# Ione Bright

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{{Short description|American theatre actress (1887–1976)}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Ione Bright
| image              = Stage actress Ione Bright (SAYRE 12485).jpg
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1887|5|11}}
| birth_place        = Angels Camp, Calaveras, California U.S.
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1976|8|17|1887|5|11}}
| death_place        = Whittier, California, U.S.
| occupation         = Actress
| years_active       = 1908–1957?
}}
'''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](/source/Angels_Camp%2C_California), [Calaveras County](/source/Calaveras_County%2C_California), 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](/source/Yosemite_Valley)".<ref name=":02">{{Cite news|date=October 1, 1912|title='Plain' And She Admits It|work=Los Angeles Evening Express|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/607904481}}</ref>

Her father died sometime between 1896 and 1900,<ref>{{Cite news|date=May 11, 1894|title=Personal Mention|volume=39|work=San Diego Union and Daily Bee|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=cl&cl=CL1&sp=SDDU&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1}}</ref><ref name=":1">United States Census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Jerome, Yavapai, Arizona Territory; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0070; FHL microfilm: 1240047</ref> and in 1900 she was living in [Jerome](/source/Jerome%2C_Arizona), Arizona Territory<ref name=":1" /> 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](/source/San_Francisco), California. After the [1906 San Francisco earthquake](/source/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake) 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".<ref name=":02"/>

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](/source/The_Maid_of_Orleans_(play))'' by [Friedrich Schiller](/source/Friedrich_Schiller).<ref name=":22">{{Cite news|date=1936-04-26|title=Four On Stage 100 Years|page=11|work=Brooklyn Times-Union|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/577612894}}</ref>

=== 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".<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|title=A Bright Interview|page=31|work=The San Francisco Call|publication-date=September 22, 1912|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/82689997}}</ref> 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](/source/Nance_O'Neil)'s management at the Liberty Playhouse in [Oakland, California](/source/Oakland%2C_California) for work and was cast as a "[super](/source/Supernumerary_actor)" at $5 per week.<ref name=":3" /> She progressed to speaking roles and toured in various stock productions throughout California, living in San Francisco.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CU8zAQAAMAAJ |title=Crocker-Langley San Francisco Directory |date=1909 |publisher=H.S. Crocker Company |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":4">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</ref> During one such production she was spotted by the manager of ''[Brewster's Millions](/source/Brewster's_Millions_(play))'',<ref>{{Cite news|title=Amusements|page=5|work=Salt Lake Telegram|publication-date=March 7, 1910|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/289783628}}</ref> who offered her a role in the production. In this role she toured Seattle and other Western cities.
thumb|470x470px|Ione Bright in Theatre Magazine, August 1912.
A potential role with [Henry W. Savage](/source/Henry_Wilson_Savage) beckoned on the East Coast, so in April 1910 Ione Bright moved to New York.<ref name=":4" /><ref>United States Census, 1910 Year: 1910; Census Place: Manhattan Ward 22, New York, New York; Roll: T624_1045; Page: 9B; Enumeration District: 1280; FHL microfilm: 1375058</ref> The role in the Broadway production of [Sewell Collins](/source/Sewell_Collins)' ''Miss Patsy''<ref name=":3" /> was short-lived, but Bright was soon cast by the Cohan & Harris Company in various [Cohan](/source/George_M._Cohan) productions such as ''[Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford](/source/Get-Rich-Quick_Wallingford)''.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Melorose advertisement|page=38|work=Chicago Tribune|publication-date=1911-07-02}}</ref> She also participated in touring productions and received favorable notices for her performances.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Company |first=American Play |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DkM9AQAAMAAJ |title=The Catalogue of the American Play Company, with Original Casts |date=1911 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=March 2, 1910|title=Iona Bright|page=2|work=The Salt Lake Herald-Republican|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/77938529}}</ref>

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).<ref name=":02"/> In April 1911, Bright was photographed by [Rudolf Eickemeyer Jr.](/source/Rudolf_Eickemeyer_Jr.) 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.<ref name=":02" />

