Honoring Excellence on Broadway
This year’s Tony Awards, held on June 16, was the seventy-seventh such event. The first Tonys took place on April 6, 1947, which happened to be Easter Sunday. The initial ceremony to celebrate excellence in theater was in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria hotel and included dinner, dancing, and entertainment. More than 1,000 people attended.
In that first year, two actors and two actresses received Tonys: Jose Ferrer, Frederic March, Ingrid Bergman, and Helen Hayes. Patricia Neal won an award for Outstanding Newcomer. Best Performance in a Musical went to David Wayne in Finian’s Rainbow. Elia Kazan received an award as director of All My Sons, written by Arthur Miller, who received a Special Award. Lucinda Ballard was recognized for excellence in costume design for multiple shows. Tony honors went to two choreographers, Agnes de Mille for Brigadoon and Michael Kidd for Finian’s Rainbow. The composer award went to Kurt Weill for Street Scene. Six other Special Awards also were bestowed.
The Tonys are named for Antoinette Perry, co-founder of the American Theatre Wing, who died less than a year before the first ceremony. Since 1967, the Broadway League (then known as the League of New York Theatres) has joined the American Theatre Wing to host the event. The 1967 ceremony was unique for several other reasons: it was the first to take place in a theater instead of a hotel ballroom and to appear on national television. From its inception, the Tony ceremony had been covered by radio.
In the first two years of the annual ceremony, the main award was a scroll. In 1949, Herman Rosse designed a round medallion for the Tony. Since 1968, the disk has hung from a curved arm atop a black pedestal. A large facsimile adorned both sides of the stage at this year’s award ceremony.
Left, a facsimile of the Tony award as it appeared on both sides of the stage at this year’s award ceremony (broadcast on CBS; hence the eye logo at the bottom on the pedestal). Right, an actual Tony in the hands of a recipient.
The American Theatre Wing owns the copyright for the Tony, and intellectual property rules prohibit me from clearly displaying the actual award. But I can describe it. The front of the medallion has masks representing comedy and tragedy. The back of the medallion is personalized with the name of the winner, the award category, the award-winning production, and the year.