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Then Nelson and David Rockefeller horned their way in, and the spotlight moved to the Trilateral Commisssion. Former President Ford told us what he would do to save the country. How? Rudyard Kipling, romantic colonialist and exponent of the masculine spirit, is, naturally, one of the Grove's heroes, and "Mandalay" is a triumphant white man's-burden song. Though he was no career man at the Grove Tom had al-ready taken on a caustic loyalty to his camp. Former Bank of America chairman Samuel Armacost brought IBM chairman John F. Akers, Bechtel chairman S. D. Bechtel Jr. brought Amoco chairman Richard Morrow. The salt has been washed out of the Club by commercialism, one writer grumbled. Scenting power, press lords skip in from all over the country: Joe Albritton, former owner of The Washington Star; Charles E. Scripps and Otto Silha of Cowles Media; the McClatchys of the McClatchy chain; and David Gergen of U.S. News & World Report all obey the Bohemian command of keeping the goings-on from their readers. There are few rules, the most famous one being "Weaving Spiders Come Not Here" -- in other words, don't do business in the Grove. The sudden appearance of men in striped jackets shows what a bouillabaisse of traditions the Grove is. A tenet of Grove life is noncompetitive egalitarianism: all men are equal here. Edgar F. Kaiser), 1970s retro (Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger) and foreign bric-a-brac (Andrew Knight of The Economist). But in fact, class and status differences among camps are pronounced. Everything in the encampment is sheltered by redwoods, which admit hazy shafts of sunlight, and every camp has a more or less constant campfire sending a soft column of smoke into the trees. It was decided, clubman Ed Bosque wrote, we should invite an element to join the Club which the majority of its members held in contempt, namely men who had money as well as brains, but who were not, strictly speaking, Bohemians. So they pulled in a few wealthy men of commerce to pay for the champagne and the rot soon set in. Tacked to one of these haplessly postprandial trees is a sign conveying the fairy-dust mixture of boyishness and courtliness that envelops the encampment: Gentlemen please! ", Then the crypt of Care was poled slowly down the lake by a black-robed figure in a black gondola, accompanied by a great deal of special effects smoke. One cartoon had a camper at Bromley turning away a filthy guy with a bag of cans. The priests turned in desperation to the owl. The participants seem to enjoy the isolation and the opportunity to let their hair down in some way. If the avenging posses mustered by the Bohemian Grove Action Network manage this year to burst through the security gates at the Bohemian Grove, they will (to extrapolate from numerous eyewitness accounts of past sessions) find proofs most convincing to them that here indeed is the ruling crowd in executive session: hundreds of near-dead white men sitting by a lake listening to Henry Kissinger, plus many other near-dead white men in adjacent landscape in a state of intoxication so advanced that many of them had fallen insensible among the ferns, gin fizz glasses gripped firmly till the last. It was a good time to visit the Grove. Hugh said that an old college friend came to stay in Bohemia and took over the mixing of the drinks. I wanted to ask Reagan about efforts to desegregate the club. They come by limousine through the woods or by corporate jet to the tiny Sonoma Airport, where they are met by waiting cars. Carried by pallbearers and high priests in bright red hoods and flowing robes, the coffin burns as chants give way to a band playing There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight.. Bohemian Club In the Bohemian Club at what is known as Bohemian Grove in the redwood forest of California's Sonoma county, an event that continued into the 21st century. The man peeled off the mask to reveal that he really was Kissinger, and he said in his familiar gravelly accent, "I am here because I have always been convinced that the Low Jinks is the ultimate aphrodisiac." German chancellor Helmut Schmidt (not to be confused with Club members Chauncey E. Schmidt or Jon Eugene Schmidt) strolled its paths with club member Henry Kissinger, as did French socialist leader Michael Rocard. Throughout the skeet-shooting, the domino-playing and the museum talks, right up through the "afterglows" that follow each evening's entertainment, everyone is perpetually numbed and loose, but a clubbish decorum prevails just the same. [This is not entirely accurate; "Bohemian Grove" is labeled as such on USGS topographic maps. I didn't want to disagree. It's only a matter of time before the club gets sued under either California's civil rights act or San Francisco's civil rights ordinance, both of which bar sex discrimination in business establishments. There are increasingtly popular science talks at the Bohemian Groves museum. His new book is The Big Heat:Earth on the Brink co-written with Joshua Frank. The getup stood out because it was so fastidious among men who had let themselves go. After General Chain's talk, the usual quiet business chatter went on. If it all sounds eclectic, it is. They'd built special platforms in the trees for men with binoculars. He looked bewildered and hung over, and I figured Bohemians were warmly and mysteriously saying to him what they were saying to me: "I can tell this is your first Grove.". By such standards, San Francisco businessmen surely looked crude. It is here at a campground in Monte Rio, California surrounded by redwood trees where the secretive boy's club for the rich and powerful, whose members have included Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, have