took the job (choreographer of TPJG) only on the condition that he could hire [Carol] Haney, "that girl was Marilyn Monroe. He said she was going to be a star." Razzle Dazzle: The Life and Work of Bob Fosse (Grubb)

Having paid her dues, working under the wings of two of the most accomplished dance talents in the 20th Century, Jack Cole and Gene Kelly, Carol packed her bags and left LA for New York, where her performing talents would soon be acknowledged, and moved into an apartment with Jerome Robbins and co-star and close friend Buzz Miller.

Carol was recommended to to audition for George Abbott by Bob Fosse, who worked with Carol in "Kiss Me Kate". Abbott was no doubt impressed by her talent, and gave her the role of Poopsie- lots of dancing, a few lines. Abbott tells this story in his own words, in his article featured in the July 1954 issue of Theatre Arts:

With a novel like [Richard] Bissell's is adapted to the musical stage, a few new characters are likely to be created to provide the developments necessary for the script. This was true of The Pajama Game, and one additional character was created during rehearsals from what might be called artistic neccessity. This additional role is the one played by Carol Haney.

We first heard about Miss Haney from Bob Fosse, our choreographer. He told us that he has had a wonderful girl working with him in Hollywood. She was Gene Kelly's assistant, he reported: she had been wanted for Kismet but MGM had refused to release her (ed: MGM was notorious for doing this- the studio also refused to release Gene Kelly for a few projects during the 50s). Bob thought I might be able to use my Pal Joey (ed: Abbott directed the 1941 original Broadway production of Pal Joey, which shot Gene Kelly to stardom) association with Kelly to prevail on him to put on a little pressure. Bob envisioned her as ideal for the small role for a character named poopsie, and planned to throw all the important dancing to this part.

"Is she pretty?" I asked Bob.

"I think so," he told me.

"Has she got a good figure?" Bob is an honest man.

"Definitely," he said.

With these assurances, I wrote to Gene and asked him to cut off his good right arm of his and send her to me. Gene agreed and got her release from MGM. Having done all this, he wasn't certain that she should come East for the show. Kelly advised her not to come if there was not a definite part for her. We couldn't make any definite committments until we knew if she could act. She broke this stalemate by flying East at her own expense and reading for us. It took her only three lines to convince us. We tol her the part was hers. But she didn't keep the part for long. She played so well at rehearsal that we combined Poopsie and another role to create a much bigger part for her. With that, she was, as they say, "discovered".

And so the rehearsal process began, and Carol moved into a New York apartment with Jerome Robbins and Buzz Miller, striking up a lifelong friendship with Miller. Much has been written on the creative process of 'Steam Heat', and the following is a melange of stories from several books:

Bob Fosse had devised a long ballet to open the second act of the show, but George Abbott did not like what Fosse had in mind. Abbott had in mind some sort of an amateur show that three kids from the factory could put on during a union rally. Fosse went back to the song writers, Adler and Ross, and asked them if he could hear a suitable song from their catalogue. Adler, who was one of the song writing team on their first Broadway assignment, replied that they did not have a catalogue, but did have a song in mind. He did not like it very much though- Adler had written it in his bathroom! The song was inspired by the noises of the radiator. Fosse loved it, and "Steam Heat" was thus born.

Buzz Miller, one of the dancers in the show, and also one of Broadway's best jazz dancers, remembers the rehearsal process: "When it [the initial choreography of Steam Heat] was finished... he [Fosse] threw about a million steps at us, and Carol [Haney], who was Bob's link, would pick them up like a magnet. He'd show us something and Carol would go 'uh-uh', meaning she hated it, or 'ah-ha'!- it works!".

It was evident that Carol's years as an assistant, learning steps quickly then teaching them to others had paid off, and her talent at that was valued.

