--- description: The Broadway honors have been given since 1947 title: Tony Awards: This Is the Woman They're Named After image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ef81a1159fb1963/69885288e20a876ffea8ba2e/150601-antoinette-perry.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # This Is the Woman the Tony Awards Are Named After  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 8, 2015 12:00 AM CUT  American stage actress and director Antoinette Perry, (1888-1946), c. 1910. American stage actress and director Antoinette Perry, (1888-1946), c. 1910.CSU Archives—Everett Collection  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 8, 2015 12:00 AM CUT When the first Tony Awards were given in 1947, it wasn’t quite the polished production that theater fans have come to expect. The ceremony was on a much smaller scale, and the actual awards were decidedly quirkier, as TIME [reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/1947-05-05/page/78/ "undefined"): --- > “” --- When Perry died of heart disease in 1946, TIME [remembered](http://time.com/vault/issue/1946-07-08/page/92 "undefined") her as “one of Broadway’s few successful woman directors. \[…\] Tony Perry, ever the angel of tyro actors, was the wartime guiding spirit of the American Theatre Wing, left her heart at its seven Stage Door Canteens across the nation.” The Stage Door Canteens had been established by the American Theatre Wing’s War Service, as a place where A-list stage stars could volunteer to provide free entertainment for servicemen. Perry had been one of the founders of the Wing, and helped shepherd it into a new post-World War II role. Though it had been founded to help the theater world help the war effort, it became an organization dedicated to helping the theater world. It [didn’t take long](http://time.com/vault/issue/1954-05-03/page/41/ "undefined") for the Antoinette Perry Awards to be shortened to the Tony Awards—but, though the Tonys are rarely ever referred to by their longer original name these days, the official name of the awards has never changed. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3903886/ton-awards-antoinette-perry-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3903886/ton-awards-antoinette-perry-history/"},"headline":"This Is the Woman the Tony Awards Are Named After","datePublished":"2015-06-08T00:00:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:48:07.146Z","description":"TIME called Tony Perry 'the wartime guiding spirit of the American Theatre Wing'","url":"https://time.com/3903886/ton-awards-antoinette-perry-history/","keywords":["Theater","Tony Awards"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ef81a1159fb1963/69885288e20a876ffea8ba2e/150601-antoinette-perry.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ef81a1159fb1963/69885288e20a876ffea8ba2e/150601-antoinette-perry.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"American stage actress and director Antoinette Perry, (1888-1946), c. 1910.","caption":"American stage actress and director Antoinette Perry, (1888-1946), c. 1910.","creditText":"CSU Archives—Everett Collection","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3903886/ton-awards-antoinette-perry-history/","name":"This Is the Woman the Tony Awards Are Named After"}}]}] ```