Fred Stone | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Stone in 1911 | |
| Born | Fred Andrew Stone (1873-08-19)August 19, 1873 Valmont, Colorado, U.S. |
| Died | March 6, 1959(1959-03-06) (aged 85) |
| Burial place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) |
| Occupation(s) | Stage, film actor |
| Years active | 1901–1945 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Dorothy Stone Paula Stone Carol Montgomery Stone |
| Relatives | Milburn Stone (nephew) Madge Blake (niece) |
Fred Andrew Stone (August 19, 1873 – March 6, 1959) was an American actor. Stone began his career as a performer incircuses andminstrel shows, went on to act invaudeville, and became a star on Broadway and in feature films, which earned him a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame.
Stone was born inValmont, Colorado, on August 19, 1873.[1][2] In his early years his family moved frequently.[3] By 1875 the family had moved to Longmont, CO, where his brother Joseph was born.[4] The family then moved through a series of Kansas towns includingGarden City (1876),Dodge City (1877),Burrton,Halstead (1878), andWellington (1881).[5]
He was particularly famous for appearing on stage oppositeDavid C. Montgomery. They had a 22-year partnership until Montgomery's death in 1917. They performed in shows such asThe Wizard of Oz premiering in 1902, theVictor Herbert operettaThe Red Mill in 1906, andChin-Chin, a Modern Aladdin, in 1914. In 1939, he appeared in a radio program promoting the new MGM filmThe Wizard of Oz, in which he got to meet the actor who played theScarecrow,Ray Bolger, who was a great admirer of Stone's work, and although Bolger was too young to have seen Stone play the Scarecrow in the stage play, he did see Stone inThe Red Mill.[6]
In 1917, he appeared on Broadway inJack O'Lantern, which, according toVanity Fair theater criticP.G. Wodehouse "should be the greatest success he has ever had. Fred Stone is unique. In a profession where the man who can dance can't sing and the man who can sing can't act he stands alone as one who can do everything."[7]
Johnny Gruelle, the creator ofRaggedy Ann, was a fan of Fred Stone andL. Frank Baum. Gruelle wrote a scenario for a stage show, which never was produced, in which the Scarecrow of Oz, played by Fred Stone, met Raggedy Ann. In 1923, Fred Stone and his daughter,Dorothy Stone, starred asRaggedy Andy and Raggedy Ann, respectively, in a musical extravaganza titledStepping Stones with music byJerome Kern and lyrics byAnne Caldwell.[8]
Stone's feature film career began in comedy westerns; his first,The Goat, was filmed in 1918. He starred in 19 feature films. In the 1935 filmAlice Adams, as Mr. Adams, he was the third lead, followingKatharine Hepburn andFred MacMurray. He made his home in Bayside, New York, where he was a neighbor and friend of boxing champion-turned-actorJames J. Corbett. Around 1917, Stone built a small estate in the exclusive private community of Forest Hills Gardens. The excess grounds were sold as building lots for two other homes. However, the original mansion still stands. In it are symbols of his acting career, including a theater in the basement and a separate room of store costumes.
In 1926, after the death of his good friendAnnie Oakley, he was given her unfinished autobiography.[9]
Stone and his wife,Allene Crater, whom he met in the company ofThe Wizard of Oz, had three daughters,Dorothy,Paula, andCarol.[10] Crater also appeared, in a small part, with Stone inJack O'Lantern. AVanity Fair review of the play said of Crater: "My only complaint is that the structure of the entertainment makes it impossible for Allene Crater, who in the little bit she does shows herself one of the most refreshing comediennes on the musical stage, to have a really good part."[7] As an adult, Dorothy became her father's stage partner.
In 1928,[11] Stone was critically injured in an airplane crash attempting a stunt. In addition to many other broken bones, his legs were crushed and he was told he never would dance again. His good friendWill Rogers filled in for Fred inThree Cheers, a stage show written for Fred and his daughter, Dorothy. Rogers was a hit, and Stone worked at therapy relentlessly until he proved his doctors wrong and returned to the stage inRipples (1930).
Stone received an honorary degree fromRollins College, a small liberal-arts college located in Winter Park, Florida, in 1939. At that time, a small theatre was named in his honor. The original Fred Stone Theatre—a smaller flexible space sitting adjacent to the college's larger principal venue, theAnnie Russell Theatre, named after another great American actor and benefactor—was a wooden bungalow that was razed in the early 1970s. A nearby wood and brick-faced Greek revival-styled hall, converted into a 90-seat black-box performance space, was rededicated as the Fred Stone Theatre during this period, and although it has been moved to another location on campus, it still stands and is active as a performance venue for smaller experimental productions, as well as student-directed and -choreographed works. (The Rollins Archives have extensive information on the career of Stone, including numerous photographs, and is chief among private institutions in the U.S. continuing to educate young actors about the history of this great American thespian. Rollins College claims many famous theatrical alumni, includingAnthony "Tony" Perkins, best known for his role asNorman Bates inAlfred Hitchcock'sPsycho, and character actressDana Ivey.)
Fred Stone became ill and blind and was hospitalized on August 25, 1957, the year his wife died.[12][13][14] He died on March 6, 1959, at his home inNorth Hollywood, California[15] and is buried atForest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills).[16]
George Ade wroteFred Stone Jingles for Good Little Girls and Good Little Boys (20 pages, 8 poems, 10 interior photos by Charles Dillingham, George A Powers Printing Co., 1921). Stone's autobiographyRolling Stone was published in 1945 (McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.).P. G. Wodehouse mentions him in the short story "The Aunt and the Sluggard", aJeeves andBertie Wooster story.[17]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1915 | Destiny | Parishioner | |
| 1918 | The Goat | Chuck McCarthy | |
| 1919 | Under the Top | Jimmie Jones | |
| 1919 | Johnny Get Your Gun | Johnny Wiggins | |
| 1921 | The Duke of Chimney Butte | Jeremeah Lambert | |
| 1922 | Billy Jim | Billy Jim | |
| 1924 | Broadway After Dark | Himself | cameo appearance |
| 1935 | Alice Adams | Virgil Adams | |
| 1936 | The Trail of the Lonesome Pine | Judd Tolliver | |
| 1936 | The Farmer in the Dell | Ernest 'Pa' Boyer | |
| 1936 | Grand Jury | Commodore George Taylor | |
| 1936 | My American Wife | Lafe Cantillon | |
| 1937 | Hideaway | Frankie Peterson | |
| 1937 | Life Begins in College | Coach Tim O'Hara | |
| 1937 | Quick Money | Mayor Jonas Tompkins | |
| 1939 | Konga, the Wild Stallion | Yance Calhoun | |
| 1939 | No Place to Go | Andrew Plummer | |
| 1940 | The Westerner | Caliphet Mathews |
From Greenville, Ohio, I received a heavy brown pasteboard box, which I carried to the stage of the Globe Theatre, Manhattan, and opened in the presence of a notary public. It contained several scrapbooks, with clippings, photographs, letters and a typed autobiography up to 1890 of my late friend, Annie Oakley Butler, ablest markswoman in history, who died last month. There was no letter of explanation but it seemed apparent that Annie Oakley, with whom I played in a circus some 20 years ago, wished me to be her Boswell.
