Antoinette Perry, the Queen of Broadway

Whether you were rooting for Catherine Zeta Jones, Denzel Washington, Jude Law or Kelsey Grammar, those who enjoyed the 64th Annual Tony Awards may have been surprised that so many of the nominees are also famous for their work in movies and TV. In the not-so-distant past, a performer had to choose a medium and pretty much stick with it; the gap between movies, TV and Broadway was too wide for many of the most talented actors and directors to breach. Fortunately, like everywhere else, the world of entertainment has shrunk considerably over the past few decades.

Local theater fans might also be unaware that the Tony itself – the prestigious prize for accomplishments in the theater – was actually created in honor of a Denver girl: The talented Mary Antoinette Perry (she never used her first name) – actress, director, philanthropist and pioneer in the industry. As a young actress, Perry had a pedigree to match her incredible good looks. Her grandfather, wealthy rancher and industrialist Charles L. Hall, had been one of Colorado’s early pioneers. He met his wife, Mary Hall, after being stranded in a mountain blizzard with two other men.

As the family story goes, Hall suffered an injury to his leg, and had to be carried part of the way by companions. After weeks of isolation, long after the food ran out, he overheard his starving cohorts planning to have him for dinner – literally. Managing an escape, Hall survived long enough to be rescued by future Gov. Benjamin Eaton and nursed back to health by Mary Hill, who he subsequently married. Hill was a relative of Confederate Civil War Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Charles Hall settled in Leadville, eventually expanding his holdings to include mines in Arizona and gas works in Denver. (The family still owns the Salt Works Ranch in South Park.) Their three children included Minnie, who gave birth to her only child, Antoinette, on June 27, 1888. Unfortunately, the marriage floundered after only a few years. Antoinette’s father, a lawyer named William Perry, made a permanent exit from her life when she was 5. Perry had significant financial problems and wanted get away from it all and take his wife and daughter to England, a plan that subsequently fell through. (For some reason, the Halls disapproved of Perry and did not offer financial assistance.) Antoinette was raised in Denver by her mother and grandmother, who lived at the time of her birth at the swank La Veta Place at 14th and Colfax Avenue, the first apartments in Denver.

Showing a precocious talent, Antoinette made her stage debut at Old Point Comfort, Va., when she was only 3. A gifted soprano with a golden voice, she beat out 60 competitors to win an award for her musical ability at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. By age 9, Antoinette was holding music recitals at the Knight Campbell Music Center. She attended boarding school, and later East High School, enticing schoolmates to perform in her plays. In 1903, her mother took her to Pueblo’s Lake Minnequa Theatre, which featured melodramas and musicals during the summer. Already a seasoned performer, she wrote a poem for the occasion about an actor lamenting the ubiquitous “one-night stint.” Antoinette’s Aunt Mildred, also an actress (named after Robert E. Lee’s sister), gave her plenty of encouragement. Mildred married George Wessels, who owned his own theatre company; they were in a position to give their niece a professional boost.

Antoinette made her formal stage debut in Chicago, performing in Mrs. Temple’s Telegram. Labeled the youngest actress in America, she celebrated her 17th birthday perusing rave reviews about her performance. Later that year, she played an ingénue in Lady Jim at Weber’s Theater in New York. The critics sang her praises, calling her “clever” and “winsome,” and within a month, producer David Belasco had signed her to play the lead with superstar David Warfield in The Music Master. Upon hearing of Antoinette’s plans to make a permanent career on stage, Charles Hall disinherited his granddaughter and her mother, an odd reaction from the man who had paid for all those music and acting lessons. Perhaps Hall had been soured by daughter Mildred’s stage career, or maybe he just didn’t like Antoinette traveling in the company of actors, who were still suspect by the standards of the day.

The newspapers went on and on about her beauty, although the praise was well deserved. “She is the perfect blonde,” gushed one reporter. “Her hair has the appearance of spun gold and she has the palest of blue eyes, shaded by the same light eyelashes and eyebrows.” Photos taken at the time depict a demure little princess, a stage version of Mary Pickford, America’s Sweetheart.

When the Music Master reached Denver’s Elitch Theater, she became the toast of the town. Her most ardent fan was Frank Frueauff, vice president and general manager of the Denver Electric Company. Encouraged by Grandfather Hall, the tall, dark, handsome and very wealthy executive wooed her and won her heart. The two were married Nov. 30, 1909, in Minnie’s charming home at 2815 E. Colfax Ave., a site now occupied by Pete’s Billards. (Antoinette’s mother would eventually marry three times and outlive her daughter.)

The Frueauffs settled down to enjoy several years of wedded bliss, most of them spent in New York. They had two children, Margaret, born in Denver in 1913, and Elaine, born in New York in 1921. Both girls became actresses in their own right. Frank Frueauff’s career flourished and he eventually became the manager of more than 100 power companies across the United States. Unfortunately, the high-powered job left him vulnerable to the affects of stress, and he died of a heart attack on July 31, 1922, when he was only 48. After a brief sojourn to Great Britain with her daughters, Perry – now somewhere between nine and thirteen million dollars richer – returned to the stage.

Making a comeback at age 36, she wowed them on the first try, starring in Mr. Pitt at the 39th Street Theater in New York City. Other hits followed, including the Edna Ferber-George F. Kaufman blockbuster, Minick. After suffering a small stroke in 1927 during a revival of Electra, Antoinette gave up acting and turned to directing. Since women in theater were then largely relegated to costume design and acting, her efforts were groundbreaking. Working with producer Brock Pemberton, with whom she had a close personal relationship, she enjoyed a series of major successes. With seemingly boundless energy, she directed 17 plays in 14 years, three in 1937 alone. A tough yet sensitive director who smoked constantly, she once told a New York Times reporter, “To my way of thinking, the important thing is to make each play as beautiful as possible.”

Antoinette eventually lost her great beauty but never her passion for the theater. At the onset of World War II, she became chair of the American Theater Wing, a theatrical organization formed to provide entertainment for service people. She worked tirelessly to develop the Stage Door Canteens, which sent out thousands of performers at home and overseas. After the war, Perry directed the American Theatre Wing Professional Training School for returning GIs, some of whom included Bob Fosse, Charleton Heston and Tony Randall.

Perry’s greatest theatrical hit was probably Harvey, written by another Denverite, Mary Coyle Chase. The tale of Elwood P. Dowd and his invisible 6-foot rabbit was still playing when Antoinette died in her sleep of a heart attack, the day after her 58th birthday. Although she had been ill for months, she never sought medical attention, since she had been raised a Christian Scientist. An avid gambler and a generous supporter of fellow thespians, she died deeply in debt, surviving on her $800/week royalties from Harvey.

Jacob Wilk of Warner Brothers East Coast office to the American Theater Wing first suggested the Antoinette Perry Award. Spearheaded by Brock Pemberton, the Wing created the Tony Awards as a memorial in her honor. In the grand ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the first winners were applauded on April 6, 1947. The United Scenic Artists subsequently held a contest to design the prize. A medallion, created by Herman Rosse, debuted in 1949 and continues to be the official award. Now mounted on a black base, it depicts the masks of comedy and tragedy on one side and Antoinette Perry’s profile on the other.

The Tony Awards were first broadcast on TV in 1997, and the following year, the Denver Center Theater won the award for Outstanding Regional Theater. Antoinette would have been delighted.