Clubs fight for snobbery

Press, 27 January 1988, Page 16

Clubs fight for snobbery

Old-line social clubs have been characteristic fixtures of the city’s life for a century. Now they are fighting to preserve their exclusivity. Their problem: a new city ordinance forbidding them to deny membership for reasons of sex or race. Most of them are male and do not admit women, a few are for women only, and some of the most prestigious bar Jews, non-whites, or both. There are dozens of clubs, ranging over a wide spectrum of ethnic, professional, commercial, sports orientation and other common interests which inspire association. In a city which has good reasons tb think of itself as tolerant by tradition, and which has a proud history of successful integration of a very diverse population, the select clubs have nevertheless practised a complacent snobbery almost Victorian in posture, and it has been assumed that by definition a club is a society which may choose its members as it pleases. That criterion is under fire. Merited or not, the criticism has come principally from politicians, not from a public outcry. Until recent times the clubs’ practices have been of little apparent concern, perhaps because San Francisco is as tolerant of snobbery as it is of other human foibles. The population has been a rich mosaic of changing society since the middle of the nineteenth century, when adventurers from everywhere swarmed into it to fight for shares in the wealth being generated by the nearby discovery of gold. Today’s attention to the dis-

JOHN N. HUTCHISON reports from San Francisco

criminatory practices of the clubs is focused on only a few of the wealthier institutions that have their own spacious buildings, comfortable bars, splendid dining rooms, quarters for resident member and — in some cases — large recreational properties in addition to their urban headquarters. One of these is the Olympic Club with its handsome building downtown. It began as a patron of athletes and has a swimming pool of Olympic dimensions. It also acquired, long ago, a tract of land large enough to encompass, in one of the choicest parts of San Francisco, a tournamentclass golf course. It was the golf course that recently got the club in trouble. An important national tournament held there brought to public attention the fact that some of the course is on city land under lease to the club. The Olympians do not admit women and have been accused, also of racial discrimination.

The Bohemian Club is in a different kind of trouble, no less serious. It was founded in the days when “bohemian” was the popular term for artists and intellectuals behaving in disregard for the conventional life.

Then known for its non-con-formist and high-spirited conviviality, it is today a pillar of the establishment. It departs from its sedate image during a summer period when it activates its luxurious secluded “camp” in its hundreds of hectares of lush riverine forest north of the city. There, behind secure gates, its members are reputed to frolic like holidaying schoolboys.

American Presidents, Cabinet Ministers and moguls of commmerce and industry are among the members and guests who regard this annual interlude in “The Grove” as an opportunity to convene without agenda and without record. Now the Bohemians, and all other San Francisco clubs having more than 400 members, have been confronted with. an ordinance that forbids them to deny membership on grounds of sex or race unless the clubs become private in fact. This means that they may not accept payments from non-members for lodging, meals or catering services (substantial sources of income) and members may not take as reimbursable business expense the cost of entertaining guests. Clubs are now declaring that they will “go private” if they have to, but will first go to court to overturn the ordinance. Sceptical observers, including many club members, doubt that forced integrations can have marked effect on membership, given the high costs of belonging, the long wait after applying, and the cool reception facing those who surmount the barriers. The entrance fee to the Bohemian Club is 5NZ12.300 and the current waiting list is 13 years. It costs SNZIB,SOO to join the Olympic Club and the wait is estimated at ten years. Far more impregnable than either is the very wealthy Pacific Union, considered the apex of San Francisco club exclusivity. Its members are considered so influential and powerful that they may battle City Hall to a stand-off.