Happy Birthday, Frank Loesser, with love from Nathan Detroit

  Bob Fosse said Guys and Dolls (1950) was "the greatest Broadway musical of all time." Frank Loesser (on left) wrote the words and the music. A rare double-threat, he did the same for the Pulitzer-winning How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961), which gave certain young men a somewhat misleading idea of what work on Madison Avenue entailed.  From that magnificent show, here is Robert Morse, who more recently was the wise old eccentric Bert Cooper on Mad Men, singing -- to his mirrored self -- I Believe in You

                 And here is the first chorus of the title song of Guys and Dolls:

                      When you see a guy reach for stars in the sky,
                              You can bet that he's doing it for some doll.
                      When you spot a John waiting out in the rain, 
                              Chances are he's insane, as only a John can be for a Jane.
                      When you meet a gent paying all kinds of rent
                               For a flat that could flatten the Taj Mahal,
                      Call it sad, call it funny, but it's better than even money,   
                              That's the guy's only doing it for some doll. 

We love you, Frank! Sincerely, Nathan Detroit.