![]() The Lambs Clubhouse at 3 West 51st Street | |
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Nickname | The Lambs Club |
---|---|
Named after | Charles Lamb |
Formation | 1874 |
Founder | Henry James Montague |
Founded at | Delmonico's |
Purpose | Private Social Club for the Arts |
Location |
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Coordinates | 40°45′23.0″N73°59′7.0″W / 40.756389°N 73.985278°W |
Region served | United States |
Membership | 250 |
Shepherd | Kevin C. Fitzpatrick |
The Boy | Don M. Spiro |
Website | The-Lambs.org |
The Lambs, Inc. (also known as The Lambs Club) is a social club that nurtures those active in the arts, as well as those who are supporters of the arts, by providing activities and a clubhouse for its members. It is America's oldest professional theatrical organization. "The Lambs" is a registered trademark of The Lambs, Inc.; and the club has been commonly referred to as The Lambs Club since 1874. [1]
The club's name honors the essayist Charles Lamb and his sister Mary, who during the early 19th century played host to actors and literati at their famed salon in London. [2]
In 1874 New York theatrical life was centered around Union Square. Wallack's Theatre was on Broadway and 13th Street. During the Yuletide season George H. McLean invited actors of J. Lester Wallack’s company to dinner at Delmonico’s: Edward Arnott, Harry Beckett, Henry James Montague, and Arthur Wallack, the son of Mr. Wallack. They were joined by grocer John E. I. Grainger. [3] In Delmonico's Blue Room it was suggested the men form a supper club. Many names were mentioned. Montague said that he was a member of The Lambs in London that had been established in 1869 by John Hare. The name was unanimously adopted; it came from Charles and Mary Lamb, the English brother and sister who were friendly towards actors in Georgian England.
In 1875 dinners were held in Union Square hotel restaurants; the original six invited their friends. By autumn 1875 the Lambs were meeting in the Union Square Hotel. The Members chose to increase by “sevens.” There were so many applications the Club expanded. On May 10, 1877, the Club incorporated under the laws of the State of New York. There were 60 members. [4]
On August 11, 1878, the Club suffered its first great loss, the death of Shepherd Henry J. Montague in San Francisco. Broadway impresario J. Lester Wallack–who would go on to serve seven terms as Shepherd–gave Montague a space in his family plot in Green-Wood Cemetery; the two rest next to each other today. [5]
In April 1880 The Lambs moved to 34 West 26th Street, the first time under “a roof controlled by the Club.” It would be the Clubhouse for 12 years. It was a period of “prosperity, joy, sorrow and calamity.” In this era The Lambs entertained Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, newspaper editor Charles A. Dana, and English actor Sir Henry Irving.
The Actors’ Fund of America (today the Entertainment Community Fund) was formed by Lambs in 1882 at Wallack's Theatre and J. Lester Wallack was the first president. In 1887 it was Lambs with the Actors Fund who established the first Actors’ Burial Ground in the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn. Playwright Clay M. Greene suggested the Club put on its own shows, thus launching decades of Lambs’ Gambols. Notable members of this era were Maurice Barrymore, Nikola Tesla, and Stanford White. In 1895 there were 272 members. [6]
In 1905, as the theater industry moved uptown to Times Square, The Lambs moved to a larger facility at 128 West 44th Street. The building was expanded in 1915, to include a 300-seat theater and 66 modest sleeping quarters. It was used as the clubhouse until January 1975. [7]
The Lambs thrived into the Jazz Age, ultimately reaching more than 1,700 members before the Wall Street crash of 1929. The club would move twelve times during its 150 years. In 1974 it ended gender discrimination and admitted women as full members; the first was Cornelia Otis Skinner, daughter of Lamb Otis Skinner.
The Lambs, Friars, and Players often are confused. In 1964, long-time syndicated columnist Earl Wilson put it this way: "Long ago a New Yorker asked the difference between the Lambs, Friars, and Players, since the membership was, at the time, predominantly from Broadway." It was left to "a wit believed to have been George S. Kaufman" to draw the distinction: "The Players are gentlemen trying to be actors, the Lambs are actors trying to be gentlemen, and the Friars are neither trying to be both." [8]
The Actors' strike of 1919 was settled in The Lambs, which was referred to as "Local One." In 1924, it celebrated its 50-year anniversary at the Earl Carroll Theatre. [9]
Historically, The Lambs has been the spawning ground of plays, friendships and partnerships. Mark Twain Tonight (with Hal Holbrook) and Stalag 17 were first performed at The Lambs before their national successes.
Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe first met at The Lambs, often trying works-in-progress on their fellow Lambs. Loewe left a percentage of his share of Brigadoon royalties to The Lambs' Foundation.
Its members have been instrumental in the formation of ASCAP, Actors' Equity and The Actors' Fund of America, Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and in the merger that created SAG-AFTRA. Of the first 21 council members of Actors' Equity, 20 were members of The Lambs. The meetings to form Actors' Equity were held at The Players, a club similar to The Lambs, because there were too many producer members of The Lambs.
Since its founding, there have been more than 6,700 Lambs, including: Fred Astaire, Irving Berlin, Henry Blossom, [10] Sid Caesar, James Cagney, Eddie Cantor, George M. Cohan, Cecil B. DeMille, W.C. Fields, Albert Hague, Mark Hart, [11] Silvio Hein, Ken Howard, Al Jolson, John F. Madden, Conrad Nagel, Eugene O'Neill, Donald Pippin, Joyce Randolph Cliff Robertson, Edward G. Robinson, Will Rogers, John Philip Sousa, Spencer Tracy, [12] Abe Vigoda, Fred Waring, and Jack Whiting.
Current honorary members include Matthew Broderick and Jim Dale. The Lambs' website contains a listing of its past and current members.
The president of The Lambs is called "The Shepherd". [13] Originally, the term was one year, later extended to two years. Today the term is three years. [13] The Club owns portraits and busts of every shepherd, painted by artists such as Howard Chandler Christy, James Montgomery Flagg, Everett Raymond Kinstler, and Michael Shane Neal.
No | Name | Term(s) |
---|---|---|
1 | Henry James Montague | 1874-1878 |
2 | J. Lester Wallack | 1878-82, 1884-88 |
3 | Harry Beckett | 1879-1880 |
4 | William J. Florence | 1882-1884 |
5 | John R. Brady | 1888-1890 |
6 | Edmund M. Holland | 1890-1891 |
7 | Clay M. Greene | 1891-98, 1902-06 |
8 | Thomas B. Clarke | 1898-1900 |
9 | DeWolf Hopper | 1900-1902 |
10 | Wilton Lackaye | 1906-1907 |
11 | Augustus Thomas | 1907-1910 |
12 | Joseph R. Grismer | 1911-13, 1917-18 |
13 | William Courtleigh, Sr. | 1913-1917 |
14 | R. H. Burnside | 1918-1921 |
15 | A. O. Brown | 1921-24, 1930-32 |
16 | Thomas Meighan | 1924-1926 |
17 | Thomas A. Wise | 1926-1928 |
18 | Fritz Williams | 1928-1930 |
19 | Frank Crumit | 1932-1936 |
20 | William Gaxton | 1936-39, 1953-54, 1956-61 |
21 | Fred Waring | 1939-1942 |
22 | John Golden | 1942-1945 |
23 | Raymond Peck | 1945-1947 |
25 | Bert Lytell | 1947-1952 |
25 | Walter Greaza | 1953-1956 |
26 | Frank M. Thomas | 1961-1963 |
27 | Martin Begley | 1963-1966 |
28 | Harry Hershfield | 1966-1969 |
29 | Jack Waldron | 1969 |
30 | Tom Dillon | 1969-1986 |
31 | Richard L. Charles | 1986-1997 |
32 | A.J. Pocock | 1998-2001 |
33 | Bruce Brown | 2002-2008 |
34 | Randy Phillips | 2008–2013 |
35 | Marc Baron | 2013-2022 |
36 | Kevin C. Fitzpatrick | 2023-Present |
The Lambs has had many Manhattan homes since 1874, beginning with Delmonico's Restaurant in Union Square. The members met at various hotels and restaurants until it was established enough to buy property in 1879. The Lambs then either owned or leased space until 1976, when it relocated to 3 West 51st Street, where it remains today. [14]
No | Date | Place | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 1874 | Delmonico’s Blue Room Union Square | 14th St and Fifth Ave. |
2 | 1875 | Maison Dorée (Morton House) | 14th Street and Broadway |
3 | 1875 | Union Square Hotel | 15th St and Fourth Ave. |
4 | 1876 | 848 Broadway | The Matchbox |
5 | 1878 | 6 Union Square | Monument House |
6 | 1879 | 19 East 16th Street | Brownstone |
7 | 1880 | 34 West 26th Street | Brownstone |
8 | 1892 | 1200 Broadway and 29th Street | Gilsey House |
9 | 1893 | 26 West 31st Street | Brownstone |
10 | 1897 | 70 West 36th Street | Keens Chop House |
11 | 1905 | 128 West 44th Street | Enlarged 1915 |
12 | 1975 | 5 East 66th Street | Lotos Club guests |
13 | 1976 | 3 West 51st Street | 3 West Club |
In 1905, the club moved to 128–130 West 44th Street, designed by Lamb Stanford White and doubled in size in 1915. The club remained at 44th Street until 1975, when it lost the building to foreclosure. It was purchased from a bank by the Church of the Nazarene, which leased part of the building for what would become the Off Broadway Lamb's Theatre. [15] The building was designated a New York City Landmark [16] in September 1974 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 3, 1982. The church sold the building in 2006 to Hampshire Hotels, which renovated the building into the Chatwal New York hotel. The Chatwal Hotel contains the Lambs Club restaurant although there is no relation between the hotel and The Lambs. [14]