an unusual ceremony. In November 1916 Roy joined the prestigious and exclusive Bohemian Club and remained an active lifelong member. They played golf, swam and went skeet shooting. As the Soviet Sagdeyev said in his speech, "There is no glasnost here.". "My friends don't understand this," a pudgy 35-year-old in front of me confided to his companion. Some day the walls will fall, though it's hard to see why any woman would want to join a crowd of old Republicans chewing cigars and reminiscing about potency. He sneered too, though more deferentially, at lordly Mandalay camp, inaccessible save by written invitation by a member, luxuriously appointed and stocked with the Membership Committees most determined stab at the pretense of Secret Government. Randy members break bounds and head for such straight cruising spots as the Northwood Lodge and Country Club where vigorously bejeweled women in their thirties are to be found. When they reached the water, they extinguished their torches. He cleaned up the mess left by the Bohos nocturnal revels. ", At lakeside the grass was crowded for the day's talk. Along with the big play there is the comedy revue Low Jinks for which members again rehearse with passionate anticipation. Bohemian, they agreed in their early annals, didn't mean an unwashed shirt and poetry; it signified London, the beau monde, men of eminence whose purses were always open to their friends. The religion they consecrate is right-wing, laissez-faire and quintessentially western, with some Druid tree worship thrown in for fun. Gray, who this year had brought along Union Carbide boss Robert D. Kennedy. One day I drove up to the front gate and got a daunting glimpse of what looked like the Grove sheriff, a barrel like figure in a Smokey the Bear hat. The big improvement this year was to project a sort of hologram onto the owl's face so that its beak seemed to move. Activists from truthaction.org have obtained the official guest list for Bohemian Grove's 2008 midsummer encampment along with a map of the Grove's facilities. At 33, 1 was one of the youngest Bohemians, but I was welcome almost as a policy matter. As orange dragonflies coupled dazzlingly over the water, as bullfrogs sounded, Rocard would lean forward and say, "Because you are such an astonishing group of men, I can speak privately." Reagan said that it was good to be back. The rough wooden tables were piled with perfect fruit. ", One reason for the Bohemian Club's poor public relations is the name it gave to the yearly opening ceremony: The Cremation of Care. Some observers of the Grove had warned that security was too good; they'd sniff me out quickly. "We had rope trick. This year's event drew in notables such as former President George Bush, Texas Gov. But best of all, there are the talent revue and the play. "No, but I've heard a lot about him and I'd like to meet him." TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. The friend and I leaned closer. Art Linkletter? The play, about greedy gold miners who came to California during the middle 1800's and kicked the Spaniards off their land, was written by Lou Felder, a Bohemian Club member who plays a fraudulent consumer advocate on the new TV show Fernwood 2Night.. The mood is reminiscent of high school. One afternoon, for instance, the Valhalla camp deck was crowded with men drinking Valhalla's home-brewed beer and listening to singers. That's the picnic scene at Russian River, where whitecaps and condoms meander down the foul brown estuary swirling amongst filthy young men who entertain disgusting Old Jew Pervs from Fire Island, Key West and West Hollywood. Then an old friend came up and snagged his attention. "He bought some apple juice company for $1 million and he was fearful he would have to dip into his capital"). This morning we went bird-watching. The camp has a false outer door and two overlapping walls that form an S-shaped entry. And they all sat around the lavish dinner circle feasting on lamb, salmon, steaks and assorted delicacies each night. A visitor once said of it: You don't just walk in thereyou are summoned.. Mr. Nixon also noted that while anyone could aspire to be President of the United States, only a select few could aspire to be president of Bohemian Grove. By the time of the first encampment, in 1878, many of the San Francisco high social class were members. "What do you call this?" For a while, in the early 1980s, Moore and BGAN thought they might actually liberate the redwoods. Today they were offering Alaskan cod, sauted lamb kidneys, eggs, French toast, bacon, sausages. It was at the grove that Gov. But Tom worked for an independent con-tractor supplying food and help and got $125 a day plus tips (officially banned at the Grove) and ended up with $3,000 for his three-week stint. But a long, hard look at the Bohemian Club, its members and appurtenances, sug-gests that behind the pretense of Secret Government lies the reality of a summer camp for a bunch of San Francisco businessmen, real estate plungers and lawyers who long ago had the cunning to recruit some outside megawattage (e.g., Herbert Hoover, a Rockefeller, Richard Nixon) to turn their mundane frolicking into the simulacrum of Secret Government and make the yokels gape. We're just overdoing it. The scene brought to mind the reputation for prostitution that hangs around the Grove. (Cronkite camps in Hill Billies along with George H.W. "Tom Johnson is here." To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Also, it was Walter Cronkite talking. Building a, Left and Right in Thinking, Personality, and Politics, Alternative Theories: Pluralism, State Autonomy, Elite Theory, Marxism, C. Wright Mills, Floyd Hunter, and 50 Years of Power Structure Research, Teaching about Corporate Power (London et al.