Shirley Maclaine, a chorus girl in the show at the time, wrote a useful section on the making of this show in her autobiography of her Hollywood career, and her admiration for Carol's skill, enthusiasm, stamina, body strength, understanding of comedic movement and talent is evident throughout the passages. On the making of the show, Maclaine recalled that Bob Fosse forced the three dancers (Carol, Buzz Miller and Peter Gennaro) to rehearse the hat tricks in the basement of St. James theatre until around two or three in the morning, until the tricks were second nature to them. The product, a comical dance that requires superior control, co-ordination, disipline, and strength in the dancers' lower and upper bodies, containing "deep, dragging lunge-falls coming up to pixue, gamine-like poses", was a show stopper and is now always part of Fosse retrospectives.

Later in the journey, the role of Gladys was morphed into what we know today is in part because of Carol Haney's talent.

Another actress, Charlotte Rae, had been playing the part of Gladys. She had been playing the comedic role too broadly in the previews and the audiences did not laugh at the right places. The audience, however, did laugh at Carol. George Abbott, who had fallen in love with Carol's talent and saw in her a comic ability, fired Rae, and cut and pasted Rae's part with Carol's. As a result, the part of Gladys Hotchkiss, Hasler's secretary- complete with three dance numbers and an eyecatching comic presence was born. Janis Paige, foreseeing the potential of the part, threatened to quit the show. "She is going to steal the show" Paige said. So one night, John Raitt and Eddie Foy Jr took Paige out to dinner to calm her down and said to her, "Our names are up there on the banner, we are expected to be good, but America loves to discover new talent". The expectation was not unfulfilled when the show opened on Broadway. Both the critics and the audiences took to Carol and she finally became famous in what she wanted to do in the first place- performing. This passage from gottfried is a perfect description of what had happened to Carol:

She had gotten the best reviews, the kind that star careers were made of; she was the discovery of the season, and everyone was predicting a brilliant future for her.

Carol celebrated her new success in New York with her old MGM buddies, who flew East especially to see her in action- Saul Chaplin, Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen.

The reviews:

John Chapman, DAILY NEWS:
"...The directors also have this year's overnight star, Carol Haney. Miss Haney looks like a tall but awkward Audrey Hepburn. She has a froggy voice, slanty eyes and an impish grin- and I haven't decided yet whether she is funnier acting or dancing. But I will say that a song-and-dance number titled "Steam Heat", in which Miss Haney is teamed with Buzz Miller and Peter Gennaro, is one of the funniest and most artful turns I ever saw on a stage..."

Walter Kerr, HERALD TRIBUNE:
"...Mr. Fosse has, furthermore, worked out some amiable comic fantasies for an animated cartoon named Carol Haney. Miss Haney looks like a bowlegged gosling (!?). Her mouth and nose seem to have been designed as partial illustrations for Huckleberry Finn. And she makes "Steam Heat" hotter than even its doting composers could have hoped..."

John McClain, JOURNAL-AMERICAN:
"...Stanley Prager and Carol Haney make similar history with another bit ["Her is"] which could have been lost with less inspired business..."

Brooks Atkinson, NEW YORK TIMES:
"(Carol Haney is)... a comic dancer of extraordinary versatility."

Thomas R. Dash , WOMEN'S WEAR DAILY:
"One of the thrills of last night’s opening was watching the birth of a new star in the musical-comedy firmament. Not since Gwen Verdon and [Zizi] Jeanmaire captivated New Yorkers with their febrile talents has anything like this been seen."

Original Pajama Game OBC Soundtrack release:
"When Carol Haney stepped out on the stage of the St. James Theatre on the opening night of The Pajama Game, she was completely unknown to most of the audience, but when the curtain came down, there was no doubt that a new and important star was in the ascendant."

