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.

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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.

April 3, 1948: The Marshall Plan

April 3, 1948: President Harry S Truman signs the European Recovery Act. It becomes known as the Marshall Plan, for its originator, Truman's Secretary of State, former 5-star General George C. Marshall, who described it as follows:

The modern system of the division of labor upon which the exchange of products is based is in danger of breaking down...

Aside from the demoralizing effect on the world at large, and the possibilities of disturbances arising as a result of the desperation of the people concerned, the consequences to the economy of the United States should be apparent to all. It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health to the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace.

Our policy is not directed against any country, but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Any government that is willing to assist in recovery will find full co-operation on the part of the United States. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world, so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.

Truman was the leader of the Democratic Party, and Marshall was a known Republican. An adviser reminded Truman that it was an election year -- this was before Primaries took hold, so neither major party's nomination was certified until they held their Conventions in the Summer -- and that if people associated Marshall's name with the plan, they might think he would make a better President than Truman. Truman said, "He would make a better President than me!" But Marshall never ran for public office.

Officially named the European Recovery Program, it was designed as financial aid to the nations of Western Europe that were devastated by World War II, showing them that America had their interests at heart more than the Communist Soviet Union did. Despite Truman being a Democrat, framing the Plan as anti-Communist made it easy for the Republican-controlled Congress to pass it: The Senate did so on March 13, 1948; the House on March 31; a conference committee smoothed out the differences on April 1; the House re-passed it on April 2; the Senate re-passed it the same day; and Truman signed it into law the next day, taking immediate effect.

Having already aided them through his "Truman Doctrine" the year before, Truman included Greece and Turkey in the Plan. The other countries receiving aid were those to the west of what Winston Churchill called the Iron Curtain: Great Britain, France, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, West Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Italy.

Not included were Spain, which had stayed neutral during the war, and was still ruled by Fascist dictator Francisco Franco; and the countries east of the Iron Curtain that the Soviets already controlled: East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania. Also not included was Finland, which had remained neutral once their "Winter War" with the Soviets ended. And, as it turned out, Yugoslavia was not nearly as much under Soviet control as the West then believed.

While most of the countries aided by the Marshall Plan did elect left-of-center governments at some point over the next few years -- though not in every election -- none of them elected a government that was outright Communist. The Plan worked.

In 1943, for his role as the Army's Chief of Staff, Time magazine named Marshall its Man of the Year. But his service as Secretary of State turned out to be more important. In 1953, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He died in 1959.

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April 3, 1948 was a Saturday. Carlos Salinas de Gortari, President of Mexico from 1988 to 1994, and one of the negotiators of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), was born on this day.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. One game was played in the Basketball Association of America, the league that would become the NBA for the 1949-50 season: The Philadelphia Warriors beat the St. Louis Bombers, 84-61 at the Philadelphia Arena.

There was 1 game played in the NHL: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 3-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. This got the Leafs into the Stanley Cup Finals, and they swept the Detroit Red Wings for the Cup.

And in English soccer, Arsenal beat Lancashire team Blackburn Rovers, 2-0 at Highbury in North London. A week later, a draw away to Yorkshire team Huddersfield Town was enough for Arsenal to clinch the Football League title.

January 28, 1948: Nat Hickey, the NBA's Oldest Player

January 28, 1948: For the 2nd night in a row, Nat Hickey, head coach of the Providence Steam Rollers, inserts himself into his team's game.

It did no good, either time. On January 27, the Rollers -- named for the city's former NFL team -- lost to the St. Louis Bombers, 94-61 at the Rhode Island Auditorium in Providence. Hickey took 5 shots from the field, and missed them all. He made 2 out of 3 free throws, for 2 points.

It almost worked on January 28, but not quite: The Rollers lost to the New York Knicks, 75-73 at the old Madison Square Garden. Hickey played 3 minutes, missed his only shot, and committed 4 fouls. A poor performance, by any standard.

A photo from that game. Hickey is Number 11.

Hickey was desperate to improve a team that had just fallen to 4-24 on the season, and would finish 6-42, easily the worst overall record in the Basketball Association of America, in its 2nd season. He was fired as head coach. Ken Loeffler coached the Rollers in the 1948-49 season, and they finished last again.

