As Groucho once famously said about the stock market crash of 1929, "The gigue is up" for the Friars Club.
1
That Aaron Tonken guy again? You’d think that people in the industry would be paying attention when their fellow entertainers were conned and robbed to make sure it wouldn’t happen to them.
But same crooks come back again and again, and the same idiots do nothing.
2
What a mess. Who is going to join now? Bernie Madoff? Michael Avenatti? Lori Loughlin?
Club members having checks sent to corporations they've formed? Where are the authorities on this? Sounds like there is a lot more to clean up here. How does a charity gala turn over only 0.0000002% of the money raised to charity? Sounds like the donors and dues paying members should be trying to recover their money.
I looked up these 'spokesmen' for the club. one is a lobbyist and the other is a criminal lawyer. That says it all.
Excellent article, obviously a lot of work went into this. Important to expose this kind of crap. But, very sad to read.
7
This is exactly why charity should be true charity. True charity does not require a tax write off, just a heart, soul, and compassion.
When someone is allowed to write off a 'charitable contribution' on their taxes, the rest of society is let to fund essentials such as roads, bridges, public buildings, police, fire protection, social services, health care for the old and poor, education, public parks, food safety, environmental protection, and on and on. Yet the rest of the public doesn't get their name on a program for buying a table or have a building named in their honor as quid pro quo for the 'charitable contribution". Many of these "contributions" are self- serving. The rest of society should not have to make up for the tax revenues that are not received due to these "donations".
Yes, I know many will say, but how will the arts, Children's Hospitals, parks, scholarships survive? How about the old fashioned way: altruistic donations. Not tax write offs.
1
,.
My dad was a long time Friar and on the Board in the 60's. While in college I manned the switchboard on weekends. What a time - Joe E. Lewis coming in at 2:00AM after his stint at the Copa, Militon Berle Heney Youngman competing to make the most outrageous jokes, The Roasts- which were certainly D rated, and the card room which was then a haven for serious male gin players. Red Buttons a family friend and a wonderful person. Hope the club survives. It was a great place.
3
"Mr. Citron said there were no financial shenanigans, and that the club’s reputation had been hurt by bitter dissidents who spread false rumors about the management of the place."
Bitter dissidents? Sounding a little "Gulag Archipelago" don't you think?
5
"Executive committee members said they are working to improve the club’s oversight....
They defended keeping a job open for Mr. Gyure, even if he goes to prison."
Yes, nothing like keeping a convicted felon in charge to improve the club's oversight.
6
“He made some mistakes in his personal life having nothing really to do with the club,” said Mr. Citron. “People make mistakes... But as a friend, a manager, as a force at the club, a lot of people love him.”
Name two.
3
I remember in the 60's coming to New York and meeting for lunch at the Friars Club with radio personalities who were doing voice overs for my television commercials. I remember asking (WNEW stars) William B. Williams and Dick Shepard what they liked about the club. One said, "It's a place you can eat and talk and nobody comes up for an autograph or picture." The other said, "It's a locker room that serves booze, but we give a lot of money to charity."
The Friars Club was always bawdy...and it was always expensive...and exclusive - but it was always the prize for artists and performers. In the day though, celebrity was about entertaining others and then giving back. You had safe hangouts, the Oak Room, the Palm and the Friar's Club. Today celebrity is all about self (isn't it odd, that the biggest social media hits are of pictures of ourselves?) and they have to pay performers to show up or make appearances.
I believe the Friar's Club halls are hallowed - and someone will 'get it' and they will stand the test of time; they'll do housekeeping and rise again to a gentler voice. They'll raise money for charity again and actually give it to charity.
You know what's sad? The nation has not been this divided since the Civil War. We'd better put the guns down and learn to laugh at ourselves again.
7
Another success for the journalists who have passion for the truth. Ms. Abrams obviously used a lot of effort weeding out the facts from so many contradictory interviews. All these years the performers gave of their talent for free, unbeknownst that a few scoundrels were helping themselves to bonuses, loans, and outside entertainment. A toast to journalists, who have been working overtime these last few years.
