Our History

It started with The Players Boat Club

The Shrewsbury River Yacht Club is steeped in a rich and colorful past that is perhaps unique among yacht clubs. Not only were its founding members boating enthusiasts but celebrated theatrical people as well. At the turn of the century, the village of Fair Haven was known as the place “on the beautiful Shrewsbury where Broadway comes to rest after a hard season of playing the boards.” A colony of some seventy-five vaudevillians took summer residence in the cottages and hotels around Doughty Lane and Kemp Avenue and by the end of the first decade of the new century, these actors would come to dominate the town’s social life.

The players’ public and charitable benefactions were many. Performers at the July 1902 benefit for the actor’s home included future Club members, including Burns, Evans, and North. The Players Boat Club and its members were among the earliest and most ardent supporters of the Fair Haven fire company. Indeed, the actors’ support predates the Club’s founding. The benefit show they put on for the firemen on June 21, 1905, organized by well-known theatrical manager Frank Martineau, was described by the Register the following week as “one of the best entertainments of its kind ever given in the town.

In 1906, reporting on the Firemen’s Fair, the Register noted on August 1, “A good many actors and actresses summer at Fair Haven. Many of them own summer homes there and they take life easy during their vacations from the stage. They are a good-natured, happy, public-spirited lot of people and they turn in and help every project of a public nature which comes up in that neighborhood. They helped the fair in many ways and they were as active as the firemen themselves in making the affair a success.” In 1907, the pre-Club vaudevillians gave a benefit performance for Eugene Wellington, who was ill in New York. The players had a tie to the spiritual world after they developed a close relationship with St. James Roman Catholic Church in Red Bank.

Club performers and participation comprised one of the most appealing features of the 1912 Firemen’s Fair. The Register reporter noted on July 31, 1912, “The infant borough has a large actors’ colony. These people, although residents of the place only a few months, take a big interest in the welfare of the town and during last week they were as active as the natives in aiding the firemen.” Their nightly minstrel shows included some of the best talent in the country, players who offered services that could not have otherwise been obtained for less than $1,500 per night. The roster was filled with Club members, future longtime stalwarts.

Their ten-act vaudeville show at the Empire Theater on July 17, 1913, opened that year’s St. James Fair. The performers included Nelson, Otto, Lockwood, McAllister, and Cantwell, while Lew hunting served as stage manager. The St. James’ pastor, the Reverend James A. Reynolds, became the only non-performer on the rolls when the Club bestowed on him honorary membership in 1912.

The Shrewsbury River Yacht Club – located on the North Shrewsbury River commonly called the Navesink – is steeped in a rich and colorful past that is perhaps unique among yacht clubs. Not only were its founding members boating enthusiasts but celebrated theatrical people as well. At the turn of the century, the village of Fair Haven was known as the place “on the beautiful Shrewsbury where Broadway comes to rest after a hard season of playing the boards.”

Led by New York Theater owner Tony E. Hunting & Henry Clay Minor, a colony of some seventy-five vaudevillians took summer residence in the cottages and hotels around Doughty Lane and Kemp Avenue. It was a large and social group that soon found itself in need of a place to gather. So they held a meeting in a barn behind the home of Tony Hunting on the comer of River Road and Doughty Lane and decided to buy a houseboat that would serve as their clubhouse. A suitable houseboat was located in Red Bank but the club treasury was insufficient to cover its purchase. Fortunately, there was a readily available solution. They decided to put on a show. The troupe marched through the streets of Red Bank in an open car motorcade that ended at the Frick Lyceum – a stage then located where the tennis courts are now in Marine Park. The show was a success and raised the $250 necessary to purchase the houseboat and tow it to the site of the current clubhouse.

True to their calling, they picked an auspicious occasion to celebrate the opening of their “Players Club” – it was July 4,1910. Tom Morrissey was elected its first President and his brother-in-law Tony Hunting served as Vice-President. Membership was strictly limited to theatrical folk, and the greats of the era were members and frequent visitors. While Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor were occasional guests, Annie Hart was the resident celebrity. A famous Ziegfield star, Annie Hart was affectionately known as the “Sheriff of Fair Haven” and the press covered “Players Club” parties with as much dedication as they did her Broadway career.