In 1912 Bright was cast in the Cohan production of ''[Officer 666](/source/Officer_666_(1916_film))'', 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.<ref name=":02" /><ref>{{Cite news|date=September 7, 1912|title=Famous Beauty Coming With Officer 666 - Ione Bright to Scintillate at Columbia|page=5|work=San Francisco Examiner|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/457696130}}</ref> The production went to Canada and through the midwestern and southern United States.<ref>{{Cite news|date=October 1, 1912|title=Officer 666 Arrests Much Attention, More Laughter|page=7|work=Oakland Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/78434471}}</ref><ref>Vancouver Province, Nov. 2, 1912, pg.18</ref><ref>Butte Daily Post, November 14, 1912, pg.2.</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=January 19, 1913|title=Officer 666 Told In Pictures|page=11|work=Tulsa Daily Democrat|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/582815260}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=February 19, 1913|title=Miss Ione Bright|page=2|work=The Hattiesburg News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/652781546}}</ref> The company was present in [Dayton, Ohio](/source/Dayton%2C_Ohio) for the [Great Dayton Flood](/source/Great_Dayton_Flood).<ref>{{Cite news|date=March 29, 1913|title=Actor Dead In Dayton|page=1|work=New York Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/78889872}}</ref>

After Officer 666, she was cast in ''The Lady of the Slipper'' and ''[A Pair of Sixes](/source/A_Pair_of_Sixes_(play))''. Both plays toured following their New York runs. She was then in [Julian Eltinge](/source/Julian_Eltinge)'s production of Cousin Lucy in 1915.

=== Foray into film ===
In early 1916 Ione Bright was contracted by [Mirror Films](/source/Mirror_Films) Inc. to be in their film productions.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=January 29, 1916|title=Mirror Engages Ione Bright|journal=Motography|pages=251}}</ref> 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''](/source/The_Marriage_Bond_(1916_film)) and/or ''Turned Up'' ([lost film](/source/lost_film)s) for Mirror.<ref>{{Cite news|date=January 30, 1916|title=With The Reel Fellows|page=30|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/169018904}}</ref> Bright also was in the 1917 comedy short ''Mixed Nuts'',<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mixed Nuts|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4278194/?ref_=nm_knf_t1|website=Internet Movie Database}}</ref> produced by [Jaxon Film](/source/Jaxon_Film_Corporation) Productions as part of the ''Sparkle Comedies'',<ref>Theater Magazine, August 1916, pg.246</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=September 29, 1917|title=The Moving Picture World|url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=mpworld|journal=The Moving Picture World|pages=2042}}</ref> and may have had small parts in or tested for [Pathé](/source/Path%C3%A9) productions.<ref>{{Cite news|date=January 21, 1916|title=Food for Film Fans|page=16|work=Logansport Pharos-Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/24886428}}</ref>

=== Later career ===
In 1917-1918 Ione Bright was in the original production of ''[Nothing But the Truth](/source/Nothing_but_the_Truth_(play))'', which ran for 332 performances<ref>Theater Magazine, August 1916, pg.246.</ref><ref>Playbill of Nothing But the Truth, French's Std. Library Edition, 1920. Google Books.</ref> 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](/source/Spanish_Love)'', which ran for 312 performances on Broadway.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Spanish Love|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/spanish-love-8904|website=Internet Broadway Database}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news|date=December 20, 1922|title=Suspended Sentence|page=13|work=The Morning News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/159791029}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=December 26, 1922|title=Suspended Sentence|page=7|work=The Morning News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/159791180}}</ref>

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](/source/Lancaster%2C_Pennsylvania) at the [Fulton Opera House](/source/Fulton_Opera_House).<ref>Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA), Jul. 5, 1923.</ref><ref>"Pretty Leading Lady of the Wood Players", Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA), August 1, 1923, pg.7.</ref><ref>Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA), Aug 13, 1923, pg.3</ref><ref name=":52">{{Cite book|last=Curtis|first=James|title=Spencer Tracy: A Biography|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|year=2011|isbn=9780307262899|location=United Kingdom|pages=885}}</ref>

