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Antoinette “Tony” Perry

By Jon Pinnow
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Broadway’s best plays and musicals, and people on and off the stage, are honored every year in an awards ceremony named for a Denverite.

Born in 1888, Antoinette "Tony" Perry made her first public performance at the Elitch Gardens Theater at age 11. Just five years later she headed to New York City and made a name for herself as, "the sweetest, most piquant ingenue Broadway had seen for many long months." Her distinctive stage personality quickly made Antoinette Perry a leading lady, equally at home in comedy and classics. And then, at a time when women offstage were limited to positions as costumers, Tony became a stage director and producer, with a long string of hits.

She blazed a trail for women in theatre, and co-founded the American Theatre Wing, which created and continues to sponsor the theatre world's most coveted honors, the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Broadway Theatre — better known as the Tonys.

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Colorado Postcards are snapshots of our colorful state in sound. They give brief insights into our people and places, our flora and fauna, and our past and present, from every corner of Colorado.

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