S5E6 - The Hams & Their Eggs (the LA Breakfast Club)

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Kayla: What time is it?

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Chris: I haven't had my coffee. It's butthole o'clock in the morning.

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Kayla: Where are we going?

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Chris: I don't think we need to even do this episode. This is a cult. Nobody in their right mind gets up this early in the morning.

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Kayla: We are on our way to have breakfast.

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Chris: It's six. Six o'clock, six twenty. Now 620. It's now at 620, but I had to get up at, like, 530.

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Kayla: You know, you know very little about what we're about to do. Just that it's a breakfast situation. We're about to pick up your parents and we're all gonna go have breakfast.

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Chris: Sounds lovely, by the way. Thank you for turning this on without giving me any warning so that my voice is all, like, scratchy voice. I didn't even have a chance to clear my throat or anything. Drink water. Drink coffee. Oh, my God, I sound horrible.

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Kayla: You sound fine. The listeners don't care about your voice. They care about the cult breakfast and breakfast.

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Chris: That's weird.

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Kayla: We'll see you there. Yeah.

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Chris: I hope they have breakfast burritos, huh?

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Kayla: I just hit record.

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Chris: Okay, so. So.

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Kayla: Hey, Chris.

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Chris: Hey, Kayla.

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Kayla: Welcome to our podcast. It is called cult or just weird.

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Chris: I have no idea what we're doing. I'm just. I never have any idea what's going on.

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Kayla: Just in terms of our topic or.

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Chris: In terms of doing a show, just in general.

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Kayla: Yeah.

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Chris: With me and the universe. I don't really get that part.

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Kayla: Same. Agreed. I am Kayla. I am a television writer.

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Chris: Did I say I was? Chris, I'm just so. And I've had my coffee.

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Kayla: I don't know what's wrong with you.

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Chris: What's going on? I'm.

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Kayla: What do you do?

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Chris: I do data science. I do game design. I do a podcast. Sometimes I draw stuff.

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Kayla: All of the above. Welcome to our listeners. Thank you so much for being here today. I'm kind of vamping because you said you have business, and I don't know what it is.

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Chris: Oh, it's just. Oh, no, it's minor business. It's not like business. Me, baby, it's nothing crazy. I have two businesses.

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Kayla: All right, do the business. I wanna know what the business is.

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Chris: All right, I'm gonna do my business.

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Kayla: Do your business. Stop. We have potential new audience members listening today.

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Chris: We should present ourselves as we are. With poop jokes. No, I'm sorry. That's what they are. Okay, business number one. With all this alien stuff going on, I just thought I'd mention a couple. I know nobody asked for my thoughts, but I have thoughts. We did do aliens in the show once. We did throw away alien. And so I feel like it is, for people, for longtime listeners, I feel like it is still somewhat relevant. Like, this whole disclosure thing. Like, that was what Thorwalian was about. That whole community was like, rah, disclosure. Which, if you don't know what that means, it means disclosure, broadly in this context, refers to more and more government people saying, oh, yeah, we totally actually do have aliens. And that's something that just recently happened in the news.

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Chris: There's this testimony from the guy whose name escapes me now. He went up there and said, we supposedly actually have. Under oath, he said, we actually have crashed alien craft and beings not of this world.

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Kayla: You said alien corpses.

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Chris: Yeah, well, it's biological. I think he calls it, like. Like, non terrestrial biologics, or there's some sort of word that he uses for it, but it also is, like, broad enough, I think, that he could include extra dimensional beings. I'm gonna have to check on that.

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Kayla: I'm sorry.

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Chris: Yeah, it's just a little weird. Okay, so this guy said some things under oath.

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Kayla: Was he from the ethereus society?

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Chris: He might have been. And I just want to say that there's two things that are sort of on my mind about it. One is that I've seen a lot of because I follow skeptics. I follow UFO skeptics on Twitter, one of them being Mick West. I think we might have mentioned him on the episode on throw alien. And so whenever something like this happens, those guys get the questions of, like, well, what would be enough evidence for you? Like, what would you want to see? And I just want to say what it would be for me, because I feel like I've seen those guys say a lot. Like, well, it would have to be this kind of photo, right? It would have to be this kind.

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Kayla: Of photo at all.

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Chris: Yeah, exactly. Well, that's kind of what I'm. What I want to say is, like, when I. When I see someone like Mick west say, like, it would have to be a video that fell under these criteria and had these elements to it, and blah, blah, I'm kind of like, dude, I don't know about you. A photo is not enough for me. A video is not enough for me. Like, and this comes back to the trust network thing. Like, I have. There are multiple more layers of just a really good video. There are multiple more layers of my trust network that would have to get through before I was like, okay, yeah, aliens. We're not doing the topic today on aliens, so I'm not gonna, like, go into all the details, but there's a lot of things that would. Would have to clear that bar.

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Chris: Like, I would have to understand the whole framework under which this discovery was made. Right. I can't just be like, hey, there's a guy. There's a guy.

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Kayla: Yeah. I kind of would need, like, the president to do it.

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Chris: Well, and it's not just the president. It would have to be, like, it would have to fall under the framework of, like, a discovery. Right? Like, hey, we found some stuff. We're not sure what it is. Okay. Then we studied it, and now we think that here's what it is.

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Kayla: I take a little bit of issue with that only because we do have a history of our government being accused of, like, doing conspiracies or covering things up, and then them going, no, no denying. And then coming out later saying, actually, yeah, that thing back in the fifties, we did do that.

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Chris: Right? So here's my answer to that. Actually, my specific answer to that is that most of those things are things that our government did, not things that our government discovered. So, like Tuskegee and, like, Operation Paperclip and thinking like MK Ultra, right? The classics. Those are all things that, like, our government did. And the conspiracy that they were trying to play off as was, like, oh, no. That's just a conspiracy theory. We didn't actually do that. Yes, there's something here with the aliens that the government is, quote unquote, doing. But the larger. The larger picture is that, like, have aliens visited? That has nothing to do with our government. Right. The step two is the part of our government where they're coming in and supposedly hiding things.

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Chris: But the point I'm trying to make here is that there's a naturalist sort of, like, discovery element to this that precedes government cover up, and that I haven't seen anything along those. Like, it can't start with, like, oh, well, the government was covering this thing up. That's not what it starts with. It starts with an alien visited or an alien craft visited. Right? Like, when the. Oh, Muramura. I forget if that's the correct way of pronouncing it. But when that thing was passing through the solar system, that felt more credible to me. I don't think that it is an alien craft, but at least the process felt more credible to me, where it was like, hey, scientists or astronomers discovered this thing.

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Chris: It's coming into our solar system and has these weird properties that's way more credible to me than, like, random guy in the government is, like, we've been hiding things. And then the other element here is, like, it's not just the. What evidence would it take? What sort of, like, immediate pictorial or videographic evidence would it take? There's also, like, a lot of science that I'd have to be convinced that made sense.

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Kayla: Sure.

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Chris: Are we saying that whoever this alien race, whoever it is, got here with faster than light travel? You'd have to explain to me why that's suddenly, like, physically possible, right? And not even physically possible. Like, physically. And, like, practically possible. Like, even if it were physically possible with, like, you know, we have designs for warp engines, right? But, like, they involve things that we don't think actually exist, like, negative energy. Point is, you'd have to, like, convince me that the science actually makes sense, too. Like, I would be. I would be much more inclined to believe a disclosure that said, you know, we found an alien probe than we found alien biologics, because it's. That's, you know, there's.

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Chris: I have a whole framework for understanding a civilization sending out probes that, you know, don't have a limited biological lifespan than I do for having an actual, like, alien corpse. So, anyway, I don't want to go so far down this rabbit hole that this is what the episode is about. I just want to say that's my thought on that. And then I also have a separate thought about, like, I also don't want to replace one conspiracy with another by saying, like, oh, it's.

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Kayla: But we're gonna do it.

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Chris: We're gonna do it anyway. There's a lot of talk out there about, like, oh, well, it's not really aliens. It's about how whenever, you know, whenever you hear the government talking about aliens, they're trying to cover up something else. They're trying to cover up a war, or they're trying to cover up the fact that every single union in America is striking right now, or they're trying.

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Kayla: To cover global warming utilizing new military or their equipment, which I think is less crazy sounding than, like, they're secretly invading Poland or China or, yeah, it's a Warsaw pact. I don't know.

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Chris: I think you're right. No, I think you're right. And that's why, like, a lot of these sightings happen near military bases. I think that's, like, a pretty plausible explanation for it. And I wouldn't even say any of this is crazy. I just think that it belongs firmly in speculation. I'm not going to say, well, this is why. Right? Because I don't want to say like, I don't want to, like I said, I don't want to replace one conspiracy with another. Where I'm saying like, okay, well, there's obviously not aliens. Instead it's this other conspiracy.

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Kayla: Right.

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Chris: That being said, I think that these other items, whatever you want to call them, these other explanations are good as like, well, you know, what is your alternative explanation? If I say I don't think it's this and some people, what do you think it is then like I do think that those are fall under that category. I just think that I have to mark them. I have to label them as spec. I have to label them as speculation and not like internalize it as like, oh, the government's definitely doing this.

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Kayla: It is good and healthy to take things with a grain of salt and maybe all things, I don't know.

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Chris: Yeah, I love salt. Salt.

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Kayla: I love a grain.

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Chris: Any, on all grains, any grain.

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Kayla: I love it.

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Chris: Ancient grains. Do you love nature?

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Kayla: I do, yeah. Give me some millet. Give me some sluggum.

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Chris: You know, the aliens brought millet to us, God bless em, when they built the pyramids. Okay, so the other business was, I was just speaking with friend of the show Nicole. How. She's a friend of the show. She talked to us, I think for the, it was the bonus content. Right. For the empty spaces. Correct episode. Anyway, we're still sort of in touch, actually, we've been in touch more lately because as it turns out, she is a fellow X Ayn Rand. Did we mention this in a previous episode? I think we might have. I think we mentioned this in the last episode.

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Kayla: We did. Because we talked about like the scandals.

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Chris: That she, oh, that's right.

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Kayla: She emailed us about what Brandon might mean.

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Chris: Right, right. Ben Rand. Okay. That's right. So we did already mention this. So never mind on that reveal, but I've still been talking to her, actually I was just talking to her on discord about her experience. Just for personal reasons really. I wasn't like mining content for the show or anything, but I was just kind of like talk. I mean, I'm always mining content for the show because that's the world we fucking live in now. But also I just kind of wanted my own sort of, I don't know, it's just, it's always useful and interesting and nice to be able to talk to someone that is either in the same community as you or was at a similar especially when that experience has, like, a lot of complexities to it.

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Chris: Sure, complexities meaning, like, maybe there's some, like, regret or some, like, why did I think that whatever there's. When you were part of a cult, it's good to talk to other people that were part of the same cult? And I wasn't gonna, like I said mine this for content. However, she did have an insight that I thought was pretty interesting that I wanted to share real quick. What we talked about was. Was basically this, like, this hook that Ayn Rand has, like, this. This sort of stickiness that she has to, like, when you're initially exposed to her literature, and this is all over her literature, this is all over her fiction or nonfiction. But it's this idea that you have this sort of secret genius.

