A Panama hat tip to George M. Cohan: Earl & Charlie couldn’t have done it without ya!

Had it not been for George M. Cohan’s complete enthusiasm for Earl Derr Biggers’ first novel, Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913), I’ve often wondered if Biggers’ would have been as successful with mystery writing, or even–who knows–gone on to create our hero Charlie Chan!

So with this year being the Centennial of Detective Charlie Chan’s entry into the literary world, I thought it appropriate we pay tribute to the first persons to recognize Earl Derr Biggers as an author; George M. Cohan, who’s 147th birthday we celebrate this month (July 3, 1878 – November 5, 1942).

In case you are unfamiliar here are some highlights of Mr. Cohan’s life, :

• An American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer, prior to WWI, he was know as “The Man Who Owned Broadway” and considered, “The Father of American Musical Comedy.”
  • Cohan wrote more than 50 shows and published more than 300 songs during his lifetime.
  • He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1970) and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (2006), and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• May 1, 1940, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented him with the Congressional Gold Medal for his contributions to World War I morale, in particular with the songs “You’re a Grand Old Flag” and “Over There.”
• He was one of the early members of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).
• In 1959, at the behest of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, an 8-foot bronze statue of Cohan was dedicated in Times Square.
• His life and music were depicted in the Oscar-winning film Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and the 1968 musical George M.
• The  U.S.P.S. issued a 15-cent commemorative stamp honoring him on the anniversary of his centenary, July 3, 1978. .

With her permission, here’s an excerpt from Author Barbara Gregorich’s book, Charlie Chan’s Poppa: Earl Derr Biggers (2018). It demonstrates the high regard Cohan had for Biggers first mystery novel Seven Keys:

A day before the novel’s official publication date, George M. Cohan bought stage rights.

Cohan must have immediately recognized the story’s appeal: a 24-hour time frame; a single setting in an inn with many doors, windows, and other passages; clever dialogue; constant reversals of fortune; and, above all, romance. It was Cohan (not Biggers) who wrote the stage play for “Seven Keys to Baldpate.” Starring as Billy Magee, Cohan produced the play on Broadway in 1913, where it ran for 320 performances. Later Cohan purchased movie rights to “Baldpate” and starred in the first Hollywood version of the story. Cohan’s film was released in 1916, but there would be an additional five films based on the novel, coming out in 1925, 1929, 1935, 1947, and 1983.

So popular was “Seven Keys to Baldpate” that several inns claimed to be “the” Baldpate Inn where Biggers had set his story…

© 2018, Barbara Gregorich

So, I think it safe to surmise that George M. Cohan supercharged Earl Derr Biggers career from the start, compelling Biggers to continue within the mystery genre and eventually create Detective Charlie Chan. Now as an aside about that Baldpate Inn, how popular was it? Though renamed the Seven Keys Lodge in 2020, here is the Baldpate Inn, Estes Park, CO, which Biggers gave a nod to after visiting. Operated by the Powell family it is opened during the summer and fall each year. (note the key donated by George M. Cohan at Mark: 2:28):

“The bird chooses the tree, not the tree the bird.”

The Black Camel, 1929, Chapter 10