The Lambs#History

File:Wallack's Theatre, 13th Street, from Fourth Avenue.jpg, 13th Street, from Fourth Avenue]]

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.{{sfn|Hardee|2010|p=21}} 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.{{sfn|Hardee|2010|p=23}}

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.{{cite news|url=https://the-lambs.org/the-club/our-heritage|title=The Lambs, Our Heritage|work=The Lambs|date=November 28, 2024|page= 2}}

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.

File:Cornelia Otis Skinner.jpg (1955), elected 1977.]]

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. {{cite news|url=https://the-lambs.org/the-club/our-heritage|title=The Lambs, Our Heritage|work=The Lambs|date=November 28, 2024|page= 2}}

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.{{sfn|Fisher|Londré|2009|page=268}}

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."{{sfn|Wilson|1964|pp=49–50}}

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.{{sfn|NY Times, 1924}}

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.

File:Song writers and playwrights of the Lambs Club putting the finishing touches to the "bleats" for the Lambs' annual gambol, 1915.jpg, Edward Peple, Edward Paulton, Augustus Thomas, Montague Glass;

Sitting: Brandon Tynan, Milton Royle, Glen McDonough, George V. Hobart, Edward Kidder, and Rupert Hughes.]]

{{Main category|Members of The Lambs Club}}

Since its founding, there have been more than 6,700 Lambs, including:

Fred Astaire,

Irving Berlin,

Henry Blossom,{{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/03/24/102855237.html?pageNumber=13|title=H.M. Blossom, Author, Dies; Playwright and Librettist of Many Famous Broadway Shows|work=The New York Times|date=March 24, 1919|page=13}}

Sid Caesar,

James Cagney,

Eddie Cantor,

George M. Cohan,

Cecil B. DeMille,

W.C. Fields,

Albert Hague,

Mark Hart,{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1950/11/28/archives/mark-hart-actor-dies-veteran-of-50-years-on-stage-was-former.html|title=MARK HART, ACTOR, DIES; Veteran of 50 Years on Stage Was Former Officer of Lambs|work=The New York Times|date=November 28, 1950|page= 30}}

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,{{sfn|Curtis|2011}}

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".{{sfn|The Lambs Governance}} Originally, the term was one year, later extended to two years. Today the term is three years.{{sfn|The Lambs Governance}} 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.

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.{{sfn|NY Times, 2012}}

File:Lambs before Lambs Club 1915 (cropped).jpg

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.{{sfn|NY Times, 2006}} The building was designated a New York City Landmark{{sfn|LPC LP-0859, 1974}} 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.{{sfn|NY Times, 2012}}

Since 1976, The Lambs' Clubhouse has been leased space at 3 West 51st St., adjacent to Rockefeller Center.{{cite news|url=https://the-lambs.org/the-club/our-heritage|title=The Lambs, Our Heritage|work=The Lambs|date=November 9, 2024|page= 1}}

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.{{cite news|url=https://the-lambs.org/the-club/our-heritage|title=The Lambs, Our Heritage|work=The Lambs|date=November 9, 2024|page= 1}}

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.{{cite news|url=https://the-lambs.org/the-club/our-heritage|title=The Lambs, Our Heritage|work=The Lambs|date=November 9, 2024|page= 1}}

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,{{cite news|url=https://the-lambs.org/the-club/governance|title=The Lambs, Governance|work=The Lambs|date=February 6, 2025|page= 1}} 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.

File:Some cartoonists of the Lambs. T. E. Powers, R. L. Goldberg, Hy. Mayer, Richard Outcault, C.A. Briggs, George McManus.jpg|Cartoonist members of The Lambs in 1915. From left: Thomas E. Powers, Rube Goldberg, Henry Mayer, Richard Outcault, Clare Briggs, George McManus.

File:Frank Case - DeWolf Hopper - Geo. Mooser - John Golden LCCN2014699342.jpg|Lambs members in 1910. From left: Comedian DeWolf Hopper, producer and theatrical director George Mooser, producer John Golden, and Frank Case, manager of the Algonquin Hotel.

File:Lamb's Club, 4-10-23 LOC npcc.08201.jpg|Lambs members in 1923.

File:Portrait of H. J. Montague, by Sarony.jpg|Henry James Montague, Shepherd of The Lambs, 1874-1878.

File:Digby-Bell-DeWolf-Hopper.jpg|Digby Bell and DeWolf Hopper, leaders of The Lambs.

File:Thomas Meighan - Mar 1922 Photoplay.jpg|Thomas Meighan (1922), first movie star Lambs' shepherd.

