The play is a Faustian comedy about a fan magazine writer who sells his soul to the Devil (in the guise of a literary agent) to become a successful screenwriter.
George Axelrod's phenomenal success with the Broadway production of The Seven Year Itch had made him an overnight celebrity, a phenomenon he explored in his 1953 'comedy documentary' Confessions of a Nervous Man, which was broadcast as part of the CBS-TV anthology series Studio One, with Art Carney playing him.
Twentieth Century-Fox, the same studio that had altered his first play, then bought the film rights to Rock Hunter and threw out his entire story and all but one of his characters.
[1] After a year in Hollywood, Jayne Mansfield had played only bit parts in four movies when her agent arranged for her to audition for the role of Rita Marlowe, an all-too-obvious send-up of Marilyn Monroe.
Her 40"-21"-35½" measurements and her one-of-a-kind comic twist on the dumb blonde stereotype quickly won her the role,[2] and by opening night she found herself a fully fledged Broadway star, courted by many of the Hollywood studios that had previously ignored her.
Carol Grace, who had twice married and divorced playwright William Saroyan, played Miss Logan ('A Secretary') in the Broadway production and understudied Jayne Mansfield.
Fan magazine writer George MacCauley visits Hollywood's reigning sex goddess Rita Marlowe in her swank New York hotel and confesses that this is only his second interview, the first having been titled 'Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?'
When LaSalle grabs the offer, Mike explains that it was a bad trade, because he's completely happy with his life and has no intention of selling off the remaining ten per cent.
Frank Tashlin had seen Mansfield's screen test for The Wayward Bus and wanted her for his film version of Garson Kanin's novel Do Re Mi (which would become the comedy The Girl Can't Help It).
[5] Tashlin's solution was to throw out all of Axelrod's play and create a new comedy about the world of television advertising, using only the character of sex goddess Rita Marlowe (Mansfield).
This scene was rewritten for the Samuel French acting edition to appear in Rita's office, thus eliminating one set and three characters seen on Broadway: a Bellman, a Swimmer and a Chauffeur.
The Broadway version of the script (minus the character of the Swimmer) was published in hardbound by Random House in March 1956 and in paperback by Bantam Books in August 1957.