The play ran on Broadway at the Cort Theatre for 157 performances, from March 2, 1949 to July 16, 1949, and thereafter had a lengthy provincial tour.
The play starred Melvyn Douglas as Tommy Thurston, newspaper reporter and was produced by Archer King and Harrison Woodhull.
"[2] The plot revolves around the Office of Medicinal Herbs, a fictitious U.S. government bureau abolished by Congress four years before the setting of the play.
Deprived of funding, they make ends meet by renting out rooms and running a parking lot on the front lawn.
Through an elaborate series of practical jokes, he involves the Armed Forces and the State Department, eventually winning the day for the elderly ladies.