The Detroit times., 1914-11-17
DETROIT OPERA HOUSE.

Ok HOiI OPcHN TOSS
The heartiest. most spontaneous
laughter that has echoed In the De-
troit opera house this season Was &C
easioned Monday evening. when an
audience OF spectators that hiled
every seat, and all the standing room
had the most mirthul time OF their
lives with Georges NJ. Cohan's Seven
Keys 10 Baldpate."
The theater-going world likes MT.
Cohan and Mr.. Cohan's stage wriung'
That young man. according TO real
IN truly story OF his life in the Noyem'
Der Green Book, looks back upon DGt
one failure In his playwrittng work.
Folk who 20 TO the theater have
grown 10 expect amusing entertain
ment with the Cohan hallmark. ana up
| TO date have not known disappolnt-
ment.
Seven Keys 10 Baldpate' Is
screaming success as Conan plays GO
and they usually go far enough Win
: the people who like TO laugh In the
+, theater. TO fill every seat in the house
and give full measure or fun.
| Tie play which was founded by MT.
Cohan on Earl Derr Biggers' novel oil
| the same name, is called mystery
4 farce" and the phrase Is complete
explanation. There is ceep, thlck
l.thuddening" mystery, and all the eie'
lments and ingredients that ever were
stirred together TO make melodrama
or shilling shocker" the whole
adroitly touched on with giant
cracker of fun that explodes In gales
and gales OF laughter
For instance: The lady adven'
turess." dressed In the passionate
black gown and the red lose with a
! bushel Of diamonds is kilt" In the
I coolest kind Of "blud" by her CASTOR
crook lover and while the "mur.r-r-der'
ed gyrr-ul" is hidden. first in one
place and then another, the spectators
OF this awful crime and attempt at
concealment laugh themselves into
aching sides. And the funniest part
! OF the whole affair is the fact that
the action on the stage is not bur.
| iesque or travesty, but is carried
along In an absolutely serious man
ner and apparently as though the PTS,
ltol-playing and the safe-ropping, anu
the lady adventures little black
mailing tricks, were the real thing
AS readers OF the Saturday Evening
Post know, the Biggers' novel had
every body guessing as TO what II was
all about from the first TO the last
line and the farce, under the clever
Conan hand has retained all OF this
elusiveness and mystery, and then
some.
The entire action OF prologue, two
acts an dan epilogue, takes place In
the lobby OF Baldpate inn a summer
hotel on the top OF mountain In the
Catskills, In the dead OF winter, and
consumes the hours from one mid
night TO the next
William Hallowell Magee, writer
of "best-sellers,' makes wager oil
IS, 900 with his friend, Hal Bentley.
that he can write complete mover
in "a hours. The conditions are that
Magee shall 20 TO Bentley's hotel IN
the CONTAINS to do the work. Magee
arrives at the inn at IL o'clock at
night. in the teeth Of driving snow
storm" typewriter and grip for com
pany He Is met b. the old oaretaker
and his wife. who turn over the only
key 10 the inn to the novelist and
leave him to his work TO return the
next light at IL o'clock TO procure the
completed manuscript which they are
to turns over In person to Mr.. Bentley.
The two acts are supposed to detail
the incidents, and to present the char
acters. which Magee puts into his
novel, but at the final curtain the
audience is still left TO puzzle out
whether the incidents really happened
to Magee, or were simply the product
OF his fertile imagination. Whatever
is the answer, the thrills are there In
plenty and the laughter Is continuous
and the audience Is entirely satisfied
that II has had an exciting and anus
ing visit TO Baldpate.
George Parsons. native Of Adrian.
Mich, plays Magee and Is entirely
successful role that Is far from
easy. He has the assistance of an adj
mirable company including Edgar Hal
stead, Jessie Graham Purnell B. Pratt,
Eva Mae Francis. Lorena Atwood.
Joseph Allen. Jeanette Horton. Roy
Fairchild, Martin l.. Alsop, Claude
Brooks, Carleton Macy and John {.
King.