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54 lines
3.1 KiB
Plaintext
54 lines
3.1 KiB
Plaintext
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THE BOHEMIAN CLUB
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For two and a half weeks every July, two thousand of the top
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movers and shakers in business and government attend the Bohemian
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Club's summer encampment. Although highly selective, the club has
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a national membership and is among the most prestigious of
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affiliations in neoconservative circles. Its membership is known
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to include Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Gerald Ford, William F.
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Buckley, Jr., Frank Borman, Justin Dart, William Randolph Hearst,
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Jr., Caspar Weinberger, Charles Percy, George Schultz, Edward
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Teller, Merv Griffin, and a large proportion of the directors and
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chief executive officers of the Fortune 1000. Daniel Ludwig, the
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richest private citizen on earth, is a Bohemian. Conspiracy nuts
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think the Bohemian Club meets each summer to plot to take over the
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world. These guys ALREADY run the world.
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The club's name harkens back to its founding in 1872 by
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artists and journalists in the Bay Area; the club proper is at 624
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Taylor Street in San Francisco. The annual summer camp is held at
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"Bohemian Grove," an isolated site in Sonoma County, California,
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near the town of Monte Rio. To get there, you cross the bridge
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over the Russian River and take the second left.
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Signs warn off trespassers, and the Grove is guarded during
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the encampment. Visitors must have invitations and sign in and
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out; cooks and other workers have to wear ID badges. The club (and
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hired staff) is all male. There are no black Bohemians and just
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one Asian; the former Philippine president Carlos Romulo.
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The club does a good job of avoiding publicity, although in
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1980 Rick Clogher, a writer for MOTHER JONES magazine, managed to
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slip in to the encampment for four days with the help of an
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unidentified insider. Brooding over the Grove is a giant rock that
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looks like an owl. Clogher discovered that the rock is concrete,
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covered with moss to look natural. The Cremation of Care ritual
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takes place in front of the owl when, on the first night of camp,
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robed members burn a doll representing Dull Care.
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Bohemian Grove includes 122 distinct camps in its 2,700
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acres. The camps have whimsical names such as Whiskey Flat,
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Toyland, Owl's Nest, Hill Billies, and Cave Man's, and each one
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has its own kitchen-bar building -- there is a lot of drinking --
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and sleeping quarters. The members of some camps sleep in tents;
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other camps have redwood cabins. Daily "Lakeside Talks" on
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geopolitical topics are given by prominent speakers, both members
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and non-members. It is claimed that Richard Nixon and Ronald
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Reagan conferred during the 1967 encampment, Reagan agreeing not
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to challenge Nixon for the presidential nomination.
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The highlight of camp is the Grove play, which is written
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exclusively for the club. All the female roles are played by men
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in drag. The 1980 play was an adaptation of the Greek myth of
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Cronus and Zeus supplemented with fireworks, smoke bombs, and a
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light show. (One can only wonder if Reagan ever starred in a Grove
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play. He certainly has more acting experience than most club
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members.) The polished productions cost the Bohemians as much as
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$25,000 -- for one performance.
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xperience than most
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