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Show 1 "LETS START A NEW CLUB"! I By ELMO SCOTT WATSON "O ECENTLY there appeared in many newspapers a pic- ture which showed a large group of young men and women drawn up in two long lines between which sped an automobile. Under the picture was this caption: "Gone are the days when a flick of the thumb in the desired direction direc-tion was the logical way to beg a lift. Here you see charter members of the National Collegiate Hitch Hikers' association associa-tion demonstrating the method that ousted thumbing from the repertoire of the well-bred hitch hiker. The organization started among the students of Long Beach junior college, Long Beach, Calif." Thus was added another to the long, long list of "freak and fun clubs" which have helped give Americans the reputation for being the "greatest joiners on earth." For despite the fact that we have thousands upon thousands thou-sands of clubs, societies, associations as-sociations and other organizations organi-zations fraternal, social, political, po-litical, civic, business, scientific, scien-tific, professional, patriotic and honorary apparently there aren't enough of them to satisfy the longing of the majority of our citizens for "belonging." And that's where the "freak and fun" clubs come in. Club for "He Men." Two years ago thousands of men all over the United States joined the Nyghtshyrt Club of America as a gesture which would prove their masculinity. For, according ac-cording to L. M. ("Doc") Davis, a newspaper man who founded the club, "only weak men wear pajamas; pa-jamas; the real 'he-men' wear nightshirts." Furthermore, he asserted, "No man wears pajamas willingly. He does it because he's a hen-pecked individual whose wife thinks they're fashionable. Did George Washington, Abraham Abra-ham Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt sleep in pajamas? I never met the first two, but I was on a Mississippi Mis-sissippi river boat one night when the inimitable Teddy, then President, Presi-dent, led a nightshirt parade over all the decks." It was this incident which gave him the idea for organizing his Nyghtshyrt Club of America. Similarly, Sim-ilarly, another slight incident resulted re-sulted in the organization of the Society for the Prevention of Calling Call-ing Sleeping Car Porters George. It came about back in 1916 when George W. Dulany, Jr., then a resident of Clinton, Iowa, but now a Chicago banker, was taking a for the organization of another queer club. During a hot debate in the senate he referred to certain cer-tain western senators as "sons of wild jackasses," whereupon a group of citizens in White Bear, Minn., formed the Sons of Wild Jackasses club, with a charter membership of 200 and the firm purpose of "braying for fair treatment for the farmer." A somewhat similar club, so far as the zoological implication is concerned, was organized at St. Paul, Minn., in 1934 when the Society So-ciety of Giraffes was formed at the second annual convention of the American Newspaper Guild. The previous year a group of working newspaper men had met in Washington to organize the guild as a step toward obtaining better wages and working conditions. condi-tions. In doing this they felt that they had "stuck their necks out" so the organization at St. Paul of the Society of Giraffes, composed of men who had taken the decisive step the previous year, was the logical aftermath. Lloyd White of the Cleveland Press was elected elect-ed Supreme Tall Giraffe; G. B. Wollan of the St. Paul News, Grand Old Giraffe, and provision was made in the by-laws of the society for a Grand Keeper of Knecks. Aviation's Contribution. While mentioning clubs which have some association, by name, at least, with birds or animals, there should be included in the list the Quiet Birdmen, composed of men who served as aviators during the World war, and the Caterpillar club, made up of aviators avia-tors who have, at least once, had to "bail out" of their disabled planes in a parachute. A parachute, para-chute, you know, is made of silk which is woven by caterpillars, hence the name of this club. Today To-day its membership is near the 1,000 mark. At least three different places Chicago, Manchester, N. H., and Coney Island, N. Y. have Polar - m " "ttift tbat i'''' l"J pisKd JI tin Uils. ind tu tx I TJ vl --X Hncltnt tonoraWe i ntetfcJ. yjs Iherelo. WitneM our luuld ind lei, y.OS. Membership certificate of the Ancient, Honorable and Mystic Order of Lapa Lapa, composed of sailors in the American navy who have served in Asiatic waters. The only qualification for membership member-ship in this order is that the applicant humbly acknowledge that he is a poor fish. trip on a train. He turned his head several times when he heard some one call a porter "George!" "I