[CarltonHendricks]

Just picked this up...I don't buy a lot of programs...it’s not even a big name crew...but the graphics had me...the crossed oars with whaling spear between...imposed with flags, a rudder and wreath...the NBC monogram at top...and the array of classic 19th century typefaces...Lastly the four man crew vignette at the bottom...

The play titled: “Shylock…or Much Ado About a Merchant of Venice”…was a musical burlesque take off of Shakespeare’s play "The Merchant of Venice"...which was a popular comedy in the 19th century…It’s important to remember the theater was huge then…The Nereid Boat Club that put it on...who I believe was in Brooklyn...would have been one of a plethora of boat clubs in 19th century New York City vicinity…It was common then for sports teams to put on plays and shows to raise money for their club…I've seen similar theater and musical programs for the benefit of college sports teams...

http://nereidbc.org/history/
There is a Nereid Boat Club today in Rutherford NJ…their history on their website says the club started in Nutley NJ in 1868…no mention of Brooklyn NY twenty miles away… where the Nereid Boat Club of this program seems to be associated…So it’s puzzling how there could have been two Nereid Boat Clubs…

Anyway...as a side note…from what I read up…the character Shylock in the “The Merchant of Venice”…which the play satirizes was often played by Edwin Booth…who was the brother of John Wilkes Booth who shot president Lincoln in 1865…