Stone would have approved of his namesake theatre
"He is probably the best-loved figure on the American Stage," it was written of Fred Stone. "This is due not only to the fact that he insisted on clean shows--but also to the fact that he has led a clean, fine, wholesome moral life--anyone in the profession will tell you that he has brought more mirth into the hearts of the theatre-going public than any other man before the footlights."
The writer was novelist Rex Beach. And he was echoing what seems to be the unanimous opinion of those familiar with the actor for whom Rollins' Fred Stone Theatre was named.
Stone was born of pioneer parents in 1873 at Valmont, Colorado. About his parents, Stone wrote; "The day they were married, my father and mother hitched their team to a prairie schooner and joined the procession that was trailing out across Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Colorado--so I was in time to take part in the last act of the grandest super-spectacle this continent ever witnessed--the covered wagon parade into the Wild West."
Stone's first taste of show business came early in life. At the age of 11, he and his brother Ed joined the DeArly and Obrien Circus. Traveling with circuses, medicine shows, and playing variety theatres, Stone honed his dancing and acrobatic skills to perfection.
In 1895, he joined Dave Montgomery in a performing partnership that was to last for over 20 years, until Montgomery's death.
Later in 1895, the duo went to Chicago and played Hall's Casino for eleven weeks, and then went with Gus Hall's World of Novelties the following year. By the turn of the century, Montgomery and Stone were known internationally, and in 1901 played English pantomime for three months in Liverpool.
In 1902, Montgomery and Stone opened the stage version of The Wizard of Oz, where Stone played the Scarecrow, and Montgomery played the Tin Man. The role was perhaps Stone's greatest, and he played it through 1905.
Following The Wizard of Oz, Montgomery and Stone played for three years in Victor Herbert and Henry Blossom's The Red Mill. Following that show, the pair appeared in The Old Town, which was presented in New York's Globe Theatre.
A variety of musical comedy successes for Stone followed in the Globe Theatre, which was the only place the famous comedian appeared for 18 years.
In 1915, Montgomery and Stone appeared in the musical Chin Chin. Montgomery, however, died in the third year of its run. His death ended a partnership of over twenty years, which spanned everything from minstrel shows to musical comedies.
About his partner, Fred Stone wrote: "For twenty-two years we had been together. We had built our careers together so closely that they seemed like one career. We had in common a whole lifetime of shared experiences, and deep-rooted friendship and trust. We supplemented each other, as is the case with all enduring partnerships. He had a gaiety, and sparkle, and love of life that aroused a response in his audience and his friends."
Stone vowed that he would never take another partner, and for the rest of his life in show business, Stone kept that vow.
Stone went on to a variety of solo starring roles in musicals.
In the summer of 1928, Fred and his daughter Dorothy were rehearsing for Three Cheers, another musical, when Stone decided to learn to fly an airplane. While doing one of his early solo flights, Stone crashed in his plane and was seriously injured. He was told that he would probably walk again, but that his dancing days were over.
While in the hospital, Stone's friend Will Rogers, offered to fill in for him in Three Cheers. On opening night, a radio hookup was arranged so that Stone could hear the whole performance from his bed. About this experience, he wrote: "...with a mike on my chest, I spoke to the people who had been so kind to me--men, women, and children all over the country.
children all over the country."[sic]
Ironically, a plane crash was to kill Rogers a few years later.
Being unable to dance, Stone played his first part in a straight drama in 1934. It was The Jayhawker, by Sinclair Lewis and Lloyd Lewis. His youngest daughter, Carol, appeared with him in that production.
Stone appeared in a revival of Frank Bacon's Lightnin in 1938, which was the same show he directed and starred in at Rollins College in 1939. His last New York appearance was as Grandpa Vanderhof in You Can't Take It With You.
In addition to his stage career, Stone appeared in several motion pictures. The first was a silent movie made in 1918 called Under the Big Top. In 1935 he appeared in Alice Adams, followed by parts in The Westerner, Life Begins in College, Hideaway, Grand Jury and My American Wife.
Throughout his career of over 50 years, Stone maintained a happy marriage with his wife, Allene. About her, Stone wrote: "If her own talents had been her sole guide, she would have been starring in shows of her own, but after our wedding she decided that a happy marriage was more important than a career. So she made up her mind to take smaller roles in the companies with which I was playing so that we could have a real home life and at the same time share as much of our professional life as possible."
The Stones had three daughters, each of whom followed their parents into the theatre, and each of whom played with their famous father in a show.
Stone died in Hollywood in 1959. His wife had died two years earlier.
For the better part of fifty years, Fred Stone was the most consistent box office attraction in the American Theatre. He was a dancer, an acrobat, an ice skater, a lariat thrower, a tightrope walker, and an actor. He never had a flop.
But Rex Beach wrote that the most impressive thing about Stone was not his show business achievements:
"To my way of thinking, the biggest thing about Fred is not his genius as an entertainer and his hold upon the affections of the American public, nor is it the fact that he made good with but few advantages; it is the fact that in spite of his enormous success he has remained a simple, honest and charitable man. He is the Peter Pan of our day."
The renovated interior of the Fred Stone Theatre. (Photo by Gerald Holly)
FRED STONE
Rollins Architecture and Landscape
