Daily News from New York, New York • 779

The actors' hangouts continued from page 11 Their survival was accomplished, at least in part, through a device that caused a great rumbling under the hallowed stones of Westminster Abbey, where Samuel Johnson is buried. They admitted women to the club, causing the good doctor to turn over in his grave. The Friars It was 1907, Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House with his big stick and Carrie Nation was in the saloons with her ax; the new English 1 superliner Lusitania set a record, crossing the Atlantic in well under two weeks; Oklahoma was admitted to the Union, bringing the total number of states to 46; and in New York a group of theatrical press agents organized a club that was to become one of the most famous and successful in the world. Of course being famous and successful is not necessarily considered desirable in club circles. How much do you know about The Manhattan Club? The City Club? From nothing to not much, probably, and that is quite all right with them, thank you.

The Friars couldn't give a hoot what other clubs think of them. To give you some idea, their Abbott is Frank Sinatra, Mr. I Did It My Way. The club was conceived by members of the Theatrical Press Agents Association, organized in 1904. In 1906 they started the practice of giving dinners to great men of the theater, such as Henry Miller and Victor Herbert, and in the fall of 1907 held their first meeting as Friars at Browne's Chop House, the founders being Charles Emerson Cook, press rep for David Belasco, Channing Pollock, representing the Shuberts, and John S.

Flaherty, manager and press rep for the Majestic Theater. Pollock was elected president. Their first clubhouse, on W. 45th was opened in 1908 and named The Monastery. They bolstered their membership by admitting vaudevillians, who were not eligible to be Lambs or Players.

After early struggles, the club got into the black in 1910, and except for a shutdown along with most of the rest of the country during the Great Depression and World War II, they have prospered. In 1915, under George M. Cohan as Abbott, they laid the cornerstone for a new clubhouse on W. 48th the high point of the ceremonies being a transcontinental telephone call to San Francisco, as Cohan smashed a bottle of champagne and cried: "I dedicate this club to art, literature and good fellowship!" Quite a few Friars have since extended that dedication into another field: business. "More deals are made right here," said Buddy Howe, looking around the crowded, clamorous dining room at lunch, "than in any of these guys' offices." Howe, a former vaudeville hoofer who rose to be president of ICM (International Creative Management, the giant talent agency), is the Friars' Dean, which means boss; the Abbott is an honorary title; before Sinatra it was held by the late Ed Sullivan.

The club's present Monastery on E. 55th St. is anything but monkish; it bespeaks their affluence. You must be buzzed in the massive front door by a sharp-eyed lady who doubles as a page on the public address system William B. Williams, Inside, you find yourself in a palatial hallway of marble, with cross-vaulted ceiling; a step to your left is a small, cozy bar, and down the hall to your right lies the main dining room, walled in velvety red, with massive chocolate beams.

On the floors above, more dining areas, lounges, a card room, a gymnasium with a dozen or so instruments of self-punishment and a reading room with a dozen or so books. The clubhouse has no bank's shadow hanging over it, as the Lambs' did; they burned their mortgage joyously 14 years ago. Part of their prosperity is due to the fact that they allow men not connected with show biz to join, at a heavy initiation fee: one third of the members are in no way associated with the entertainment industry. "We have openings for 10 nonprofessional members right now, and 60 applicants," Howe said. "If we opened the books we could take in 500 to 1,000 more.

We interview the applicant and ask what his purpose is in becoming a Friar. What we want is people who love New York 293 Alfred Drake, President of The Players, under portrait of club's founder Edwin Booth. 30 38.