mitch_waldow's Blog

You never know what you'll find at a Hollywood garage sale, or at a Beverly Hills garage sale, for that matter.  Take the cast-offs of these two locales and place them in a historic show biz setting, and you've got  "The Great Friars Club Garage Sale," which I attended recently.  It was at the former west coast clubhouse, just across the street from the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The Friars Club of Beverly Hills, founded as a West Coast refuge for the entertainment fraternity,  has passed into history.   Although the club closed, remnants of it, in the form of art and artifacts, were available for cash.  Inside the old clubhouse were tables full of old photos, menus, recorded tapes of famous Friars Club celebrity roasts and even Christmas decorations.  Leaning against some of the red tufted banquets were large framed paintings of Friars Phyllis Diller, Danny Thomas and others.  They wanted $500 each for the paintings.  Most everything else was a lot cheaper.

Something in a dark corner caught my eye.  It was the framed typewritten set of house rules.  A very sentimental find. 

For many Friars, the clubhouse was a place to shmooze and play cards.  And there were some real card players in that club.   In fact, for several years back in the 1960s, the mob ran a couple of high stake gin-rummy games there.  After the FBI busted the scam, it was revealed that there were peepholes in the ceiling over the tables.  Crooks in the crawlspace electronically signaled playing instructions to their confederates in the games.  Friars were fleeced of at least $400,000.   My great-uncle was one of the victims. 

So now I've got the original Friars Club House Rules.  Here are a few of them:

RULE #1

IF A MEMBER IS DESIROUS OF PARTICIPATING IN A GAME IN PROGRESS WHICH HE KNOWS OR SUSPECTS THAT ONE OR MORE OF THE PARTICIPANTS WILL OBJECT TO HIS PLAYING IN THE SAME GAME, HE SHOULD TRY TO FIND ANOTHER GAME, AND THUS AVOID POSSIBLE EMBARRASSMENT TO HIMSELF AND THE OTHER BROTHER FRIARS.  (Do you think the mob would have approved of this?)

RULE #5

ALL MEMBERS OF THE CLUB ARE PROHIBITED FROM ENTERING THE KITCHEN OR BEHIND THE BAR AREA.  MEMBERS DESIRING FOOD OR REFRESHMENTS MUST BE SERVED BY EMPLOYEES.  NO SELF-HELP WILL BE CONDONED.  (In other words, don't try to stiff the help or steal the food.)

RULE #8

IF A MEMBER'S LANGUAGE, ATTITUDE OR BEHAVIOR GOES BEYOND THE LIMITS OF GOOD TASTE, THIS SHOULD BE REPORTED TO THE HOUSE COMMITTEE AND APPROPRIATE ACTION MAY BE TAKEN. (Coarse language at the Friars Club?  Never!)

These rules must have been left in a closet somewhere.  By the amount of the dust and dirt on them they could not possibly have been on display in a prominent place. 

I left the sale thinking that another bit of entertainment history has been cast to the wind.  As I drove away, I looked back at the building and saw a sign posted on the side: "Now Available."