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Chris: The reason that you might feel awkward or outsider or bullied or whatever is because secretly, you're a genius and everybody's trying to take you down. And that's very much what the fountainhead is about. And that's what a lot of her other stuff also talks about. There are people in this world that are geniuse, and then there's people that are shitheads and, you know, losers, and they try to take down the geniuses or whatever. So there's this very, like, ego stroking drug that she does. And Nicole brought up this really interesting point, like, comparing it to love bombing.

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Kayla: Oh.

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Chris: And I was like, oh, that is really interesting. I kind of want to say that one on the show, because I don't think that was a point that we made, and I think that is an interesting point.

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Kayla: Yeah. If Ayn Rand is directly talking to your, like, sad little teenage self of, like, you're the best and you're great and everybody else sucks, but you're really good and great. I love you.

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Chris: And not only that is, like, you felt crap. The reason you felt crappy is because you're actually the best.

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Kayla: Right.

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Chris: So I thought that was really interesting. Like, I'm not sure that it was intense. Like, it's, like, a lot of love bombing stuff where, like, I don't know if it's strategic.

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Kayla: I don't know if a lot of people are sitting around going, like, what are the techniques to use in order to get people into my cult?

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Chris: Yeah, exactly.

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Kayla: But they use them. It's kind of like, you know, we just watched a YouTube about, like, screenwriting. Like, you use tropes without even knowing you're using them.

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Chris: Right, exactly. And I think that's sort of what was maybe happening here is that it was just like a thing present in Rand's works that did function in that manner. So I thought that was interesting. I wanted to share it with you guys. And those are my two businesses.

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Kayla: You got the business done? Business.

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Chris: Those are my tech companies.

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Kayla: Business. Business. Two tech companies. Thanks for the business.

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Chris: You're welcome. I'll give you the business anytime.

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Kayla: Cutting that out. Are you ready then, to dive into today's topic?

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Chris: I am ready.

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Kayla: Okay, then we will start, as always, with a question.

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Chris: Okay, standard. That's a cult or just weird trope.

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Kayla: Hey, Chris.

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Chris: Yep. Hey.

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Kayla: F Vnem. F f u f v n e.

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Chris: M. Are you having a stroke?

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Kayla: Okay, so you're not getting that one. Okay, so how about FVnex?

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Chris: Is this like. Are you okay?

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Kayla: Still nothing.

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Chris: Do we need to stop record? Do I need to call 911?

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Kayla: Okay, don't worry. Those are two separate questions.

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Chris: Those aren't questions.

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Kayla: Yeah, we will answer those questions later on in the episode.

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Chris: We'll answer those letters later in the episode.

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Kayla: Keep in mind, f v N e m. F e n e x.

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Chris: Are you going to tell me what that means?

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Kayla: We are going on an adventure for this episode, as per theme of the season. And as for today's topic, I wanted to dig into something that will take us back through the history of Los Angeles. Today's topic has been around for almost 100 years and has a long and storied past. It revolves around rituals and leaders and shrines and cryptograms and celebrities and secret handshakes and initiations and ham.

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Chris: Ooh, excellent. Do I get to eat ham?

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Kayla: Today we're talking about, are we going ham? The Los Angeles Breakfast Club.

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Chris: Sounds like I do get to eat ham.

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Kayla: I'll hold that thought. Established in 1925 as a place for businessmen to eat breakfast and enjoy fellowship after riding horses along Griffith park trails, the club has evolved over the near century to include a variety of rituals, group specific lingo, traditions, activities, and more. Reminiscent of other fraternal orders weve covered, like woodmen of the world, or those we havent covered, like the Masons, Los Angeles Breakfast Club has its own unique spin on ritualized fraternal fellowship. Over the years, its been home to iconic figures such as Walt Disney, Ronald Reagan, William Randolph Hearst, holy shit. And many more.

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Chris: Those are three very large names.

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Kayla: I wanted to share some clips from a Los Angeles Times video about the Los Angeles Breakfast Club to help explain and introduce this organization just a little bit better and kind of wet your whistle before we dive into what we're.

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Chris: Actually going to be talking about, how do you pronounce that?

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Kayla: Amuse bouche.

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Chris: Whatever. I eat before the ham. The beauty of the breakfast Club, and I think its purpose is just detached friendship. It was created so that in the middle of the week, when everybody's kind of got that hump day blues, people would come together, and it was a shot of energy. For the rest of the week, people.

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Nora Vetter: That are attending tend to arrive starting at, like, 645. We always have a member assigned as the greeter. We have a buffet breakfast. Eggs are always standard. Hash browns, a variety of breakfast options. Then people get about 2025 minutes to sit at the table, socialize, get to know each other. The program starts about.

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Kayla: There's talks and there's music. And then we also have our rituals, one of our oldest rituals, the cryptogram, which we've had since 1925, a cartoonist came up. I feel like we often hear Los Angeles doesn't have history. And then you come to this, and it's the most historical thing you could possibly find.

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Chris: Back in the twenties, a group of businessmen in Los Angeles used to ride their horses in the morning in Griffith park and had breakfast along the way. And that was the beginnings of the Los Angeles Breakfast Club.

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Kayla: A gentleman named everybody used to come to this club. Calvin Coolidge was initiated into the Los Angeles Breakfast Club. Amelia Earhart painter of the club you'd have the prince and Princess of Japan.

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Chris: I first attended in 2013 while on my second honeymoon. And I was so charmed by the club. I was charmed by its members. I was made very welcomed by its members, so much so that I actually altered my plans. I was only going to be in Los Angeles for a week, but I stayed a week and a half just so I could come to a second meeting. And I made a vow to those members, which was, if I am ever in Los Angeles on a Wednesday morning, I will be found at this club. I said that and I meant it. I just didn't know when I was ever going to be in Los Angeles again. But whether I like it or not, I am approaching the autumn of my life.

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Chris: And when you reach this time in your life, I have been told that it's just difficult to make friends. I have been told that. But you can't prove it by me, because here I am in the autumn of my life, and I have made the best friends I have ever had in my life. That's so nice.

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Kayla: I know.

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Chris: Geez.

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Kayla: I know. I know. Thank you so much to the Los Angeles Times, the staff of the Los Angeles Times, for putting that video together on their visit to the Los Angeles breakfast Club. And, yeah, I knew I wanted to do this as a topic, but then kind of the more I read about it and the more I heard responses like, the gentleman at the end of that videos of finding such comradery and a time, and in a time in his particular life when it can be difficult, I was like, okay, we gotta do this.

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Chris: It is difficult.

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Kayla: There's some sort of draw here. People are going to this thing. They're finding some sort of really important meaning and community. So, like, we gotta do it.

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Chris: Yeah. Yeah. I have a question, though.

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Kayla: Yes, sir.

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Chris: For the host. Yeah, so there was. So 645. Was that. Did I hear that?

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Kayla: Yes.

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Chris: That's a time that exists.

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Kayla: That is a time that exists in the morning that people are up and about and up and doing things.

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Chris: Okay, but that's a theoretical. Like, we don't have to. We're not at 645, right?

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Kayla: Hold that thought.

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Chris: Okay. I feel like I'm doing the Jennifer Lawrence, like, hot ones meme where I'm like, what do you mean? What do you mean?

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Kayla: What do you mean? So does that. Do those news snippets kind of give you a little bit of an idea of the group that we're talking about today?

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Chris: Yes, it's starting to give me an idea, actually. I have one more comment on it.

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Kayla: Go ahead.

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Chris: Because we have european listeners. We have listeners from Europe. So I think when they say it does have history and we're talking about the last hundred or so years, then we're grading on an american curve. It's certainly chock full of history for the american side of the pond, for.

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Kayla: The country of the United States.

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Chris: Yeah.

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Kayla: And that was club historian Rachel skit giving that kind of background on the club. And I, She will come back, so keep that in mind.

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Chris: Ooh, we'll get to that.

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Kayla: We're about to dive into a niche, but deeply hewn rivulet of LA history. So let's start where we always do in the beginning. In the early 1920s, a group of prominent businessmen in Los Angeles used to gather in the early mornings at Al Myers Griffith park riding Academy and set off together down the trails for a weekly convivial horse riding session.

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Chris: Were they riding their horses at 645? Like, am I had to do?

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Kayla: What are you gonna do before work?

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Chris: Holy shit.

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Kayla: Hang out. Equestrianship is apparently hungry work, and these men would keep the good vibes going after the ride and get a bite to eat before heading off to their big business jobs. A local banker named Marco Hellman set up a temporary chuck wagon, or as Atlas Obscura calls it, quote, the food truck of its day, to feed his hungry guys.

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Chris: Man, we're doing a lot of deep cuts today. We're, like, referencing a lot of stuff.

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Kayla: One morning in 1924, Hellman arranged for some musical accompaniment and also a friend to tell some stories of his crazy Chicago banking days over this weekly breakfast.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: And it was such a good time that Maurice Demond, director of the Los Angeles National Horse show, and one of these businessmen, going out for these weekly rides, decided they all needed to make this an official thing. He asked everyone present to donate $100 each so this informal gathering could be codified into an official breakfast club.

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Chris: That's a chunk of change.

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Kayla: Back then, apparently, the other businessmen were so taken with this idea that they all swiftly donated the necessary money, equivalent to about $1,800 today. That's nothing.

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Chris: Whoa. Yeah. That's, like a for real amount of money.

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Kayla: But these were, like. These were rich dudes. So along with demands.

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Chris: Okay. Okay.

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Kayla: Early supporters were the likes of oil tycoon Edward Dohenye, Tarzan creator and author Edgar Rice Burroughs. Whoa.

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Chris: Shit.

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Kayla: Film industry titans like Lewis be Mayer, Darryl Zanuck and Cecil b. DeMille.

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Chris: I've heard of at least one of those.

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Kayla: On March 6, 1925, enough money had been collected to establish the first official meeting of the Los Angeles Breakfast Club, which took place at 07:00 a.m. At the Griffith Park Riding Academy. And Maurice demand was elected its first president.

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Chris: Okay, look, as much as I'm making fun of the, like, 645, it's not even making fun of it. It's just that I am, like, personally incapable of such things. I wish that I were more capable of such things because riding horses and then having breakfast with Cecil B. DeMille sounds really fun.

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Kayla: Yeah, yeah. I have a lot to say about that. And I will hold off because I will just. It'll just turn into a rant about the stage of capitalism that we're in, and we don't need that. Soon again. Soon the club bought property near 3201 Riverside Drive, which is just south of Griffith park, and turned the. There was a dairy there. The crosstie dairy turned that building into their clubhouse. Around this time, the club and its location were first referred to as the Shrine of friendship.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: The Los Angeles Breakfast Club became so popular amongst businessmen, entertainers and other Los Angelenos that membership fees rose to dollar 500 in 1927.

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Chris: Whoa.

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Kayla: And in 1928, president demand created a corporation that allocated shares to each member. I think it was like 100 at a time.

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Chris: Oh. So the businessmen did a business.

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Kayla: They did a business. The club only continued to grow, adding onto their clubhouse building and even starting a radio program. In March 1927. KFWB, which I think is still a station and at the time belonged to the literal Warner Brothers. Like the actual brothers?

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Chris: Yeah, the actual brothers.

