Seven Keys to Baldpate is a 1913 novel by Earl Derr Biggers. A bestseller, it was adapted by George M. Cohan into a play, which in turn was adapted several times for film, radio and TV. [1] [2] [3]
The plot of the novel differs from the play in many respects. [4]
The setting was based on the real Baldpate Mountain. [5] An American hotel inspired by that name, The Baldpate Inn, opened in 1918.
The play adapted by George M. Cohan in 1913 was subsequently filmed and broadcast on radio and TV several times:
Radio adaptations:
Adaptations were made in 1946 and 1961.
Earl Derr Biggers was an American novelist and playwright. His novels featuring the fictional Chinese American detective Charlie Chan were adapted into popular films made in the United States and China.
Marie Adelaide Elizabeth Rayner Lowndes, who wrote as Marie Belloc Lowndes, was a prolific English novelist, and sister of author Hilaire Belloc.
Ah, Wilderness! is a comedy by American playwright Eugene O'Neill that premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on October 2, 1933. It differs from a typical O'Neill play in its happy ending for the central character, and depiction of a happy family in turn of the century America. It is O'Neill's only well-known comedy.
Otis Skinner was an American stage actor active during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The Astor Theatre was located at 1537 Broadway, at West 45th Street in Times Square in New York City. It opened September 21, 1906, with Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and continued to operate as a Broadway theatre until 1925. From 1925 until it closed in 1972, it was a first-run movie theater.
Erin O'Brien-Moore was an American actress. She created the role of Rose in the original Broadway production of Elmer Rice's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Street Scene (1929), and was put under contract in Hollywood and made a number of films in the 1930s. Her promising career on the stage and screen was interrupted by severe injuries she sustained in a 1939 fire. Following her recovery and extensive plastic surgery, she returned to the stage and character roles in films and television, including four seasons of the primetime serial drama Peyton Place (1965–1968).
George Michael Cohan was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer.
Crauford Kent was an English character actor based in the United States. He has also been credited as Craufurd Kent and Crawford Kent.
Frederick Hugh Herbert was a playwright, screenwriter, novelist, short story writer, and infrequent film director.
Seven Keys to Baldpate is a 1917 American silent mystery/thriller film produced by George M. Cohan and distributed by Artcraft Pictures, an affiliate of Paramount. The film is based on Cohan's 1913 play of the 1913 novel by Earl Derr Biggers. Cohan himself stars in this silent version along with Anna Q. Nilsson and Hedda Hopper, billed under her real name Elda Furry. One version of the play preceded this movie in 1916 and numerous versions followed in the succeeding decades such as the early RKO talkie starring Richard Dix.
Seven Keys to Baldpate is a 1916 Australian silent film directed by Monte Luke for J. C. Williamson's. It was the first film adaptation of the popular play by George M. Cohan which had toured Australia successfully in 1914 with Fred Niblo. There were later versions of the story in 1917, 1925, 1929, 1935 and 1947.
Seven Keys to Baldpate is a 1929 American pre-Code sound film produced and distributed through RKO Pictures. It was the first sound film based on the 1913 Earl Derr Biggers novel/ George M. Cohan play Seven Keys to Baldpate, following three different silent film versions. The film had its premiere on Christmas Day, 1929 in New York City, and its official release was the following month.
Seven Keys to Baldpate is a 1913 play by George M. Cohan based on a novel by Earl Derr Biggers. The dramatization was one of Cohan's most innovative plays. It baffled some audiences and critics but became a hit, running for nearly a year in New York, another year in Chicago and receiving later revivals; Cohan starred in the 1935 revival. Cohan adapted it as a film in 1917, and it was adapted for film six more times, and later for TV and radio. The play "mixes all the formulaic melodrama of the era with a satirical [farcical] send-up of just those melodramatic stereotypes."
Seven Keys to Baldpate is a lost 1925 American silent comedy mystery film based on the 1913 mystery novel by Earl Derr Biggers and 1913 play by George M. Cohan. Previously made in Australia in 1916 and by Paramount in 1917, this version was produced by, and starred, Douglas MacLean and was directed by Fred C. Newmeyer. Out of seven film adaptations of the story made between 1916 and 1983, this version is the only one that is now considered lost. The story was remade again later in 1929, 1935, 1946, and 1947. It was also remade in 1983 under the title House of the Long Shadows, featuring John Carradine, Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee.
Seven Keys to Baldpate is a 1935 American comedy mystery film directed by William Hamilton and Edward Killy and starring Gene Raymond and Eric Blore. It is one of several filmed versions based on the popular 1913 play.
Seven Keys to Baldpate may refer to:
Baldpate Mountain is a peak in the New York–New Jersey Highlands of the Reading Prong of Upper Pohatcong Mountain in Warren County, New Jersey, United States. This peak rises to 1,165 feet (355 m), and is located in Mansfield Township.
Isabel Lamon, also billed as Isabel Baring, was an American actress in silent films. Among many roles, she played Meg March in the second filmed adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women.
A Bill of Divorcement is a play by English author Clemence Dane. It was her first play, and her most popular, and was adapted to films of the same name three times, in 1922, 1932, and 1940.
George M. Cohan's Theatre was a Broadway theatre at Broadway and West 43rd Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It was built in 1911 and demolished in 1938.
 | This article about a mystery novel of the 1910s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page. |