The New Rochelle Pioneer, September 2, 1916, carried this item: “Wayne Arey was cast for the role of Cole Younger in a lurid melodrama some years ago. He had but a short time to get up in his lines, and the manager knew he was shaky in them. Just before the curtain went up the manager handed the actor four six-shooters. ‘Put two in your holsters and two in your boots,’ he said. ‘Why so many?’ asked the actor. ‘Whenever you forget your lines shoot a gun. The audience will like it better, anyway.’ Mr. Arey’s memory proved so bad that all the horses in the stable underneath the opera house became panic stricken and broke loose.”
Toward the end of his stage career, he was leading man in the Princess playlets at the Princess Theatre. When that series ended, he decided to go into films. Wayne Arey’s screen career began at Thanhouser, where he was by 1915, and where he appeared in many productions. In the summer of 1917 he was one of the few remaining members of the Thanhouser stock company.
An article in The Moving Picture World, October 7, 1916, told of his career: “Mr. Arey’s first theatrical experience was a small repertoire company, and he still remembers with some pride that he thrilled some of the largest town halls in the Middle West with his virile impersonation of Cole Younger in The Younger Brothers Bank Robbers. Early in his theatrical life Mr. Arey gave up his part as a bandit and went into stock. His stock career was a long and honorable one and he played in companies in Minneapolis, Brooklyn, Atlanta, Toronto, and Lawrence, Massachusetts.
“He attacked Broadway and was immediately successful, playing important parts in productions of David Belasco and Charles Frohman. He was the leading man, and when Princess playlets came to an end he went into motion pictures. Mr. Arey had his first motion picture experience with the Thanhouser Company and, particularly adapted to the work, his rise was rapid. After his successful portrayals of the judge with Gladys Hulette in The Shine Girl, and of Dr. Deane, supporting Florence LaBadie in Saint, Devil and Woman, Mr. Arey was made a co-star with Doris Grey, the Boston beauty, who has shown such talent under the tutelage of Edwin Thanhouser. Mr. Arey will appear with Doris Grey in Her Beloved Enemy, directed by Ernest Warde, which will be released through the Pathé Exchange.”
Arey was 6’ tall, weighed 185 pounds, and had brown hair and blue eyes. In 1916 he lived at 48 Bay Street, New Rochelle. In 1917 and 1918 his address was 37 North Avenue, New Rochelle. He died on July 1, 1937 in New York City.
Note: His surname was often misspelled in publicity, with such errors including “Aery,” “Eyrie,” “Avery,” etc.