THEATRE ARTS July '54:
"The cast is even lighter on its feet than the plot. This is fortunate sunce Bob Fosse has provided some really droll dance numbers. And here any discussion soon biols down to an appreciation of Miss Haney, a newcomer who variously suggets the grotesquely stylised mannerisms of Carol Channing and Imogene Coca, a female Jerry Lewis and a girl with a variation of the Ondine haircut but an earthy approach to life that has absolutely nothing in common with water sprites. High points of her busy night include a burlesque ballet titled 'Jealousy', a blend of sex and slapstick in which she appears as a femme fatale more irrestible than Cleopatra; 'Her Is', a venture into nautch dancing which on separate levels is both artful and artless; 'Steam Heat', a jazzy soft-shoe number; and 'Hernando's Hideaway', a routine tango which soon becomes an intricate ballet by matchlight in one of the finest of Lemuel Ayers' settings..."

42nd Street re-enacted.

It was official. Carol was a star. However, another star was in the making.

Harold Prince, the producer, had spotted the young Shirley Maclaine in the chorus. Red headed and pixie-gamine-like creature that she was, many noticed that she was often mistaken for Carol Haney, another red readed, pixie-gamine-like creature. Prince suggested that she should audition to understudy Carol. This idea was rendered silly by the staff of the show, because Carol was a healthy and fit professional. Maclaine won the understudy role because of her physical and general likeness with Carol, and also her dancing ability. Maclaine wrote candidly of Carol's fitness and professionalism in her Hollywood memoir: "... I never expected her to miss a show. She was a gypsy of the first order. She'd go on with a broken neck. [Bob] Fosse thought so too. What was the point of having a rehearsal for the understudy?"

So Maclaine set out to learn her part. Not expecting that anything bad would happen to Carol, Maclaine learnt the part of Gladys from the wings, memorising every step and mannerism that Carol used, buying a derby and obsessively practicing the hat tricks from "Steam Heat", and even took to watching Haney off stage to discover any secrets that she had.

Maclaine was by a month into the run, ready to quit the company of TPJG, and prepared herself a notice of leave to get herself another job, understudying Gwen Verdon (another redhead, fellow former Jack Cole assistant and a friend of Carol's) in "Can-Can".

"Haney is out. You are in", said Bob Fosse. Although fighting fit, Carol tended to overwork herself and so was very prone to injuries. According to Maclaine, who had begun her dancing career because of weak ankles, also had the same ailment. She had, and there are several conflicting explainations, let's just say, hurt an ankle.

(Something totally obiter [by the side], something I read from Razzle Dazzle, a Bob Fosse biography. According to Buzz Miller, something else happened to Carol on the night she was injured-)

"According to Carol," says Buzz Miller, "the night she was injured, he [Bob Fosse] came up to her dressing room and had intimate relations with her, and it’s my impression this was not an isolated incident. I was so shocked when she told me that I changed the subject. I didn’t want to hear any more about it..."

...!?!!!! would probably be a true interpretation of what Maclaine thought or said at that exact moment in time. She was prepared, though, and her performance that night, albeit flawed, was amazing for a person who never had a proper rehearsal doing the intricately difficult steps.

I believe Miss. Maclaine is a big believer in fate and destiny. Her rise to stardom would probably be a big contributor towards that belief. On the particular night that Carol was injured, not a day after, not a week, the Hollywood producer Hal Wallis had expressly travelled to New York to see Carol, to see for himself what all the fuss was about. But when he saw Maclaine instead, Wallis signed her to a five year contract. Fate would be at work again when during another night, Carol was out with this time, Laryngitis, and that night Alfred Hitchcock's assistant would be in the audience. Maclaine was soon casted to perform in Hitch's "In trouble with Harry" and a star was born.

From this show onwards, Carol would never make it big again as a performer, only enjoying frequent appearances on television and receiving Tony award nominations on choreographing Broadway shows, and would either be fondly remembered as the Tony award winning one hit wonder dancer who died unfortunately young, or as Shirley Maclaine's springboard to fame.

Finally, sucess! Carol Haney, winner of 1955 Tony for Best Supporting Actress in a musical