In late 1925/early 1926, she was a cast member of the [vaudeville](/source/vaudeville) farce ''Now What?'', starring Wilfred Clarke.<ref>{{Cite news|date=January 2, 1926|title=B.F. Keith's Bushwick Theatre|page=21|work=The Chat|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/576447258}}</ref>

In 1936, Ione Bright was cast as First Lady of Canterbury<ref name=":22"/><ref>Program for the play "Murder in the Cathedral" by T. S. Eliot and presented at The Manhattan Theatre in New York, NY, [https://digitalarchives.broward.org/digital/collection/wpafederal/id/352 Broward County Library, Bienes Museum of the Modern Book].</ref> in the [WPA Federal Theatre Project](/source/Federal_Theatre_Project) production of [T.S. Eliot](/source/T._S._Eliot)'s ''[Murder in the Cathedral](/source/Murder_in_the_Cathedral)'' at the Manhattan Theatre (now the [Ed Sullivan Theatre](/source/Ed_Sullivan_Theater)) in New York. The play was an unexpected success,<ref>{{Cite news|date=April 2, 1936|title=WPA Theatre Problem: How to Handle Hits|page=119|work=New York Daily News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/416246165}}</ref> receiving good notices and playing to over 40,000 people in 38 performances.<ref>{{Cite news|date=March 30, 1936|title=WPA's Production of 'Murder in the Cathedral' Extended Nine Days|page=423|work=New York Daily News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/415232566}}</ref> 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''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dietz|first=Dan|title=The Complete Book of 1930s Broadway Musicals|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|year=2018|isbn=9781538102763|location=United States}}</ref>

== Later years ==
thumb|395x395px|Ione Bright, 1915.
In 1930, Ione Bright was listed as living in a boarding house on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.<ref>United States Census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Manhattan, Manhattan, New York; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 0462; FHL microfilm: 2341292</ref> In 1940, she was listed as sharing an apartment with Wilfred Clarke on West 55th Street in Manhattan.<ref>United States Census, Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02632; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 31-37</ref>

Sometime after 1957, Bright moved to [Whittier](/source/Whittier%2C_California), California.<ref name=":62">{{Cite news|date=August 22, 1976|title=Ione E. Bright|work=La Mirada Review|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/625769765}}</ref>

== Death ==
Ione Bright died on August 17, 1976, in Whittier, California at the age of 89.<ref name=":62"/>

== 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](/source/Nance_O'Neil))
* Right's Might (1909, [Frank McGlynn Sr.](/source/Frank_McGlynn_Sr.)/Jack Gleason stock production)
* [Brewster's Millions](/source/Brewster's_Millions_(play)) (1910, as Margaret Grey, touring company)
* House of a Thousand Candles (1910, as Gladys Armstrong; part of Columbia Stock Company<ref>{{Cite journal|date=June 11, 1910|title=Aborn Brothers Close Successful Season the Newark-Columbia Stock Company|journal=New York Dramatic Mirror|pages=4|via=Google Books}}</ref>)
* Miss Patsy (1910, as Pansy Hoffman)
* [Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford](/source/Get-Rich-Quick_Wallingford) (1911)
* [Officer 666](/source/Officer_666_(1916_film)) (1912, as Helen Burton, toured US and Canada)
* The Lady of the Slipper (1913, as the Fairy Godmother, touring)
* [A Pair of Sixes](/source/A_Pair_of_Sixes_(play)) (1914, as Florence Cole, touring)
* The Unexpected (1915)
* Cousin Lucy (1915, [Julian Eltinge](/source/Julian_Eltinge) 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](/source/William_Powell) in cast as William H. Powell)
* [Spanish Love](/source/Spanish_Love) (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](/source/Spencer_Tracy) part of company<ref name=":52"/>)
* 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 ==
<references />

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
*{{IBDB name|66954}}
*{{IMDB name|8492638}} 
*{{Find a Grave|144211367}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bright, Ione}}
Category:Actresses from California
Category:American stage actresses
Category:1887 births
Category:1976 deaths
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:People from Calaveras County, California

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ione Bright](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ione_Bright) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ione_Bright?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.