Helen Hayes' 1947 Tony Award Sells at Auction for Over $37,000

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Helen Hayes' 1947 Tony Award for Best Dramatic Actress for her performance in HAPPY BIRTHDAY just sold at an auction for $37,230. Hayes' award was a silver makeup compact from Tiffany.

Read the full report here.

The 1947 Tonys were the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre's inaugural year. Back then, the "trophies" given out were either a scroll, a monogrammed silver compact case for the women, or an engraved gold bill clip or cigarette lighter for the men.

The ceremony was held on April 6, 1947, in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, with the musicals Street Scene, Brigadoon and Finian's Rainbow among the nominees.

Hayes' many Broadway credits included Harvey, The Front Page, The Show Off, We, Comrades Three, Right You Are If You Think You Are, The School for Scandal, The White House, A Touch of the Poet, Time Remembered, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Wisteria Trees, What Every Woman Knows, Mrs. McThing, Happy Birthday, Harriet, Candle in the Wind, Twelfth Night, Ladies and Gentlemen, Victoria Regina, Mary of Scotland, The Good Fairy, Petticoat Influence, Mr. Gilhooley, Coquette, Young Blood, The Last of Mrs. Cheyney, Caesar and Cleopatra, Quarantine, Dancing Mothers, She Stoops to Conquer, We Moderns, To the Ladies, Golden Days, The Wren, Bab, Clarence, Dear Brutus, The Never Homes, The Summer Widowers, Old Dutch and more.

One of the country's most prestigious cultural honors has been named after Hayes - the Helen Hayes Awards. Since 1985, these awards have celebrated outstanding achievement in over 80 professional theatres throughout the Washington metropolitan area.