Ione Bright (May 11, 1887 – August 17, 1976) was an American theatre actress active in Broadway and other theatre from 1908 to the early 1950s.
Early life
Ione E. Bright was born on May 11, 1887, in
Angels Camp
Angels Camp, also known as City of Angels and formerly Angel's Camp, Angels, Angels City, Carson's Creek and Clearlake, is the only incorporated city in Calaveras County, California, United States. The population was 3,836 at the 2010 census, up ...
,
Calaveras County, California. She was the youngest child of Simon Edward Bright and Mary (Clark) Bright. Her three siblings were Agnes (born 1878), Claude (born 1885), and Bernard (born 1882). According to a later newspaper interview, she grew up "among the great trees right at the entrance of the
Yosemite Valley
Yosemite Valley ( ; ''Yosemite'', Miwok for "killer") is a U-shaped valley, glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountains of Central California. The valley is about long and deep, surroun ...
".
Her father passed away sometime between 1896 and 1900,
[United States Census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Jerome, Yavapai, Arizona Territory; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0070; FHL microfilm: 1240047] and in 1900 she was living in
Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, th ...
, Arizona Territory
with her mother, who was working as a chambermaid. In 1903 she was placed at the Convent of the Presentation, a convent and all-girls school, in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, California. After the
1906 San Francisco earthquake
At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...
and fire she was sent to act as a secretary for her brother-in-law, but "put the books in such condition that a new set was started".
While attending school at the Convent of the Presentation in San Francisco, she was cast as Saint Joan in a school production of ''
The Maid of Orleans'' by
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...
.
Early career
After graduating from the Convent of the Presentation school Bright decided to pursue a stage career, in part because "it seemed to me the best paying profession that a woman could enter...because it pays better than book-keeping, stenography, selling ribbons, or delivering ice cream sodas to after-theater parties".
When asked how she knew she had the talent, her reply was "I didn't; I just took a chance".
Bright approached
Nance O'Neil
Gertrude Lamson (October 8, 1874 – February 7, 1965), known professionally as Nance O'Neil or Nancy O'Neil, was an American stage and film actress who performed in plays in various theaters around the world but worked predominantly in the Unite ...
's management at the Liberty Playhouse in
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
for work and was cast as a "
super
Super may refer to:
Computing
* SUPER (computer program), or Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer, a video converter / player
* Super (computer science), a keyword in object-oriented programming languages
* Super key (keyboard but ...
" at $5 per week.
She progressed to speaking roles and toured in various stock productions throughout California, living in San Francisco.
[United States Census, Year: 1910; Census Place: San Francisco Assembly District 39, San Francisco, California; Roll: T624_100; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 0231; FHL microfilm: 1374113] During one such production she was spotted by the manager of ''
Brewster's Millions
''Brewster's Millions'' is a comedic novel written by George Barr McCutcheon in 1902, originally under the pseudonym of Richard Greaves.
The plot concerns a young man whose grandfather leaves him $1 million in a will, but a competing will from a ...
'', who offered her a role in the production. In this role she toured Seattle and other Western cities.

A potential role with
Henry W. Savage
Henry Wilson Savage (March 21, 1859 – November 29, 1927) was an American theatrical manager.
Biography
Henry W. Savage was born March 21, 1859, in New Durham, New Hampshire. He graduated from Harvard in 1880. He became president of the Henry W. ...
beckoned on the East Coast, so in April 1910 Ione Bright moved to New York.
The role in the Broadway production of
Sewell Collins' ''Miss Patsy''
was short-lived, but Bright was soon cast by the Cohan & Harris Company in various
Cohan
Cohan is a surname of Irish origins. It is a variant of Cohane, which itself is an Anglicized form of the Irish Ó Cadhain.
Cohan is also a variant spelling of the Hebrew surname Cohen. This version of that name is commonly found among Jews ...
productions such as ''
Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford''. She also participated in touring productions and received favorable notices for her performances.
At some point between April 1910 and April 1911, Bright entered a beauty contest and took first place, earning a cash prize of $1000 (approx. $27,600 in 2021).