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Kayla: I think there were four of them. Four Warner brothers. KFWB started broadcasting the weekly meetings to listeners, and there was a lot to listen in on. This wasn't just like a who's who of Los Angeles getting together to eat eggs. They were musical guests, sing alongs, traditions, rituals, and other forms of entertainment, including guest speakers such as educators, scientists, comedians, authors, public figures, like a whole. A very diverse gamut of entertaining speakers that were to be educational and also, like, for funsies.

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Chris: Man, I need to learn how to become a morning person.

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Kayla: I know we need to start a midnight snack club, which is the same thing, but it's for a midnight snack.

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Chris: The Los Angeles I can't really sleep right now club.

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Kayla: The Warner brothers donated this airtime free of charge to the Los Angeles Breakfast Club. So it was like free advertisement and free kind of community building. Ham and eggs were regularly served and were also regular tropes. And the club would even come to refer to itself as the democracy of ham and eggs.

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Chris: Can I just. This also has personal meaning for me because the first book I ever read was green eggs and ham. So I feel a connection.

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Kayla: You'd be welcome amongst the ranks, I'm sure. As the club grew, it firmly established itself as the place to be for prominent figures across the nation. Attendees in those early days include Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler, Babe Ruth. We already mentioned newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. There were Olympic swimmers. There were famous philanthropists, current and future presidents, film producer Carl Lambley. Again, the Warner brothers themselves, performers and actors like Will Rogers, Walt Disney.

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Chris: Okay, I've heard of so many of these people. I know that one guy is a candy bar now.

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Kayla: Oh, yeah, baby Ruth took me a while. I was like, the Will Roger, isn't he a drink?

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Chris: Will Rogers candy bar. I think he's a restaurant.

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Kayla: We've all heard of Walt Disney. And apparently when Amelia Earhart visited, it said that she, like, very. You know, I'm using this word flamboyantly. Landed her plane, what? In the nearby Los Angeles river before, like, heading over to the clubhouse.

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Chris: That is the most la thing I've ever. That's incredible.

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Kayla: I think she was there for some sort of, like, air show or something like that, but she landed the plane in the river, and then.

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Chris: Oh, my God, that's amazing.

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Kayla: One story often shared about these early days surrounds a visit to the club by president Calvin Coolidge.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: Legend has it that the aforementioned Will Rogers accepted a $100 bet that he couldn't make the president laugh because apparently he had a reputation for being, like, very dour and stoic.

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Chris: I didn't know that.

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Kayla: And so Rogers accepted the bet, of course, and guarantee you he won that when Calvin Coolidge and his wife Grace were doing the receiving line at the club. So there was a crowd of over 1500 members, and members would go by and greet the guests.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: Will Rogers shakes Calvin Coolidge's hand in the traditional greeting, moves on. And then he stopped and turned back and asked, what was your name again?

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Chris: See?

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Kayla: And naturally, he left that meeting. Dollar 100 richer. Another commonly told story involves a famous picture taken in 1930 of rivals Harry Chandler of the LA Times and William Randolph Hearst, two newspaper magnates notoriously at each other's business throats, and both frequenters of the Los Angeles Breakfast Club. But true to the ideals of the democracy of ham and eggs and the shrine of friendship, when these two men were at a meeting of the Los Angeles Breakfast Club, they were friends and they were in fellowship. So there's even a picture of the two of them shaking hands, solidifying these ideals of the time.

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Chris: I love that. That's like in Highlander, when you, like, you can't fight on holy ground. It's exactly like that.

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Kayla: It's exactly like that.

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Chris: This is, like, the most chock full of pop culture references. This show has been great.

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Kayla: Unfortunately, also in line with the ideals of the time. Women were, of course, allowed to attend, but only men could officially pay the $500 membership fee and become full members.

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Chris: Well, that actually sounds pretty good for you guys.

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Kayla: No, it's not.

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Chris: Well, you didn't have to pay.

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Kayla: Women also couldn't, like, have credit cards in their credit cards.

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Chris: Oh, yeah. No, you were fucked in every other way.

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Kayla: Every other way. You couldn't be a member. Oh, so you couldn't get the benefits of membership? Like, you couldn't get, like, discounts on horse riding or whatever. So, not a good thing.

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Chris: Good point.

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Kayla: But that didn't stop throngs of people from attending and engaging in the various traditions and rituals of the club. Speaking of, let's dig into some of these traditions and rituals. Now, we've already talked about the trope of ham and eggs, which referred to the food that was served at breakfast club meetings. But ham and eggs also grew to hold other meetings in the club. So every member of the club is either a ham or an egg. And the traditional greeting at LABC is hello, Ham responded to with hello, egg. I love it.

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Chris: So dorky.

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Kayla: Don't call a dorky the galaxy.

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Chris: No, look. Okay. I guess for new listeners who are probably part of the Los Angeles Breakfast Club, let me clue you in on some of our traditions here on the show. Dorky and weird is unequivocally a good thing, so don't take that wrongly.

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Kayla: There are also several sawhorses present at meetings with various purposes.

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Chris: Wait a minute.

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Kayla: Yeah, hold on. Two that survive today are named Ham and eggs.

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Chris: Okay, that makes sense.

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Kayla: Traditionally, there were also sawhorses back in the day named Bacon, flapjack, and Weenie.

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Chris: Those are great names for horses.

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Kayla: I know. Weenie the Sawhorse was present at the meeting that Calvin Coolidge attended. Coolidge. And these sawhorses serve as sort of like mascots to the club and also have an important role to play when it comes to initiation.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: Yes. The Los Angeles Breakfast Club has initiation ceremonies when one elects to become a member. Like a true initiation.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: An initiation ceremony consists of an initiate sitting on ham the sawhorse, and holding his tail, being blindfolded, and sticking their hand in a plate of runny, sunny side up eggs. A vow is taken, and voila, you're in.

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Chris: Okay. Definitely ritualistic. So, like a real egg, they really stick.

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Kayla: Real egg.

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Chris: Good for them, man.

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Kayla: Side note, Calvin Coolidge was initiated into the club, but he was not made to sit on weenie the sawhorse.

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Chris: Okay, now, is that at the point where they designate you either a ham or an egg? Or is it more like you flip a coin every time?

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Kayla: You're just kind of both? I don't know.

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Chris: Is it like Schrodinger's ham and egg?

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Kayla: We're all hams. We're all eggs.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: Just, if someone says, hello, ham, you're not going to say, hello, ham back. You're going to say, hello.

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Chris: Oh, I see. So it's. That is like Schrodinger's ham and egg, because whatever the initial observation is determines I'm the flip state of that.

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Kayla: This has been science corner with Chris Schrodinger's egg or Schrodinger's ham.

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Chris: Schrodinger's breakfast.

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Kayla: Other traditions in the club involve a secret handshake that involves two parties shaking hands and I wiggling them from the wrist over and over, kind of like a flipping motion.

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Chris: Wait, so, like, I see.

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Kayla: Okay, I'm just doing it.

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Chris: This is an audio program. This is an audio program. But Kayla is making an obscene gesture with her hand right now.

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Kayla: It would better if there were two hands.

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Chris: It kind of looks like you're flipping your. You're opening a door like a doorknob door.

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Kayla: This kind of flipping motion may intend to resemble the act of flipping eggs while cooking them.

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Chris: Okay, maybe. So what you do is you flip the pan 180 degrees over and dump it onto the stove.

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Kayla: Okay. You've also got a variety of symbols that uphold the group's values, such as the golden rule, self explanatory, and the group's guiding principle, the golden shovel. To uncover the jewels of virtue in each. Each bit of human clay.

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Chris: Oh, wait. Back. So golden rule is just like the standard golden rule?

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Kayla: I think so, yeah.

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Chris: Do one to others.

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Kayla: Yeah. Don't be a selfish asshole. Be nice.

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Chris: That's how I initially heard it. Yeah.

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Kayla: The buried hatchet, which symbolizes the burial of bitterness, hatred, envy, and greed.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: And the oil can to still the waters for our storm tossed fellows. Other traditions include the roosters, a group of well intentioned hecklers present at every meeting with codified calls and responses.

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Chris: Wait. Oh, seriously? There's, like, people designated to heckle the.

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Kayla: Morning exercises, led by a group member and undertaken after breakfast, a form of fun and silly calisthenics.

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Chris: Okay, that's cool. Like a western tai chi.

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Kayla: I think a little more like, it's supposed to be, like, invigorating, like, tai chi. Get your breakfast to settle. You know, Tai chi is. I don't really know. I shouldn't just cause I've done some tai chi. I should not intend, I should not set myself. Here's what I know Tai chi to be. I don't know. I like it. Theres also songs sung at every meeting, including a sea shanty and others that have been around since the early days or were added on over the years.

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Chris: Sounds lovely.

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Kayla: You may have noticed some similarities here between these rituals discussed and other groups weve talked about on the show, particularly other fraternal orders.

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Chris: I have in particular the sawhorse. What is going on?

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Kayla: If you remember our episode on Woodmen of the World, they also had initiation rituals that involved, I think it was riding backwards on a wooden sawhorse.

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Chris: I think so. And it was also, like, encircled, I think.

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Kayla: Yeah.

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Chris: A giant wooden circle. By the way, if you have, if you don't remember, if you're not a longtime fan, that was one of our first seasons episodes. It was towards the end I forget the exact number, but if you want to go back and listen to it's in our first season.

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Kayla: They're a group similar to, like, the Masons or the Elks or the rotary or any of those fraternal. Fraternal clubs.

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Chris: Yeah, except now they sell insurance.

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Kayla: Yeah.

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Chris: Spoilers.

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Kayla: Apparently, Freemasons also have a similar, or had a similar ritual in their initiation, sawhorses. It was known as riding the goat. So I think it was like a wooden goat. And to the point where I think back in the early 20th century, becoming initiated as a Freemason, was referred to as riding the goat.

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Chris: That was really.

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Kayla: Yeah.

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Chris: Why do all of these. Where does that come from? Why do they all have a wooden animal?

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Kayla: I don't know. I don't know.

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Chris: I feel like we should be providing this answer to our audience.

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Kayla: I think you bought a book on fraternal orders.

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Chris: I did. I should check that out. Bonus content. We will answer the questions that we should have had for you right now.

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Kayla: Freemasons were also known for their secret handshakes. And while we don't know for sure the origin of Los Angeles breakfast Club egg flipping handshake, it's possible that it was a send up of masonic traditions, if not intentionally. It is just kind of a trope that's found often in these kinds of groups having secret handshakes.

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Chris: Right, right.

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Kayla: And, you know, it's not super secret like, it's documented.

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Chris: It's pretty easy to remember.

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Kayla: Also prevalent at the LABC is a cryptogram trotted out and read aloud during meetings. Created in 1925 by a cartoonist, the cryptogram reads as fvnem svfm.

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Chris: Okay, so you're having that stroke again.

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Kayla: Fvnex svfx. Oic v F M n x. Okay, any thoughts on what that could mean? Cryptogram.

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Chris: So that means that it's. What is it, a cipher?

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Kayla: What do you think?

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Chris: Is it a replacement? What do you call it? I don't know.

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Kayla: No, nothing.

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Chris: I have nothing. Got nothing for you.

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Kayla: Well, we'll get to that. But the cryptogram is so integral to the club that it was once painted on the ceilings of one of their.

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Chris: Meeting rooms, just like, letters on the ceiling. Fe veve.

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Kayla: F e V. No. F v N E M. F v N E x.

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Chris: All of those f v n e m. I don't know.