For the 1949-50 season, the BAA merged with the National Basketball League, and formed the National Basketball Association. To this day, the NBA traces its founding to the founding of the BAA in 1946, and so all BAA records -- but no NBL records -- are counted as NBA records. (Example: The Los Angeles Lakers count all 4 of their NBA Championships as the Minneapolis Lakers as "World Championships," and their 1949 BAA title as one as well; but not their 1948 NBL title.) The Steam Rollers were not among the BAA teams invited into the NBA, and Providence has not had a major league team in any sport since.

Hickey was the 1st NBA head coach to activate himself to try to help his team. He wouldn't be the last: In 1969, Boston Celtic legend Bob Cousy was coaching the Cincinnati Royals, and returned as a player, with only slightly more success than Hickey. Lenny Wilkens and Dave Cowens were later appointed head coach for their teams while still playing for them; Cowens only coached the one season, while Wilkens had more success as a coach after retiring as a player.

So what's the big deal about Hickey? Since those appearances in late January 1948 are counted as NBA games, they make him the oldest player in NBA history: He was 2 days short of his 46th birthday.

He was born on January 30, 1902 -- that's right, an NBA player was born in the 1st full year of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidency -- on Korčula, an island in the Adriatic Sea, off the coast of Croatia, then part of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was born with the name Nicola Zarnecich.

The family came to America, and he grew up in Hoboken, Hudson County, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City. He anglicized his name to Nicholas J. Hickey, and was nicknamed "Nat." He grew to be 5-foot-11, which is short compared to today's basketball players, but not then. For comparison's sake: My grandfather, George Goldberg, born 4 years later, was 5-foot-8, and was the tallest player on his team at Theodore Roosevelt High School in The Bronx, and they won the City Championship in 1924.

A guard and a forward, Hickey did not attend college, but played for some early pro basketball teams, including the dominant New York team known as the Original Celtics, featuring 2 men who became even bigger legends as coaches, Nat Holman and Joe Lapchick; the Cleveland Rosenblums, who, like the Original Celtics, won titles in the 1920s version of the American Basketball League; and the Chicago Bruins, a team run by Chicago Bears boss George Halas.

Hickey also played minor league baseball, as an outfielder. In 1938, 10 years before his record-setting basketball game, he managed the Williamson Colts of Williamson, West Virginia, a farm team of the St. Louis Cardinals, in the Mountain State League, which was in Class D, equivalent to today's Rookie Leagues. This post made him the 1st professional manager of Stan Musial.

West Virginia would also be a site of tragedy for Hickey. On January 11, 1951, he was coaching the Johnstown Clippers, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in the All-American Basketball League. He was driving some members of his team back home after a game in Wheeling when he lost control of his car on U.S. Route 30, the Lincoln Highway, and crashed. George Karmarkovich, a fellow Yugoslav (although Serbian as opposed to Croatian) and his best player, was thrown from the car and killed. He was only 24 years old.

An inquest ruled that Hickey was not responsible for Karmarkovich's death, but the team was soon disbanded, and he never coached again. He remained in Johnstown, and died on September 16, 1979.

Because Hickey played only 2 games -- really, only a few minutes in total -- in the early days of the NBA, before it even had the NBA name, and for a team that didn't last much longer after that, he was forgotten for a long time. When Cousy played his last game with the Royals in 1970, he was 41, and thought to be the oldest player in NBA history. In 1989, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar retired at age 42, and was then thought to have broken the record. In 1997, Robert Parish played at 43, and that was then thought to be the record. And in 2007, Kevin Willis played for the Dallas Mavericks at 44 years, 224 days old.

But the records were checked, and Nat Hickey was found to be the oldest: 45 years, 363 days old. As of January 28, 2022, the oldest active player is Udonis Haslem of the Miami Heat, 41. He shows no desire to retire. But to break Hickey's record, he would have to play in the NBA until June 8, 2026 -- which means that whatever team he is on in the 2025-26 season would have to make the NBA Finals that season to make it official, or else he'd have to play the 2026-27 season opener at 46 years and 4 months.

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January 28, 1948 was a Wednesday. The Steam Rollers-Knicks game was the only one in the NBA that night. Baseball and football were in their off-seasons. But all of the NHL's "Original Six" teams were in action that night:

* The New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Boston Bruins, 4-2 at the Boston Garden.

* And the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs played to a 3-3 tie at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.