The Site of the First Collegiate A Cappella Show

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It has been well-documented that the Yale Whiffenpoofs, who took shape in 1909, was the first collegiate a cappella group. Given that the group was an offshoot of the Men’s Glee Club and, more specifically an elite quartet derived from it, the exact history of when, how, and under what terms it officially formed are difficult to define. Nonetheless, the group seems to have taken shape most clearly through performances at Mory’s Temple Bar, an establishment local to New Haven where the group took to performing on a weekly basis. It can, therefore, reasonably stated that Mory’s Temple Bar was the site of the first collegiate a cappella performance.

Sources: yale.edu/whiffenpoofs