You've all heard of the Friars Club, mostly because you've heard of its infamous celebrity roasts.
The Los Angeles outlet of the organization closed in 2008 and the building that housed it was demolished a few years later. I went there a few times and somehow managed to get on a list of people to be pestered into joining. Based on the frequency with which they mailed and phoned me, I sure got the feeling the club was desperate for cash and not long for the world. It had once been a home for current celebrities (comedians, especially) but by the time I paid my visits it was only enticing if you wanted to overpay for mediocre lunches and watch Milton Berle table-hop and work the room. Oh — and if you ventured into the locker room, you could see a lot of very old men wandering around nude for a lot more time than it takes to get dressed after a shower.
The L.A. Friars Club survived a major scandal in the late sixties when it turned out that members were being bilked of millions (yes, millions) of dollars in rigged poker games. The original Friars Club in New York has survived to this day but now it has a scandal of a different kind. I hope it turns out there's nothing to it but based on articles like this one, you wonder.