True story: Fraternity Elysia (1946)

Sept. 2, 1946: Police arrest more than two dozen men and women in a raid on the Fraternity Elysia nudist camp in La Tuna Canyon. (Valley Retrospective: The 1940s – LA Daily News)

In 1936, Charles and Lillian Richter moved into a small, elegant modernist house in Pasadena. It had windows up to ceiling height, which may have given their neighbours some unexpected views. For the Richters had become ardent nudists. A year earlier, in 1935, they had joined the Fraternity Elysia, located in the Los Angeles Hills on a 250-acre estate near Lake Elsinore and run by Hobart and Lura Glassey and their business partner Pete McConville. (The earth moved for him – Times Online. Report by Christopher Hudson – From The Sunday Times, October 29, 2006)

Charles Francis Richter (1900 – 1985), was an American seismologist and physicist. Richter is most famous as the creator of the Richter magnitude scale… (Charles Francis Richter – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Glassey v. State, 1947. “The facts of the case are as follows: Police officers using false names appeared at the entrance of the Fraternity Elysia, a property bounded on three sides by uninhabited hills, paid the customary visitor’s fee, and signed a registration form acknowledging acceptance of nudism as a wellspring or fountain-head of moral and health benefits. Observing a number of nude men, women, and children engaged in activities such as badminton, swimming, and sunbathing, the officers arrested a man and a woman who were acting as managers and charged them with violating an ordinance proscribing operation of facilities patronized by three or more nude persons not of the same sex. (Two nude badminton players not of the same sex would have been acceptable, it seems.) A municipal court found both guilty and the judge imposed sentences of 90 and 180 days for McConville and Glassey. The Supreme Court ruled that the appellants had not demonstrated that the ordinance unduly restricted personal liberties. The original decision stood.”

Source: Richter’s scale: measure of an earthquake, measure of a man by Susan Elizabeth Hough (Princeton University Press, 2007)

1935 nudist tea party By carbonated | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Image: 1935 nudist tea party | Flickr – Photo Sharing! (under Creative Commons license)

Plain: blood pressure (1977)

Bare facts on blood pressure
It’s possible there are more benefits from nudism than readily meet the eye. Results of a recent American Heart Assn. study indicate that residents of a Maryland nudist camp have a much lower incidence of high blood pressure than occurs among the general population.

Source: Popular Mechanics, Volume 148, No 6 (Dec 1977) p. 30

Project 365 #134: 140511 Under Pressure! By comedy_nose | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Image: Project 365 #134: 140511 Under Pressure! | Flickr – Photo Sharing! (under Creative Commons license)

A few news stories about nudism

Here is a some kind of my personal nudist news digest for a time I was absent from my blog.

New year, new pastime? by gwilmore | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

1. From Pro Golf Talk on NBCSports.com I’ve noticed that at the end of March during the European Golf Tour played in Andalucia, Spain, some players probably were disappointed seeing “a little bit more than they bargained” since a course “was adjacent to a nude beach”. But at least “all of the competitors were clothed”. The Swedish Kalskog GK is reported to go further allowing “nudists to tee it up at their course this year”. The representative of the golf club is quoted to say: “We aren’t forcing everyone to play naked, and you will see the naked players playing at specific times, such as early morning or late afternoon.” All that seems to be the 1st April joke.
Source: Want to play golf in the nude? Head to Sweden, please
Nudists now welcome to Kalskog GK

2. A few years ago County Down Spectator newspaper from Northern Ireland published the April Fools’ Day joke of the same sort. The local newspaper “generated major distress amongst North Down residents with a story on the creation of a nudist camp in the area”. A nudist camp? Who would believe in that!
Source: April Fools missing from NI newspapers

3. In March it was impossible to miss the story of “naked woman, 27, rescued from cliffs after getting stuck trying to reach nudist beach”. “She had taken off her clothes before trying to clamber 450ft down to Black’s Beach, which lies in Torrey Pines State Park in San Diego, California.” Then she “found herself stranded on a ledge unable to climb back up or head down to the shoreline”. The lifeguard officer told NBC: ‘That’s true. She is naked.’ The photos were kindly provided by Fox 5 San Diego.
Source: Naked woman, 27, rescued from cliffs after getting stuck trying to reach nudist beach
Photos: Cliff Rescue (Warning: Nudity)

4. A software company has invited “a number of female web coders” to work in the nude. The UK company, Nude House, is “thought to be the only business in the world where none of the staff wear clothes”. It was said that the only reason they had advertised for female staff was because they “wanted the office to be less male-dominated”. The company claims to be “the first worldwide facility for naturists to earn substantial sums of money from work that incidentally provides them with the capability to work entirely without clothes”.
Source: Wanted: Nude female web coders
Nude house job: undress to impress

