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Creator
Sardi's (Restaurant)
Call number
*T-Mss 1979-005
Physical description
1 box
Preferred Citation

Sardi's (Restaurant) Papers, *T-Mss 1979-005, Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Repository
Billy Rose Theatre Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

This small collection of papers consists of letters to the Sardis on their retirement, a scrapbook of photographs of Vincent Sardi, Sr. receiving a Shubert Foundation award in 1967, a drawing of Eugenia Sardi, clippings about the restaurant, a few printed programs and menus for special events, a souvenir program (1913) from the Screen Club, and drawings by the illustrator, Don Freeman, mostly of New York scenes and people. Some of the drawings are loose, but most are bound into copies of Don Freeman's Newsstand (1938-1950), a self-published periodical.

Biographical/historical information

Sardi's restaurant opened on March 5, 1927. For Vincent Sardi (Melchiorre Pio Vincenza Sardi) and his wife, Eugenia "Jenny" Pallera Sardi, immigrants from Italy, this was their second restaurant. They had originally, in 1921, opened a restaurant at 146 West 44th Street called the Little Restaurant (named for the Winthrop Ames' Little Theater next door, now the new Helen Hayes Theater). It lasted until 1926. A year later they opened their new restaurant, Sardi's, that stands today in the same spot at 234 West 44th Street in which it opened in 1927.

A group of columnists and press agents began meeting at Sardi's every day for lunch. They were dubbed the Cheese Club. A member of this club, press agent Irving Hoffman, brought Alex Gard to meet this Cheese Club. Gard, born Alexis Kremoff in Kazan, Russia, had fled Russia after the Revolution and went to Bulgaria, France and, finally, to the United States. He had drawn caricatures of his commanding officers in the Russian Imperial Naval Academy and had had the occasional caricature published in Le Matin in France during his stay in that country. At Sardi's, he drew caricatures of the Cheese Club, which Vincent Sardi put on the walls of Sardi's restaurant, thus beginning the long tradition that continues until today.

Vincent Sardi wanted to imitate a Paris restaurant, Zelli's, that placed caricatures on the walls of the restaurant. Sardi and Gard signed a contract that provided a meal a day in Sardi's for Alex Gard in return for his caricatures. It was stipulated that Sardi could not complain about the caricatures and Gard could not complain about the food. The first caricature under this agreement was bandleader and comedian, Ted Healy (the man who brought the Three Stooges together). Sardi's restaurant soon became a theatrical landmark famous for the caricatures of its prominent patrons primarily actors, directors, producers and others connected to the stage.

In 1947 the senior Sardis retired and their son Vincent Sardi, Jr. took the helm. The following year Alex Gard died, but the position of house caricaturist was maintained as a Sardi's tradition.

Scope and arrangement

This small collection of papers consists of letters to the Sardis on their retirement in 1947, a scrapbook of photographs of Vincent Sardi, Sr. receiving a Shubert Foundation award in 1967, a drawing of Eugenia Sardi, clippings about the restaurant, a few printed programs and menus for special events, a souvenir program (1913) from the Screen Club, and drawings by the illustrator, Don Freeman, mostly of New York scenes and people. Some of the drawings are loose, but most are bound into copies of Don Freeman's Newsstand (1938-1950), a self-published periodical.

Administrative information

Custodial history

Vincent Sardi, Jr., donated these papers to the Billy Rose Theatre Division in 1979.

Source of acquisition

papers: gift, Vincent Sardi, Jr

Processing information

Processed by Elisabeth Elkind.

Separated material

Sardi's (Restaurant) Caricatures collections which consists of the work of three caricaturists who illustrated the restaurant's walls is found in *T-VIM 1979-005

Related Material

Caricatures and papers

Using the collection

Location

Billy Rose Theatre Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Billy Rose Theatre Division. The library, though, does not hold copyright, and permission will have to be sought from the artists or their estates.

Access restrictions

Photocopying prohibited.