The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1914-11-17
DETROIT OPERA HOUSE.

The heartiest. most spontaneous
laughter that has echoed In the pe-
troit opera house this season was oc-
casioned Monday evening. when an
audience OF spectators that niled
every seat. and all the standing room,
had the most mirthful time OF theT
lives with Georges NJ. Cohan's seven
Keys to Baldpate."
The theater-going world likes MT
Conan and Mr.. Cohan's stage writihg'
That young man. according TO rear
~ truly story OF his life in the Novem'
Der Green Book. looks back upon put
one failure In his playwriting work
Folk who 90 10 the theater nave
grown 10 expect amusing entertain
ment with the Cohan hallmark, and up
TO date have not known disappoiht-
ment.
Seven Keys 10 Baldpate is
screaming success as Cohan plays go
and they usually go far enough Win
the people who like TO laugh In the
theater, to fll every seat In the house
and give full measure OF nun.
The play which was founded by MT:
Cohan on Earl Derr Biggers' novel OF
the same name. Is called mystery
farce" and the phrase is a complete
explanation. There Is deep, thick
"thuddening'' mystery, and all the eie.
ments and ingredients that ever were
stirred together TO make melodrama'
or a shilling shocker" the whoie
adroitly touched OF 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 rose with a
bushel ef diamonds Is kilt" in the
coolest kind Of "blud" by her CASTOR
crook lover and while the ''mur-r-r-der-
ed gyr-rul" Is hidden, frst 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
tho action on the stage is not bur.
lesoue or travesty, but Is carried
along in an absolutely serious man
ner and apparently as though the PIE
tol-playing and the safe-robbing. and
the LADY adventures little black
mailing tricks, were the real thing.
AS readers of the Saturday Evening
Post know, the Biggers' novel hao
everybody 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 tnen
some.
The entire action Of prologue. two
acts and an epilogue. takes place IN
the lobby Of Baldpate inn, 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, a writer
of "best-sellers," makes wager OF
Sc, 900 with his friend. Hal Bentley,
that he can write complete mover
in "a hours. The conditions are that
Magee shall 60 to Bentley's hotel IN
the mountains 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 10 met by the old caretaker
and his wife, who turn over the only
KEY 70 the Inn to the novelist and
leave him TO his work TO return the
next right at IL o'clock to procure the
completed manuscript which they are
10 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 MS
novel, but at the final curtain the
audience is still left TO puzzle out
whether the incidents really happened
10 Magee, or were simply the product
Of his fertile Imagination. Whatever
is the answer, the thrills are there In
plenty and the laughter 10 continuous
and the audience Is entirely satisfied
that Il has had ar exciting and anus
ing visit to Baldpate.
George Parsons, native OF Adrian,
Mich, plays Magee and Ii entirely
successful In role that IL far from
easy. He has the assistance OF an ad-
mirable company. including Edgar Hal
stead, Jessie Graham. Purnell b. Pratt,
Eva Mae Francis. Lorena Atwood,
Joseph Allen. jeanette Horton. Roy
rairchild, Martin L. Alsop, Claude
BROOKS. Carleton Macy and John G.
S' A