Founding In 1888, Edwin purchased the former residence of Valentine G. Hall in Gramercy Square and, perhaps inspired by London's
Garrick Club, established a social club to bring actors into contact with men of different professions such as industrialists, writers, and other creative artists. Booth had the building redesigned, furnished, equipped, and decorated with his personal possessions. In its title, he stipulated that the building be equipped with a furnished apartment for his own undisturbed use. When completed, a series of meetings was held, and a small group of founding fathers turned the clubhouse over to newly invited members in a grand ceremony on December 31, 1888.
20th century Beginning in the 1970s, widows of club members were afforded limited privileges to the club. In September 1987, the club voted to allow women to be full members, a change that allowed the Players to rent its facilities for outside functions, which it had not been allowed to do before under New York City law.
Helen Hayes was admitted as the first woman member on April 23, 1989, the birthday of
William Shakespeare.
21st century In 2000, the
New York State Attorney General's Office launched an investigation into The Players' financial dealings with the Hampden-Booth Theater Library, which occupies about a third of the club's building, and the John Drew Fund, a charity which has its offices in the building. The allegations were that the club may have overcharged the library for building upkeep, and kept more than its appropriate share of the sale of a collection of books in 1984, using the money to help pay for a major renovation to the building. The club also borrowed money from the John Drew Fund to pay for the renovation, a loan which had not yet been paid back. The boards of the club, the library, and the fund have overlapping members, a circumstance which may have contributed to the financial irregularities. The dispute between the library and the club was settled, with neither owing the other any money; the settlement also satisfied part of the state's investigation. One of the terms of the settlement was that the club would sell its
John Singer Sargent portrait of Edwin Booth to raise money. On June 19, 2013, Johnnie Planco was re-elected as president. Planco informed members at that time that the club was about $4 million in debt, and raised the possibility that their clubhouse might have to be sold; some estimates put the value of the property at more than $14 million. In addition, it has been reported that according to the New York City Department of Finance a lien has been placed against the club due to $250,000 in back taxes owed, in addition to other debts. The tax debt has been sold to a third party. Options under consideration to ameliorate the club's financial problems include, it has been reported, renting the club's rooms for parties and meetings, providing the building to be used as an interior location for film shoots, and selling naming rights to the rooms. Creative partnerships with
Actors' Equity the
Screen Actors Guild and the
Directors Guild are also being pursued. In December 2015, the club hosted the official 30th Anniversary Celebration of the film
Clue, honoring the film's screenwriter and director
Jonathan Lynn with a live reenactment performance on the clubhouse stage featuring actors
Zachary Levi,
Michael Urie,
Sara Chase,
Lauren Adams, and
Brandon Uranowitz, among others. In 2016, the Players obtained a $8.5 million loan from Terrapin Lending Company to help it straighten out its financial problems without having to sell its prized artwork, including a Sargent portrait of actor
Joseph Jefferson, which they loaned for a time to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. The club plans to focus on its members, including bringing in new ones, and hold fewer ticketed events aimed at the general public, according to Michael Barra, the chair of the club's managing committee and executive committee of the Board of Directors. ==Membership==