A Players Flashback: 1927

We periodically point out that The Players has always been more professionally diverse than its ubiquitous "club for actors" reputation would suggest. But its working actor members have been important to the club's lasting place in the culture. This 1927 issue of the Bulletin lists members then treading the boards, with dozens of Players appearing at once, from the New Amsterdam to the Music Box to playhouses in Detroit, Boston, and Chicago.

Some of the names have faded in nearly a century since, as most names do. But a number belong to actors whose reputations outlived their time on our roster, and one or two who were about to become far more famous than the theatre alone could make them.

Humphrey Bogart: Listed in "Cradle Snatchers" in Chicago, the young Bogart was still a decade away from the roles that would define him. Within a generation he would be Rick Blaine and Sam Spade, and eventually the very idea of the American leading man: weary, wry, and unmistakable.

Basil Rathbone: Then appearing in "The Captive" at the Empire under Gilbert Miller’s direction, Rathbone would go on to become the definitive screen Sherlock Holmes across fourteen films. Fittingly, it was a character first shaped on the stage by another Player, William Gillette.

Alfred Lunt: Cast in "The Brothers Karamazov" at the Guild, Lunt was already half of what would become the most celebrated acting partnership in American theatre, alongside his wife Lynn Fontanne. The Lunts gave their name to a Broadway theatre that carries it still, and were the first married couple to be feted by The Players with a Pipe Night.

John Drew: Heading the bill in "Trelawny of the Wells" at the New Amsterdam, and kicking off a national tour after the Players Revival of the play in 1925, Drew was among the great matinee idols of the American stage and the uncle of the Barrymores, a living link between the theatrical dynasties of two centuries. This would be his final production, and his term as Players president would conclude with his death a few months later.

Walter Hampden: Appearing in "Caponsacchi" at his own Hampden’s Theatre, he was one of the era’s towering classical actors, best remembered for a Cyrano de Bergerac that ran for years and defined the role for American audiences. He succeeded Drew as club president, serving for a record 27 years, and played an alternative version of himself in the opening scene of "All About Eve" in 1950.

Otis Skinner: Out in Ohio with "The Honor of the Family," Skinner was among the last of the grand romantic stars, immortalized as the beggar Hajj in "Kismet." His early apprenticeship was in the company of the club's original vice president, Augustin Daly, and subsequently on tour with Edwin Booth and Helena Modjeska

Frank Craven: Appearing in "Money from Home" at the Fulton (a play he also wrote,) Craven would earn his most lasting fame later as the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder’s "Our Town," the role that made him the kindly narrator of American memory.

Leon Errol: On the bill in "Yours Truly" at the Shubert, the rubber-legged Errol was a Ziegfeld Follies favorite who translated his stage clowning into a long and prolific film career.

Otto Kruger: Another "Trelawny of the Wells" alumnus, Kruger was a polished leading man of the twenties who reinvented himself in Hollywood as one of its most reliable character actors and smooth-talking villains.

George Arliss: On stage in Detroit, this English emigré was among theatre stars recruited to film. Despite his screen success, Arliss stayed active in the New York theatre and was the longtime president of the Episcopal Actors Guild. Often credited by Bette Davis for saving her from abject failure in Hollywood by casting her in a leading role, he also launched other unknowns like Player James Cagney and Randolph Scott on long careers.