A former employee of the elite and mysterious Bohemian Grove, who is now suing the old-established social club, says the club’s famous summer camps function as expensive frat parties, and result in ‘a lot of public urination.’
Anthony Gregg, one of three named plaintiffs in the class action suit against the club, said in a recent Air Mail interview the men who attend the club’s summer camps spend the sessions partying like they’re young again.
‘These guys, they don’t want that college experience to go away,’ he said.
‘Now they [just] have more money and better alcohol,’ he added. The piece notes that there is also significant public urination among the redwood trees.
The suit was filed in June in San Francisco and alleges that as valets for the luxe camps, they were made to work ‘nonstop’ 16-hour shifts, during which they were allegedly not given bathroom or lunch breaks.
While its male-only membership is kept secret, notable attendees of the Grove have included Clint Eastwood, Henry Kissinger, Walter Cronkite, Richard Nixon, Ronald, George H.W. Bush, Reagan, Herbert Hoover, Charles Schwab, Mark Twain, Bill Gates, Conan O’Brien and Clarence Thomas.
The Bohemian Club has been hosting secretive retreats for America’s elite for over 150 years on the California coast. Pictured: The club’s San Francisco base
The summer conference has long been rumored to conclude with a bizarre ceremony involving a human effigy and the burning of a giant sacrificial owl
The suit claims that employees were paid for eight hours of work per day, and none for the immense amount of overtime they worked.
It also alleges that despite tens of millions of dollars in assets on hand and members who include some of the richest men on the planet, employees were often told the club simply did not have enough money to support raises.
Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential election campaign was said to have been launched at the camp. It was also allegedly the site of early discussions of the Manhattan Project between J. Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller.
The Bohemian Club, which was founded in 1872 by a group of journalists, writers and actors, took in more than $4.5 million in 2020, according to its latest federal tax filings, which also showed total assets of more than $38 million.
The club, run officially out of a city clubhouse in San Francisco, blasted the lawsuit when it was filed, contending that ‘the individuals involved were never employed at the club and the suit is ‘a transparent attempt to drag the Club into their individual circumstances.’
‘We have reviewed the allegations and it is clear the claims appearing in the lawsuit are brought by individuals who were never employed by the Bohemian Club and therefore the Club should not be a party to this action, said the club in a June statement.
Despite the club’s claim, Gregg says he believes the club will opt to promptly settle the suit once they get to the discovery phase.
‘I know where the bodies are buried,’ he said.
William Cohan, who wrote the Air Mail piece, points to drinking as the primary activity of the summer Grove meetings.
‘It’s the sort of partying that’s learned in a frat house and evolved by men whose careers depend on sociability: gin fizzes in the morning; Kahlua and coffee; wine at lunch, white and then red; more wine at dinner; and, routinely, Manhattans with cigars,’ he wrote.
A rumored specialty cocktail at the Grove is called the Nembutal, Cohan claims. The drink consists of hot chocolate spiked with horse tranquilizer, a concoction that sometimes causes one to lose control of the bowels and bladder.
Drugs, however, are strictly forbidden on the Northern California campus.
Then California Gov. Ronald Reagan (center left) and U.S. Vice Pres. Richard Nixon (right), at Bohemian Grove, California, 1967, listening to Roger Stone speak
The club’s practices are shrouded in secrecy, and allegedly include bizarre, often campy rituals
The world’s elite have descended upon the lavish California club’s summer camp for over 150 years, where the cloak-and-dagger retreat’s true colors have been shrouded in secrecy.
Decades-old questions about the club’s practices may be answered as the lawsuit plays out publicly.
The court filing claims that the club hosts three events every year – the Spring Jinx, the Spring Picnic – the only event to which, wives, daughters and girlfriends are invited, and the Summer Encampment.
The summer conference has long been rumored to conclude with a bizarre ceremony involving a human effigy and the burning of a giant sacrificial owl.
For those invited onto the Sonoma County estate, attendees are divided into some 140 separate camps, with names including the Camels Camps, the Last Chance camps, and the Monastery Camp – believed to be the most luxurious of the options.
The club’s wealthy members are rumored to let their hair down at the camp, including performing plays and musical theater.
Although the Grove’s its motto is ‘Weaving Spiders Come Not Here’ – a Shakespeare quote implying outside business is not encouraged – the club’s membership has routinely been a who’s who of power and wealth.
Wait times to become a member have been known to extend past thirty years, but once in, members find themselves in the heart of a billionaire’s playground.
Members are said to perform plays and theater during the camps, pictured in 1934
Bohemian Grove members seen on the grounds during the Spring Jinx in June 2017
An image taken during a Bohemian Grove camp in the early 1900s
Bohemian Grove member Jack London (right) pictured with other notable attendees in 1913
Bohemian Club treasurer Bill Dawson is reportedly singled out in the lawsuit, which accuses him of directing the valets to ‘falsify payroll records and to work off-the-clock.’
The document claims attendees would all be ‘aware’ valets would work ‘almost nonstop’ while they were on the grounds, taking few or no breaks.
‘Employees were intimidated or coerced into waiving meal periods,’ the suit reads, adding that workers were not allowed to make phone calls that were over 30 minutes, and were not allowed to make them at all between 9am and 9pm.
Staff also reports being paid ‘under the table.’
During one Spring Jinx ‘Burgundy Lunch,’ it is alleged four valets worked ‘nonstop for approximately 18 hours providing a two-course lunch and dinner to 90 guests.’
The Burgundy Lunch is hosted by the Monastery Camp, and it is required that each of the attendees supplies of ‘superb’ bottle of Burgundy. One the suit’s plaintiffs says he believes the guests, this year, consumed $175,000 worth of wine at the lunch.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk