The Butter and Egg Man is a 1925 play by George S. Kaufman, the only play he wrote without collaborating. It was a Broadway hit during the 1925–26 season at the Longacre Theatre. Adapted to film six times, it is still performed on stages today. The play's title, of course, is Broadwayese of the moment—a generic name for all those gentlemen who come trustingly to Gotham with bankrolls, bent upon either reckless expenditure or equally reckless investment. A 1920s slang term popularized by Texas Guinan, a butter-and-egg man is a traveling businessman eager to spend large amounts of money in the big city—someone wealthy and unwary. A souvenir booklet for the original production of The Butter and Egg Man devoted an entire page to the various claims of origin for the phrase.
Adaptations (1)
The Butter and Egg Man was adapted into a 1928 film.
The Butter and Egg Man1928 · film · 70 min · dir. Richard Wallace · IMDb ↗Peter Jones is a young man who arrives on Broadway from Chillicothe, Ohio, hoping 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-percent stake. The play opens out-of-town in Syracuse and bombs. Lehman and McClure want out, and Jones buys them out