am going to form a society for the prevention of calling porters por-ters George," Dulany announced. As a joke, he sent out membership member-ship cards to friends who bore the same first name as his. To his surprise, they were delighted and helped enroll new members. In a short time the society was t fua rat? of 1.500 mem- bers a year until today more than 30,000 Gecrges are enrolled. George Washington and Admiral George Dewey are the patron saints of the society; George Ade is its poet laureate, and George M Cohan its official song writer. Various other notables have at one time or another held office in the organization. Among them were Georges Clemenceau as French charge d'affaires; George William, Cardinal Mundelein chaplain; and George ("Babe ) Ruth, sergeant-at-arms. At tins time George H. Moses, former United States senator from New Hampshire, is president. Dulany's little joke has cost him between S5.000 and $5,000 during the last 20 years but he says he s had that much fun out of it. It has a serious side, too. he asserts as-serts "Porters dislike being called 'George' and as a matter of fact it is their right name less than 3 per cent of the time A survey once made by the Pullman company showed that only 3o2 of thel2.533 porters in its employ bore that name." h was once directly re,Fons:b!e Bear clubs whose members glory in breaking the ice in rivers or lakes or other bodies of water in the dead of winter and taking a bath. Both Milwaukee, Wis., and Quarryville, Pa., have Ground Hog clubs, although the purposes of the two are different. The Milwaukee Ground Hog club was organized in a barber shop on February 2, 1908, when L. L. Runkel, seating himself in the chair to get a shave, said he want ed a good one because it was rus birthday. In an adjoining chair sat R. P. Fairbairn, a railroad man. "That's strange because it's my birthday, too," he exclaimed. ex-claimed. So they began counting up the number of their friends who were born on February 2, Groundhog day, called them up on the telephone and summoned them to a dinner at a hotel where the Groundhog club was organized. organ-ized. The club has no constitution, by-laws or dues. Recalling Boyhrod Thrills. And then there is the C. F. A. which stands for Circus Fans of America and the principal qualification quali-fication for membership is proof that the applicant, as a boy, earned his way into the circus by carrying water for the elephant. This organization was founded by Karl Kae Knecht, an Indiana newspaper cartoonist. Although it exists primarily for fun, it has the serious purpose of helping "the circus toward bigger and better things." But the C. F. A. is not the only club composed of men who p.re trying to recapture the thrill of their brvhood days. There's the Guild cf' Former Organ Pumpers, i 0S I v x X N 1 . l x - VxVj X.Vns I N X "O-, J k X x x "x " 1 I - I X. ,X - s x X j x v ,V x,x1 : , s ir x xs N 1 x N XN s XT v-S " X ' - x " x I x ? x " " O ; 1 : !r 1 x " : x i x " - v x- S - x xx , ' X X V xX XN XX XX X SxNix -X . 1 , .-xXXxXx x S X ' x x X V X- ' X X X X 3 V x N Ix xx.x .xx. i i ' X Ax.x.J. jW w He's eligible for membership in the National Society of Long Fellows. John ("Sky") Dunlap of the Santa Ana (Calif.) Register, six feet, seven inches tall, claims to be the world's tallest reporter. Pretty Edith Gallop is pictured checking up on his claim. an association of men who, by their sworn word, pumped a pipe organ in a church or chapel at some time in their youth. Founded Found-ed in 1926 by Chet Shafer of Three Rivers, Wis., who is Grand Diapason Dia-pason of the order, it is, according to its founder, a "non-sectarian, non - juridical, non - coupon - clipping, clip-ping, non - discriminatory, non-skid non-skid group which complacently admits its non-essentialism." Its principal aim is a serious one "to perpetuate the memories of our decadent but honorable profession pro-fession and to save for posterity some permanent evidence of the important part the pumper played in the musical and ecclesiastical progress of the ages." Its secondary second-ary aims are "to encourage the singing of old hymns at Sunday night gatherings" and "to prove that every successful man did not earn his first dollar selling newspapers news-papers but by pumping an organ." By a skillful juggling of its fiscal years and the comparatively simple trick of holding from three to fifteen annual conventions in one, the guild recently was able to celebrate its wooden-golden anniversary. an-niversary. Its officers are named for the various va-rious stops on the organ. For instance, in-stance, Benjamin Franklin Affleck of the Portland Cement association associa-tion of Chicago succeeded the late Julius Rosenwald of Sears Roebuck Roe-buck and Company as Grand Quin. Its roster of members includes