7
That this country once had noble institutions that were the
backbone of our society?
1
Honestly, who feels like laughing any more anyway? This is the Trump era.
4
@BJR1961
All the more reason to laugh - if for no other reason, it's a distraction from the constant weeping in this era.
7
@Marge Keller - "All the more reason to laugh - if for no other reason, it's a distraction from the constant" WHINING
in this era."
Boy, when Aaron Tonken comes off as the most honest man in the organization, you've got some problems.
9
"Mr. Aidala said the show had been envisioned as a “fun-raiser,” not a fund-raiser per se, and the charitable benefit had been the night out it provided for hundreds of servicemen and women who attended free."
They served our country and The Friars served them a dinner - comped!
4
"Arthur Aidala, a Friar who answered questions on Mr. Gyure’s behalf, said Mr. Tonken had presented Mr. Gyure a letter of recommendation from law enforcement officials attesting to his changed character."
Ah. A letter. Well then, that's good enough for me!
7
"The Lincoln awards had taken in $1.5 million in revenue, but ended up operating at a $79,000 loss, according to the charity’s audited financial statement."
But aside from that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the show?
7
"Mr. Citron said there were no financial shenanigans, and that the club’s reputation had been hurt by bitter dissidents who spread false rumors about the management of the place."
Well, I guess that explains everything. Boy am I relieved!
5
"In an interview, Mr. Charet said he had submitted invoices and that he had been reimbursed for expenses incurred in helping to produce events, which often meant securing performers and celebrity attendees.
“There are 20 dinners and lunches that you have to go to to deliver one person,” he said.
It took 20 dinners and lunches to deliver Gary Busey and Gloria Allred? Should've gone to 21, might have gotten Screech from Saved By The Bell.
7
A lesson here for all celebrities and us peons, watch out for people who'll sully your reputation.
2
Nice photo. I suspect nobody in that photo would care to join the Friars today.
5
So Milton Berle and Forrest Tucker were in the steam room of the Friars Club, and Forrest Tucker said "Hey Milton! Let's have a contest to see who has the biggest member." And Milton Berle said: "In 50 years a bunch of crooks are going to take over the club, aided and abetted by a board of incompetent, preening, egoist nobodies. They're going to steal the place blind, alienate the members who really care about the club, run the joint like an abusive cult, and ruin the club's reputation." And then Forrest Tucker got really sad and just sat down, and contemplated the futility of it all.
18
Sounds like another boring boy’s club that no one will really mourn. Bye!
4
There was a friar's club roast of Donald Trump... I sincerely hope the tax investigation of the fraternity looks into that relationship.
3
Ugh. Sounds like a old-time “men’s” club where being self absorbed and feeling the need for male-only company who’re willing to stroke each other’s egos is the attraction. No thanks.
3
There are an overabundance of professional organizational managers with sterling reputations who would jump at the chance to manage the Friars Club. Why they would hire an apparent con man, such as Gyure, and his crony Tonken in the first place smells totally rotten. Someone certainly was behind them and kept covering up for them.
8
George M Cohan and Lew Dockstader would be so disappointed as founders of the Friars Club!!!
2
I never trusted that Shecky Green!! Now the truth comes out!!
5
Appendage jokes are probably going to get outlawed soon anyway so. . .
1
Rich, really privileged "liberals" eating their own. How surprising. Not.
4
Really fine writing by Rachel Abrams. How bad is it at the Friars Club? I was walking by there the other day, and they asked *me* to come in and tell some jokes.
This entire story of the Friars Club sounds like something that Neil Simon would think up. It had a grand history with a not-so-grand present. Very clearly the governing board was bilking it for all it was worth.
But maybe millennials would not understand that history, and let the club go the way of the dinosaurs. It was a time of no political correctness. But, you can feel good that *everybody* got slammed. No one was above satire.
