William A Brady

Biography

Brady was born to a newspaperman in 1863. His father kidnapped him from San Francisco and brought him to New York City, where his father worked as a writer while William was forced to sell newspapers on street corners. Upon his father's death when William was 15, he hitchhiked his way back to San Francisco.

He made his start on the stage in San Francisco, California with a company headed by Joseph R. Grismer and Phoebe Davies shortly after his return. As a callboy in The White Slave, he filled in a role for an ill actor, and started his career. After a failed attempt to produce a version of She by H. Rider Haggard, he was able to secure the rights to After Dark, successfully bringing the play to New York. While Brady was sued for his efforts, as Augustin Daly claimed plagiarism, Brady was able to make enough money to continue with his theater ventures.

Brady inadvertently became a boxing promoter during this time. He cast James J. Jeffries in After Dark, and later introduced the man into the boxing circuit, where Jeffries would eventually become the undisputed heavyweight champion. Brady would be the only person to manage two undisputed heavyweight champions, in Jeffries and James J. Corbett. Brady produced The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight in 1897. Although Corbett ultimately lost, the match ran for over an hour and a half, and the documentary lasted that long, the longest film ever released at the time. In 1898 Brady and Grismer produced the hugely successful Charlotte Blair Parker play, Way Down East. The two remained partners until Grismer's retirement sometime around 1909.

Brady ran a successful theatre operation for thirty years, having met actresses like Grace George (whom he later married) and having, at one point, hired famous humorist Robert Benchley to complete ad copy for him. Brady's success continued until the Stock Market Crash of 1929, which wiped out his entire savings. He was able to secure the funds to produce Street Scene, which was written by Elmer Rice, won the Pulitzer Prize, and netted Brady a half a million dollars. His total theatrical output included over 260 plays, including a version of Uncle Tom's Cabin that was later used as images for a book in 1904, and a number of movies before his death.

William A. Brady died at age 86 of a heart ailment. He is interred at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, New York.

Personal life

His first wife was Rose Marie Rene (died 1896) and with her was the father of actress Mary Rose Brady, who used stage name of Alice Brady. His second wife was the well known Broadway actress Grace George (married 1899 to his death 1950) who bore him a son, William A. Brady, Jr. (1900–1935) who married the actress Katherine Alexander. His grandchildren are Donald Crane (mother Alice) and Barbara Brady (father William Jr)

Legacy

He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1998.