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Kayla: So a lot of rituals, like other groups we talked about and also, like many other groups we've talked about on this show, the Los Angeles breakfast Club experienced another trope common to our topics.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: A schism.

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Chris: Ooh. That's how you know you've made it.

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Kayla: That's what we always say on this show. In 1931, the first president of Los Angeles Breakfast Club, Maurice diamond, sadly died suddenly at age 50, likely due to probably a stroke, unfortunately.

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Chris: Geez, now I feel bad. I've been making stroke jokes.

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Kayla: You have?

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Chris: Yeah. I've been saying you're having a stroke when you're saying these letters.

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Kayla: Yeah. Well, it's a good lesson for you.

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Chris: Yeah, lesson learned.

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Kayla: Unfortunately, demand died without a will, and he was in some sort of the midst of a contentious battle over his estate with either his wife or ex wife. And his estate, I guess, you know, via the law, went to his son. But because his son was a minority, the wife took control of the estate.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: And ultimately the club, because it turned out the demand estate actually had more shares in the club than the club itself had.

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Chris: Okay. So they owned, like, a majority of the shares.

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Kayla: The demand estate owned a majority of the shares. And so this led to a contentious schism within the club of, like, well, who's the real club now? Who's the real owner? Who's the real. Like, where do we go?

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Chris: Okay, so just so I'm clear, so it's the demand state side versus the. We're still just the club, aside from the demands.

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Kayla: That's my understanding.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: And so this. This led to a contentious schism, which actually broke the club into two in 1934.

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Chris: Did they re merge, or what is the current.

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Kayla: Hold those thoughts. One club survived to be the Los Angeles breakfast club as it is today.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: And the other also called itself the Los Angeles Breakfast Club classic. There's issues here, obviously. Unfortunately, there were also issues of debts at the time. The club found itself to be in great debts. And then something else great happened. The great depression.

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Chris: Yeah. I don't think either the depression or debt is really all that great.

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Kayla: No. So things look somewhat dire for the Los Angeles Breakfast Club. Probably both versions. Yeah, both versions met at the same time with similar names.

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Chris: Oh. Like, they picked the same day and time.

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Kayla: It was both like, you know, this is not 07:00. It was probably 07:00 on Wednesday. They both met at 07:00 on Wednesdays. They were both Colin Los Angeles breakfast Club. They both had radio shows. And this, of course, was very confusing to members and outsiders. Like, there's even stories of speakers being booked at the same time by both clubs.

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Chris: Awesome.

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Kayla: And so, like, a speaker did not realize that they had just committed to being in two places at once because they were like, wait, I booked the Los Angeles Breakfast Club. Yeah, there's two of them.

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Chris: That's great.

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Kayla: Between 1934 and 1937, there were court cases, discovery of debts, all manner of minor scandal, and the Los Angeles Breakfast Club was unfortunately forced to move from its original location.

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Chris: I'm sorry, which one?

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Kayla: The one that survives today.

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Chris: Which one was that?

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Kayla: One of them.

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Chris: You don't know which one it was?

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Kayla: It was the Los Angeles breakfast club.

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Chris: Oh, my God.

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Kayla: I don't know which side of the schism it was on. I'm assuming, and I could be wrong. And if anybody from the Los Angeles Breakfast Club is listening, and I will also follow up, I believe that the side that survived is the side that did not go along with the demand estate.

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Chris: Okay. So the fewer shares, but also not monopolized by the demand.

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Kayla: I think so, but don't quote me on that, and I will try to get the answer and give a follow up.

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Chris: Okay. This is breaking. Breaking from 1935.

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Kayla: So, unfortunately, our RLaBC was forced to move from its original location at 3201 Riverside Drive.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: To a room in the Ambassador hotel. So, like, there was a separate kind of ballroom type thing at the Ambassador hotel as an interim location, and members decided to reform as a nonprofit, and that would actually allow them to eventually buy back their $83,000 in debt for a much smaller amount.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: This branch of the LABC weathered the storm of the Great Depression, soldiered on in this new location, and the other branch. Eventually a detente was reached, and the other branch named itself the Riverside drive breakfast.

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Chris: Oh, okay. Did they still exist?

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Kayla: Eventually it would fizzle out.

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Chris: Okay. Also, it's not as catchy.

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Kayla: Not as catchy. The remaining branch of the Los Angeles Breakfast Club was eventually able to get the original ham, the sawhorse, back from the Riverside Drive Breakfast club.

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Chris: Oh, thank goodness.

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Kayla: Thank goodness. This is also around the time when the cryptogram was painted onto a board because they no longer had it on the ceiling. It was onto a board that they could roll out during or hold up during meetings. Or roll out during meetings. And it's the same one that's used to this day.

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Chris: So, like, on, like, a chalkboard with wheels or something?

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Kayla: Like, a big wooden board? Wooden board, like, painted on.

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Chris: I see.

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Kayla: While this is the biggest schism I learned of, it's also important to point out that the LABC had a number of spinoffs and offshoots in other southern California cities.

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Chris: Multiple schisms and even.

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Kayla: No, no, this is like, spin offs.

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Chris: Okay, so, like, sanctioned. Yeah, yeah.

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Kayla: Elsewhere in southern California, and even elsewhere across the world.

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Chris: No way. Really?

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Kayla: We don't know much about the exact origins of the rituals and symbols, like the handshake and the oil can, but we do know that these were bestowed upon each new spinoff when they were established. So it's like, hello, I'm Maurice Demond, or whoever I am, from the Los Angeles Breakfast Club. You're starting your own chapter, I guess. Here are the symbols. Here are the traditions.

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Chris: Chain of victims.

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Kayla: So, we're talking in locations in Palos, Faradays, and elsewhere in Los Angeles, but also Hawaii and Australia.

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Chris: That's far.

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Kayla: There was also a women's breakfast club that apparently had schisms within. Schisms, like, was even more contentious.

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Chris: This is delicious.

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Kayla: And, you know, like a delicious breakfast.

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Chris: Of ham and eggs.

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Kayla: Unfortunately, all of these offshoots and schisms did all fizzle out, but there is still the one true Los Angeles breakfast club remaining today.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: And like you said before, and like we always say on the show, you know you've made it once you've had a schism, right?

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Chris: Yeah, absolutely. And if you survived a schism, that's even better. I mean, that's.

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Kayla: As the LABC grew during the 1930s and refilled its coffers, thanks to the free use of that room in the Ambassador hotel, they were able to raise enough money to build a new clubhouse in 1937. Hundreds arrived to the grand opening ceremony on December 29, 1937, and the Los Angeles Breakfast Club had its new home. But membership just wasn't quite the same again. And though the founders and members worked to keep the club going as just as it was in its glory days, this location was also eventually lost. It was sold in the early 1960s. Luckily, this allowed the Los Angeles Breakfast club to, quote unquote, go home. They used the money from the sale of that clubhouse to build a new property at 3201 Riverside Drive, the original location of the first days of the LABC.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: In a pretty sweet deal with the city, LABC built the shrine of friendship and gifted it to the city under the condition of a 50 year contract, allowing Los Angeles breakfast Club to use the building for their meetings for a dollar per year.

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Chris: How long ago was this?

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Kayla: Well, this was in. This was in 1965, so, hold on.

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Chris: Let me do some math.

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Kayla: Yeah. That agreement is now overdue, and the current breakfast club is navigating that reality.

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Chris: I see.

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Kayla: But the return home in 1965 reinvigorated the breakfast Club. The shrine of friendship got people back into the swing of things, and the club even initiated then Governor Ronald Reagan in 1967.

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Chris: Oh, he was governor while. So this was after he became governor?

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Kayla: It was. So his first year serving was 1967, and this was in 1967.

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Chris: Cause, like, you know, he was only a lowly famous actor first.

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Kayla: Before he was only the lowly saG AFTRA president.

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Chris: Right.

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Kayla: I believe he was president the last time SAG and WGA went on strike at the same time.

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Chris: That was a long time ago.

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Kayla: In 1960, membership continued to build up throughout the years. In 1978, women were finally admitted as full members. In the eighties, the club elected its first VML president. But by the 1990s, the club began to see a decline as it kind of came to be considered a bit old fashioned. So younger members were no longer joining in droves and I, worsening traffic and increasing demands at workplaces made the trek out to Riverside drive at 07:00 in the morning a non starter for many.

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Chris: So for those of you that don't live in Los Angeles, that's sort of like East LA. And a lot of people who work here work in West LA.

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Kayla: It's near where Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Echo park. The hip part of LA is now.

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Chris: Yeah, and totally people that don't live here will know those.

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Kayla: No, I just didn't want to call it East Los Angeles because guess what? That's its own location. And no, this is not East Los Angeles. So get wrecked.

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Chris: What if I say eastern?

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Kayla: I think that you're wrong no matter what you say.

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Chris: I'm just trying to accommodate our non angeleno listeners, which I realize is a mistake.

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Kayla: For some people, this is really far. And so they didn't want to go anymore.

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Chris: There you go.

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Kayla: By the two thousands, the fate of the club looked dire again as membership dwindled to just a dozen people in 2013.

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Chris: Ooh.

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Kayla: Luckily, a young actress named Lily Holoman learnest discovered the group and helped turn it around yet again. This thing cannot die.

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Chris: Alright.

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Kayla: She saw a picture of entertainer red Skelton performing at the Los Angeles Breakfast Club in the 1930s on a page of the SAG Aftra magazine. And she was like, hell, yeah, I need to go to that.

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Chris: Interesting. It's so weird how. Like, it's not weird. It's interesting how just little things sometimes have such big effects. I guess I'm saying chaos theory is cool. You know, it's like this random photo in this publication in the SAG Aftra magazine, and then this one person was like. It piqued her interest, and then it turned into this revival that's really interesting.

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Kayla: She was immediately charmed by the traditions and rituals of the club, of course, and the old timey, welcoming feel. And she knew she couldn't allow this club to slip away into obscurity. It's just. It's such a classic and iconic piece of Los Angeles history, even if many of us don't know about it. You and I didn't know about it until this episode. The current leadership at the time didn't know how to bring in new members. But Holloman had ideas. She was quickly elected president and began introducing social media into the group, which the group now has a facebook, it has a twitter. I think it might have a YouTube.

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Chris: Atta girl.

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Kayla: And this, of course, helped spread the word to younger members. Younger would be members. And the group's membership has just kind of grown ever since.

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Chris: Recruitment is the lifeblood as a non.

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Kayla: Religious, nonsectarian club that cultivates community and friendship in a city that is kind of notoriously hard to find your place in, if you move here, it can be hard to find friends. It can be hard to find community. New members were eager to join once they learned about it. It was just getting that word out that this thing even existed.

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Chris: Yeah. Yeah.

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Kayla: The Los Angeles Breakfast Club has even started a podcast called LAbC on the Air Podcast. Yeah. Hosted by Holloman's partner, Phil Learnes. And this has just helped to continue spreading the word about Los Angeles breakfast Club. And it also. It kind of recalls those days of the original LABC radio show on KFWB.

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Chris: Right, you said that.

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Kayla: Yeah.

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Chris: Also, like, I really relate to this because you and I have a podcast.

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Kayla: We do.

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Chris: We do.

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Kayla: It's this one right now.

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Chris: Yeah.

