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An Inside Look at a Bohemian Club Member
by Phylis Metal, a former mistress (1995)
I have just been listening to KPFA discussing the distribution of wealth in this country. According to the experts, this country is more stratified in terms of wealth than the other industrial countries, with more wealth among fewer people at the top and consequently more poverty at the bottom.
I am an example of what they are talking aout. For 13 years I was the mistress of Alfred D. Bell Jr., who lived in Hillsborough. Now I am on SSI because he chose at the end of our relationship (and of his life) to even things up by having me get money from the government to repay him for all the taxes he had paid. He had always promised that he would make it possible for me to live out a comfortable old age on $ 2500 a month, which he would provide.
He had inherited $ 75 million and money had never been an issue in his life. He owned a bank in Switzerland where he squirreled his money, and an island in the Caribbean, where he did business. On the surface he owned a redwood company and his stepfather owned the Hammond lumber company. He and Bing Crosby owned a duck club together. He was president of First International Travelers Aid and then when the European agency separated from the American, he was president of the American. He was also president of the Forest History Society. He was heavily invested in Georgia Pacific and had timber interests in various parts of the world.
He took me to New York on his many meetings. We always traveled United and waited in the red carpet room. He took me on his hunting trips--Pheonix for doves and Baja for quail. We met with other Bohemians, especially his brother-in law John Phillip Coughlin, who was a senior partner in a prestigious San Francisco law firm. I stayed with him and was faithfully at his beck and call because I felt assured of being supported comfortably in my old age.
He was a Harvard graduate and a defined member of the upper class. He belonged to Derelicts camp at the Bohemian Grove (Ed. note: there are over 120 separate camps within the Grove) . His brother-in-law, Phil Coughlin, belonged to Mandalay (the most exclusive camp in the Grove pecking order). I naively thought this background made him a man of honor whose word was his bond. I had heard that in my own family and it was true, but he had a double standard. He was a man of his word in his own circle but with anybody outside, the code did not apply.
He was generous while we were together. He educated my daughters in Europe so they could pursue the careers of their choice. But when the end came, he wrote me off and had no qualms about doing so. I am sure his family is doing well in Hillsborough. He had a beautiful house there made of redwood. He took me there when his wife was at her bridge club and showed me the elegance in which they lived. I never saw him in the same suit twice, although we traveled together frequently. We met every Thursday when he came to town for the Bohemian Club dinner and entertainment. We stayed at the Fairmont and dined at San Francisco's best restaurants and had sex. Al was impotent and I was part of the conspiracy to show what a stud he was. . .that is for the benefit of his men friends. He took me on trips because, poor dear, he could not live without it. His brother-in-law Phil once said of me "She is watching all of us and listening. We had better be careful or she will write a book about us."
I did hear all their secrets. . .a full front view of the very rich when they thought they were alone. His friends were from Hillbillies (George Bush's camp), Mandalay and Derelicts camps and he preferred them to the Harvard graduates. The Bohemian Grove will meet again this summer in July. I used to stay at the Hexagon House when it was still there and entertained his friends. I don't drink but he stashed cartons of liquor at my cabin and I served the drinks. He and his friends were very pleased that the Jews and those of another hue were kept out of the club. (Ed. note: Henry Kissinger would be the exception).
Al died a couple of years after our relationship ended. He had a stroke and was bedridden. He had come to my place one morning, very early, he had not been to bed. He and his wife had had a monster fight. She hit him over the head with a lamp and he had a bleeding gash. She was an alcoholic and had to take the cure from time to time. She had been having an affair with her psychiatrist and so they lived happily. But she wanted to meet me. . .woman's curiousity? Al often said he wanted us to have a menage a trois. She and I had lunch together and that was the night the shit hit the fan. He said she demanded that he end things with me and no more money, or she would take everything. He was sobbing "I am an old man and she will take everything!"
So we parted and Cinderella
went back to the ashes. However in my poverty I am very lucky. I live at the
Redwood Gardens, a beautiful apartment complex for the elderly on the Clark
Kerr campus in Berkeley. And I understand only too well what the program on
KPFA was all about regarding the stratified economy. I met the very richest
when I was with Al Bell and heard their cavalier remarks about their fortunes.
And now I am old and poor but thanks to the Redwood Gardens I live well.
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