Seven Keys to Baldpate

Baldpate Inn has a mystery and seven keys. The novelist has one. The other six fall into the hands of six apparent lunatics: 1. a hermit who flees from barbers and women has a key, 2. a peroxide blonde who "just loves" men has a key, 3. a college professor who has been laughed out of his job has a key, 4. a political "boss" who eats cigars has a key, 5. a Belle of High Sociétée has a key and, 6. a bold, bad clubman has a key.

The son of Robert J. and Emma E. (Derr) Biggers, Earl Derr Biggers was born in Warren, Ohio, and graduated from Harvard University in 1907. Many of his plays and novels were made into movies. He was posthumously inducted into the Warren City Schools Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame. His novel Seven Keys to Baldpate led to seven films of the same title and at least two with different titles (House of the Long Shadows, Haunted Honeymoon) but essentially equivalent plots. George M. Cohan adapted the novel as an occasionally revived stage play of the same name. Cohan starred in the 1917 film version (one of his rare screen appearances) and the film version he later wrote (released in 1935) is perhaps the best known of the seven film versions. Biggers lived in San Marino, California, and died in a Pasadena, California, hospital after suffering a heart attack in Palm Springs, California. He was 48.