in-cludes the names of some of America's best-known citizens, including in-cluding Will Hays, czar of the movies; Arthur Pound, the historian, his-torian, and the late United States Senator Couzens of Michigan. The Fossils. Another organization which lists on its membership rolls the names of many distinguished citizens citi-zens is the Fossils, composed of men who were actively engaged in amateur journalism prior to 1890. Founded as the National Amateur Press association, among its incorporators were such men as Thomas A. Edison, James M. Beck, Cyrus H. K. Curtis, Senator George H. Moses, Josephus Daniels and Frederick E. Ives, inventor of the half-tone engraving process. In 1904, when many of its members had grown gray-headed, they decided that the Fossils would be a more appropriate ap-propriate name. The aims of this group, in addi tion to perpetuating old friendships, friend-ships, is "to keep alive the memory mem-ory of those years by occasional reunions; to defray the maintenance mainte-nance expense of a library in which printed relics of their earlier ear-lier literary efforts are now bound, indexed and stored, and otherwise to benefit by community commu-nity of fellowship and loyalty in their old friendships as youthful printers." The Old G. Wash Tress. Drawing its membership from much the same field of activity is the Ancient and Honorable Order of G. Wash. Pullers, a society founded by a trade publication at the suggestion of Harry C. Webster, Web-ster, an old Missouri "print." Its members include hundreds of country publishers and a number of city newspaper men who are proud to say that they got their start in newspaper work at the lever of an old G. Wash. It isn't necessary, however, to have cr.srsgcd in some particular occupation or profession to become be-come e!:g:r.!e for membership in some cf thee "freak and fun clubs." For instance, if you are a white person, either rr.a or female, six feet and one inch or more tall you can join the National Na-tional Society of Long Fellows, otherwise known as the Six Foot association. It was started by Phil E. Zimmerman of Topeka, Kan., when he was state hotel commissioner. In traveling over that state he found few hotels had beds long enough for the comfort of its guests who, like him, were more than six feet tall. So he began be-gan urging the hotel proprietors to install 7V4-foot beds and out of that campaign grew the Society of Long Fellows. Some of the objectives of the club are to get longer bath tubs, shirts with longer tails, longer sox, higher awnings, signs and ceilings, bigger seats in theaters and more leg-room between the rows, restaurant tables that do not necessitate tall guests holding them up with their knees and Pullman Pull-man berths in which they can sleep without doubling up like jackknives. Incidentally, the society, so-ciety, which now numbers several thousand members in all parts of the United States, has attained several of those objectives. Knights of Gleaming Skull. If there isn't any hair on your head you can become a Knight of the Gleaming Skull in the Bald Head Club of America. It was started away back in 1900 when Paul Meads, a New York lawyer, took a photograph of six bald-headed bald-headed men seated on the steps of John Belden's store in Falls Village", Conn. A copy of this photograph fell into the hands of John Rodemeyer, a newspaper man in Greenwich, Conn., who immediately had the idea for organizing or-ganizing a new club. Its symbol is the bald-headed eagle and it now has more than 1,000 members, mem-bers, many of whom attend an annual banquet at which some Knight gives a stirring address on some such subject as "Hair Tonics Which Bald-Headed Barbers Barb-ers Sell to Bald-Headcd Boobs." Before ending this article, which must necessarily be an inadequate inade-quate listing of all the "freak and fun clubs" that have been or now are in existence in this country, mention should be made of the Liars Club of Burlington, Wis., which has achieved national renown re-nown by sponsoring an annual contest for the tellers of tall talcs. Then there is the Weary club in Norway, Maine, founded by Publisher Pub-lisher Fred S. Sanborn, and own ing its own club house where Emblem of the Bald Head Club of America. members can practice the art of loafing ("artistic resting," they i call it), whittling and discussing whatever needs to be discussed. ; Also worthy of mention is the . but this chronicle really must end here. If you know of others which should be added, write 'em down yourself. If you think of one which needs to be founded, go to a friend and say, "Let's start a new club." Then just stnrt it. You won't have any d.fTiculty in getting people to join even a Society So-ciety for the Prevention of Forming Form-ing More Strict ,es ! Wrx-'.Tn N't -as r Union. |