The Other Booth

The Players Club, just a few blocks from my apartment, is a unique building overlooking Gramercy Park.  The faded Greek Revival facade, the wood-paneled interior you can see through its large windows, and its opulent balconies speak of a rich past, and its history does not disappoint.

Players Club in Gramercy Park

The Players Club was founded as a gentleman's club in 1888 - the first of its kind according to the club's website.  The purpose was and continues to be "the promotion of social intercourse between members of the dramatic profession" and artists, sculptors, musicians, etc.  The Club was founded by Edwin Booth, Mark Twain, General Tecumseh Sherman amongst others.  In his off hours from developing revolutionary technology related to power and telephony, scientist Nikola Tesla regulalry played cards there in the early 1900s. Jimmy Fallon, Ethan Hawke, Roger Moore and many others are members of the club today.  While generally closed to the public, the Club allows the public to purchase tickets for certain events such as poetry readings and jazz nights.

Edwin Booth, the pre-eminent Shakespearean actor of his day, purchased the mansion in 1888 from American tennis champion Valentine Hall.  After some rearrangements, the Club was opened to members in a grand ceremony on New Years Eve 1888.  Edwin Booth kept the top floor for his personal apartment and tragically died there of a stroke on June 7, 1893.  The apartment continues to be maintained exactly as it was on his death.

Edwin Booth as Hamlet (1870)

Edwin Booth was the brother of John Wilkes Booth.  Both Booth brothers were considered among the finest actors of their day.  In November 1864, Edwin and John Wilkes took the stage at Winter Garden Theatre in New York for the play Julius Caesar.  Little did Edwin know that John, a Confederate sympathizer, would assassinate Lincoln 6 moths later.  This theater has since been bulldozed but once stood in Greenwich Village on the site where NYU law dorm D'Agostino Hall now stands.  Coincidentally, I spent my first summer in New York in that dorm. 

After John Wilkes assassinated President Lincoln in April 1865, Edwin went into severe depression and left the stage for nearly a year.  He disowned his brother and would not allow his brother's name to be spoken in his house.  In January 1866, he took the stage at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York .  When he stepped on the stage for the first time since the assassination, the crowd gave him a standing ovation.  Wilkes performance of Hamlet would become the signature role of his career.  The center piece of Gramery Park is a statue of Edwin Booth in his role as Hamlet.  It was dedicated in 1919 and was the first New York statute dedicated to an actor, and the statute faces the fascinating Players Club of Gramercy Park.

Edwin Booth statue in Gramercy Park