The Grill

Down a few steps from the lobby is the Grill, where generations of Players and friends have gathered for conversation and refreshment. A focal point is the pool table where Mark Twain often played. His cue is displayed over his portrait above the fireplace. The pool cues of actors Frank Morgan and Roland Winters and columnist Franklin Pierce Adams frame the area, along with the golf club of beloved Oscar winner Jack Lemmon.

Artworks on every wall of the Grill include Charles Baskerville’s watercolor of 1920s Harlem icon, singer Gladys Bentley. Here, too, are Norman Rockwell’s portrait of Charles Coburn, John Barrymore’s watercolors of the sets of Hamlet, James Cagney’s drawing of Roland Winters, Thomas Nast’s Tammany tiger and Al Hirschfeld’s drawing of Edwin Booth (of all his actor depictions, Booth was his only posthumous subject.) Programs and publicity materials from a series of Broadway revivals produced by The Players between the World Wars are also shown here.

Near the Grill is the Sarah Bernhardt Room, the name Players gave to the tiny elevator in which the great actress was stuck for an hour one evening in 1911 while visiting the club as a guest.