Panama Hattie is a 1940 American musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Herbert Fields and B. G. DeSylva. The musical is about a nightclub owner, Hattie Maloney, who lives in the Panama Canal Zone and ends up dealing with both romantic and military intrigue. The title is a play on words, referring to the popular Panama hat.
Original Broadway poster
Arthur Treacher, Pat Harrington, Ethel Merman, Frank Hyers and Rags Ragland in the original Broadway production of Panama Hattie (1940)
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in Hollywood films.
Porter in the 1930s
Farmhouse at Westleigh Farms
Porter as a Yale College student
Lady in Blue, 1906 portrait of Linda Lee Thomas by Emil Fuchs