Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913)

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.

The novel concerns a writer named Billy Magee, who tries to escape the city and stay at the quiet Baldpate Inn to get some inspiration for his next novel; however, he discovers that six other people have keys to the inn and he gets embroiled in their lives with incidences of bribery, punch-ups and gunfire.

The plot of the novel differs from the play in many respects.

The setting was based on the real Baldpate Mountain. An American hotel inspired by that name, The Baldpate Inn, opened in 1918.

Adaptations

The play adapted by George M. Cohan in 1913 was subsequently filmed and broadcast on radio and TV several times:

Seven Keys to Baldpate (1916 film), from Australia

Seven Keys to Baldpate (1917 film) starring Cohan himself

Seven Keys to Baldpate (1925 film) with Douglas MacLean

Seven Keys to Baldpate (1929 film) with Richard Dix

Seven Keys to Baldpate (1935 film) with Gene Raymond

Seven Keys to Baldpate (1947 film) with Phillip Terry

House of the Long Shadows (1983)

Radio adaptations:

1938 for Lux Radio Theatre with Jack Benny

1946 for Theatre Guild on the Air with Walter Pidgeon

Theatre adaptation

Victoria Theatre, Singapore, 1946. Kenneth Williams stage début.

Television

Adaptations were made in 1946 and 1961.