Buffalo Players (theatre company)

The Buffalo Players were a community theater group operating in Buffalo, NY from 1922 to 1926. Although only in operation for four years, they were connected with several prominent theater and film professionals, such as C. Pascal Franchot (later known as film actor Franchot Tone); Marian de Forest, founder of Zonta International and Buffalo civic leader; and Broadway and Hollywood actor Jerome Collamore.

They were also in part the inspiration for two other community theater groups, the Niagara Falls Little Theater (Now Niagara Regional Theatre Guild), which was founded in 1924, and the Rochester Community Players, continuously operating since 1925. Founding members also assisted in the launch of the Studio Theater School, predecessor of Buffalo's Studio Arena Theater.

Marian de Forest was the president of the organization. She continued as a theater critic for the Buffalo Express even while serving as the head of the Buffalo Players. At a speech before the newly-forming Niagara Falls Players Association on November 6, 1924, she described how, in the early days of the Buffalo organization, they only had 'hope and faith', and 'depended on charity.' She said they started looking for a suitable place two years earlier, examining barns, a brewery and churches, before coming on what she described as a "forlorn" Allendale theater, with aisle too narrow, seats too close together and decorations in very poor condition, and that by 1924 the theater was in 'fine style'.

The offices and rehearsal space of the Players was in an historic house at 334 Delaware Avenue, built in the 1860s and leased from the owner, Dr. Charles Cary. The house was located between the Cary home at 340 Delaware, and the home of Lawrence D. Rumsey at 330 Delaware.

Lars S. Potter was Vice President of the organization and Pascal Franchot was secretary of the new organization, and a forceful speaker on its behalf.

The organization was publicly launched at a meeting at the Iroquois Hotel, Buffalo November 23, 1922, with Walter Hampden as the guest speaker and Buffalo Players President de Forest presiding.

The Players leased the Allendale Theater, starting January 1923 with an 18-month lease.

The Buffalo Players had reached membership of 2,560 by the opening of the 1924-25 season, according to Pascal Franchot. Going into the 1925-26 season, the Buffalo Players had a membership of nearly 2,600. In the summer of 1925, the Buffalo Players started putting out a newsletter called The Cue, and adopted a 'seal' or logo designed by Urquhart Wilcox: the skull of a buffalo inside a triangle.

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