File:Tom dillon.jpg|Tom Dillon, Shepherd of The Lambs, 1969-1986.

{{reflist|20em}}

Books

{{refbegin}}

• {{Cite book

|last = Curtis

|first = James

|title = Spencer Tracy: A Biography

|year = 2011

|location = New York

|publisher = Knopf Doubleday

|isbn = 978-0-307-59522-5

|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=2ZxE5CUHIUoC&q=lambs+spencer+tracy&pg=PA112

|via = books.google.com

}}

• {{cite book|title=The A to Z of American Theater: Modernism|first1=James |last1=Fisher|first2=Felicia Hardison|last2= Londré|year=2009|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810870475|chapter=The Lambs}}

• {{cite book

|last = Hardee

|first = Lewis J. Jr.

|author-link =

|title = The Lambs Theatre Club

|date = 2010

|orig-date = 1st pub. 2006

|edition = 2nd

|type = softcover

|location = Jefferson, North Carolina

|publisher = McFarland Publishing

|isbn = 978-0-7864-6095-3

|url = https://archive.org/details/lambstheatreclub00hard

|via = archive.org

}}

• {{cite book

|last = Wilson

|first = Earl

|author-link =

|title = Earl Wilson's New York

|year = 1964

|location = New York

|publisher = Simon & Schuster

|isbn =

}}

{{refend}}

Newspapers

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite news

|title = Fifty Years of The Lambs

|newspaper = The New York Times

|date = June 8, 1924

|url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B06E3DE163FE733A2575BC0A9609C946595D6CF#

|quote = The Lambs, New York's famous actors' club, will celebrate its golden jubilee with a public Gambol at the Earl Carroll Theatre tonight.

|access-date = December 31, 2014

|ref = {{sfnref|NY Times, 1924}}

}}

• {{cite news

|title = AJ Pocock

|newspaper = Los Angeles Times

|date = September 26, 2012

|url = http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?pid=160111892

|access-date= June 20, 2016

|ref = {{sfnref|LA Times, 2012}}

}}

• {{cite news

|last = Robertson

|first = Campbell

|title = Lamb's Theater Company Receives Eviction Notice

|newspaper = The New York Times

|date = June 2, 2006

|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/theater/02lamb.html

|access-date = March 28, 2011

|ref = {{sfnref|NY Times, 2006}}

}}

• {{cite news

|last = Sifton

|first = Sam

|title = Retro Glamour Made New: Restaurant Review: The Lambs Club

|newspaper = The New York Times

|date = October 26, 2010

|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/27/dining/reviews/27rest.html

|access-date = January 31, 2012

|ref = {{sfnref|NY Times, 2012}}

}}

{{refend}}

Websites

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite web

|title = The Lambs History

|url = https://thelambs.club/history/roster/

|at = (Member Roster)

|publisher = The Lambs, Inc.

|website = the-lambs.org

|date = November 9, 2024

|access-date = November 9, 2024

|ref = {{sfnref|The Lambs Member Roster}}

}}

• {{cite web

|title = About the Lambs

|url = http://www.the-lambs.org

|at = (Disclaimer)

|quote = 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.

|publisher = The Lambs, Inc.

|website = the-lambs.org/

|access-date = November 9, 2024

|ref = {{sfnref|The Lambs Disclaimer}}

}}

• {{cite web

|title = Governance

|url = https://the-lambs.org/the-club/our-heritage

|publisher = The Lambs

|url-status = live

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150131220915/http://www.the-lambs.org/board.htm

|archive-date = January 31, 2015

|access-date = December 31, 2014

|ref = {{sfnref|The Lambs Governance}}

}}

• {{cite report

|title = The Lambs Club

|date = September 24, 1974

|publisher = Landmarks Preservation Commission

|location = New York, NY

|url = http://www.neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org/db/bb_files/LAMBS-CLUB.pdf

|access-date = December 31, 2014

|ref = {{sfnref|LPC LP-0859, 1974}}

}}

{{refend}}

{{commonscat|The Lambs}}

• [https://the-lambs.org/ The Lambs website]
• [http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/LambsClub.html "The Lambs Club"] – the NYC Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
• [http://www.nypl.org/archives/4469 Lambs Club records, 1880–1973], held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

{{National Register of Historic Places in New York}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lambs}}

Category:1874 establishments in New York (state)

Category:1874 establishments in New York City

Category:Arts organizations established in 1874

Category:Clubs and societies in New York City

Category:Culture of New York City

Category:Gentlemen's clubs in New York City

Category:Theatrical organizations in the United States

Category:American artist groups and collectives