The Butter and Egg Man

The Butter and Egg Man is a 1925 play by George S. Kaufman, the only play he wrote without collaborating, which was a hit on Broadway in 1925-26 at the Longacre Theatre. It has been adapted to film five times, and is still performed on stages today.

The play opened at the Longacre Theatre on September 23, 1925, and played for 243 performances. Crosby Gaige produced, and James Gleason directed. Gregory Kelly starred as Peter Jones, and took the play on the road after it closed on Broadway. However, he had a heart attack in Pittsburgh in February 1927 during the tour, and died a few months later at age 36 on July 9, 1927.

The play debuted in London at the Garrick Theatre on August 27, 1927, and was played 31 times, closing on September 27, 1927. Robert Middlemass reprised his Broadway role as Joe Lehman in this production.

A "butter and egg man" is a slang term meaning a naive rural dweller, coined by Texas Guinan. Peter Jones is such a man, arrived on Broadway from Chillicothe, Ohio, who hopes to invest $20,000 in a play and turn a profit sufficient to buy a local hotel back home. He is conned by Joe Lehman and Jack McClure into backing their play with a 49% stake. The play opens outside of New York and bombs. Lehman and McClure want out, and Jones buys them out, and revamps the play into a huge hit. Jones then sells back to them at a huge profit after learning of claims that the play was stolen, and returns home to get his hotel.

Gilbert W. Gabriel wrote in The Sun that the play was "the wittiest and liveliest jamboree of the behind-the-scenes ever distilled from the atmosphere of Broadway."

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