5. Travel Bite from New Zealand informs that “naturism (the preferred term for the clothing-optional philosophy and way of life) has been documented since the time of Alexander the Great”. I’ve got to know that their list of the “world’s top nudist spots” includes: 1. Brighton, UK (where in the winter “temperatures sink below 3°C”); 2. Dubrovnik, Croatia (“Croatia is home to a large population of naturists.”); 3. the party island of Ibiza, Spain; 4. Darwin, Australia (documented since 1943); 5. Aletsch Glacier, Switzerland (where “600 nudists gathered to be photographed by Spencer Tunick”); 6. Kirke Hyllinge, Denmark (“This Danish nudist retreat 50km from Copenhagen celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.”); 7. Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic (In Central and South America “you can even indulge in the naturist sport of ‘’canuding’’); 8. Solbakken, Denmark (where the INF World Congress took place in 1960); 9. the clothing-optional town Cap d’Agde, France; 10. “America’s oldest clothing-optional beach” San Gregorio, California, USA; 11. Fuerteventura, Canary Islands; 12. Kauai, Hawaii, USA; 13. New Jersey, USA (“California isn’t the only place you’ll find nude beaches in the US”); 14. Latvia (any explanation provided).
Source: Travel Bite – New Zealand, Australia, Pacific & World Travel Guides, Travel News, Hot Travel Deals, Flights, Accommodation
Top nudist beaches
Travel Guides Everybody get naked!

Nude beach in Spain by utomjording | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

True story: Embarrassed Nudist (1938)

What can embarrass a nudist? The answer may be found in “Our Readers Say” column of Popular Science magazine from February, 1938 (page 6).

… a friend of mine …. spent his week-ends giving the mosquitoes a break at a nudist camp, but was greatly embarrassed (if such a thing is possible for a nudist) by the lack of pockets. No mere cigarette holder would have done him any good, for he was a pipe smoker and insisted on having on his person a large supply of tobacco, spare pipes, pipe cleaners, and matches. It was impossible for him to carry around all his accessories with his bare hands. He finally got around the difficulty by getting himself one of these short aprons that carpenters use, with the front full of pockets.

Source: Popular Science, Feb 1938

Freikörperkultur - Freisonnland Nudist camp, Motzenmuhle Berlin 1930s postcard by sludgegulper | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The photo is from sludgegulper’s photostream on Flickr and it is available under a Creative Commons license.

DSC_3808 (Carpenter Pin-up set) by sansreproache | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The photo is from sansreproache’s photostream on Flickr and it is available under a Creative Commons license.

Weird Customs

Have you ever attended a nudist beach or spent a week or two at a nudist camp? If the answer is yes, I congratulate you; now you are reckoned among those who carry out Strange Sexual Practices. At least, Hari Dutt Sharma, author of Strange Sexual Customs and Practices published in India (Pustak Mahal, 2007), is fully confident about that.

1903 - ZULU LAND in OLD AFRICA by Okinawa Soba on Flickr

In Chapter 3 of his book entitled Strange Sexual Practices, without a moment’s hesitation, he places modern naturists alongside the Siberian Eskimos who, to this author’s knowledge, “exchange wives to confuse evil spirits” and unnamed New Guinea’s tribesmen and natives of New Hebrides, who “wear jewelry on their genitals”. One can have a great time reading about Masai women who “drink fermented cowdung to terminate unwanted pregnancies” and Norwegians who “share the same bed but avoid intercourse”. At last, on pages 36 and 37, just after those who “Exchange Sexual Partners” and before those who “Enjoy Sex in One-Night-Stand”, one finds the paragraphs about men and women who “Expose their Bodies for Health Reason” and “Don’t Mind Nudity”. Let me quote (the spelling of the original is preserved):

In many cultures nudity is regarded as an offence. But in a number of European and American countries, the position is different. They even arrange nudist camps where nudist can live and move about naked.
Participants in nude clubs feel that they can overcome their inhibitions and quickly get beyond superficialities if all physical defences are done away with.

Further on the author mentions “‘strip-tease’ and topless bars” and finally places the sign of equality between nudists and “a few backward tribes of Sudan and Brazil” where “complete nudity has been found”. The rest of the chapter is devoted mainly to “Strange Ritual Sex” and “Exchange of Wives” (I admit I didn’t read it through carefully to the end).

Mary's Harp concert at Nudie Rock posted by Cher on tribe.net

The reliability of the facts, gathered in the book written to amuse readers, raises doubts (at least some references should be provided). To be serious, in any case, I don’t welcome a flippant attitude towards peoples’ lifestyles and cultural backgrounds.