Garry McGarry

Garry McGarry. Source: eBay.

Variety called Franchot a protege of Garry McGarry. Who was Garry McGarry? He was born in Pennsylvania in 1889 and died suddenly of pneumonia at the age of 38 in New York in 1927. He was an actor, director, and leader of a stock company in theater, and a prominent member of the early Vitagraph and Edison picture companies.

As a young man, McGarry was a celebrated leading man in pictures. IMDb lists the following films and film shorts from 1914 to 1921 in Garry's filmography:
The Plaything of Broadway
The False Faces
A Prince in a Pawnshop
The Car and His Majesty
The Scarlet Runner
Mr. Jack Inspects Paris
The Wrong Mr. Wright
By Love Redeemed
Saints and Sinners
Sis
On the Turn of a Card
Brown's Summer Boarders
One Performance Only
Hearts Ablaze
The Tigress
Life's Yesterdays
The Silent W
The Esterbrook Case
Cutey's Sister
The Love Whip
The Return of Maurice Donnelly
The Capitulation of the Major
Lillian's Sweetheart
The Radium Thieves
The Wrong Girl
A Daughter of Israel
A Question of Clothes
The Greater Love
The Athletic Family
The Methods of Margaret
The Peacemaker

At the time of McGarry's sudden death in 1927, Franchot was twenty-two years old and recently graduated from Cornell University. Franchot worked as a stage manager and actor for Garry's stock theater company, Garry McGarry's Players, the summer and early fall after his college graduation. In my last post, Variety had a little note about college senior Franchot being picked to test with a film studio in 1927. I wonder if that arrangement fell through or if Franchot, always a play actor first and a film actor second, chose the theater instead.

After completing his studies, Franchot returned to Buffalo, New York to work with McGarry. Franchot's cousin Pascal Franchot was a major funder of the McGarry Players and that family relation helped Franchot get his foot in the door. According to the Buffalo Historical Society, Pascal Franchot was recognized for his efforts in the first World War and his charitable endeavors at an annual meeting that took place in 1925. At that meeting, McGarry spoke publicly of his appreciation of Pascal Franchot's services. This close friendship between Pascal and Garry certainly paved the way for Franchot to get his first chance at the stage in 1927.

Franchot began to get noticed as a "promising new juvenile" immediately and quickly advanced from the McGarry's company to roles in more prominent theater groups, in plays like The Belt, Centuries, and The International at New Playwrights' Theatre, and The Age of Innocence at the Empire Theatre. It was during Franchot's run in The Belt during November 1927 that he would've learned of his mentor Garry McGarry's death.

As one of Franchot's earliest supporters, McGarry aided Franchot in his discovery of the New York stage and into an acting career that would last for his entire life. Other than cast lists, ads, and his obituary, I have been unable to uncover as much about Garry McGarry as I'd hoped. If I find more and I hope I do, I will come back and add to this post later.

Ad for "The Garden of Aloha". Source:
Variety, September 1917. Media History Digital Library.

Sources:

• Block, Maxine. Current Biography Yearbook 1940. H.W. Wilson Company, 1940.
• "Address of the President and Report of the Director Submitted at the Annual Meeting." Buffalo Historical Society. The Society, 1925.
• Film magazines accessed via the Media History Digital Library at http://mediahistoryproject.org/

Pre-Hollywood Variety Mentions

Franchot first gained notice with filmgoers in 1933, but he was creating a buzz in Variety magazine as early as 1927. I've gathered a timeline of those Variety mentions.

May 4, 1927:
First National Pictures searched college campuses for future cinema talent and spotted ten talented actors at Cornell University. "The lucky ten at Cornell included Franchot Tone, president of the Cornell Dramatic Club.

January 18, 1928:
Starring as David Fitch in "The International", which Variety noted was "anything but not original in creation and presentation. So hectic and cacaphonous is its production that the play might well be styled a true exponent of a new school of vo-do-de-o drama."

October 23, 1929:
Franchot is busy rehearsing "Cross Roads" with Sylvia Sidney and others.

November 20, 1929:
Performing as Duke in "Cross Roads", Franchot is called "capable" in this "truthful, sympathetic picture of youth wrecked by the standards of modern society."

May 7, 1930:
"Franchot Tone, Niagara Falls boy, and protege of the late Garry McGarry, has signed with the New York Theatre Guild."

My note: I'm currently working on an individual post on Garry McGarry that I'll be posting within the next two days. I feel he deserves his own post, not a mere mention in this little Variety timeline.

September 1930:
Franchot is busy rehearsing Uncle Vanya, his first of several associations with this play.

October 6, 1931:

Performing as Will Connelly in The House of Connelly. "First nighters were impressed with this carefully prepared, serious drama"

December 5, 1931:
Performing as Adam in the play "1931". "A graphic picture of unemployment among the city's laboring class, strikingly scened but a depressing play."

March 15, 1932:
Performing as Federico in "Night Over Taos". "The Group Theatre which had the aid of the Theatre Guild but claimed now to be on its own offers a third production this season. 'Night Over Taos' is as good a production as 'House of Connelly' if not more skillful and certainly more striking. The mistake called '1931' has been forgotten."

May 3, 1932:
For his work in "A Thousand Summers", Variety writes, "Franchot Tone is especially good as the boy, presenting him sincerely and with great earnestness."

June 28, 1932:
Franchot leaves "A Thousand Summers" on June 25 and is replaced by actor Johnny Griggs.

October 4, 1932:
Performing as Raymond Merritt in "Success Story". "Franchot Tone, one of the Group's most promising players, does well but is third to the Adlers [Luther and Stella]."

October 25, 1932:
"Franchot Tone goes Metro on a six months' contract, plus a similar option, booked by Mike Connolly of the Jenie Jacobs office. He leaves 'Success Story', current New York play, and goes to the Coast next week. First assignment is 'Nora' opposite Jean Harlow."

November 8, 1932:
"Franchot Tone arrived Saturday (6) from New York, to start his Metro contract."

Source:
Variety Publishing Company. Accessed via Media History Digital Library.