Since 1976, The Lambs' Clubhouse has been leased space at 3 West 51st St., adjacent to Rockefeller Center. [17]
The Lambs has elected more than 6,700 members over the decades, counting actors and theater owners, playwrights and painters, singers and sculptors, and today’s podcasters and comedy writers. Over the decades it was at The Lambs that hit shows and songs were launched, partnerships and friendships formed, and bonds of fellowship made. [18]
The Lambs is also a historical society, preserving and promoting entertainment history stretching back to the 19th century. The club’s art collection of oil paintings, theatrical memorabilia, and playbills, together with a private research library, is a museum of American entertainment history. The Lambs are currently digitizing its collection to make it available to the public. Starting in 1974, the Lambs has donated thousands of important historic documents to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. [19]
As the club prepared to celebrate its sesquicentennial in 2024, it undertook a program to grow its membership. In 2023 author Kevin C. Fitzpatrick was elected the 36th Shepherd of The Lambs, and producer Don M. Spiro elected The Boy (vice president). The Lambs celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2024 by reaching 250 members, the most since the 1960s.
John Johnstone Wallack, was an American actor-manager and son of James William Wallack and Susan Johnstone. He used the stage name John Lester until October 5, 1858, when he first acted under the name Lester Wallack, which he retained the rest of his career.
Joseph Papp was an American theatrical producer and director. He established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in Lower Manhattan. There Papp created a year-round producing home to focus on new plays and musicals. Among numerous examples of these were the works of David Rabe, Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, Charles Gordone's No Place to Be Somebody, and Papp's production of Michael Bennett's Pulitzer Prize–winning musical A Chorus Line. Papp also founded Shakespeare in the Park, helped to develop other off-Broadway theatres and worked to preserve the historic Broadway Theatre District.
Howard Lindsay, born Herman Nelke, was an American playwright, librettist, director, actor and theatrical producer. He is best known for his writing work as part of the collaboration of Lindsay and Crouse, and for his performance, with his wife Dorothy Stickney, in the long-running play Life with Father.
Sardi's is a continental restaurant located at 234 West 44th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, in the Theater District of Manhattan, New York City. Sardi's opened at its current location on March 5, 1927. It is known for the caricatures of Broadway celebrities on its walls, of which there are over a thousand.
Delmonico's is a series of restaurants that operated in New York City, and Greenwich, Connecticut, with the present version located at 56 Beaver Street in the Financial District of Manhattan.
The Paramount Hotel is a hotel in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. Designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb, the hotel is at 235 West 46th Street, between Eighth Avenue and Broadway. The Paramount Hotel is owned by RFR Realty and contains 597 rooms. The hotel building, designed in a Renaissance style, is a New York City designated landmark.
The Players is a private social club founded in New York City by the 19th-century Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth. The club is located in a mansion at 16 Gramercy Park, built in 1847. Booth bought the house in 1888, reserved an upper floor for his residence, and turned the rest into a clubhouse. The building's interior and part of its exterior were designed by architect Stanford White; its entryway gaslights are among the few remaining examples in New York City. It is reportedly the oldest club in its original clubhouse and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1962.
