Adapted by George M. Cohan from an Earl Derr Biggers novel, Seven Keys to Baldpate became one of Cohan's most popular nonMUSicAL works and one of his most enduring accomplishments. Billy Magee, a mystery writer staying at the Baldpate summer hotel, wagers that he can write a novel within 24 hours. Six intruders interrupt Billy's efforts as they attempt to gain access to the hotel's safe with duplicate keys. Billy finally completes his novel, and it is revealed that the intruders, including a young woman reporter Billy has fallen in love with, are actors playing his story. This staple of summer stock and academic theatres opened on 22 September 1913 at the Astor Theatre, where it ran for 320 performances, and Cohan himself starred in a brief 1935 Broadway revival and in a 1917 motion picture version. There were no less than six other screen adaptations between 1916 and 1947.
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.