Players Club Fetes 100th Year, Opens Ranks to Women

The Players Club, a male bastion of the acting profession for 100 years, will induct its first women members Sunday at a star-studded centennial celebration at the Shubert Theater.

Helen Hayes, first lady of the American theater, will head a list of 19 women who are expected to be on stage for the induction ceremony, scheduled to coincide with William Shakespeare’s birthday.

Hayes, 88, will receive the Players’ first Edwin Booth Award for lifetime achievement in the theater.

The Players, founded by Booth, voted last year to admit women in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down club discrimination against women. Among those invited to join were Gwen Verdon, Lauren Bacall, Dina Merrill, Mary Tyler Moore, Sylvia Sidney, Beverly Sills, Betty Comden, Carol Burnett and Uta Hagen.