LUPIN LODGE LEAVES ASA - AMERICAN NUDIST HISTORY 4

Lupin Lodge, near San Francisco, California, which registered 359 members at the 1962 ASA convention, has decided to sever its connection with the American Sunbathing Association. Lupin is the eighth club to leave the association since the last convention. Ethel Plant, director of Lupin, in her letter of resignation to the ASA executive director, invokes the reasons expressed by owners of the seven other, now independent, California clubs and adds one of her own: the multiplicity of new nudist magazines published, not always with the best of editorial judgment, yet approved and stoutly touted by the association.

Following is Ethel Plant's letter to the executive director:

2060 Aldercroft Heights Road
Los Gatos, California
January 15, 1963

Mrs. Rose Holroyd, Executive Director
American Sunbathing Association, Inc.
6 East Main Street
Mays Landing, New Jersey

Dear Rose:

As of this date, we have not received our charter for 1963, and I am writing to ask you not to send it.

When the management of Lupin Lodge became aware of the epidemic of so-called nudist magazines published by people who also publish “girlie” magazines, and displaying pictures that we consider pornographic, we expected that the ASA would take a firm stand, disassociating itself from this type of publication. However, this has not been done. On the contrary, the ASA Seal of Approval is displayed on the front pages of these magazines, and a great deal of effort to sell, promote and defend them is made by the ASA.

This connection put the Association in a very unfavorable condition to defend nudism.

For these reasons, plus those expressed by the owners of the seven Southern California camps that have recently left the ASA, we have decided to sever our affiliation with the organization.

The cards that we have on hand will be returned shortly.

Sincerely,
/s/ Ethel Plant

All of which leads us to wonder. Whenever we see so many reasons given for an action, when one good reason would be sufficient, we begin to wonder if any of them is the real reason. We wonder what has happened, suddenly, to a relatively stable organization which would cause it to fall apart. Certainly there has been no great change in organizational policy or ruling documents –except, of course, the new membership and dues procedures, which appear to us to be no great hurdle for a seasoned and qualified leadership. Surely the nudist philosophy has not suddenly become invalid. We cannot believe that the benefits of strong organization, brotherhood and unity of purpose have suddenly ceased to exist.

Was the uneasy piece of 1961-62 a case of the organization being held together by the sheer weight of the personality of the great peacemaker? What has changed since the convention of August 1962? What great fundamental fault is there within the association now, which was not there prior to last August? What fault which would cause eight clubs to depart the ASA? (And is there any reason to believe that the end of the exodus is in sight.) What fault, what unfulfilled NEED, what error has now come to the surface which gives birth to seven would-be national nudist associations in a country where one, or at most two, should suffice? Are there a lot of little symptoms, such as aching joints, chills and fever, sore throat, a cough –or is there one big reason–such a galloping consumption?

(Source: The Nudist Newsletter No. 134)