About The Lambs Foundation
The Lambs Foundation, Inc., is recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It supports numerous theatrical charities, educational programs, and non-profit theater companies.
History of the Lambs Foundation, Inc.
No history of The Lambs® would be complete without reference to the Club’s charitable work and its response to the needs of the entertainment community. The Lambs was founded in 1874 and since the beginning the social club has supported the needs of the acting profession. The charter members of the Club were instrumental in founding:
*The Actors Fund of America (1882), today called the Entertainment Community Fund;
*The first Actors Burial Ground (1887) in Brooklyn;
*The first Actors Fund Home (1902) on Staten Island.
The Lambs Foundation has roots going back to World War I and the creation of a modest charity by a Lamb who was not an actor. Frank W. Kitching (1839-1917) was a commodities broker who during the Civil War had been a prisoner of war. He was a theater lover elected to The Lambs in 1897. Kitching launched the Lambs’ Memorial Relief Fund in 1916 as a way to assist worthy members of the Club in temporary financial distress. Kitching gave a gift of 100 shares of Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad stock. Other loyal members contributed over the decades, including Lambs Edwin Burke, John Golden, William S. Hart, Robert L. Hague, and David Warfield.
The Memorial Relief Fund helped members for 25 years. When America entered World War II, Lambs’ treasurer Joseph Buhler (1881-1961) changed the direction of the relief fund to be more patriotic in nature. A new name was adopted: the Lambs Servicemen’s Morale Corps. The club raised funds to assist Allied service members passing through New York City. For four years during wartime the clubhouse was open to the military to raise morale for those in uniform. It presented 210 consecutive weekly entertainment nights for troops, and served more than 50,000 dinners at the Lambs’ clubhouse on Forty-fourth Street. The Lambs welcomed everyone from privates to generals at the club.
The Lambs Foundation, Inc. was incorporated in 1943 as a charity organized under the laws of the State of New York. Supported by donations, it dispensed funds for the benefit of needy, sick, or destitute members of the entertainment profession.
The Lambs’ board of directors in 1961-62 changed the corporate name to The Lambs Foundation, Inc., and its purview was expanded to include the support of theatrical organizations, education in the arts, development of new works of theater, and supporting emerging talent.
For the past 60 years the Lambs’ Foundation has been supported by individuals and bequests. An all-volunteer staff runs the Foundation today, supporting numerous theatrical charities, educational programs, and non-profit theater companies.
For more information please contact us at (212) 586-0306, or e-mail us. The Lambs Foundation gladly accepts donations, which are fully tax-deductible as provided by law (check with your tax advisor).
The list of beneficiaries may be found here.
The Lambs Foundation, Inc., is not connected in any way to other similarly-named charities, such as “Friends of the Lambs” or “The Lamb Foundation.”
Milestones of the Lambs Foundation
Frederick Loewe (1901-1988), the distinguished Broadway composer, left a bequest to the Foundation. Loewe was elected to The Lambs in 1933 as a professional member. Nine years later he met lyricist Alan Jay Lerner at the Club grill and they became friends and collaborators. Loewe was so grateful for the partnership that he left a small “piece” of their hit show Brigadoon (1947) to The Lambs.
Winchell Smith (1871-1933), nephew of the eminent actor and playwright William Gillette, was himself a successful actor, playwright, and producer. After his death in 1933 it was disclosed that Smith had left a lasting memorial in his name, as well as a perpetual source of benevolence to his fellow Lambs, the Winchell Smith Trust Fund.
Percy Williams (1857-1923), theater owner and treasurer of The Lambs, is remembered for his great generosity. By his request, the handsome Williams Estate in East Islip, Long Island, along with ample funds to maintain it, was established as a retirement home for actors and actresses. In the 1970s the home was closed and the property sold. The proceeds were turned over to the Actors Fund of America to support the modern Actors Fund Home in New Jersey.
In 1992 the Lambs Foundation was recognized for its work with the Jack Dempsey Humanitarian Award from St. Clare’s Hospital and Health Center in New York City.
A chair in the National Theatre, Washington, D.C., commemorates the Foundation, as does a chair and plaque at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Robin Williams Center in New York.
In 2017 the Foundation created the Scott Glascock Scholarship in cooperation with the New York campus of the American Musical & Dramatic Academy.
The Lambs Foundation, in recognition of its 105-year history with Actors’ Equity Association, has committed to long-term support to the Actors’ Equity Foundation member education programs. Known as The Lambs Foundation Glascock Grant, in recognition for the generous bequest of Lamb Scott Glascock.
DIRECTORS
Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, President
Don Spiro, Vice-President
Elaine Marlowe, Secretary
Deborah Stone, Treasurer
John Batteiger, Curator
leslie Shreve, Marc BaronDirectors
MEMBERS
Peter Dizozza, Beth Goffe, Bob Greenberg, Magda Katz, Alexandra Nader, Sarah-Ann Rodgers,
Gus Rosendale, Davida Rothberg, Martha Stine
PLEASE DONATE
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