Day 98: Baldpate Staff Tribute: 2006 - 2010

Capably leading our 2006 team, we were delighted to have Jodi from Iowa back, who in previous years was rotating staff, now our Events Manager along with Eric from California and Eli from New Mexico. Our Estes Park crew, four Polish guys, first gal from Romania along with students from Washington, New Mexico and Oklahoma State made for another successful year.
 
2007 we enjoyed our team from Oklahoma and New Mexico staff along with just enough easterners from Pennsylvania, Michigan & Kentucky to keep things fun. We even celebrated our 90^th birthday, with an eye towards our upcoming 100^th.

Because my Dad had been such a significant help throughout our years at Baldpate, when he died in 2007 it was sort of a tough year for me personally. We did work that year to improve our Library door handicap entrance and upgrade our computer systems. We had gone from our pen and paper guest receipts several years before to a real POS “point of sale” system, but as you know with computer stuff, there is always an update to be purchased.

Certainly a bright spot in 2007 was the arrival of grandson Nick in August. Mac and I flew to Spokane (I stayed for 36 hours, Mac spent the week) and thankfully the US Army cooperated and allowed Pete to come home for 10 days from his surprise reserve deployment to Kuwait too.

In 2008 Jodi and Pam led the crew with our new Summer in the Keys promotion. It was an adventure that the staff seemed to really enjoy complete with tie-dying special shirts! Thanks to our artist cook, Nick, we even created our own t-shirt for the event in 2009.

Our hero “brother” Eric from Ohio arrived and took on the challenges of Hotel Manager for the next two years with sidekicks super Event Managers Emily & Laura.

Again our international hiring branched out as we welcomed students from France, Spain, Turkey, Serbia, Russia, and Vietnam, once again expanding our world view and understanding of cultural differences.

2009’s big full stage live theater production of Seven Keys to Baldpate at our newly renovated Key-thedral Theater by our friends at Encore!Encore! was certainly a highlight for both staff and guests.

More exceptional staff from Oklahoma & New Mexico carried the day in 2010 along with local returners like Eileen, always especially ready for our promo days, and even my eventually-to-be daughter-in-law, Holly, who saved the day as one of our cooks that fall.

Our business season had been gradually extending from its original Memorial Day to Labor Day, with travelers discovery of the incredible beauty of our fall season. As an increasingly booming month, staffing for September grew, demanding even more commitment from our dedicated Baldpate staff.

For more fun photos, enjoy our Centennial Staff albums from over the years.

Written by Lois Smith

Centennial Staff Album at
https://www.youtube.com/embed/dOZlF2nLV5w

Day 95: Baldpate 100th Birthday News!

With just seven days in our countdown to cornbread opening, thought we should give you the latest update on our 100^th birthday special plans.  Hopefully you have enjoyed our somewhat erratic preparatory journey through Baldpate’s Key moments over the past 100 years. And now for the partying!

You are all cordially invited to our Party Celebration on Saturday June 17^th, from 2 Pm until 5 PM in the Key Room. Have a glass of sparkly and some cake, we won’t make you sing!

Tickets for our live stage play, Seven Keys to Baldpate, will go on sale June 1^st on our website. Plan now which performance you prefer to attend, we anticipate having a sellout crowd.

Think about making it a special weekend with one of our Stay Play & Dine Theater Packages.

And bug those former employee friends to get on the books for a reunion weekend!  You know you want to do it!

Check our website often to see what’s new and if you can’t personally get back, order one of our new Birthday limited edition mugs in our online store available beginning June 1^st.

Written by Lois Smith

Day 46: Seven Keys to Baldpate: The Book, The Play, The Movies, the INN

The Seven Keys to Baldpate is a story that has captured the imaginations of millions and literally shaped history! 

First conceived as a novel, written by Earl Derr Biggers (also famous for creating the Charlie Chan series), The Seven Keys to Baldpate was initially published in 1913. 

The story is of an author seeking solitude to write his next book. What better place than a closed summer inn, clinging to the side of a mountain, in the dead of winter? However, surprise visitors with keys bring mystery, burglary, gunfire and could-it-be love?! 

But the book was only the beginning! 

In 1917, it inspired the naming of The Baldpate Inn in Estes Park, Colorado, as it was the perfect match to the description of the hotel in the story!  And soon our Key Collection was begun, with Biggers himself donating “The original key to Baldpate,” noting that, “All others are imitators.” 

The fascination with this story started early and continued in many formats.

The renowned American playwright George Cohan created the stage-play version, which opened in New York in October of 1913. Interesting to note, when the leading man was hurt in a horse and carriage accident, Cohan himself starred in the three opening performances of his play. 