New York City's Theater District, sometimes spelled Theatre District and officially zoned as the "Theater Subdistrict", is an area and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan where most Broadway theaters are located, in addition to other theaters, movie theaters, restaurants, hotels, and other places of entertainment. It is bounded by West 40th Street on the south, West 54th Street on the north, Sixth Avenue on the east and Eighth Avenue on the west, and includes Times Square. The Great White Way is the name given to the section of Broadway which runs through the Theater District.
Henry James Montague was the stage name of Henry John Mann,, an American actor born in England.
Three New York City playhouses named Wallack's Theatre played an important part in the history of American theater as the successive homes of the stock company managed by actors James W. Wallack and his son, Lester Wallack. During its 35-year lifetime, from 1852 to 1887, that company developed and held a reputation as the best theater company in the country.
Robert Hubber Thorne Burnside was an American actor, director, producer, composer, and playwright. He was artistic director of the 5,200-seat New York Hippodrome from 1908 to 1923. He wrote and staged hundreds of dramas, musicals and theatrical spectacles.
Henry Edwards was an English stage actor, writer and entomologist who gained fame in Australia, San Francisco and New York City for his theatre work.
Lamb's Theatre was an Off-Broadway theater located at 130 West 44th Street, Manhattan, New York City inside the Manhattan Church of the Nazarene, near Times Square in New York City. It seated approximately 350 and specialized in musical productions. The building was built in 1904–1905 and was designed by Stanford White as the headquarters of the theater club The Lambs.
Clay Meredith Greene was an American screenwriter, theatre critic and journalist, but he was chiefly known as a dramatist. He was often referred to as either the "first American" or "first white American child" born in San Francisco, a claim spread by Greene himself. A graduate of Santa Clara University (SCU), Greene was the author of the Passion Play Nazareth which was written for and staged as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of SCU in 1901. The play was performed repeatedly every three years at SCU during Greene's lifetime.
Joseph Rhode Grismer was an American stage actor, playwright, and theatrical director and producer. He was probably best remembered for his play The New South and for his revision of the Charlotte Blair Parker play Way Down East.
John Lionel Golden was an American actor, songwriter, author, and theatrical producer. As a songwriter, he is best-known as lyricist for "Poor Butterfly" (1916). He produced many Broadway shows and four films.
Browne's Chop House was a New York City restaurant that was popular with the theatrical crowd. It closed in 1925.
Sony Hall is a concert venue operated by Blue Note Entertainment Group located on West 46th Street in the Theater District, Manhattan, New York City. Like many theaters in NYC, it has served many functions since its opening in 1938. Located in the basement of the Paramount Hotel, it began as Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe nightclub where the 1945 film Diamond Horseshoe was filmed, and later spent time as a burlesque theater before becoming a legitimate Broadway theatre under the names Century Theatre, Mayfair Theatre, and Stairway Theatre. As a Broadway theater, it is best known for the transfer of the Tony Award-winning original Broadway production of On Golden Pond in 1979. After becoming a private venue through the 1980s and remaining mostly closed through the 1990s and 2000s, it reemerged in 2013 after a 20-million-dollar renovation as a theater hosting the immersive production Queen of the Night. It is currently run as a live music performance venue showcasing audio and visual technology by Sony.
The Chatwal New York, originally the Lambs Club Building, is a hotel and a former clubhouse at 130 West 44th Street, near Times Square, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building was originally six stories high and was developed in two phases as the headquarters of the Lambs, a theatrical social club. The original wing at 128–130 West 44th Street was designed by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White between 1904 and 1905; the annex at 132 West 44th Street was designed in 1915 by George Freeman. The current design dates to a renovation between 2007 and 2010, designed by Thierry Despont. The building is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Martin J. Begley was an actor, dancer, and talent scout. He was Shepherd of The Lambs from 1963 to 1966.
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The Lambs, New York's famous actors' club, will celebrate its golden jubilee with a public Gambol at the Earl Carroll Theatre tonight.
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The Lambs, Inc., is America's oldest professional theatrical club. ... The Lambs ® is a registered trademark of The Lambs, Inc., and has been known as The Lambs club for 150 years.