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Kayla: The club is now a more diverse place than it ever was in terms of ages represented, genders, races, ethnicities, orientations, you name it. And they still retain all the wholesome, iconic, classic traditions of yesteryear, initiating members into the democracy of ham and eggs. How does that all sound?

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Chris: Sounds hammy.

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Kayla: Are you ready to experience it for yourself?

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Chris: So I do have to get up.

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Kayla: Yeah. Tomorrow. We've got tickets tomorrow to a 07:00 a.m. Breakfast at the Los Angeles breakfast Club.

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Chris: Okay. Okay. I really don't mean to sigh. From everything you said, it sounds amazing. I'm scared of the sun when it's in that part of the sky.

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Kayla: Look, we are about to break out of our comfort zone, and if we're lucky, we're actually gonna get the chance to talk to some of the members who've been meeting every Wednesday morning for decades.

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Chris: That sounds. That does sound great. But it's like, it's 04:00 in the afternoon, so that means we have to go to bed right now.

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Kayla: Right now. Let's go.

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Chris: You know, a couple random questions, and as soon as you gotta go, just feel free. I was gonna ask you how long you've been president. What made you want to become president?

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Nora Vetter: Sure, I became president. President officially last year on July 1. And what made me become president? I actually took over from the previous president, had been president for seven years. And when she came in, the club was at like eleven members, and she was asked by some of the long time members to step in and kind of breathe new life in because at that point they weren't on social media, there was no website. So she stepped in and kind of built up the membership and then she was ready to go, you know, got us through the pandemic and was ready to kind of get back to her life because it takes a lot of time. And she had at that point, because it was so small, she kind of, over the course of time, taken on three roles.

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Nora Vetter: She was doing club manager, president, and secretary. So when she decided down, they split up the president role that she was doing that was really more than that into two roles, which was club manager and president. We're finding we need to get that secretary role back into play, but, yeah, long way around. I was asked if I would consider it and I was honored, of course, and was happy to kind of take it to the next step. You know, it's like not only continuing to build the membership, but kind of help get us buttoned up business wise and like, look to the future and all that fun stuff.

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Chris: Is the president role high energy or is that you?

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Nora Vetter: That I think is me, but. But I think I like the horse riding. That's something I contributed.

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Chris: That's good. That's a throwback, right?

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Nora Vetter: Yes. It's a nod to the Rangers.

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Chris: I like that. You bring back that. You brought back the ham.

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Nora Vetter: Yeah. Yes, I brought back the ham and, yeah, it's. And the chant was something that came when I started. We didn't always had that, but I wanted to give the audience a way to participate and welcome the new member. So that was my little way of doing that, so.

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Chris: And what got you involved in the club in the first place?

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Nora Vetter: I moved here in February 2020.

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Chris: Wait a minute. I know that month.

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Nora Vetter: From New York City, so kind of fortuitous timing, but I didn't come here with a car because I did come here for New York City. And of course, all my plans went out the window as soon as the world shut down. But I walked a lot, and I was always looking for destinations on Google Maps, like, what looks interesting? Or, like, a film location or something like that. And I saw a friendship auditorium, and I'm like, what is that? And I was reading of a breakfast club, and I was like, oh, no. If I only would have known in that brief pocket of time that I was here, I could have experienced it. Well, cut to several months later, I discovered they'd actually moved to zoom.

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Kayla: Okay.

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Chris: Okay. I was gonna ask.

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Nora Vetter: So I attended probably, like, in the fall of 2020. And, like, after the first meeting, I immediately was like, I want to be a member. I applied, I followed up on my application, and then finally, at the beginning of 2021, they granted me my membership. And then I didn't get initiated, as you'll see on my badge, until July 2021, because that was the first time were back after the pandemic. So they waited to do that, and then. So July is a magical month for me in breakfast club because it's when I got initiated, and it's when I became president, and it looks like I might need to go to a foundation.

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Chris: Yeah, absolutely.

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Kayla: Mary, do you mind if I ask you a quick question and record your answer? I just have a quick question. Do you know where I came from and what I did for a living? None of that. We'll keep that secret. What keeps you coming back to the breakfast club? I return to the breakfast club every week when I'm in town because they're the most fabulous, informative speakers on subjects from a to z, on things you might not think you're interested in. But then when you came, you're really sorry you didn't skip the meeting because there's so much to learn. That makes sense. It's great. What's your favorite ritual?

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Chris: Oh, I don't know.

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Kayla: Oh, okay.

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Chris: I think it's the c. C. Oh.

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Kayla: That was. Came out of nowhere, and I was not ready for it, but that was a lot of fun. That's great. Is there anything else you'd like to say about breakfast club? I'm just so honored to be here. Thank you so much for history of this 1925. And we're about to be at the 100 year anniversary.

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Chris: Amazing.

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Kayla: Yay. Yay. Thank you so much, Mary. I appreciate it.

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Chris: If you're willing to say something about. Yeah. I'm Marty Versaudi. Okay. And how long have you been a member? I've been a member since I was the last one inducted right before COVID And they shut it down. Okay. It was kind of like a lifeline because we ended up going to what's called Zoom, right? Yep. We had a social life even though were locked in our houses. That is kind of nice. These people are also friendly and loving and happy. Is that the main draw for you? To me, it's like going to summer camp. I love the summer camp vibe. You know, it's like silliness. Yeah, yeah. Camaraderie. Right, right. I like. I get what you mean about this. Yes. Summer camp. That's good. And plus, we're kind of part of a history. LA history in a way.

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Chris: All right, so would you say it is a cult or is it just weird? I'd say it's weird as hell. Yeah, yeah. I'll agree. I'll agree with that. Based on my experience, I wouldn't drink the Kool Aid. What if it was a really good Kool Aid, though? Actually, it's breakfast, so it would be orange juice for you guys. Right. With vodka. There you go. Thank you so much for your time.

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Kayla: Yeah.

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Chris: What time is your podcast? What keeps you coming back to the breakfast club? What keeps us coming back is just this burst of loveliness every week and the fun and also time to spend with my cousin Nancy.

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Nora Vetter: And it's always.

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Chris: Just makes my day better. It's a happy place. Good intentions. Do you have a favorite ritual? I do. I love exercise with Carol. I really love exercise with Carol. I actually hope to maybe be the error parent one day. And the sing along is delightful. I think it's really fun to sing in a group. I think we forget how much fun it is.

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Kayla: Right.

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Chris: It's like, we stop doing that when we're kids. Yeah. I kind of wish we wouldn't. Yeah. Well, thank. Okay, so I don't.

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Kayla: Yum, yum.

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Chris: I don't say this lightly.

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Kayla: Sorry.

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Chris: Thank you. Ham. Aren't you supposed to. Thank.

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Kayla: Thank you. Egg.

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Chris: Some. An egg. Okay. Cool.

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Kayla: Egg.

458
00:56:14,580 --> 00:56:20,100
Chris: Hi. No, I just wanted to say, like, I genuinely want to go back.

459
00:56:20,220 --> 00:56:22,316
Kayla: Yes. I want to go back right now.

460
00:56:22,428 --> 00:56:26,006
Chris: But I don't know, like, I think, you know, the weight of that statement.

461
00:56:26,078 --> 00:56:26,730
Kayla: Yeah.

462
00:56:27,430 --> 00:56:50,406
Chris: My morning. I'm so the opposite of a morning. I hate the mornings. I know. I've actually. I've said that a bunch of times on this episode, so if I recall from our previous recording session, I'm just reiterating it. If I end up going back to this, that's, like, an incredible feat for me to get up in the morning on purpose. And that's and I am feeling motivated to do so if that tells you anything.

463
00:56:50,438 --> 00:57:05,508
Kayla: Yeah. The fact that you were like, we should go back. I would like to go back is like, whoa. Because, yes, we had to get up, but, like, we don't live close to the Los Angeles breakfast Club. We live on the other side of town, so it's a little bit of a trek, but to get there by 645, you gotta leave the house by 06:00.

464
00:57:05,644 --> 00:57:10,596
Chris: Yeah. And it's just, you know, it was all the things I think you said. It was just like, that everyone was super friendly.

465
00:57:10,708 --> 00:57:13,380
Kayla: It was a lot of fucking fun.

466
00:57:13,460 --> 00:57:14,880
Chris: Yeah. There was a greeter.

467
00:57:15,540 --> 00:57:20,732
Kayla: Yeah. Do you want to, like, kind of just, like, run down or experience, like, what it. What we parked and then what happened?

468
00:57:20,796 --> 00:58:00,646
Chris: Yeah. So we parked in there. They had a little parking lot, and. Yeah, it's kind of this, like, this old building kind of looks inside like a. I mean, it looks like an old time. Not super old timey, but it looks like an event space. That's what it looks like. You know, big and open air inside. There was a greeting line. People at the end of the line picked up their. If they were a member, they had a little badge there. If you weren't a member, you were invited to where. Hello, my name is tag thing. Yeah. And then went in, and there was, like, a little buffet line with the breakfast items, and it was basically just, like, walk around and sit down and mingle while you eat breakfast.

469
00:58:00,678 --> 00:58:05,878
Kayla: You got ham, you got eggs, you got oatmeal, you got pastries.

470
00:58:05,934 --> 00:58:07,094
Chris: It wasn't like a parfait thing.

471
00:58:07,142 --> 00:58:11,174
Kayla: There was a parfait thing. There was probably. There was juice. There was definitely juice.

472
00:58:11,262 --> 00:58:12,206
Chris: There was coffee.

473
00:58:12,358 --> 00:58:23,630
Kayla: You bring it all. Bring it all back to your, you know, pick. Sit wherever you want. Kind of like communal seating. And. Yeah, there was coffee on every table to. I don't know, make people talk about the coffee.

474
00:58:23,970 --> 00:58:29,442
Chris: And then it kind of gets a little blurry because there were a bunch of things that happened.

475
00:58:29,506 --> 00:58:30,386
Kayla: We wrote down notes.

476
00:58:30,458 --> 00:58:32,194
Chris: I don't remember what the order was. Yeah.

477
00:58:32,242 --> 00:58:40,162
Kayla: Okay, so we sit down, we eat. Then there was kind of like, an introduction of, like, we're in Los Angeles.

478
00:58:40,186 --> 00:58:41,762
Chris: Breakfast Club, and that was the president. Right.

479
00:58:41,826 --> 00:58:45,754
Kayla: And then we got right into the initiations.

480
00:58:45,802 --> 00:58:46,590
Chris: Oh, yeah.

481
00:58:47,330 --> 00:59:36,510
Kayla: Very exciting. We went. This particular day that went. We chose specifically because initiations were happening that day, and that felt, you know, important for us to see the ritual, as we described, of, like, sitting on this sawhorse, holding his tail, getting blindfolded, putting your hand in eggs. And that's exactly what it was. It was very much like a cheeky send up. A cheeky send up of traditional fraternal brotherhood initiations. And that's exactly what it was. There were three people getting initiated that day, and each one, you know, was. Was asked to recite a vow that seemed to have been personalized to them by the president, Nora Vedderez, who you heard us speak to in that audio. And so that was already, were, like, kind of just thrown right into it, which was like, all right, we're here. We're doing this. This is great.

482
00:59:37,010 --> 00:59:56,074
Chris: Can I also say, and this is about both the ritual of the initiation and kind of all the other things that you're about to talk about, it definitely felt like, yes, it was a send up, but it was also like how we talk about things that are, like, deconstructive but also constructive at the same time. They're like, both ascend up but also authentic.

