Quote:In 1904 the couple moved to Oklahoma Territory, home to many Socialists in this time period. O’Hare became a popular lecturer and author. She gave talks about Socialism across the country and wrote articles for Socialist publications, calling for shorter work days, safer working conditions, women’s suffrage, and an end to child labor.

Five years later, the O’Hares moved to Kansas City, Kansas, due to Frank’s poor health and the family’s need for a stable income. In 1910 O’Hare unsuccessfully ran as a Socialist candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. The following year, O’Hare and her family moved to St. Louis, where she and her husband joined the staff of the National Rip-Saw, a Socialist publication. In 1916 she was nominated as the Socialist Party candidate for the U.S. Senate.

During World War I, after delivering a speech deemed to be anti-war, O’Hare was arrested for violating the Espionage Act.  She was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison.

At her sentencing, O’Hare told Judge Martin J. Wade, “It may be that down in the dark, noisome, loathsome hells we call prisons, under our modern prison system, there may be a bigger work for me to do than out on the lecture platform. It may be that down there are things I have sought for all my life … [if] it is necessary for me to become a convict among criminals in order that I may serve my country there, then I am perfectly willing to perform my service there.”

Quote:John Rodemeyer Forms the Bald Head Club of America Off the Top of His Own

In 1883, 25-year old John Rodemeyer of Canaan, Conn., fell in love with young Jenny Brown. But when she opted to marry the older, established James Bierce instead, Rodemeyer launched the Winstedt Bachelor’s Club. And for the next 30 years, the spirited newspaper editor, poet and humorist kept himself single. It isn’t clear, though, whether he did it of his own choosing.

But nearly 30 years later in 1912, Rodemeyer reunited with Jenny. The bachelor’s club – down to just two members – then died. With his November 1913 wedding to Jenny (who had been left a widow) on the horizon, Rodemeyer needed a new club. The idea came right off the top of his head—his balding head. Thus the Bald Head Club of America was born.

Rodemeyer had company, as others started clubs with satirical names. After the Civil War, social clubs flourished among businessmen who needed to build their contacts. Some, like Rodemeyer, saw a chance to make fun of the clubs – and enjoy the same benefits.  There was the Anti-Bell Ringing Society, the Association of Bankrupt Insurance Companies, the Mammoth Cod Association and the Flouring Committee.

Quote:
MAY I HAVE A WORD WITH YOU? [check out that link for some interesting nuggets]

The photographer had snapped a photo of six men seated on the steps of the Litchfield County courthouse, all of them completely bald. The novelty photo was turned (probably by Rodemeyer) into a postcard with the caption: The Six Sutherland Brothers. It was a joke playing on the popularity of the Seven Sutherland Sisters – a Victorian era family of young women with extremely long hair.

Quote:Theirs was a true Cinderella story. The sisters—born sometime between 1845 and 1865—lived a hardscrabble life as drudges on their family’s turkey farm in Cambria, New York, in Niagara County, according to Arch Merrill’s 1966 book, “Shadows on the Wall: Tales of New York State.” They shepherded turkeys barefoot in shabby clothes, and to make matters worse, their mother, Mary, would slather their long hair with a horrible smelling ointment she believed would make it grow thick and strong. The girls’ classmates shunned them for the odor. Embarrassed, the young girls with the long, thick braids would hide in the tall grass when visitors approached their log cabin.

Meanwhile, their lazy father, Fletcher Sutherland, preoccupied himself proselytizing and politicking. The farm had been established by their grandfather, Col. Andrew Sutherland, an inventor who was esteemed for his role in the War of 1812. A preacher, politician, inventor, writer, and all-around smoothing-talking showman, Fletcher once worked for President James Buchanan, and nearly got himself murdered for opposing the Civil War.




[Quite the hair fetish snake oil story]
Untangling the Tale of the Seven Sutherland Sisters and Their 37 Feet of Hair

Quote:Rodemeyer, ever the publicity seeker, would boast later that he felt an instant kinship with his balding brethren. A bald pate, he declared, was nothing to be ashamed of. (Nor was it anything to be particularly proud of.) It just was.

The cause of baldness, the Bald Head Club of America concluded, was loss of hair. And its central purpose was to get together once a year, make fun of all the falderal surrounding baldness and have a great time at a banquet. From time to time, the club also made claims for the superiority of the bald man over his haired counterpart.

Yellow Spasm

The club was an instant success. Newspapers across the country publicized it, along with the entry requirements. One had to have  a bald patch of at least three inches in diameter, good character and payment of a dollar entry fee.

It wasn’t always easy separating fact from fiction when it came to the new club. Especially in its early days, Rodemeyer made up stories about meetings and the club establishing itself. Eventually, however, the stories became true — sort of.

People had good reason to suspect Rodemeyer was pulling their leg.  One of his early ventures, a newspaper called the Yellow Spasm, valued humor over a faithful recounting of the news and featured eligible bachelor ads.

[Note: the bird is looking 'left' pointing to 'H']

Over the years, the club claimed thousands of members, with branches springing up here and there across the country. Connecticut governors joined in, Rodemeyer said. He declared the state’s congressmen signed up their fellow legislators from Washington, Rodemeyer said. Rodemeyer even claimed former president William Howard Taft as a member, despite his wife’s well-established dislike of bald servants in the White House.

[Note: President Taft was also a Bonesman of the elite Skull and Bones secret society of which his father was a founding member!]

Knights of the Gleaming Skull

At the heart of the club, though, was always the its annual banquet. It consisted of “the happiest, jolliest men in America.” Rodemeyer took every opportunity to lampoon himself and his club and its Knights of the Gleaming Skull.

He convinced the Connecticut Legislature, after a light-hearted hearing, to grant the organization a charter so it could expand into new states. The New York Times in 1921 reported that Rodemeyer made a presentation to the Connecticut General Assembly. He asked for the right to issue charters and set up branches around the country so “groups of bald-heads in other states…might be united in a common bond of hairless brotherhood, that every city and town might some day have its own club of happy individuals with shining pates and smiling faces.”

Rodemeyer once got an invitation to write about the club because so many people thought it pure fiction. He wrote: “The Bald-Head Club of America is dedicated to the proposition that Man, in his highest type, is not, primarily or necessarily, a fur-bearing animal, like the otter, seal, beaver, plush, Welsh rabbit or mock-turtle.”

Rodemeyer ended his career at the Greenwich News and Graphic and passed away in 1943. The club, though, or at least tales of the club, lived on after his passing.

This story about the Bald Head Club was updated in 2022.

(06-05-2023, 12:06 AM)Infolurker Wrote: I miss the "weekly world news" 

They used to have Bat boy stories.... pretty much they were what the MSM is today.