Lena travelled the eastern half of the USA during her 11-year vaudeville career.
From July 1915 until July 1926 she worked with at least 10 different comedy companies.
58 of her shows have been identified in archived newspapers and journals.
She began with small companies touring the South and Plains before establishing herself in New York.
Lena left New York for more intimate venues in the Mid-Atlantic and Florida.
The map above charts her 9 known tours.
Following are the key facts of her career and origins.
July 1915- Aug. 1916: Denicke and Gentry's Southern Belles Company. Billed as Miss Lena Parr, they play Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri.
Dec. 1916- Feb; 1917: The LeRoy Osborne Company. They tour Oklahoma and Arkansas.
March 1917- March 1918: A mysterious gap in Lena's record.
April 1918- Oct 1918: Jack Crawford and Bert Humphreys' Bon-Ton Revue. Lena plays from Alabama to Oklahoma.
1919- Feb. 1920: Jack Reid and The Record Breakers. Lena's recruited in St. Louis. Billed as Lena Dollard, she plays the Northeast, then the Midwest.
April 1920- Jan. 1922: Bon-Ton Revue re-launches and fails in Sioux City, Iowa. Lena is stranded.
Jan. - April 1922: Weingarten's Whirl of Mirth. Billed as Loretta Dollard, she plays New York, Massachusetts then Iowa.
Spring 1922- Summer 1923: Lena plays New York City venues.
July 1923- Oct. 1924: The Dancing Buddies. Lena reunites with Bert Humphreys. They tour the Carolinas, Virginia, and Florida.
April 1925- July 1926: Lena establishes herself in the heart of Jacksonville FLA's red-hot theater district. She plays local clubs and out-of town gigs.
Lena is born Lena Mae Anthony to Susie Dottery and Cicero Anthony during October of 1893 in Winterville, GA.
Lena's mother, Susie, like most Euro-American women of the time, is a full-time home-maker. Susie's brother, Fess Dottery is a celebrated professional musician and influential citizen of the nearby university town, Athens.
Cicero Hammond Anthony, Lena's father, is a singing, preaching blacksmith. Ancient legend tells of blacksmith's hammers inspiring Pythagoras to invent musical theory.
Cicero's also a Primitive Baptist Reverend, meaning he encourages individual visions of salvation.
Winterville has two Euro-American Churches, Baptist and Methodist.
Cicero has no one church; he preachers in many churches. Cicero's forge is at the center Winterville's Afro-American community.
Cicero and his younger brother, David, fund the establishment of Winterville's Afro-American Baptist Church. Her Uncle David and his Masonic brethen are active in the affairs of the Afro-American churches, both Baptist and Methodist.
Winterville is in the heart of Cotton Country. 75% of Winterville's population is Afro-American.
Winterville connects to Athens via a short rail-line. Winterville has the first public schools in all of rural Georgia. Lena is attending school by the age of 6. In 1909 her family moves to Athens.
At the age of 16, under Halley's Comet, Lena secretly marries Frank Parr. The marriage lasts 5 years.
Lena Anthony-Dollard dies July 23, 1926, in Jacksonville FLA during a strange Hurricane.
Following is a map of where Lena was raised and buried,
Winterville GA, though time.
Red elements are from the first known maps of Winterville,
the 1872 Johnson Survey Plats of lots being sold by The Georgia Railway Company.
Blue elements are the earliest complete map of Winterville,
the 1906 map by Rev. William Coile.
Gray elements are from the 2019 Clarke County Tax Assessor Map.
Who Wears the Pants?
Cast:
Lena: A headstrong 10 year-old-girl;
Susie: Lena's loving mother, trusting in the benevolence of her neighbors.
Mamon: Professional cook, Wise-to-the-World.
Setting:
The kitchen of a small-town home during the Spring of 1914.
Riding Horsey
Cast:
Lena: Headstrong 10 year-old-girl;
Mamon: Professional cook, Wise-to-the-World.
Pal: Hunting dog who talks.
Mr. Tuck: Rich bad man.
Setting:
Counter of a small-town general store during the Spring of 1914.
Forest Fountain
Cast:
Lena: A headstrong 10 year-old-girl;
Pal: Hunting dog who talks.
Cotton Picker: Tired.
Setting:
Under the tree canopy of a wide, cool, fresh stream deep in it's warm valley.
Leafy cathedral of open space. Trees pillar. Vast vaulting dome ribbed by limbs where we're lost.
Short fine bright green herbs and dead leaves carpet the floor of spirit light.
My pal and I follow the stream, we search for its source.
She barks darting with all her force to a glowing curtain of dense vines.
I go inside. There, the trembling source; hidden fountain forgotten, my face reflects from her pool.
I undulate. My face transforms on the surface… meniscus… as a strong creature swims.
