George Larsen Lash (1863-1921) was a senior partner of Lee Lash Studios in Times Square. He was a Professional member of The Lambs, but records are unclear about his election date.
A native of San Francisco, he worked with brothers Lee Lash and Samuel Ash. Around 1909 the company opened a large business in Mount Vernon, devoted solely to painting large drop curtains for Broadway and Vaudeville houses. The company leased the scenic designs to theaters across the country and Canada. The studio employed dozens of painters and craftsmen, which required a one hundred foot wide space, two floors, and offices for the work. They employed veteran scenic painters and kept offices in Times Square for sales.
Among the company’s clients were the Shubert brothers, Klaw and Erlanger, the Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation, and fellow Lamb David Belasco. The company pioneered selling ads on theater curtains, with the “Lee Lash” name included.
The company grew so large that by the 1920s they fielded their own baseball team to compete with theater squads and college fraternities. They later mounted their own amateur revues and got into theatrical production. The firm left Mount Vernon and relocated to a former brewery in Manhattan after World War I.
Lee Lash Studios also designed theatrical building interiors and set decorations. The firm was in operation for around thirty years; it appears the company did not last past the 1930s.
George Larsen Lash died at his Upper West Side home on March 29, 1921. He was 58. Larsen left a widow and two children. His cremains were placed in Fresh Pond Crematory and Columbarium, Fresh Meadows, Queens.
In 1942, fellow Lamb Joe Laurie Jr lamented, “It ain’t real vaudeville if it ain’t got a Lee Lash drop with plenty of neighborhood ads on it, or a drop in one with a fountain and building painted on it, where the comic could look in the window and motion to the audience to come on and help him look…”
Researched and written by Shepherd Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, 2025.