Including the governing board. The Friars Club does itself deserve to be fried. Johnny Carson could have come up with some choice ones about the club's current imbroglio. It looks like the governing board was employing the Mel Brooks accounting strategy in his fabulous "The Producers". Someone will come up with a good script about all of the Club's shenanigans.
Yes, it was a politically incorrect time. In the past they'd write a joke about fixing the club's problems and allowing women on the board:
Director: "I wanna allow equal opportunity ta get women in dis club and I don't wanna allow no broads!" Ta-dum-bum-ching.
6
@Charles
This is one of the best comments I have read in a very long time. Everything about it was priceless - your humor, your subtlety, your perspective. Not only was this "really fine writing by Rachel Abrams" but extremely fine writing by Charles from Clifton, NJ.
Thanks for making me laugh and smile. Your words will linger on my palette like a fine piece of chocolate. You are awesome sir!!
3
I wonder if roasting Trump would mend their financial woes?
2
Interesting. The Friars Club, named after a religious order(s) - men and women - who take the vow of poverty and dedicate their lives to serving those in most need. I suggest they change the name - out of respect for those who truly live the Franciscan spirit.
9
"Vendors went half paid. The club fell several hundred thousand dollars behind on its state sales tax." Tell me Trump is a member. He'd fit right in.
20
I'm a member of the Friar's. I can't comment on any financial improprieties because I know nothing. I can say is the place lost its cachet as a hangout for comedians and showbiz people long ago, as Alan King, Sinatra, Berle, Henny Youngman all died. The hangout for comics and celebrities now is the Comedy Cellar. The dues are way too expensive for young people and the place has the atmosphere of your grandpa's country club. You walk in and you go back in time. No one wants to have to put on a jacket to go have a cocktail or eat. It's still a gorgeous building with a great history and I'd love to see its former glory come back, but I don't know if it's possible. It just feels like a place from another time.
12
@Danielle: It *is* a place from another time. It just became mismanaged. And, from your post, the Club couldn't adapt.
5
@Danielle 'No one wants to have to put on a jacket to go have a cocktail or eat" Indeed? Then the people don't need a club, a diner will do.
4
@Danielle So why were you a member?
I was a friend of a friend of a member but that was enough to get me into Luigi's for a haircut. I went every month for a number of years but always in the afternoon and never saw anyone famous or infamous until my last visit. Jay Thomas came in just as I was settling into the chair and he was visibly miffed that he had to wait for an outsider. He literally held his Times up to avoid eye contact.
Luigi was everything you could want in an old-school Friar's Club barber. Tonsorially convivial.
13
@DRM I upvoted you just for using "tonsorially" and "convivial" in the same breath.
3
Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David should buy the Friars club. This is a distressed asset that could quickly be restored to its former glory. There are a slew of super wealthy comedians that will support new ownership with properly structured memeberhip dues. The physical space lends itself to events that could easily cover the cost of running it as a business.
26
Let it die. Some of the best comics and writers have never been recognized because they are women. Lorne Michaels rules over comedy with a Totalitarian fist. How many women have been given late night shows, and what did they have to NOT give up to say no?
Tear the whole patriarchal system down.
39
Since 2016, Milton Berle's legendary ( euphemism here) is no match for America's legendary (euphemism here).
10
Sounds great! How do I join?
2
@An anonymous weisenheimer. As Steve Martin said on how to become a millionaire”:
First, get a million dollars.
1
I spent 35 years in non-profit management and development, and I hate fund raising events. Although the Friars Club is an extreme example, banquets, galas and the like expend a substantial percentage of the $$$ they raise on overhead - banquet halls, food service, decorations, entertainment and other fluffy stuff. Not uncommon to be 40-60% of the money raised. If you love a charity then support it, but give to their Annual Fund, not their Gala.
11
Main purpose of a gala is to entertain present or potential big donors. Ok if it works.
2
@Realist: I always thought it was to stroke the egos of those rich folks who couldn't imagine giving to charity without a huge gala and lots of pictures (of them) in the newspapers.