483
00:59:56,162 --> 00:59:56,674
Kayla: Right.

484
00:59:56,802 --> 01:00:04,290
Chris: This kind of felt like that where it was like, yeah, it's both satirizing something but also being, like, genuine about it.

485
01:00:04,330 --> 01:00:29,588
Kayla: Yeah. There's not an ounce of cynicism. There's not an ounce of, like, you know, it's not the way South park makes fun of things. It's not that it's loving, it's reverent, tongue in cheek, but it's fun. But it's serious. But it's just a good time. I had a really good time. Then there were a set of announcements which were lucky enough to get our own announcement that day.

486
01:00:29,684 --> 01:00:31,572
Chris: Oh, that's right. Well, we're kind of a big deal.

487
01:00:31,636 --> 01:00:37,680
Kayla: Kind of a big deal. It was announced that were there to observe and talk to folks.

488
01:00:38,580 --> 01:00:42,100
Chris: We are anthropologists and we are observing these humans.

489
01:00:42,260 --> 01:01:01,726
Kayla: A big thank you to every single member of the breakfast club who spoke to us that day. It was, you know, very kind of you to let us shove our microphones in your face at 730 in the morning or whatever time it was to ask you about this thing you were doing. But again, everybody was having such a good time. It felt like I wanted to be able to capture that. I wanted to be able to capture people's honest reactions.

490
01:01:01,878 --> 01:01:07,366
Chris: Yeah. And we don't do that super often. It was kind of. It was cool to be able to get that sort of, like, firsthand. Yeah.

491
01:01:07,438 --> 01:01:36,350
Kayla: So after those announcements, there was a raffle, I believe what was being raffled off were copies of a book that was about, that was by the speaker who was going to be speaking later on. So that raffle happened. By that time, it was like, breakfast is over. Like, you had to kind of eat it and be done, like, the buffet line closed. And it was right into the calisthenics. And there was a one of the. I will say during all of this, there is. I forget the gentleman's name. Playing piano for a lot of this. So musical accompaniment.

492
01:01:36,650 --> 01:01:46,772
Chris: That part was so fun. It was just very, like. I don't know. I think were saying it kind of feels a little throwback, old timey. That was definitely part of it where it was like, there was musical accompaniment to even, like, the most basic things.

493
01:01:46,866 --> 01:02:10,520
Kayla: Right, right. So there was kind of musical accompaniment getting us through all of this. Then it took us into the calisthenics, which was led by a member who put special gloves on and then led us through, like, a series of vigorous exercises that lasted longer than I expected and was kind of like, oh, this is a good way to get that breakfast settled. Vigorous for 715 in the morning. Yeah, you're not, you know, doing burpees, but it wasn't just like, rotate your wrists.

494
01:02:10,600 --> 01:02:17,200
Chris: It was not touch your toes. You know, hands to the sky, touch your toes, that kind of thing. What was it for, like, five or ten minutes?

495
01:02:17,240 --> 01:02:18,638
Kayla: Five minutes between five and ten.

496
01:02:18,694 --> 01:02:24,734
Chris: But it was like. It was like you were just saying, it's really nice as, like, you know, right after you eat breakfast to kind of, like, get the blood flowing.

497
01:02:24,782 --> 01:02:53,186
Kayla: Yeah. There was a lot of singing songs amongst all of this. So you heard member Mary say, oh, she really likes the. The sea shanty. And in that, were just kind of thrown into this. Cause all of a sudden a song was sung. A song was sung, and all of a sudden, someone's. The person next to me has their arms on my shoulder, and we're, like, swaying back and forth, and they're like. They were. Luckily, again, all these members are very nice. They explained to us what the fuck's going on as we're doing it. So, like, okay, put your arms around each other's shoulders and sway back and forth of the song. So that was. That was part of it.

498
01:02:53,378 --> 01:02:56,450
Chris: I don't know where a sea shanty comes from, other than it's just fun.

499
01:02:56,570 --> 01:03:23,168
Kayla: I guess there was. I'm just trying to remember everything that happened. There was a. We did do a pledge of allegiance, which was, you know, definitely a throwback. A throwback thing to have, but also updated in that it. I forget the exact wording that was used, but it wasn't like, say the pledge of allegiance because we have blind faith in our country. It would say the pledge of allegiance because we uphold ourselves to the ideals of America as it should be kind of thing, not necessarily America as it is.

500
01:03:23,264 --> 01:03:26,240
Chris: Yeah. We aspire to those ideals. Right. So I didn't interrupt you there.

501
01:03:26,360 --> 01:03:30,136
Kayla: No, that was. I didn't know I was saying. So it was helpful to have you explain it.

502
01:03:30,328 --> 01:03:35,096
Chris: I would like to mansplain to you exactly how America's fallen short in the.

503
01:03:35,128 --> 01:03:58,572
Kayla: Same kind of vein as that modern addition to doing the pledge of legions. There was also a land acknowledgement at the beginning. I think it was the beginning of the announcements. So a land acknowledgement very generally. I don't pretend to understand all of the nuances of land acknowledgement, but something like this acknowledges which indigenous people's land we are currently on. And so that was part of the.

504
01:03:58,596 --> 01:04:02,468
Chris: Announcements for people who aren't familiar, that's not specific to the breakfast club.

505
01:04:02,524 --> 01:04:02,740
Kayla: Correct.

506
01:04:02,780 --> 01:04:05,372
Chris: Land acknowledgments are, like, a more broad thing that people do.

507
01:04:05,396 --> 01:04:08,492
Kayla: Now, after that, there was the meet and greet line.

508
01:04:08,556 --> 01:04:09,492
Chris: Right. The greeting line.

509
01:04:09,556 --> 01:04:22,376
Kayla: All of the members went and shook hands with the president. There was a chairman of the day. There was chaplain of the day. There was the person who was going to be giving the talk later. There was a whole line of people for us to. Oh, and all of the new initiates.

510
01:04:22,448 --> 01:04:22,680
Chris: Right.

511
01:04:22,720 --> 01:04:27,820
Kayla: So all of us went. And then. And then. Yeah. What did the greeting line consist of, Chris?

512
01:04:28,240 --> 01:04:29,336
Chris: Handshakes.

513
01:04:29,528 --> 01:04:30,616
Kayla: Yeah, the handshake.

514
01:04:30,688 --> 01:04:43,070
Chris: Oh, yeah. You shook each person's hand. And so. Yeah. Even though you mentioned this on the show and you did the hand motion, I guess I just wasn't expecting someone to, like, immediately shake my hand that way.

515
01:04:43,110 --> 01:04:47,422
Kayla: I thought it was like a secret thing, and all of a sudden, it was like were wiggling. We're wiggling our hands.

516
01:04:47,526 --> 01:04:48,810
Chris: Yeah, a lot of wiggling.

517
01:04:50,230 --> 01:05:05,318
Kayla: After the greeting line we did. And I could have these stages mixed up, but I think this is how it went. After we did the greeting line was the reading of the cryptogram, which we have talked about, which did get heckled by the roosters, if you remember.

518
01:05:05,414 --> 01:05:14,518
Chris: Yeah. So you saying that you telling me about the roosters helped me understand. Like, there was. There were just people that were, like, I guess, dedicated to heckling, and it was, like, really funny.

519
01:05:14,574 --> 01:05:44,820
Kayla: It was great. I want to be a rooster. After that, there was the. We did have the club historian, Rachel Skit, who, again spoke, was gracious enough to speak to us for this episode. I got a lot of my history from her. She recited a poem and shared some things from the archives of the club. And I believe the poem was kind of talking about, like, you know, more goodness, less creed, more generosity, less greed kind of thing. If I remember.

520
01:05:45,240 --> 01:05:47,408
Chris: That rings a bell. But it was early in the morning.

521
01:05:47,464 --> 01:05:49,740
Kayla: So it was very early in the morning.

522
01:05:50,240 --> 01:05:56,336
Chris: Can I back you up here? You still haven't told me what the hell the cryptogram is. And they didn't explain it in the meeting.

523
01:05:56,408 --> 01:06:28,810
Kayla: They did not, which I loved. We will get to that. So after the announcements and after the poem and all of that, we finally got to the speaker of the day. The speaker for this meeting was Lara Gabrielle, who has written a book titled captain of her, the life of Marion Davies. And this is a biography of the early film actress Marian Davies, who was eventually partnered with, romantically partnered with William Randolph Hearst, who, as we learned, was a frequenter of the Los Angeles Breakfast Club.

524
01:06:28,890 --> 01:06:35,476
Chris: Yeah, I liked the tie in and also, like, I knew basically nothing about Marion Davies. So it was very interesting.

525
01:06:35,628 --> 01:06:46,620
Kayla: So that was kind of like the rundown. Once it ended, once the speaker ended, that kind of put us at 09:00 a.m. It was time to wrap up. As you heard, there was a board meeting going on. So were.

526
01:06:46,780 --> 01:06:49,940
Chris: We scurried around to get people's takes.

527
01:06:50,060 --> 01:07:22,030
Kayla: One of the takes that didn't. That. We did record this person speaking, but we didn't get this. We didn't get this statement, but one of the people we sat with who kind of helped guide us through the. The exercises of the day, described the Los Angeles breakfast Club as an exercise in earnestness. And I just. That one really stuck with me, and I. And I loved it. And I think it's a really great description, along with everything else that you heard from the folks that we spoke to about why they keep coming back and what this club means to them, that one just really stuck with me.

528
01:07:22,530 --> 01:08:04,156
Chris: Yeah, some of the things that stuck with me. First of all, before I forget, the gentleman on record that said that it was kind of like a summer camp, that definitely rang true for me. Like, that was a very good metaphor, comparison, whatever, because then you had the singing and you have the, like, getting up way too goddamn early. I don't know if you ever did summer. Did you do summer camp ever? I did, like, a Boy Scout summer camp. And, like, that was definitely part of it is like, getting up at the ass crack of dawn. Like, sometimes it was like, to go do actual, like, exercise y stuff, too. So I don't know, there's just a lot of elements that sort of, like, rang true to me there. Yeah. And then the sort of, like, goofy earnestness of it.

529
01:08:04,308 --> 01:08:23,729
Chris: Like, all of that kind of plays into that, like, summer camp trope. But it's for adults, it's like, you don't get to do summer camp again once you pass a certain age. So I think it's cool that this was like, yeah, there's some value to that. Right. There's some cool things that there's fun that we do as kids that we don't do as adults. And I, goddammit, we should do that more.

530
01:08:23,810 --> 01:08:25,642
Kayla: Yes, we should.

531
01:08:25,746 --> 01:08:49,265
Chris: And that feels like that was a big part of their sort of ethos. And I also spoke with another lady who didn't quite make it to record because they had to have the board meeting, but she also talked about, I think you mentioned this earlier, but how it's good to have this sort of access to community that ordinarily is monopolized by some sort of religious tradition.

532
01:08:49,337 --> 01:08:49,950
Kayla: Right.

533
01:08:51,290 --> 01:09:12,337
Chris: And so if you don't feel a closeness, for whatever reason, to some religious tradition, and there are many very good reasons for that, depending on who you are and where you come from. It's nice to still have access to that kind of community without having to take on that other baggage. So anyway, yeah, I thought that was another good point that I wanted to share.

