The Rehearsal Club is safe haven for new generation of women pursuing show business
MIDTOWN, Manhattan (WABC) -- The Rehearsal Club in Midtown first opened more than a century ago as a safe place for women to live while pursuing their dreams of making it in show business. Since then, it's served as a launching pad for the likes of Carol Burnett, Kim Cattrall, Diane Keaton, and others who later became stars.
A new generation of young performers is taking advantage of this opportunity.
Carol Burnett recalled her rent was $18 a week including food!
"It gave me my start," Burnett said. "It gave me courage. It gave me hope."
And while the price may have gone up since then, The Rehearsal Club is still such a bargain there is a long waiting list to get in, and anyone who applies-has to audition.
They are all aiming for the stars dreaming of a career in show business at the rehearsal club.
"It's been a starting point," current resident Torinae Norman said. "Something that can give me opportunities to jump off and explore new things in my career and become the person that I want to be in this industry."
"It just helps us to grow even faster and find these connections and meet people in the industry and help us move our career even faster than without the rehearsal club," resident Kelset Lepesko said.
Kelsey Lepesko and Torinae Norman are part of a group of women who share a floor of a building on the east side where the apartments bear the names of famous former residents.
Generations of women lived at a place so famous it inspired a Hollywood movie before closing its doors in 1979.
But The Rehearsal Club was revived in the 21st century thanks to the efforts of those who once lived there.
"We are a passionate tribe of women who believe in the performing arts mission to help young artists," President Gale Patron.
Newcomers and veterans got together recently and found much common ground-- no generation gap here!
"We have the bond of the theater, but we have the bond of like sharing a very, very unique experience," former resident Michele Mason.
"None of us had any money or connections or silver spoons," former resident Denise Pence Boockvor said. "Nothing that helped us get anywhere except we support each other."
And they are still supporting each other more than a century after the doors first opened.
"Cinderellas of West 53rd Street" is a new book that tells the story of this unique show business institution.
The Museum of Modern Art now stands on the site of their former clubhouse but The Rehearsal Club has been reborn just a a short walk away.
ALSO READ | Middle, elementary school students set sail in the East River on their handmade boats
----------
* Get Eyewitness News Delivered
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Submit a News Tip
