Photos 1–2 by Julian Voloj
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1) Edwin Booth, the club’s founder. 2) Mark Twain’s card table. 3) Portraits adorn many of the walls. 4) The exterior of 16 Gramercy Park South.
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MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS
A peek inside a members-only Gramercy Park institution
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n a recent blustery, cold morning, some his era, renovated the building. two dozen people, young and old, asOur tour began in the lower-level bar, The Grill (“the sembled in a basement bar. holy of the holies,” said Glascock), with dark parquet This wasn’t the start of an illicit allfloors and rustic wood communal tables. Red walls day bender — we were seizing a rare opprovide the background for the dozens of portraits portunity to take a peek inside the Players, a private that make up the “Players Hall of Fame,” like Frank Gramercy Park club with well-known actors and busiSinatra and Jimmy Fallon. (Other Players, past and nesspeople among its members. The day’s event was present: Clark Gable, Angela Lansbury, Walt Disney, organized by Atlas Obscura, which aims “to get peoMorgan Freeman and Fiorello LaGuardia.) ple into places they may not normally get into, or know We weren’t able to view the second floor that day, about,” said co-founder Dylan Thuras. but the fourth floor is what most came to see: Edwin Visiting the Players is a little Booth’s private quarters, left vir“like going to your grandmothtually unchanged since the day er’s attic,” said our tour guide, of his death in 1893. The bed The Players was founded in member Scott Glascock. is where Booth died; his worn 1888 by the country’s most The Players was founded slippers lie on the floor and a in 1888 by the country’s most portrait of his infamous brother famous dramatic actor, famous dramatic actor, Edwin hangs on the wall. Edwin Booth. Booth — the older brother of LinThe Players’ colorful history coln-assassinator John Wilkes has been touched recently by Booth. (Edwin Booth later wrote debt. To raise funds, they sold the nation a moving letter of apology; a copy is on dissome John Singer Sargent paintings and, last year, the play at the club’s third-floor library.) president told DNAInfo that as “an end-of-the-world Back then, actors were considered “scallywags possibility” the Players would have to sell its building and roustabouts,” said Glascock. But Booth, returning (with an estimated value of more than $14 million). from London, was inspired by the Garrick Club, where Things are brighter now, Glascock insists. The theater folk mingled with writers, judges and nobility. club is looking to grow its membership; the buildBooth got together with some buddies — including’s façade reconstruction should be completed in ing Mark Twain and Stanford White — and created the the spring. “It’s a challenge, the Great Recession; it’s Players. He bought the townhome at 16 Gramercy a challenge to all clubs,” he said. “But we’re coming Park South for $75,000 and White, the starchitect of back.” — Lisa Keys
Luxury Listings NYC | March/April 2014