In April 1911, Bright was photographed by
Rudolf Eickemeyer Jr.
Rudolf Eickemeyer Jr. (August 7, 1862 – April 25, 1932)Turner Browne and Elaine Partnow, ''MacMillan Biographical Encyclopedia of Photographic Artists and Innovators'' (New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1983), pp. 172-173. was an Ameri ...
and her photograph entered in a national competition of over 3700 photographs of the most beautiful women in America. She was judged most beautiful and the photograph was awarded a gold medal by the American Photographers Association.
In 1912 Bright was cast in the Cohan production of ''
Officer 666'', participating in the New York production and then touring. The production played in Chicago, then toured the west coast of the United States in fall of 1912.
The production went to Canada and through the midwestern and southern United States. The company was present in
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater ...
for the
Great Dayton Flood
The Great Dayton Flood of 1913 resulted from flooding by the Great Miami River reaching Dayton, Ohio, and the surrounding area, causing the greatest natural disaster in Ohio history. In response, the General Assembly passed the Vonderheide Act to ...
.
After Officer 666, she was cast in ''The Lady of the Slipper'' and ''
A Pair of Sixes
''A Pair of Sixes'', originally titled ''The Party of the Second Part'', is a farce in three acts by Edward Peple that made its Broadway debut at the Longacre Theatre on March 17, 1914. The piece was produced by Harry Frazee and achieved a r ...
''. Both plays toured following their New York runs. She was then in
Julian Eltinge
Julian Eltinge (May 14, 1881 – March 7, 1941), born William Julian Dalton, was an American stage and film actor and female impersonator. After appearing in the Boston Cadets Revue at the age of ten in feminine garb, Eltinge garnered noti ...
's production of Cousin Lucy in 1915.
Foray into film
In early 1916 Ione Bright was contracted by
Mirror Films
Mirror Films Incorporated was a short-lived motion picture company producing films from late 1915 to early 1917. Their stated purpose was to bring business practices to bear on motion picture production in order to make a profit, to "look upon film ...
Inc. to be in their film productions. Mirror soon experienced financial difficulties, resulting in legal actions and departures of actors and production crew. She may have been a cast member in the films
''The Marriage Bond'' and/or ''Turned Up'' (
lost film
A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress.
Conditions
During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy ...
s) for Mirror. Bright also was in the 1917 comedy short ''Mixed Nuts'', produced by
Jaxon Film Productions as part of the ''Sparkle Comedies'', and may have had small parts in or tested for
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipment ...
productions.
Later career
In 1917-1918 Ione Bright was in the original production of ''
Nothing But the Truth'', which ran for 332 performances in New York and then toured. This was followed by other productions in 1919 and 1920. In August 1920 she portrayed Fuensantica in ''
Spanish Love
''Spanish Love'' is a three-act play by Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876September 22, 1958) was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie.Keating, H.R.F., ''The Bedside Compani ...
'', which ran for 312 performances on Broadway. This was followed by ''Suspended Sentence'' in 1922–23, with Bright taking over from actress Phyllis Alden and then staying with the production through a brief tour ending in New York.
During the summer of 1923, Bright was a member of the Wood Players, a stock company founded by Leonard Wood, Jr. She participated a half-dozen productions during the company's residence in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population among ...
at the
Fulton Opera House
The Fulton Opera House, also known as the Fulton Theatre or simply The Fulton, is a League of Regional Theatres class B regional theater located in historic downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It is reportedly the oldest working theatre in the Unite ...
.
In late 1925/early 1926, she was a cast member of the
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic compositio ...
farce ''Now What?'', starring Wilfred Clarke.
In 1936, Ione Bright was cast as First Lady of Canterbury
in the
WPA Federal Theatre Project production of
T.S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biogr ...
's ''
Murder in the Cathedral
''Murder in the Cathedral'' is a verse drama by T. S. Eliot, first performed in 1935, that portrays the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral during the reign of Henry II in 1170. Eliot drew heavily on the writ ...
