Dene Denny (February 11, 1885 – September 24, 1959) was an American musical theater producer who, along with co-founder

Hazel Watrous Hazel Watrous (February 12, 1888 – October 2, 1954) was an American writer who was co-founder of Denny-Watrous Management. The company presented performances in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. She and Dene Denny played roles in founding the Car ...

, established the Denny-Watrous Management. They played pivotal roles in the founding of the Carmel Music Society, the

Carmel Bach Festival The Carmel Bach Festival (CBF) began in 1935 as a four-day series of concerts at the Sunset School Auditorium and the Carmel Mission Basilica. Over the years, it grew to a three-week series of concerts, recitals, master classes, lectures, and open ...

, and Monterey's First Theater. Their residence, the Denny-Watrous Studio (Harmony House), served as a hub for hosting musical concerts and lectures.

Early life

Ethel Adele Denny was born in 1885, in

Callahan, California Callahan is an unincorporated community in Siskiyou County, California, United States. Callahan is located on California State Route 3 south-southeast of Etna. Callahan has a post office with ZIP code 96014. As of 2009 it has a population of ...

. Her parents were Albert H. Denny and Gertrude Cadwell. After finishing her high school education at

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, Denny proceeded to the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where she graduated with honors in English. She earned both a BA and MA degree from the university. She went to New York to undergo formal piano studies. Denny then established a music studio in San Francisco, where she taught piano to her students.

Career

Carmel-by-the-Sea

In 1922, Denny and Watrous first encountered each other at a party held in the studio of a mutual friend in San Francisco and quickly became a couple. They embarked on a journey to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, opting for a detour through

Carmel-by-the-Sea Carmel-by-the-Sea (), often simply called Carmel, is a city in Monterey County, California, United States, founded in 1902 and incorporated on October 31, 1916. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, Carmel is known for its natural scenery and ric ...

in 1923. Once they reached Carmel, they discovered a city entirely devoted to the arts, which left a lasting impression on them. To generate income, Denny and Watrous took on the task of designing residential houses, completing a total of 36 homes. Among these projects were

Johan Hagemeyer Johan Hagemeyer (1 June 1884 21 May 1962) was a Dutch-born horticulturalist and vegetarian who is remembered primarily for being an early 20th century photographer and artistic intellectual. Life and work Hagemeyer was born in Amsterdam, the Nethe ...

home and studio (1923) and plant biologist Fremont Ballou's board-and-batten cottage located on Carmel's Upper Trail. Their designs were innovative, drawing inspiration from the Arts and Crafts movement, with exposed beams and wooden interiors, along with board and batten exteriors.

Denny-Watrous Studio (Harmony House)

Denny and Watrous had purchased a lot from Frank Davendorf in 1922, and temporarily resided above a garage while Watrous designed and built a two-story

American Craftsman American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. Its ...

-style home, now called "Denny-Watrous Studio" or commonly known as "Harmony House." They expanded it into a studio in 1926. The Denny-Watrous house became a gathering place for musical performances and lectures exploring new sounds and ideas. In 1925, composer

Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 202 ...

showcased his tone clusters, and architect

Richard Neutra Richard Joseph Neutra ( ; April 8, 1892 – April 16, 1970) was an Austrian-American architect. Living and building for the majority of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered a prominent and important modernist architect. He ...

gave a lecture on modern building design. Recitals led to the establishment of the Carmel Music Society. The Denny-Watrous Studio was registered with the

California Register of Historical Resources The California Register of Historical Resources is a California state government program for use by state and local agencies, private groups, and citizens to identify, evaluate, register and protect California's historical resources. The register i ...

on April 8, 2002. It holds significance as a representation of Watrous's architectural expertise, as she was responsible for designing and constructing up to 36 residential properties during the 1920s.

Denny-Watrous gallery

In 1929, Denny and Watrous established the town's first fine arts gallery, the Denny-Watrous gallery, in the

De Yoe Building The De Yoe Building is a historic Tudor Revival style commercial building in downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. The building was designed and built by the master builder Michael J. Murphy. It was designated as an important commercial buildin ...