3
The mission of the club does not restrict it to comics, yet it is difficult to join. Opening up the membership to people in all the performing arts would be a path to health. Especially if the members all have a vote in who runs the club. It seems obvious they need a fresh start with entirely new staff. It's still too tied to the old corrupt ways. What I could never understand about the Friar's Club is, how with such a narrow building, they can have a big ballroom in their somewhere for the roasts.
1
@Grittenhouse
Why does it need a fresh start? It was dying a slow and painful death for years. It time to take it off life support.
It is a relic of another era, and in spite of the few female members, is really a club for mostly white, mostly old guys, as indicated by the behavior described in this article.
It is also a club of enablers permitting questionable behavior and allowing repeat offenders.
Many of the genuinely talented members of the club can find better ways of spending their time and better places to hang out.
14
@cl I disagree. Completely get rid of the current management, put in a professional and non-corrupt management team, open it up (as others have suggested) to more than comedians, modernize the benefits to members and give it a new purpose.
It sounds to me as if a bunch of con men took over the place and used it as their own personal piggy bank with a lot of arrogant privilege thrown in.
But if it just closes, either that building will be torn down to build another absurdly narrow apartment building for the absurdly rich or some oil thief, Russian oligarch or rich Chinese CEO will buy the property and take it over for themselves.
1
@Grittenhouse - "how they can have a big ballroom in their somewhere"
Maybe their "somewhere" is bigger than it looks. (insert Milton Berle joke here)
2
it appears to be a hollow shell of what it once was, and has suffered at the hands of corruption for years.
Time to call it quits and liquidate whatever assets remain.
All things DO come to an end... sooner when they collapse under their own mismanagement.
11
I remember Irving Brecher telling a great Berle joke -- I think it happened at HIllcrest CC in LA and not Friar's NYC... but Milton had a contest with Forrest Tucker in the locker room to see who was the bigger man. The judge (name?) came out, the members asked what happened, and he said: "Milton only pulled out enough to win."
(Something like that! Forgive me: I can't tell jokes)
10
Carrie Fisher reveals in Shockoholic that the loss of her mother's fortune was due to her second husband's gambling addiction. He gambled at the Beverly Hills Friars Club where they had camera's in the ceilings, it was just a matter of time before they took it all.
13
I thought Gilber Gottfried's telling of the Aristocrats joke a few weeks after 9/11, was exactly what was needed at the time, and very much appreciated by the audience.
9
"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;"
Sic transit gloria...
2
@HapinOregon
Why blame Gloria?
17
Anybody who's a fan of show biz lore knows that an endless number of entertainers have been fleeced by their agents, money managers, accountants, etc. Being funny or keeping in shape as a singer takes 100% of one's concentration.
4
A most unfortunate series of events. The fact that they insist on keeping a job open for Gyure clearly displays the lack of integrity of those currently in power at the club.
47
Those who've read Bowling Alone, will recognize in the Friars Club the same decline in social organizations that has affected other groups such as the Elks, Masons, B'nai Brith, VFW, JWV and, of course, bowling leagues. With atomization and dissolution comes chaos as the carrion eaters gather to pick off the last stragglers. It's no doubt a metaphor for our country's current condition.
43
I haven't read Bowling Alone but you are right about other social organizations. In our small town in Kansas, they survived and sponsored youth summer sports programs with revenue from ”illegal” slot machines. The state turned a blind eye for years but we finally had a very conservative AG elected & he began to confiscate them & within a few years many of these organizations disappeared. It really galled my father when the state started allowing legalized gambling with the governments coming out as the winners when they had shutdown many of these organizations by taking out the slot machines.
4
Once a great place now a club of grifters, cons, and marks. Time to put it to sleep and forget about it.
28
Back in the late 1960, there was an earlier Friars Club scam in Beverly Hills involving gangster Johnny Roselli and several celebrities who were Club members. As the book “Mafia Spies” recounts, Roselli was let into the Friars Club on the recommendation of Frank Sinatra and soon masterminded a high-stakes poker game that was discovered by the FBI. As it turned out, Roselli had a spy perched above the ceiling and tipped off what cards the other players had in the hands. Celebrities like comedian Phil Silvers were fleeced. Roselli was arrested for the scam but tried to get out of it because he and fellow gangster Sam Giancana has helped the CIA in a plot to Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Amazing but all true!
