Antoinette Perry looked up to her aunt and uncle, Mildred Hall and George Wessells. They were both actors and during summer vacations, Perry traveled with them on their cross-country acting tours. Encouraged, the young Perry would often stage plays on her front lawn.
Lawyer and father William Perry considered acting unsuitable for his only child, but did relent to allow her to study piano and voice in New York.
But Perry felt she was an actress, not merely born to be an actress. As she herself wrote in 1935, "I wanted to be an actress as soon as I could lisp.” [1]
Leading Lady on Broadway
With the help of her aunt and uncle, Perry made her acting debut in 1905. She auditioned for, and got, the lead female role opposite David Warfield in “The Music Master.” Warfield was a very popular theater actor of the time. He was quite impressed with Perry and arranged for her to audition for a part in David Belasco’s “A Grand Army Man.” Again, Perry was cast as the leading lady opposite Warfield.
Like most young women, Perry fell in love. Frank Freuauff and Perry knew each other from her hometown of Denver, Colorado. Freuauff had merged Denver Gas and Electric with Cities Service (now CITGO). They married, traveled Europe and then settled in New York.
Perry left the stage to be a housewife and mother. Unbeknownst to her husband, she kept her fingers in the theatrical pie. She became a silent partner to producer Brock Pemberton and financed his production of “Miss Lulu Bett” which won a Pulitzer Prize. Freuauff found out about his wife’s investments, but because they were successful investments, he gave her his blessings.
Freuauff died in 1922 of a heart attack leaving a $13 million estate.
Return to Broadway
Now a widow, Perry was once again drawn to the theater. A life of clipping coupons and attending dinner parties was just not the life for Perry. She resumed her acting career until 1927 when a stroke left a side of her face paralyzed. Although she left acting behind, she soon took up a post behind the scenes.
Broadway Director
Throughout the years, Perry and Pemberton remained close friends, even speaking on the phone each night. They were also business partners with Pemberton as producer and Perry as director. They had a very successful play, “Strictly Dishonorable” and Perry was praised by one critic for “doing a man’s job.”
Movie rights for the play were sold and things were going well. Then the stock market crashed. Perry woke up two million dollars in debt. Due mostly to the success of their last play, Perry was able to borrow two million dollars to support more plays.
The team of Perry and Pemberton did seventeen plays in thirteen years, among them “Personal Appearance,” “Kiss the Boys Goodbye” and “Harvey.” “Harvey” would not only win a Pulitzer prize over “The Glass Menagerie” but would also go on to be a successful movie starring James Stewart. But Perry’s most significant contribution was yet to come.
Contributions to the War Effort
Playwright Rachel Crothers established the American Theatre Wing in 1917 and Perry was an active member, once serving as secretary. When it was first established, Crothers and six other women did their part to help the war effort during World War I. They reinstated their efforts during World War II.
In addition to the Wing hosting dances, teas and dog shows for the war effort, Perry initiated the idea of the Stage Door Canteen. Servicemen in uniform could drop by the basement of New York’s 44th Street Theatre for relaxation and entertainment. It was not unheard of to see Tallulah Bankhead cleaning tables or Hume Cronyn checking coats or Dorothy Lamour taking non-alcoholic drink orders.
Branches of the Stage Door Canteen sprouted in several cities in the United States and in Paris and London. The revenue earned from the canteens supported the Theatre Wing’s efforts to provide theatrical productions to troops overseas. It also led to a weekly radio show and a movie “Stage Door Canteen” in 1943.
Theatre Training School
When the war ended, the Theatre Wing established the American Theatre Wing Professional Training School in 1946 to help some of the troops get into theater. Tony Randall, Charlton Heston and Lee Marvin were some of the actors who attended the school.
A school for theatrical actors had been a dream of Perry’s. Sadly, she did not live to see its success. She died of a heart attack on June 28, 1946 while her daughters were preparing a celebration one day before her birthday.
Creating the Tony Awards
Members of the theatrical community in New York, Pemberton among them, wanted to do something to honor this woman who had given so much to the theater. After much debate, it was decided that an annual awards ceremony, acknowledging the best in theater, would be the most appropriate way to honor Perry. The awards were to be called “Tony” awards in honor of Perry’s chosen nickname.
When the first awards were handed out at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 1947, the awards were merely a scroll and a token gift. For sixty years, the Tony awards have been represented by a medallion first presented in 1949. The medallion bears Perry’s resemblance on one side and the masks of comedy and tragedy on the other.
The great Helen Hayes, only one of a handful of actors to work with Perry, stated, “Tony was a gifted and versatile actress, and one of the best directors the American theater has produced. What made her wonderful to work for was how she gave actors the opportunity to express themselves. She didn't impose her will on them.” [2]
The website antoinetteperry.com is currently under construction.
Sources:
[1], [2] Tony Awards website
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