(Smell/squirrels/so fat!)
(Come/on/let's/go) (Oh Lordy) (Rabbit you're mine) (We're sure/right/here)
Halley's Comet arrives.
Lena wants to get married.
She chooses Frank Parr.
Lena marries Frank in God's sight but NOT in the sight of the Courthouse or Parents.
Frank and Lena Parr begin official married life by moving away to Gainesville, GA.
Within weeks, Frank is permanently maimed in a crazy accident.
The Newlyweds return to Athens and move in with Frank's parents.
Frank is asked to help rescue a burning pharmacy/ paint store.
The fire permanently disables Frank. Frank helped save the store.
Insurance pays storekeeper. Frank's permanently injured ligaments are in vain.
Frank joins secret militias. Frank devotes energy to the Woodmen of the World (WOW) and The Klu Klux Klan (KKK) secret militias.
Georgia is effectively a single-party state.
Five years earlier, GA's Hon. William H. Fleming mocks names laws suppressing the Afro-American vote as
― the game of cheat ―
Senator Fleming condemns Disfranchisement Laws as
―this miserable bare-faced scheme of fraud that our proud and noble people are asked to rest their safety and their civilization.―
Slap the paper against the table snarl the news received: "They want more than I get. "
Arms akimbo eyes glaring project his mute rage. She says,
"Leave them. They don't like us, Darling We'll live our dream, us and ours together!"
This I've long begged you, Darling.
But his jaw says, "I don't care for feelings!
I just want requirements set for my job
I need things to work. Feelings for great men
don't count!
Rules are made deciding who follows who
deciding who will deserve to be men
of worth."
"Dear!
Each heart's aim becomes real life things.
Let our intentions hold us close across
doubt.
They desire us as their possessions.
Let our intentions make real the vision
loving US!'
"Sacrifice, acknowledge their power and
gain our betters' aid. Nothing else helps our
future."
"Take our mission that calls us yonder and toss it at their feet, I can't do that.
His fist raised.
Her steps walk away. Lovers with diff'rent Visions.
In the morning
her bag's been packed up Bedroom prism windows toss quivering rainbows begging remembrance of dismembered feelings!
"Please don't go my luck will change you'll soon see me get all those things
other women have
for you."
"Please
your other ladies who have luxe they have nothing for me. I'll always be
in our Dream.
His head down.
Another man waits; lovers who share one Vision.
"Goodbye, Dear."
Iron the color of sun dried blood,
concrete ground from ancient dead shells,
wait
their
turn with me changing what they do.
Today railroad station then
some
unexpected function reveals our nature's will. My dream contains this steel arrow, rails pointing out blue horizons.
My will of stone may crumble to gravel paths for gold horizons. Western Sol rides torrid rusty beams to me; Loosen sweat drenched garments tightly binding me.
He's coming now, up my track feel the platform quake.
Train engine blasts to his hot brief humming pause, wagons invite, step
up across the gap.
Exhale, the force held long waits no more,
poised, calm, seated, I sense wheels
roll. The heartbeat of the conceived idea.
Window's glass paints my portrait, the landscape of unknown horizons.
Travel past signs some race by while others glide:
quick are shacks, revival tents, slow are white mansions. Read them and arrive.
Lena and Frank are married five years when Lena's father, Cicero, dies.
Their marriage had never been recorded. Lena is free to go.
Lena joins a Vaudeville troupe that had traveled the region the previous year.
In 1915, railroads travel everywhere.
Dear me,
I'm just starved. Fresh food's best
when live just before I
taste it's
vital essence in my mouth.
Some times creatures resist my
appetite
oysters
can't.
Frogs won't.
They just don't know their cool
pool will soon boil them live.
Crabs
in my cookpot will
not allow
Any crab
to leave the group,
They conform
to be
consumed.
Give pause and turn
around take
view
many long paths reach this rare peak too.
The mountain's blue silhouette
decorates
the vast golden plain, towns and hills.
but now
ravines in the fog
with briars
is where the path goes.
I worked up to this lonesome mountain top
it's a one way trip.
Look to where I got to go,
endless savanna of firm clouds
begin where my legs rest on the highest peak
seems my feet touch the horizon.
Now the lush slipping sun says go
down
it's short, it's long the way up.
Now the veil's pierced ,
fog tendrils unfurl,
vines in the dim greet
my ungloved hands,
hope not poison oak.
This would make a great story one day.
Oh yes
I come right back
to where I began
only this time shrieking air,
tears and splintered ions
are my form.
Ev'ry thing I used to be
explodes deadly I'm undone.
Mirror
surface of echoed hopes,
now shattered by august, tough terrors.
How could I know for ev'ry sun rise there's cruel, dark shade of my truth.
How will we transform again?