27
@ThomasMaier
Johnny Roselli, the mobster.
NOT Jimmy Roselli, the singer.
1
Q: to anyone out there: is there also a Friars Club in Hollywood? or an adjunct? thnx. As for my "comment" it behooves me to note my tickle at the term "fun-raiser". And with some name alterations this could have easily been about politics....
Quite a piece of research.
2
@will segen
There was a Friar's Club of Beverly Hills that was initially founded by some of the NYers who moved west as an outpost, but I recall that there were some conflicts between East and West and East that controlled the name, dissociated from it and made them change their name. I think this was when it was still a non-profit and the West Coast version was operating on for profit basis.
1
@Zinkler It was in this club Debbie Reynold's & George Burns' fortunes were stolen in rigged card games.
7
@Zinkler thanks. Could the hollywood version have become the Masquers?
I've been a member since 1967 and seen many of the events and stars who populated the club. It always had a feeling of cameraderie, even though I've never been an "A Lister" (or B for that matter).
Yes, the club is going thru some hard times now. But I truly think that the members (former and current) want the club to continue as a congenial meeting place.
The new management (non-paid members) are dilligent and sincere and should be given a chance to resuscitate a wonderful organization which, contrary to a lot of the PR, has done many things to aid very many people.
8
@ron Who is the new management? And we still owe millions. People running the club are still part of the old corrupt guard who have agreed to pay Gyure even if he gets sentenced. We need to bring everyone back, the members who have been philanthropic and put people in who are willing to be transparent.
11
@Jen
I don't know if it's proper to share online, but give the club a call and I'm sure they'll be glad to inform you.
But, please continue your membership. You seem like someone who could contribute to our rebound!
1
@ron . I too am a long time member (since 1968). I know nothing of the cooking-the-books but I had many a great meal coked up in the legendary dining room. It was a great place for me to take out-or-town clients for a lunch or dinner of "Don't look but isnt that ..." Its the place my wife and I chose to married.
In short, I think It would be very sad for the club to close.
I'm not sure how one can volunteer to restore this organization. There is little reason to re-package or restore Enron or Worldcom but it would be a joy to many now and in the future to "repackage" OR have a new opening night for the FRIARS!
1
Back in 1973, when I was in college, I visited the Friars Club in Los Angeles with my father's friend who was a member. While I ate my dinner, Milton Berle snd Georgie Jessel stopped by to say hello. It was a wonderful, I Love Lucy-in-Hollywood moment for me, one I will fondly remember for the rest of my life.
16
The end of an era, but an era of exclusiveness. Like the velvet rope at Studio 54, unconscious racism and elitism. Bye Bye!
26
@nyparsifal it’s funny you think there aren’t still elite institutions , such as clubs that only let young, attractive women in....
Sorry to read they have crossed the line into self-destructive territory.
I have found memories of the place. It was always déclassé. Forty years ago, you could walk in and they would make you a member for the night if you bought everyone a drink!
19
I wish there was a year/date on the photo of Groucho roasting Johnny Carson. I interviewed Groucho as a cub reporter in 1972 and he was quite frail--almost all gray. Amazing to see him upright and with dark hair in that photo in what must have been around the same time in the early 70s.
6
That roast took place in 1968, when Groucho was 78. During his remarks, Groucho refers to Johnny's first Tonight Show as having occurred "six years ago".
12
An even better story about Milton Berle and his famous appendage at the Friar's Club was the time he and Forrest Tucker, also noted for being endowed, at the urging of club members who were betting on the result, decided to compare.
After Tucker showed his, Berle famously said "I won't take out any more than I need to win."
30
Not only a membership that skewers older but apparently predominnatly white! How is it that a comic fraternity would not include Chris Rock, Wanda Sykes or George Lopez? (And they're all over 50!)
