The oldest professional theatrical organization in the United States is a claim that only The Lambs can make. We were launched by a small group of actors in 1874 over dinner at Delmonico’s, near Union Square. Today, a restaurant in a former clubhouse has borrowed our name but is not connected to our Club in any way. As a social club, The Lambs nurtures those active in the arts, as well as those who are supporters of the arts, by providing fellowship, activities, and a clubhouse for its members.
The Lambs’ name comes from a London club that flourished in the 1870s. It was named in honor of Charles and Mary Lamb, who hosted authors and actors at their London salon in the Georgian era.
The Lambs has been located in fourteen clubhouses in Manhattan since its founding, relocating when theaters moved from Union Square to Herald Square and finally to Times Square. Since 1976 The Lambs has called 3 West 51st Street our home in a landmark building across the street from Rockefeller Center.
For nearly 150 years the membership of The Lambs reflected the changes of show business. Started by theatrical actors, membership has been involved in all areas of entertainment. The Lambs has been a part of Broadway and Vaudeville, silent and talking pictures, recorded sound, the birth of radio and television, digital media, and all new technologies. In 1974—our centennial—The Lambs was the first city theatrical club to admit women, and today our membership is nearly evenly split 50/50.
The Lambs started with six members in 1874. On our 25th anniversary we were just shy of 500 members. By our golden anniversary in 1924—the boom years of Broadway and Vaudeville—The Lambs was approaching its peak of 1,700 members. Then, as scores of private clubs folded in New York City, The Lambs held on tenaciously through adversity. Today we have 200 members.
The Club has played a major role in the entertainment business, going back to the 19th century. Leaders of The Lambs formed key arts organizations still active today, and continue to play a vital role in supporting:
The Actors’ Fund of America (1882)
Actors’ Burial Ground Evergreen Cemetery (1887)
The Actors’ Home (1902)
Actors’ Equity Association (1913)
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (1914)
Screen Actors Guild (1933)
The American Federation of Radio Artists (1937)
The Lambs has elected more than 6,700 members over the decades, counting actors and theater owners, playwrights and painters, and today’s podcasters and comedy writers. The clubhouse is a place where we come to enjoy each others’ company, and to display and hone our crafts in an atmosphere of creativity and support. The Lambs exists to nurture creative endeavors. Over the decades it was at The Lambs that hit shows and songs were launched, partnerships and friendships formed, and bonds of fellowship made.
The Lambs is also a historical society, preserving and promoting our remarkable history stretching back to the 19th century. Our art collection of oil paintings, theatrical memorabilia, and playbills, together with our private research library, is a museum of American entertainment history. We are currently digitizing our collection to make it available to the public; we recently donated thousands of important historic documents to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (finding aid here).
Read more about our history here. It is only a start to learn that Lambs George M. Cohan and Father Frances Duffy both have statues in Times Square, Lamb Irving Berlin wrote “God Bless America” and “White Christmas,” the clubhouse displays 15 paintings by James Montgomery Flagg and Howard Chandler Christy, and that The Lambs welcomed women to join many years before other all-male clubs did so.
If you are interested in membership in The Lambs, visit this page.