Nena Blake

Nena Blake, born Nena Naomi Fry in 1887 in Ontario, Canada, was an actress and chorus girl who built her career on Broadway and in vaudeville. Her father was Stephen Fry and her mother, Lena Jane Fry, was a writer who in 1905 dedicated a utopian novel to Nena and her sisters Bertha and Kathleen, describing them as three of America's best daughters. Her parents had divorced in 1894. Blake performed under her stage name throughout a career that spanned Broadway, touring productions, and vaudeville engagements across the United States.

Blake's Broadway appearances ran from 1904 to 1912 and included The Royal Chef, Coming Thro' the Rye, The Girl from Rector's, The Girl with the Whooping Cough, A Certain Party, and Bachelors and Benedicts. Outside of Broadway, she was active in regional and touring work during the same period. In Boston in 1905, she performed in a musical revue called Kafoozelem, where she sang Baby Lonely alongside a chorus of eight dancers billed as the Incubator Babies, a name referencing a familiar sideshow attraction of the era. The following year she appeared in a revue featuring a dance troupe called the Bronco Beauties, sharing the bill with Ruth St. Denis, who performed Radha on the same program.

From 1913 to 1914, Blake starred in Ready Money, a comedy written by James Montgomery, as part of a touring company that traveled extensively across the United States, with runs in both San Francisco and New York. In 1916 she appeared in Spring Cleaning in Atlantic City. Her connection to Broadway continued into the next decade when, in 1921, she served as costume director for the Broadway musical Irene, personally traveling to Paris to acquire the fabric and designs for 42 gowns used in the production.

Blake was also engaged in activities beyond performance. In 1904 she was associated with the Theatrical Women's Parker Association, which supported Alton B. Parker's presidential campaign that year. Also in 1904, she was reported to have been abducted by a fan at a stage door, though the incident was later characterized as a publicity stunt. In 1905, a Montana banker and mine owner named Michael Sellers Largey took a financial interest in advancing her career and made repeated marriage proposals, all of which she declined. Her response to the broader dynamic of actresses marrying wealthy men for financial security took an organizational form in 1909, when she founded the Dowry Fund Protection Association for actresses, aimed at eliminating that financial pressure.

Blake inherited money from an admirer in 1907. She died in New York City on October 12, 1924, at the age of 37, leaving her Long Island house and her jewelry to her mother and other family members.