9
@Sam They probably didn't have any interest in hanging out with old corrupt white guys.
7
Well, a quick Google search lists Richard Pryor, Whoopi Goldberg, Jill Scott, Sammy Davis Jr., and others as members. So there is that.
21
@Sam
Color was never an issue. It's a show business club where all were welcome.
7
During rehearsal for a play, I once asked a young actor to give me his best Jack Benny impression. RAHchester! Who? he asked. You're fired, I said. LOL
12
Sounds like they are much more interested in protecting and employees their cronies that operating a legitimate club. They need to either get rid of the dead weight and evolve into a modern club or disappear.
11
I can't help thinking of the observation of the British journalist who saw US culture as the intersection of politics, showbiz, and organized crime.
28
@Daedalus. Now politics is an intersection of showbiz and organized crime, and there is no culture anymore.
4
I was a member at another Manhattan actors club, The Players, for many years. It too declined with falling membership and bad management. It resorted to renting out various spaces within it for private purposes, so the rooms were often off-limits to members who wanted to enjoy the house. Celebrity 'pipe nights' became a rare event. So I'm glad I have my memories of the 70s - 90s there.
10
We are in a moment in our culture when so many have embraced the idea of assessing material consumer consumption, decluttering,Marie Kondo-ing everything that no longer serves us with an appreciative thank you and goodbye. Yet we are a culture that often can't imagine graceful exits from fame, that life out of stardom could be as bright as in it, at any cost, and we let things that had their moment degrade and die slowly instead of addressing how they should change or letting them go. The Friar's Club always reminded me of the Playboy Mansion- the same kind of spirit, swagger, and demographic. I am not a scold or a schoolmarm but feel it is undeniable that when Hugh Hefner died and items were auctioned, the place seemed more a sad, stale, dated relic. The dynamics of how we socialize and do business among genders has changed- both more isolated online and more mixed and less "boy's club" and the older institutions that didn't anticipate that can only hold so much appeal. The kind of place that would have been a coveted refuge and constant to someone like my dad is probably less on the radar of younger comedians who either favor different kinds of private clubs or another dynamic entirely.
16
@Bookish yes, yes. here's june christy doing Something Cool at the playboy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GkUM4jE-ZE&t=194s
@Bookish So quickly so many people seem to think it is something to dispose of. How destructive. Clubs serve good purposes. When I moved to Philadelphia, I was amazed to find that no only were there private clubs, but I could join them without great difficulty!
1
The way the members made their salaries was often not 100 percent kosher either. Not surprising they looked the other way at irregularities.
5
I spent an afternoon there for lunch once. Stewie Stone was working the room, going from table to table - it was like seeing my favorite uncle again, only with better material. I hope they find a way through these troubles and make it right. Because it's an important link to an historical moment in time that - for all its admitted shortcomings - is well worth remembering. And quickly fading from memory.
23
Walks talks and smells like a duck.
5
@angelus ravencroft. Viaduct?
12
@Wezilsnout Deep water there
1
@Wezilsnout Why not a chicken. It isn't too deep, it is a reflection of who shallow people are.
The best part of this article was that group photo.
Scary - I not only recall Johnny Carson looking that young, but I recall vividly all of the other esteemed celebrities in their various hay days.
Great picture. Thanks for the memories!!
63
@Marge Keller Quite a hilarious group! Really miss them!!
4
In the eighties, my ex-husband and I attended a fundraising event at the Friars Club. He could not take his eyes off a beautiful, young, Ivana Trump, who graciously nodded her head at him to acknowlege his admiration. We had many laughs over that! It was a thrill to be able to visit such a storied location as the Friars Club.
6
Hard to believe that a good ole' boys club would suffer from financial missteps. Kind of reminds me of the current president's administration.
45
The membership needs to take control of the Board. Plain and simple!
18
The place is just "so over" and now beyond nostalgia; having been taken over by crooks.