534
01:09:12,434 --> 01:09:17,152
Kayla: Right. One of the only other places where we do sing in groups is at church, right?

535
01:09:17,256 --> 01:09:17,584
Chris: Yeah.

536
01:09:17,631 --> 01:09:18,576
Kayla: Church and concerts.

537
01:09:18,648 --> 01:09:22,432
Chris: Yep. Oh, that ties it into the ecstatic dance.

538
01:09:22,496 --> 01:09:23,184
Kayla: Yep.

539
01:09:23,352 --> 01:09:27,140
Chris: Sort of singing together. Right. I don't know.

540
01:09:27,720 --> 01:09:46,826
Kayla: So we, so that was kind of our experience. We had a really great experience. It was a lot of fun. We did. At one point when it was announced that were there, when the title of our podcast was announced, there was a ripple of laughter went through the room, which was. I really appreciated the recognition of, like, hahaha, we are weird and culty.

541
01:09:46,898 --> 01:09:47,170
Chris: Yeah.

542
01:09:47,210 --> 01:09:49,870
Kayla: And one person even yelled out, it's a cult.

543
01:09:50,609 --> 01:09:55,338
Chris: Yeah. My assumption was that was one of the roosters.

544
01:09:55,394 --> 01:09:56,350
Kayla: I think it was.

545
01:09:57,650 --> 01:10:08,146
Chris: But, yeah, I really appreciated that. I also. Sorry, just this came to mind, too. Part of what makes me want to go back is the sort of like, variety show nature of it.

546
01:10:08,178 --> 01:10:08,530
Kayla: Yeah.

547
01:10:08,610 --> 01:10:53,476
Chris: Right. Where it's like, it's not just breakfast, it's not just camaraderie, it's also singing. It's also the weird rituals. It's also. You get a speaker, you also get exercise. There's five or ten different things going on that all provide value. The speaker was. Yeah, definitely like a cherry on top there. I think one of the people we talked to, or one of the quotes you had was about how cool it was that there's a speaker every week. You know, that's another cool thing. Like, I guess we have TED talks as adults, but it just. Yeah, it feels like another thing that is sort of like, let's learn. Like, you're sort of cut off from that. At least the imperative to learn as an adult the way you are as a kid.

548
01:10:53,548 --> 01:11:16,466
Kayla: Well, the cool thing is that it's all manner of different speakers. So, like, yeah, one week you might get to talk to the biographer of Marian Davies. The next week, you are getting. So, for example, the next meeting that's coming up, the speaker is Adi Somik from inflatable planet. And this is a person who is, quote, recognized as one of the most innovative, prolific, and well traveled balloon artists in the world.

549
01:11:16,498 --> 01:11:18,898
Chris: Oh, my God. Can we go to that one? Is that the one next week?

550
01:11:18,954 --> 01:11:46,828
Kayla: That is next Wednesday. The week after that is talking about native gardens. And before that, you've had things like a Sci-Fi writer. You have somebody from the Forest Lawn Museum. You have somebody talking about Fleischer cartoons and their restorations. You have Los Angeles scavenger hunts. So just anything that you can kind of. There was an imagineering legend that came and gave a talk.

551
01:11:46,884 --> 01:11:53,960
Chris: Ooh, that's Disney engineer for those of you not. And actually, we have some Disney super fans that definitely know what imagineer is.

552
01:11:54,820 --> 01:12:06,222
Kayla: Council members from the local city council come and talk. People come and talk about magic castle, Casablanca. Anything that you can imagine, it could be a speaker at this club.

553
01:12:06,326 --> 01:12:16,302
Chris: Yeah. And I think that is another thing that kind of differentiates learning as a kid versus learning as an adult. Like, usually as an adult, everything has to have a purpose.

554
01:12:16,406 --> 01:12:16,742
Kayla: Right.

555
01:12:16,806 --> 01:12:47,892
Chris: Including our learning. Right. Like, if you're doing some sort of, like, adult learning, it's typically gonna be, well, I'm, you know, beefing up my skills for my resume. You know, I'm learning this for some. I'm learning coding because that'll help me earn money. What I like about this is that it kind of brings you back to that more childlike way that we learn, and it's just like, learning for the sheer joy of it. There's no specific purpose to, you know, I'm not gonna, like, beef up my resume because I know more about Marion Davies, but it does, like, tickle my brain.

556
01:12:47,956 --> 01:12:50,220
Kayla: Right, right. It's something that you never would have learned about otherwise.

557
01:12:50,300 --> 01:12:50,920
Chris: Right.

558
01:12:51,540 --> 01:13:35,930
Kayla: So I mentioned a few times that I was able to talk to Rachel Skitt, who is the club historian of the Los Angeles Breakfast Club. Current historian. She obviously has been knee deep in research and archives pertaining to the breakfast club. So a lot of what I shared with you today came from conversations and email exchanges with Rachel. I wanted to share some fun tidbits with you. So she was able to share a lot of footage and photos that they've dug up in their archiving process. So a lot of the stuff is now on YouTube or shared elsewhere on their social media, and we'll be able to share it as well in the show notes and also on our social media. So, for example, there is a video of Amelia Earhart. There is a video of an initiation in 1929.

559
01:13:36,470 --> 01:13:43,902
Kayla: There is footage and images from Calvin Coolidge's visit and his initiation as an honorary member.

560
01:13:44,006 --> 01:13:46,130
Chris: Dude, these are great.

561
01:13:47,150 --> 01:14:18,248
Kayla: There is footage and photos of the original Los Angeles Breakfast Club president, Maurice Demond. And I would like to see all of these general footage from those meetings. And Rachel was an incredible researcher and has shared with me all of the names of everybody that was involved in this. This included California governor Rolfe, Oklahoma Governor Murray, California senator Shortridge, Burton Holmes, inventor of the travelogue. All different kinds of.

562
01:14:18,344 --> 01:14:19,000
Chris: That's random.

563
01:14:19,040 --> 01:15:06,210
Kayla: Yeah. Turn of the century names. There is footage. There's video of Carl Lambley being announced as the new Los Angeles Breakfast Club president after Maurice Damon died. There is a. I have a news clipping of. It's called civic officials to ride Goat, of Breakfast Club. So, referring to riding the goat, this is from 1926. It also talked about a symbolic. They did a performance of Mister ham and Miss eggs getting married, and it was two performers in drag doing, like, a phony wedding for the two symbols. There are old photos. She has the. The earliest photo that they know of so far of the cryptogram once it was painted on the board, and that's from April 4, 1934. There are also.

564
01:15:06,250 --> 01:15:07,538
Chris: You still haven't told me what that is.

565
01:15:07,674 --> 01:15:41,408
Kayla: We'll get to that. There are also photos of where you can see the cryptogram, pieces of the cryptogram painted on the ceiling of the original clubhouse. So, again, we will share whatever we are able to share from what Rachel skit was able to send to me about all of these very historic, cool news clippings and newsreels about the Los Angeles Breakfast Club, which, again, it's not super well known in mainstream Los Angeles culture today, but it is a bedrock. This is bedrock LA history here.

566
01:15:41,504 --> 01:15:53,296
Chris: I've been here since 2007, and this is the first I've heard of it. Granted, since then, I have not woken up before 11:00 a.m. So maybe I'm not the, you know, the Venn diagram.

567
01:15:53,328 --> 01:16:25,012
Kayla: For that, but Rachel shared a little bit about how there seems to be some sort of, like, breakfast club magic. She said something like, the ghosts want their stories told. So a lot of the stuff that gets surfaced feels like serendipity is at play. Like, she will be like, I really want a photo of, like, I really want a photo of the cryptogram, like, back when we first got it in 1934. And then she'll be at, like, the swap meet. And this is, I'm making this story up, but it's, this is the kind of story that we're talking about. She'll randomly be at the swap meet and see a photo being sold of the cryptogram. The ghosts want their stories told.

568
01:16:25,196 --> 01:16:43,464
Chris: I love that. Yeah, that's a really good quote. And that kind of, it feels like that also applies to the, like, the randomness of. I forget what you said the name of the president was that discovered it and Lily Holloman. Yeah, yeah. That feels very, like, you know, things are on decline, so, like, we need to spark this with some, like, random encounter.

569
01:16:43,552 --> 01:17:11,274
Kayla: She also said a quote of all these people who were destined to meet and be friends. And it was like, something that happens, apparently, at breakfast club meetings is people will meet and realize, like, they've kind of been missed connections their whole lives. Like, so she and her boyfriend, for example, and again, Rachel, if you're listening and I've missed telling this story, please let me know. Attended meetings and meth other people and realized, like, oh, we've gone to every, like, every event you've gone to, we've gone to, and we'd never met before, and now we've met here and our friends.

570
01:17:11,402 --> 01:17:51,154
Kayla: And that also, kind of a similar weird thing happened to me when went in that you and I are standing in the line for getting our eggs, and all of a sudden, I hear, I won't say the person's name, but I hear a very recognizable name, and I go, huh? And it was the name of somebody who had been in a writing fellowship the year before me. So I had never met this person, but I knew of him. He was kind of, like, at least his name was kind of very legendarily known, had graduated the year before me. And I went, I have not met you, but I know who you are, and we're randomly crossing paths here. And he also was not often at the breakfast club he was attending because his partner was being initiated that day.

571
01:17:51,202 --> 01:18:09,622
Kayla: So it was a very chance meeting. It was like that weird breakfast club magic destined meeting, ghost stories told. So I'm just gonna go through some of these other just kind of interesting tidbits or cool things that Rachel shared with me. Before we get into our criteria.

572
01:18:09,726 --> 01:18:17,654
Chris: When you say breakfast club magic, I'm picturing, like, instead of fairy dust, somebody's just, like, sprinkling gross scrambled eggs all over somebody's face.

573
01:18:17,702 --> 01:18:18,574
Kayla: Bacon bits.

574
01:18:18,662 --> 01:18:19,770
Chris: Bacon bits.

575
01:18:21,950 --> 01:18:38,526
Kayla: I asked Rachel, like, what are some. We know the famous people who attended. So what are some maybe, like, maybe, what are some names that I might have missed? And apparently, the original Rin Tin may have visited the breakfast club. The dog. Yes. Original rin Tin.

576
01:18:38,598 --> 01:18:40,198
Chris: Is this like air bud, but for breakfast?

577
01:18:40,334 --> 01:19:12,058
Kayla: Yes. So that's amazing to me. Rudolph Valentino, the italian actor, was also a member. And unfortunately, he died less than a year and a half into the club starting. And there was a memorial service at the club. And now the Hollywood forever cemetery does a memorial service every year. At that original memorial service, the breakfast club made him a beautiful horseshoe wreath, including his name badge. So I will say that horseshoes are another symbol that's used often in the breakfast club. So the name badges always have this little horseshoe.

578
01:19:12,154 --> 01:19:13,466
Chris: Makes sense, given the origin.

579
01:19:13,578 --> 01:19:18,858
Kayla: There was a couple that got married at the Los Angeles Breakfast Club in 1931.

580
01:19:18,954 --> 01:19:19,498
Chris: That's cute.

581
01:19:19,554 --> 01:19:28,820
Kayla: And I believe the gentleman was one of the, like, Knott's Berry farm guys. Like, originally, they got married, like, on the radio show.

