(August 19, 1873 - March 6, 1959)
Comedic performer Fred Andrew Stone was born in Valmont, Colorado in 1873. Along with his older brother, Stone joined a regional circus as tight rope walking acrobat and, while a member of the minstrel troupe, he met his future artistic collaborator, Dave Montgomery. According to multiple accounts they were considered as America's top comedy team in their day.
Stone's first major stage success was in the first production of The Wizard of Oz (1903), starring as the Scarecrow. His longtime collaborator, Dave Montgomery, was the Tin Man and wrote the script. Stone toured the country performing the role over the next decade, and went on to star in other Broadway productions such as The Red Mill (1906-07), The Old Town (1910), and Chin-Chin (1914).
His individual fame as an actor came immediately after Montgomery's death, when Stone performed in Jack o' Lantern (1917). 1 He then starred in a variety of long-running musical comedies, including Tip Top (1920-21), Stepping Shoes (1923-24), and Three Cheers (1928-29). During the middle of his career, he was a founding member of the White Rats, an early acting union. His final Broadway stage appearance was in a revival of You Can't Take It With You, which opened in 1945. 2
Like other major performers of his generation, Fred Stone also worked in the emerging film industry, accepting movie roles as early as 1917. However, his major contribution began when he worked with Katherine Hepburn in Alice Adams in 1935. 3 He also had major roles in the films My American Wife (1936), Life Begins in College (1937), and The Westerner (1940). 4 The Westerner was his final Hollywood film as an actor.
By the time Stone passed away in 1959, his career had spanned across many of the various performance venues of his era. He was a circus performer, part of a vaudeville performance team, worked in musical theatre on Broadway, acted in several films, and worked with Will Rogers in his spectacular performance events. In Fred Stone's obituary, Variety claimed that "[f]or more than a half century Stone was a pillar of American musical comedy, both artistically and boxofficewise." 5
1. Variety, March 11, 1959.
2. Variety, March 11, 1959.
3. Variety, March 11, 1959.
4. Variety, March 11, 1959.
5. Variety, March 11, 1959.
Resources
Bartelt, Chuck and Barbara Bergeron (ed.). Variety Obituaries. 11 March 1959. New York: Garland Pub., 1988-1989.
Fields, Armond. Fred Stone: Circus Performer and Musical Comedy Star. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2002.
"Fred Stone." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Stone 6 December 2007.
"Fred Stone (I)" IMDB. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm081872/bio 6 December 2007.
"The red mill. Streets of New York. Vocal score\The streets of New York / lyric by Henry Blossom ; music by Victor Herbert." New York Public Library Digital Gallery. http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=182458 8 December 2007.