11
@PeterS
Wait, do you mean the club or the country?
[Rimshot]
34
The organization has evidently operated as a fraud from beginning to end. Nice work if you can get it, eh?
10
@B. Rothmans I don't think so. It happened when desperate people took over. The original members didn't need the club to survive, quite the contrary; the club needed the generous members to survive. The love for the club and its members existed for decades raising lots of money for charities. Milton Berle actually bought the building and gave it to the club.
7
Really, even in this age of total ignorance and universal scam, is there anyone who donates to any major charity and still believes anything more than a few shekels if given away to its intended beneficiaries?
19
@Glenn Yes. There are plenty who spend over 90% of their income on program services. Not all are like the Friars Club or the Trump Foundation. I suggest a look at CharityNavigator.org or Guidestar.org to find worthy charities.
4
They burned the roast
47
No women. 1970. Wow
19
@Amarr
In fact, not 1970 – 1988! Just thirty-one years ago.
8
@Amarr If I am not mistaken, Gloria Allred sued the Club to allow women in. It was an all male club til then.
7
Exactly why I’ve never set foot inside McSorley’s. If you only admit a group out of legal pressure, I’m not interested in your business.
4
It should close...
It’s days are over, the Men and Women who this represents are gone, gone from our lives and our culture, the members of The greatest generation, not only from the Men and Women who fought for our freedom, but the one who bound us as a culture on any specific night, when their show or movie was playing....going out on top is past, just turn off the lights, say so long...and fade like so many of the men and women whom we miss but hold dear. Good night Mrs. Calabash, where ever you are....
46
@Jackson Campbell It's not that its (no apostrophe) days are over, what you describe never existed at all. None of these guys "fought for our freedom." For one, many of them were already too old for WWII. Jimmy Durante (ref. Mrs. Calabash), born 1893! Benny, 1894! Berle, 1908. Sinatra, 1915. None of those pictured who were of age ever served either. (And btw, please, ixnay with the "greatest generation" rubbish. That cohort gave us Vietnam.)
3
They should rename the place: Crooks and Shnooks.
28
Anachronism.
11
Oh, dear.
Now this article has given the name of Arron Tonken, a certified crook, "The King Of Con", an expert on ripping off charities.
"...taking from the needy to feed the greedy!" he chortles.
Well, we all know what his next job will be, don't we?
Secretary of State.
This is a parody of the Oval Office, right?
86
Past its prime & corrupt. Bye-bye.
8
Charity abuse needs swift and sure punishment. The Trump crime family should learn this, fast.
22
Mr. Paul Schechtman, Michael Gyure's lawyer, is not to be believed. Whatever he was told was not true. Gyure took two checks from the back of the checkbook and wrote them to himself, without authority, at the beginning of his tenure. Too bad he wasn't fired then. He should have been.
48
@Jen He should be fired now. Why there are keeping him around is beyond reason.
22
@Mark Maybe he knows where other bodies are buried? I can’t think of any other logical reason.
3
They let a man who goes by "King of Con" get near the money? Now THAT'S comedy.
70
@Darrell "Freier" is Yiddish for "sucker" so there is a certain appropriateness to have a conman in charge of the club.
2
I see. Perhaps the King appropriating the appropriations was appropriate after all.
My Yiddish is weak but "Chutzpah" seems to get me through most of time such as in this case.
1
Most of America is too busy working to find the material funny. When they need jackass humor all they have to do it watch the events in Washington.
32
Why “infamous appendage”?
Why not “famous member”?
81
@Michael Sean Edwards
So did Berle have to pay for two memberships?
33
I guess it depends on whether he was “standing up for democracy” at any given moment.
3
Is there anywhere one can go to now that isn't corrupt? What a sad testament to humans. The possibilities of so many good deeds and institutions has been suffocated by profound greed. I am sorry for our future.
67
@lulu roche A park bench.
6
I worked across the street from the Friars and I looked right down on the entrance. It was always fun to see who would show up at lunchtime and later stumble out and into a cab.
64