. In 1931, they added a stage for theatrical performances and sponsored chamber-music recitals. In the gallery, Denny and Watrous presented paintings by

Galka Scheyer Galka Scheyer (born Emilie Esther Scheyer; 15 April 1889, Braunschweig – 13 December 1945, Los Angeles) was a German-American painter, art dealer, art collector, and teacher. She was the founder of the "Blue Four," an artists' group that consist ...

's Blue Four, and the first rehearsals of the amateur orchestra took place. The first known American performance of Bach's composition ''

The Art of Fugue ''The Art of Fugue'', or ''The Art of the Fugue'' (german: Die Kunst der Fuge, links=no), BWV 1080, is an incomplete musical work of unspecified instrumentation by Johann Sebastian Bach. Written in the last decade of his life, ''The Art of Fug ...

'' was performed there. On January 8, 1933, they signed a receipt at the

De Young Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California. Located in Golden Gate Park, it is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, along with the Legion of Honor ...

for 64 prints comprising the exhibition of the

Group f/64 Group 64 or f.64 was a group founded by seven 20th-century San Francisco Bay Area photographers who shared a common photographic style characterized by sharply focused and carefully framed images seen through a particularly Western (U.S.) viewpo ...

, a group founded by seven San Francisco Bay Area photographers. The ''

Carmel Pine Cone The ''Carmel Pine Cone'' is a weekly newspaper serving the city of Carmel-by-the-Sea and the surrounding Monterey Peninsula, Carmel Valley and Big Sur region of Monterey County in central California. Despite not having a digital presence, a PDF of t ...

'' reported that 9 photographers appeared in the exhibition including photographer

Edward Weston Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." ...

. In 1935, the Denny-Watrous gallery later moved to the Murphy Building on San Carlos Street. In April 1935, opera singer Maria Montana performed at the Denny-Watrous Gallery.

Carmel Music Society

In 1927, Denny and Watrous assembled a group of music enthusiasts from the local community, leading to the inception of the Carmel Music Society. They collaborated with Henry F. Dickinson and his wife Edith, who became the organization's inaugural treasurer and one of its first presidents respectively. In 1932, Denny and Watrous brought the Neah-Kah-Nie String Quartet, with Michel Penha as its director and cellist to Carmel. The ensemble eventually evolved into the Monterey County Symphony, made possible through the sponsorship of the Carmel Music Society.

Denny-Watrous Management

In 1928, the official partnership of Denny-Watrous Management was launched. They secured a lease for the

Theatre of the Golden Bough The Theatre of the Golden Bough was located on Ocean Avenue in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. This "Golden Bough" was one of two in Carmel's history. It was destroyed by fire on May 19, 1935. History The theatre was designed and built by Edwa ...

from Edward Kuster, and in 1937 leased California's First Theater in Monterey, a State Historical Landmark, from the Monterey History and Art Association. On June 3, 1937 the theater reopened as a playhouse where the Troupers of the Gold Coast performed. Under Denny's management, the theater staged more than 100 plays, putting a total of approximately 1,500 performances. Over twelve months, they produced a total of twelve concerts and eighteen plays, among them

Ferenc Molnár Ferenc Molnár ( , ; born Ferenc Neumann; 12 January 18781 April 1952), often anglicized as Franz Molnar, was a Hungarian-born author, stage-director, dramatist, and poet, widely regarded as Hungary’s most celebrated and controversial playw ...

's ''Liliom,''

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...

's '' The Emperor Jones,'' and

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...

's ''Ghosts''. In 1934, composer

Ernst Bacon Ernst Lecher Bacon (May 26, 1898 – March 16, 1990) was an United States of America, American composer, pianist, and Conductor (music), conductor. A prolific author, Bacon composed over 250 songs over his career. He was awarded three Guggenheim ...

was appointed as the conductor of the Monterey County Symphony, marking the commencement of planning for the

. Denny and Watrous established the Carmel Bach Festival, which debuted its inaugural season in 1935, with Bacon as conductor. In spring 1958, the Bach Festival was officially incorporated with a board of directors, with Denny serving as the president and general manager.

Death

Denny died at her home in Carmel, California on September 24, 1959.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Denny, Dene 1885 births 1959 deaths People from Carmel-by-the-Sea, California American musical theatre producers