April 6, 1947: The 1st Tony Awards

April 6, 1947: The 1st Tony Awards are presented, in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. They are named for Antoniette Perry, an actress, director, and co-founder of the American Theatre Wing, who had died the year before.

 

The ATW presented the Awards, and still does. Brock Pemberton was the host, and the ceremony was broadcast over the Mutual Broadcasting System, a radio network anchored by WOR, AM 710, in New York.

 

Two awards were given for Best Actor and Best Actress in a Play: José Ferrer in Cyrano de Bergerac and Frederic March in Years Ago; Ingrid Berman in Joan of Lorraine and Helen Hayes (known as "the First Lady of the American Theater") in Happy Birthday. David Wayne won Best Performance in a Musical, for Finian's Rainbow. Outstanding Newcomer went to Patricia Neal for Another Part of the Forest.

 

Elia Kazan won Best Director for All My Sons, and Kurt Weill won Best Composer for Street Scene. Two awards were given for Choreography: Agnes de Mille for Brigadoon and Michael Kidd for Finian's Rainbow. And Lucinda Ballard won for Costume Design, for 5 shows: Happy Birthday, Another Part of the Forest, Street Scene, John Loves Mary and The Chocolate Soldier.

 

The original award was a scroll. The women also got an initialed sterling silver compact case, while the men had the choice of an engraved gold bill clip or a cigarette lighter. In 1949, the now-familiar medallion began to be awarded.

There was no award for Best Play, or for Best Musical. The 2nd year, 1948, saw the 1st award for Best Play, to Mister Roberts. Best Musical was first awarded the next year, to Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate, while Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman won for Best Play.

It would take until 1967 for the Awards to be broadcast on television, and CBS has done the honors ever since. Most Tony Awards: Producer and director Harold Prince, 21. Terrence McNally and Tom Stoppard share the record for most Tonys for scriptwriting, 4; Stephen Sondheim for music, 8; and Audra McDonald for acting, 6. The 1st black Tony winner was Juanita Hill, for South Pacific in 1950.

Venues for the ceremonies:

* 1947-53, 1957-59, 1961-62: The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel

* 1954-56: The Plaza Hotel

* 1960, 1965: The Astor Hotel (not to be confused with the Waldorf)

* 1963: The Hotel Americana

* 1964: The New York Hilton

* 1966: The Rainbow Room, 30 Rockefeller Plaza

* 1967-68, 1974, 1976-79, 1985: The Shubert Theatre

* 1969-70, 1980-81, 1987: The Mark Hellinger Theatre

* 1971: The Palace Theatre

* 1972: The Broadway Theatre

* 1973, 1982: The Imperial Theatre

* 1975, 2021: The Winter Garden Theatre

* 1983-84, 1992-94, 1999: The Gershwin Theatre

* 1986, 1988, 1991, 1995: The Minskoff Theatre

* 1989-90: The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre

* 1996: The Majestic Theatre

* 1997-98, 2000-10, 2013-15, 2017-19, 2022: Radio City Music Hall

* 2011-12, 2016: The Beacon Theatre

UPDATE: 2023, The United Palace; 2024, The David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center; 2025, Radio City.

On the 1997 season finale of Seinfeld, "The Summer of George," Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards) was hired as a "seat filler" for the Tony ceremony. Scarsdale Surprise, a musical (made up for the show) based on the 1980 murder of diet doctor Herman Tarnower by his mistress Jean Harris, won Best Musical, and Kramer was mistakenly brought onstage as one of the producers. He was told he could keep the Tony Award he was mistakenly given if he would fire the lead actress, Raquel Welch (who played herself). When he tried, she beat him up and broke his trophy.

He'd lost his youth, and he'd lost his Tony, now he'd lost his mind.

*

April 6, 1947 was a Sunday. Cheers actor John Ratzenberger was born on this day.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was in the off-season. And the NHL was in the middle of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, with both Semifinals having ended the day before, won by the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens. The Leafs would win the Cup.

The Basketball Association of America, the league that would become the NBA in 1949, was having its 1st Playoffs, and 1 game was played: The Philadelphia Warriors beat and eliminated the St. Louis Bombers, 75-59 at the Kiel Auditoirum in St. Louis. The Warriors would beat the Chicago Stags for the title.