'' at the Manhattan Theatre (now the
Ed Sullivan Theatre) in New York. The play was an unexpected success, receiving good notices and playing to over 40,000 people in 38 performances. This was followed by a role in ''Help Yourself'' the same year and then a role the following year in the WPA production of ''A Hero Is Born''.
Later years
In 1930, Ione Bright was listed as living in a boarding house on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. In 1940, she was listed as sharing an apartment with Wilfred Clarke on West 55th Street in Manhattan.
Sometime after 1957, Bright moved to
Whittier, California.
Death
Ione Bright died on August 17, 1976, in Whittier, California at the age of 89.
Stage credits
* Quo Vadis (supernumerary, first role)
* The Fires of St. John (stock)
* Marie Antoinette (stock)
* Mrs. Temple's Telegram (stock)
* The Sorceress (1908, as Zaquir, a young boy in Soraya's service; with
Nance O'Neil
Gertrude Lamson (October 8, 1874 – February 7, 1965), known professionally as Nance O'Neil or Nancy O'Neil, was an American stage and film actress who performed in plays in various theaters around the world but worked predominantly in the Unite ...
)
* Right's Might (1909,
Frank McGlynn Sr./Jack Gleason stock production)
*
Brewster's Millions
''Brewster's Millions'' is a comedic novel written by George Barr McCutcheon in 1902, originally under the pseudonym of Richard Greaves.
The plot concerns a young man whose grandfather leaves him $1 million in a will, but a competing will from a ...
(1910, as Margaret Grey, touring company)
* House of a Thousand Candles (1910, as Gladys Armstrong; part of Columbia Stock Company
)
* Miss Patsy (1910, as Pansy Hoffman)
*
Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford (1911)
*
Officer 666 (1912, as Helen Burton, toured US and Canada)
* The Lady of the Slipper (1913, as the Fairy Godmother, touring)
*
A Pair of Sixes
''A Pair of Sixes'', originally titled ''The Party of the Second Part'', is a farce in three acts by Edward Peple that made its Broadway debut at the Longacre Theatre on March 17, 1914. The piece was produced by Harry Frazee and achieved a r ...
(1914, as Florence Cole, touring)
* The Unexpected (1915)
* Cousin Lucy (1915,
Julian Eltinge
Julian Eltinge (May 14, 1881 – March 7, 1941), born William Julian Dalton, was an American stage and film actor and female impersonator. After appearing in the Boston Cadets Revue at the age of ten in feminine garb, Eltinge garnered noti ...
production)
* The Lucky Fellow (1916)
* Nothing But the Truth (1916, as Ethel Clark; 332 Broadway performances, then touring)
* Nothing But Lies (1918)
* I Love You (1919, as Ruth Franklin)
* Nightie-Night (1919)
* Every Little Thing (1920, as Kitty Dean;
William Powell
William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the '' Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters crea ...
in cast as William H. Powell)
*
Spanish Love
''Spanish Love'' is a three-act play by Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876September 22, 1958) was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie.Keating, H.R.F., ''The Bedside Compani ...
(1920, as Fuensantica, 312 performances; William Powell Broadway major role debut)
* Suspended Sentence (1922, as Mary; took over role from Phyllis Alden in Wilmington, Delaware Dec 25, 1922)
* Pollyanna (1923, as part of the Wood Players stock company in Lancaster, PA;
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two conse ...
part of company
)
* A Pair of Silk Stockings (1923, Wood Players)
* Seventeen (1923, as Lola Pratt; Wood Players)
* Buddies (1923, as Julie; Wood Players)
* Why Men Leave Home (1923, Wood Players)
* Up The Ladder (1923, Wood Players)
* Now What? (1925)
* Murder in the Cathedral (1936, as First Lady of Canterbury; WPA Federal Theatre production)
* Help Yourself (1936, WPA Federal Theatre production)
* A Hero Is Born (1937, as The Armored Fairy, Ladies and Gentlemen and Servants of the Court, Gossiping Guest; WPA Federal Theatre production)
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bright, Ione
Actresses from California
American stage actresses
1887 births
1976 deaths
20th-century American actresses
People from Calaveras County, California