The Solid Gold Cadillac
(1953)
By Howard Teichmann and George S. Kaufman
Cast size: 11 men, 6 women
The stock market has always been unpredictable, but no one is as unpredictable as Laura Partridge, a sharp-eared, no-nonsense mature lady who happens to hold some shares in a large company. When she asks some fairly innocent questions about company management, it propels her into a career as a rep for the minority stockholders, eventually wreaking havoc with the company’s fat cats.
For professional performance rights, contact: Concord Theatricals
For amateur performance rights, contact: Dramatists
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The Plot
Our comedy begins with the annual stockholders’ meeting and election of officers of a colossal manufacturing empire called General Products. Some new officers must be elected because the president of the corporation has taken a big government post in Washington and has been forced to sell his stock at a profit of three million dollars.
The meeting is about over when a timid old lady named Laura Partridge who owns ten shares asks a question. She has read every page of the annual report and she wants to know why the chairman of the board is being paid $170,000 a year, and how many hours he works to earn this money… She puts one mild query after another, and pretty soon the new officers hush Laura up by giving her a phony job at $150 a week.
She is hired to be a kind of liaison officer for the other minority stockholders. She takes her job seriously and makes solid friendships with the small stockholders.
When the former president learns—thanks to Laura–what a mess the current directors are making of his business, however, he resigns from his government job, and the big fight is on to regain control of his own business. Things look dark indeed, the wicked directors are about to triumph, but then the proxies of all the small stockholders start pouring in, and thanks to them the little old lady and former president foil the wicked Board of Directors.
About the Play
Kaufman teamed up with writer Howard Teichmann (who would ultimately write the first full biography, George S. Kaufman: An Intimate Portrait, in 1972) to write this post-war spoof of corporate America and the stock exchange. They wrote the leading part of Laura Partridge for Josephine Hull, who had helped You Can’t Take It With You become such a success several decades earlier.
Audiences in the 1950s were still interested in the Kaufman point of view deployed to skewer the quickly rising post-war industrial companies such as General Motors and IBM. It was Kaufman’s last big hit and was quickly sold to the movies, where the 1956 screen version was rewritten to accommodate the talents (and much younger age) of Judy Holliday. It was nominated for an Oscar and featured George Burns in the cameo role of the Narrator.
Stage history
The play opened at the Belasco Theatre on November 5, 1953, eventually moving to the Music Box Theatre where it closed on Feb 12, 1955, after 526 performances. The narrator was the recorded voice of radio comedian Fred Allen.
Character actress Ruth McDevitt took over for Josephine Hull and the play became popular in summer stock where the lead role has been played by Martha Raye and Anne Pitoniak. In 2004, it was performed on the West End with beloved British character actress Patricia Routledge in the lead.
Strike Up the BandOther Plays in the Catalogue
By George S. Kaufman And Morrie Ryskind. Cast size: 10 men, 5 women (some doubling possible). One set. The Royal Family opened at the Selwyn Theater on December 28, 1927 and went on to run 343 performances.
Silk Stockings' producers, Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin, had a success with Guys and Dolls in 1950. Attempting to work again with Kaufman, who directed that production, they ultimately balked at the romantic aspect of Kaufman's adaptation of the film, which he wrote with his second wife, Leueen MacGrath.
Another dynastic epic from the typewriters of Kaufman and Ferber, but this time with a serious tone and a pointed intention. The Kincaid family has made its money from some pretty rough-and-ready tactics during the Western expansion of the railroads in the 19th Century.
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Contact Us Today
Interested in bringing George S. Kaufman’s timeless plays to your stage?
Please refer to the contact information for each specific play on the various collection pages for direct amateur and professional licensing information.
Plays are represented by Concord Theatricals, Broadway Dramatic Licensing, and Music Theatre International respectively
If you are interested in first-class performance or film/television rights:
In the US, George S. Kaufman’s plays are represented by:
CPK Artists, LLC
In the UK, George S. Kaufman’s plays are represented by:
Alan Brodie Representation
For more information about George S. Kaufman or this website, contact:
Laurence Maslon
Literary Trustee, George S. Kaufman Estate
