The Lambs

The Lambs Clubhouse at 3 West 51st Street
Nickname	The Lambs Club
Named after	Charles Lamb
Formation	1874; 151 years ago (1874)
Founder	Henry James Montague
Founded at	Delmonico's
Purpose	Private Social Club for the Arts
Location	3 West 51st Street New York City
Coordinates	40°45′23.0″N73°59′7.0″W / 40.756389°N 73.985278°W /40.756389; -73.985278
Region served	United States
Membership	250
Shepherd	Kevin C. Fitzpatrick
The Boy	Don M. Spiro
Website	The-Lambs.org

The Lambs, Inc. (also known asThe 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 essayistCharles Lamb and his sisterMary, who during the early 19th century played host to actors and literati at their famedsalon 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 ofJ. Lester Wallack’s company to dinner atDelmonico’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 byJohn Hare. The name was unanimously adopted; it came fromCharles 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 inGreen-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 editorCharles A. Dana, and English actorSir Henry Irving.

The Actors’ Fund of America (today theEntertainment Community Fund) was formed by Lambs in 1882 atWallack'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 theCemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn. PlaywrightClay M. Greene suggested the Club put on its own shows, thus launching decades of Lambs’ Gambols. Notable members of this era wereMaurice Barrymore,Nikola Tesla, andStanford White. In 1895 there were 272 members.^[6]

In 1905, as the theater industry moved uptown toTimes 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 theWall 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 wasCornelia Otis Skinner, daughter of LambOtis Skinner.

The Lambs,Friars, andPlayers often are confused. In 1964, long-time syndicated columnistEarl 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 beenGeorge 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]

TheActors' strike of 1919 was settled in The Lambs, which was referred to as "Local One." In 1924, it celebrated its 50-year anniversary at theEarl Carroll Theatre.^[9]

Historically, The Lambs has been the spawning ground of plays, friendships and partnerships.Mark Twain Tonight (withHal Holbrook) andStalag 17 were first performed at The Lambs before their national successes.

Alan J. Lerner andFrederick Loewe first met at The Lambs, often trying works-in-progress on their fellow Lambs. Loewe left a percentage of his share ofBrigadoon royalties to The Lambs' Foundation.

Its members have been instrumental in the formation ofASCAP,Actors' Equity andThe Actors' Fund of America, Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and in the merger that createdSAG-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, andJack Whiting.

Current honorary members includeMatthew Broderick andJim 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 asHoward Chandler Christy,James Montgomery Flagg,Everett Raymond Kinstler, andMichael Shane Neal.

The Lambs has had many Manhattan homes since 1874, beginning withDelmonico's Restaurant inUnion 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.^[18]

In 1905, the club moved to 128–130 West 44th Street, designed by LambStanford 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 theChurch of the Nazarene, which leased part of the building for what would become theOff BroadwayLamb's Theatre.^[21] The building was designated a New York City Landmark^[22] in September 1974 and was added to theNational Register of Historic Places on June 3, 1982. The church sold the building in 2006 to Hampshire Hotels, which renovated the building intothe Chatwal New York hotel. The Chatwal Hotel contains the Lambs Club restaurant although there is no relation between the hotel and The Lambs.^[18]

Since 1976, The Lambs' Clubhouse has been leased space at 3 West 51st St., adjacent toRockefeller Center.^[23]

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.^[24]

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.^[25]

As the club prepared to celebrate its sesquicentennial in 2024, it undertook a program to grow its membership. In 2023 authorKevin C. Fitzpatrick was elected the 36th Shepherd of The Lambs,^[26] 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.

• 
  Cartoonist members of The Lambs in 1915. From left: Thomas E. Powers,Rube Goldberg,Henry Mayer,Richard Outcault,Clare Briggs,George McManus.
• 
  Lambs members in 1910. From left: ComedianDeWolf Hopper, producer and theatrical director George Mooser, producerJohn Golden, andFrank Case, manager of theAlgonquin Hotel.
• 
  Lambs members in 1923.
• 
  Henry James Montague, Shepherd of The Lambs, 1874-1878.
• 
  Digby Bell andDeWolf Hopper, leaders of The Lambs.
• 
  Thomas Meighan (1922), first movie star Lambs' shepherd.
• 
  Tom Dillon, Shepherd of The Lambs, 1969-1986.

Books

Newspapers

Websites

Wikimedia Commons has media related toThe Lambs.

• The Lambs website
• "The Lambs Club" – the NYC Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
• Lambs Club records, 1880–1973, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

• The Lambs presidents
• 1874 establishments in New York (state)
• 1874 establishments in New York City
• Arts organizations established in 1874
• Clubs and societies in New York City
• Culture of New York City
• Gentlemen's clubs in New York City
• Theatrical organizations in the United States
• American artist groups and collectives

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