The play has been performed several times at the Baldpate Inn’s Key-thedral Theatre. Although more recently the boards are tread by professionals, I remember fondly my stint as the slightly-crazed hermit in an all-staff production. (Type casting? Perhaps. Just because no one else was crazy enough to run barefoot along the wall behind the fireplace…)

Several adaptions of The Seven Keys to Baldpate were also made for the silver screen.  (And if they make it again, I'm sure they'll ask me to be Hermit again!)

• In 1917, the same year the “real” Baldpate Inn opened, Paramount Studios and director Hugh Ford created the silent, subtitled movie. It was written by and starred George Cohan. The leading ladies were Anna W. Nisson, Hollywood’s first Swedish import to become a star, and Elda Furry, who soon changed her name to Hedda Hopper, who acted in several silent films before becoming a renowned Hollywood columnist.
• Remade in 1925, Seven Keys to Baldpate was directed by Fred Newmeyer with stars Douglas McLean and Edith Roberts.
• As one of the first talking motion pictures, it was produced in 1929, with Richard Dix, Joseph Allen, Mirian Seegar and Nella Walker in the cast.
• In 1935, Gene Raymond starred in a Radio Pictures production. 
• And, in 1947, a fifth film version was made with Phillip Terry and Jacqueline White.

Not to be missed is the radio theater version starring Jack Benny and Mary Livingston, which we often have playing in the Key Room during our season. 

As you can see, this is a story that has captured the hearts of many throughout the years. 

Stay tuned to our upcoming 2017 Theater Events to see how you can experience the mystery and intrigue of the Seven Keys for yourself! 

 Written by Liz Rodgers

Day 26: Theater at Baldpate: Part Four, Sundeck to Key-thedral Theater

Nearly ten years after the addition of the stage on the Sundeck, Encore!Encore!, an incredible theater production group from Fort Collins, contacted me regarding their upcoming performances of an adaptation of Seven Keys at Baldpateasking if I would like to help sponsor. Of course I said YES!   (Over the years, many community theaters from around the country had done the same, and we were always pleased to help however best we could.) 

It was such a delightful performance at the Fort Collins Lincoln Center, both companies thought Baldpate’s stage had to be next!   We agreed!

So with one final update on Sundeck, now dubbed The Key-thedral Theater, the summer of 2009 brought a new level of expertise to our stage.

For the next several years, we enjoyed many performances by the Encore!Encore! family including radio play variations of Seven Keys to Baldpate and in 2011 another fun story, Arsenic & Old Lace.

As you can imagine, the sheer work and logistics of bringing a theater company to the mountains was incredible to say the least. 

In 2012, with Encore!Encore! on sabbatical for a year, our own Estes Park Fine Arts Guild of the Rockies stepped in to meet the demands of our theater lovers.  Over the next couple of years, they delighted our guests with Southern Comforts & Love Letters in 2012, Marriage can be Murder 2013 (along with Encore!Encore! return with the radio play version of 7 Keys), Vintage Hitchcock 2014, and Coming Apart 2015, and back by demand, Seven Keys, story theater version in 2016. B3Creative joined our venue producing Barbara Boyer Buck’s original plays, Impossible Paradise in 2014 & Paradise Protected in 2015.

Outdoor theater brings it special challenges, be it rain or bears or who knows what! You still gotta say it is always an adventure!  

We are planning big events of course for this year!   So make plans now to come for our Birthday Celebrations special productions of Seven Keys to Baldpate, live on stage at the one and only Baldpate Key-thedral Theater!

Written by Lois Smith

Day 24: Theater at Baldpate: Part Two, Dining Room to Sundeck

It seems only natural, having a mystery novel as part of our legacy, that revisiting the stage play would almost be mandatory. Interest in having a production of “Seven Keys to Baldpate” has been in demand over the years.

Since the Dance Hall was pretty much in ruins, having collapsed under the weight of snow when we purchased the property, we had to improvise the first years and thanks to the creativity of some very talented locals, in honor of Baldpate’s 75^th anniversary, we started in 1992 with our radio play, performed in the dining room. Dick Anderson, Kerry Aiken & David Czapp along with director Melody Paige created magic with their microphones and sound effects (think crunching potato chips for footsteps in frozen snow.)  Sam Sandoe had created our radio hour script in which each character came to life and delighted listeners.

At the end of a two-year run, the production became too popular to fit in the dining rooms, and we decided next time to take it up a notch.

By now we had done several stabilizations and started restoration for the beloved Dance Hall, reclaiming the original fireplace and about one fourth of the original floor space in what we dubbed the Sundeck, a place guests could sit and enjoy the sun.

Time for the next step, so in the spring of 1999, MacKenzie (with his dog, Leika) tackled the job of repairing the Sundeck once again, enabling us to produce a live staged version of the play. 

Melody Page stepped in to direct our enthusiastic 1999 Staff in creating our production.  Our staff worked incredibly hard to not only do their “day” jobs, but also to memorize scripts, practice and perform for our guests that summer. 

Can’t say it wasn’t a challenge, but it was a smash success! 

Written by Lois Smith