the Bohemian Club which meets in
Bohemian Grove in California is an
exclusive gathering of mostly rich white
men with plenty of power the members of
this not so secret cabal run around the
California woods annually mostly
drinking and goofing off here's what
really happens at Bohemian Grove one of
the hard and fast rules of Bohemian
Grove is weaving spiders come not here
which essentially means that no matter
what real world deals aren't be made at
camp there's one notable exception and
that happened in 1942 and even that's a
sort of the Bohemian Club owns Bohemian
Grove and the super secret camping trip
that happens every year only goes on for
a handful of days for the rest of the
year any members of the club could use
the grounds for whatever they want
and according to skeptoid Bohemian Club
member dr. Edward Teller reserved the
camp in September 1942 teller would go
on to be forever known as the father of
the hydrogen bomb and the groundwork for
the Manhattan Project was laid there but
here's the thing teller was the only
member of the Bohemian Club there so it
can't really be said that club members
were out there planning world domination
were they in 1989 spy magazine writer
Philip Weiss snuck into Bohemian Grove
and described the annual lowbrow
theatrical production known as the low
jinks like this the humor was not just
lame but circa 1950s college follies
land those who have gotten an inside
peek into Bohemian Grove say the
theatrical productions are a huge deal
and the one-time production wise was
talking about was not only filled with
the type of humor an 11 year old might
find hilarious but it also cost a
whopping $75,000 that's just one of the
plays the member staged for each other
there is also a more serious production
called the high jinks or more formally
The Grove play over the years they've
staged performances of st. Patrick at
Tara recited hundreds of poems tackled
subjects like the triumph of
Christianity over juridic paganism and
Jack London even wrote an original piece
for the high jinks which was never
staged costs go up well over $100,000
per performance and it must be nice to
have that kind of
every annual meeting in Bohemian Grove
has since 1880 kicked off with a
ceremony called the cremation of care
the ceremony starts with a parade of men
dressed in red hooded robes some
carrying torches and some carrying a
wooden coffin with wooden skeleton named
care
the procession winds through camp until
they make their way to the side of a
lake watched over by a massive cement
owl and as spectators gather the men
playing the priests extinguished the
torches they sing a song and a priest
tells members shake off your sorrows
with the city's dust and scattered to
the winds the cares of life the funeral
pyre is lit the dull cares of the world
are gone and attendees head back to camp
to embark on a week of merrymaker in
1986 the club attempted to argue quote
that male gender is a bona fide
occupational qualification much like
Hooters argued that being a female with
a certain body type was a job
requirement for being a server there the
Bohemian Club was less successful than
the restaurant chain when it came to
their lawsuits and they were forced to
open hiring practices to female
employees of course there's a butt jobs
for women were restricted to the dining
circle and valet parking which former
summer time employees Sophie Weiner said
were the lowest paying positions she
also added that there was a very literal
light on the ground that marked the
place where women needed to stop and yes
this nonsense happened in the 21st
century Alliance patrol shot this father
vanity fair got a copy of the official
itinerary for 2008 encampment and there
was plenty of musical entertainment
scheduled it turns out that singing
around the campfire isn't just for the
Boy Scouts and that year Sam Cooke's
music was featured in the 9:15 p.m.
campfire circle it's not all fun and
games though the lakeside talks are
always a major part of the retreat and
they're usually heavy stuff they're
scheduled for every day at 12:30 p.m.
and over the years they've been given by
people like Dwight T Eisenhower Richard
Nixon Wernher von Braun Herbert Hoover
and Neil Armstrong at the same time some
of the most powerful men in the world
are giving talks on some hugely heavy
top
there's something else going on too
constant drinking and what Vanity Fair
calls quote profuse outdoor urination
they credit that to three things gin
fizzes being poured at 7:00 a.m. so many
enlarged prostates and such majestic
natural urinals the Bohemian Club owns
2700 acres of redwood forests and only a
small amount of the property has been
turned into a retreat Vanity Fair and
journalist Alex Shama Tov suggests
there's been something else going on
outside the carefully groomed camp for a
long time and that's illegal logging
shoumatoff was approached by former
Bohemian Club member John C Cooper who
claimed that over the course of a few
years he saw towering redwoods marked
for logging stumps replacing trees and
hiking trails turned into logging roads
club members responded that they were
logging responsibly within the
guidelines of the permits and all the
money made from selling the lumber was
going back into forest management but
Hooper claims otherwise and only a few
years later the club's 100-year logging
permit had been revoked forcing the club
back to the drawing board to find more
modest logging proposals