Emily Wakeman Hartley was the daughter of Thaddeus Burr Wakeman, noted political philosopher and freethinker. Emily herself founded and managed the Stamford Theatre, an early pre-broadway tryout house through which many famous actors and playwrights or composers came through, including Gershwin's first broadway musical La-La Lucille, which played at the Stamford Theatre in 1919.
"Ms. Hartley [was] a member of the Stamford Yacht Club, women's Club, vice-president of the Alumni Association of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts of New York. She [was] a strong believer in woman suffrage, having meen early taught the right of women to cote. Her parents were intimate friends of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Standon, and other pioneers in this movement." - Reproduced from "Encyclopedia of Connecticut Biography, Genealogical-Memorial" (1917)
