DISUNITY IN AMERICAN NUDISM

At the beginning of 1963 American nudism finds itself with perhaps too many organizations attempting or purporting to be representative of the movement.

Since 1933 we have of course had the American Sunbathing Association which represents 125 of the 158 clubs on this continent. Out of troubles in 1952 the National Nudist Council was born to represent some 25 clubs in the northeastern portion of the Middle West. Two dissident clubs formed the “Suntel” Association about 1959. It still consists of Sun Valley Gardens in Ontario, Canada, and Cedar Waters, in New Hampshire.

A new arrival on the scene is the American Nudist Association in Florida, started by a withdrawal of the Floritans from the ASA. It is headed by a young publicity expert named Johnny Dawson, of whom we expect to hear more later. For a fee of $20 per club per year the ANA promises to do most of the things the ASA has been trying to do for years, but better. Time will tell.

From Canada we hear of an “Association of Ontario Nudists” of which we know nothing more than that they apparently applied to the city of Toronto for permission to use a municipally owned pool for nude swimming at selected times. According to the Toronto Globe and Mail the nudists were asking for a period once a week from 8 to 10 p.m. when they would supply attendants and be completely responsible for the property. The request was refused but some criticism of this action developed later when it was pointed out that the pool was losing money and use by the nudists might have helped the financial picture.

Finally, in the picture of disunity in American nudism we come to California where seven owners of Southern California clubs have been meeting monthly. Out of these meetings came a new power play in the Western Sunbathing Association convention when the delegates of these clubs joined forces to elect owners of three clubs and a manager and two members of the same clubs to the Board of Directors, leaving no representation for Northern California or the so-called “travel clubs”. These elements have some representatives on the Board to serve one more year but next year camp owners promise to “clean the slate”. This in itself would not be too disturbing, for power blocs come and go, but some camp owners are now openly talking of pulling out of the ASA entirely. Time will tell, and perhaps when this is being read peace will have been restored, or disunity may have progressed still further.

Ray Connett

(Source: Sun & Health International Edition, Vol. 27 No. 1, January 1963)