582
01:19:28,900 --> 01:19:31,108
Chris: See SoCal history man.

583
01:19:31,244 --> 01:19:39,276
Kayla: Sid Grauman was another attendee, Gloria Swanson. And you will like this. John Philip Souza attended.

584
01:19:39,388 --> 01:19:40,140
Chris: Okay.

585
01:19:40,300 --> 01:19:44,500
Kayla: Legendarily, this was the first time he got up for breakfast in 30 years.

586
01:19:44,540 --> 01:19:55,170
Chris: Oh, I do appreciate that. Yeah, that's kind of how I feel. Right, right. I'm like, I haven't had breakfast since I was, like, seven years old. Maybe I'll go again.

587
01:19:56,790 --> 01:20:47,070
Kayla: Here's an example of kind of breakfast club magic. Ghosts wanting their stories to be told. There was a time, I think it was this year, where the breakfast club was designing a special button that was, I think they were voting on designs, but one of the ideas was a special button dedicated to a very well known rooster back in the day named Francis Pat Shanley. So during this time, while the voting's going on and while they're designing this, Rachel went to something called the Arcadia Postcard show, or went to a postcard show in Arcadia, where, like, I don't know, people sell old postcards. Apparently, they'd found old breakfast club related postcards there in the past. So, like, very beautiful 1930s like illustrations of Los Angeles. She's there, and she's scouring through, and she looks, and she finds one that belonged to Francis Pat Shanley.

588
01:20:47,770 --> 01:20:48,630
Chris: Whoa.

589
01:20:49,090 --> 01:20:50,770
Kayla: And it was a postcard that he wrote.

590
01:20:50,850 --> 01:20:53,714
Chris: The guy. That's the famous Rooster. He wrote it.

591
01:20:53,762 --> 01:20:57,538
Kayla: Yeah, it was a postcard that he wrote.

592
01:20:57,674 --> 01:20:58,426
Chris: That's pretty wild.

593
01:20:58,498 --> 01:21:16,854
Kayla: Yeah, I have. I'm looking at it right now. It says Francis Patrick Shanley on it. So just. Yeah, it's signed Pat Shanley. So as they're talking about this kind of, like, legendary person, this piece of memorabilia from his life fell into the hands of the breakfast club historian.

594
01:21:16,982 --> 01:21:17,782
Chris: Weird.

595
01:21:17,966 --> 01:21:32,130
Kayla: Another cool story is, as Rachel's been doing some of this archive work, she found a photo of a man named Martin Itchen on the sawhorse. On ham the sawhorse. And he was known as the most famous man in Skagway, Alaska.

596
01:21:32,790 --> 01:21:33,890
Chris: I've been there.

597
01:21:34,590 --> 01:21:52,872
Kayla: He went on a Hollywood tour in 1935 and visited the breakfast club. And obviously that's where he sat on Hamdan. And so she was, like, trying to track down, you know, why the fuck was Martin Itchen here? Can I get confirmation? Can we, like, talk about this? And she would call Skagway and be like, hello, can I please talk to somebody about Martin Itchin?

598
01:21:52,896 --> 01:21:54,104
Chris: She called the town Skagway.

599
01:21:54,152 --> 01:22:25,954
Kayla: She called the town of Skagway. Eventually, like, got in touch with historians there, and apparently the historian there had been, unbeknownst to the breakfast club here, had been obsessed with figuring out who ham the sawhorse is. Had this pictures of Martin Itchen on ham the sawhorse, and was like, what is this? What is this? So up in Skagway, there's a mystery about Martin Itchen. Down here in Los Angeles Breakfast Club, there's a mystery about Martin Itchin. And they. They solved it like two pieces of the same hole.

600
01:22:26,082 --> 01:22:28,362
Chris: That's crazy. Yeah, I love that.

601
01:22:28,426 --> 01:22:28,810
Kayla: Yeah.

602
01:22:28,890 --> 01:22:32,130
Chris: Yeah. Those two pieces that. You know what they were? They were twin flames.

603
01:22:32,210 --> 01:22:58,624
Kayla: They were twin flames. And just knowing that the breakfast club reached as far as Skagway, Alaska, and probably even further, Rachel shared with me that the Los Angeles Breakfast Club may have been part of something that she referred to as LA boosterism, as trying to prove that LA was a proper city with culture and political power. Because again, back in 1925, it wasn't. Yeah, it was known as a backwater town. It really was.

604
01:22:58,672 --> 01:22:59,226
Chris: I know, I know.

605
01:22:59,288 --> 01:23:01,990
Kayla: Was out in the west. It was not New York.

606
01:23:02,110 --> 01:23:04,950
Chris: Right. And now we're known as a backwater town that has Hollywood.

607
01:23:04,990 --> 01:23:24,038
Kayla: There you go. So speaking of the LA boosterism, she shared a quote with me that was attributed to doctor, Giannini. I believe this person was the chairman of the executive committee of the bank of America, and he was a new resident of Los Angeles after leaving New York City.

608
01:23:24,174 --> 01:23:24,910
Chris: When was this?

609
01:23:24,990 --> 01:24:04,398
Kayla: This was in 1931, so November of 1931. And when he addressed the Breakfast club, he had this to say. It's a long quote, but it's worth it. If America is the heart of the world, California is the outpouring of its soul. Learn to know your city and to know what a great city it is, you must leave it occasionally. So it is good for me to be back home, for home is where the heart is, and my heart has always been in California. Every city is known by voices. The voice of Los Angeles is the voice of eternal springtime, the voice of childhood at play, the voice of hope and charity, where hurts are healed and the needy clothed and fed. Looking back at 2023, we're working on it, but okay.

610
01:24:04,574 --> 01:24:14,170
Kayla: You should be so enthusiastic about your city that you will advise your best friends in the rest of the world to sell their shirts, if necessary, just to visit Los Angeles. End quote.

611
01:24:14,510 --> 01:24:21,306
Chris: Okay. As angelino and a fan of Los Angeles, regardless, that definitely appeals to me.

612
01:24:21,378 --> 01:24:21,826
Kayla: Same.

613
01:24:21,938 --> 01:24:35,986
Chris: And I think it. It appeals to me in an authentic way. Like, I like what he said about the, you know, like, playfulness and eternal spring time of the childhood of the soul child, soul thing. Anyway, I liked it.

614
01:24:36,018 --> 01:24:53,908
Kayla: The quote spoke to me as well. I think that we have a lot of ideals to live up to, such as particularly feeding and clothing our poor and needy. We do not do a very good job with that these days. There's always more for us to strive towards. But that's kind of what I have for you on the breakfast club today. So are you ready to talk criteria?

615
01:24:54,004 --> 01:24:58,652
Chris: Yeah. Is it a cult or just weird? I mean, the guy at the club said that it was a cult that.

616
01:24:58,676 --> 01:25:01,180
Kayla: One guy did, but then that other guy you spoke to said weird.

617
01:25:01,220 --> 01:25:32,478
Chris: That's right. He said it was just weird. I guess we need to do the criteria. Actually, before we get into the criteria, I do have one more meta comment that I've been thinking about vis a vis the criteria and our experience with this particular club, and also just sort of our general theme this season. And it's just that, like, I feel this unavoidable bias by participating. Like, I feel like there's this.

618
01:25:32,494 --> 01:25:35,926
Kayla: Oh, you go, and you're like, oh, I'm in the cult now. It's just weird.

619
01:25:35,958 --> 01:25:37,170
Chris: Yeah, exactly.

620
01:25:37,650 --> 01:25:46,898
Kayla: I had so much fun dancing. I had so much fun going to the source family screening at the philosophical research society. I was like, yeah, these are great, right?

621
01:25:46,954 --> 01:26:29,338
Chris: And so I definitely, like, there's this dichotomy. There's this balance between, like, participation definitely gives you a much greater insight, and especially, like, a person to person, like, in this case, much greater personal insight, because we got to talk to so many people, right? And we got to get their experiences and our experiences, and those are all contributing to, like, a much better understanding of this thing. And also, is there, like, a bias that comes in that makes me, like, these places too much? I mean, like, in this case, I think it's fine because it's just, like, it's a nice club that's basically just summer camp for adults. But I don't know, it just made me wonder about, do I.

622
01:26:29,434 --> 01:26:41,030
Chris: Or, like, are we at risk of having too much bias by doing it this way, or is that just, like, a common thing that happens with anybody that participates in their subject matter?

623
01:26:41,150 --> 01:27:19,628
Kayla: Yeah, I think that there's, you know, maybe it gives you too much bias. Does it also give you far more context? Like, there's a reason why some journalists will write a piece similar to how you and I have done episodes in the past where you're purely on the outside getting quotes, talking to people, doing research. And then there's also. There are also journalistic endeavors where it's like, I spent four days with this person, or I went to this thing and participated with myself. I put a fursuit on. I did like, the experiential journalism. Yeah, I think there's probably a balance there. It gives you more context. But do you run the risk of missing red flags?

624
01:27:19,764 --> 01:27:28,934
Chris: Yeah. Yeah. That's just kind of what's on my mind. I don't think that they were at any risk of that with this particular topic, but it definitely made me think of it just because of how much I was like, this is great.

625
01:27:29,132 --> 01:27:35,938
Kayla: I think that we should go to something objectively bad and destructive and see our experiences.

626
01:27:36,074 --> 01:27:40,658
Chris: Honestly, I think that's not a bad idea. All right, charismatic leader.

627
01:27:40,714 --> 01:28:18,436
Kayla: Charismatic leader. So my thing with this is that I don't think there is one, but it does seem like the presidents do tend to be charismatic leaders. Maurice demand. The first president was able to get this fucking thing off the ground by saying, like. Like, hey, give me 100. Everybody. Give me $100. You liked my friend's stories. You liked this band that I hired. Like, we're gonna make this happen. And he led the breakfast club for six years. The two presidents that we have learned about recently, one reinvigorated the club back from almost nothing. You saw how Nora Vetter led the meeting that we attended. Like, could not have more.

628
01:28:18,468 --> 01:28:19,420
Chris: She was running around.

629
01:28:19,540 --> 01:28:23,984
Kayla: She was amazing. So I think that there are a number of charismatic leaders.

630
01:28:24,132 --> 01:28:40,700
Chris: Okay, I guess I'm gonna say medium, like, on the higher side here, because I don't feel like it's a situation where the charismatic leader is exerting any sort of, like, you know, undue influence, as you might call it.

631
01:28:41,520 --> 01:28:48,740
Kayla: It's not a Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh thing. It's not a Charles Manson thing. It's not a whatever the self realization fellowship guy's name was.

632
01:28:49,160 --> 01:28:50,352
Chris: I don't remember his name.

633
01:28:50,456 --> 01:28:52,540
Kayla: Yeah. That's why I said it that way.

634
01:28:53,140 --> 01:28:53,708
Chris: But yeah.

635
01:28:53,764 --> 01:28:55,956
Kayla: Oh, it's not Parmahansa Yogananda.

636
01:28:55,988 --> 01:28:56,564
Chris: That's his name.

637
01:28:56,612 --> 01:28:56,980
Kayla: Yeah.

638
01:28:57,060 --> 01:29:10,156
Chris: Yeah, I agree. I think that it's present. There's definitely charisma happening, but I don't feel like the charisma is being leveraged in a way that you would normally associate with a cult leader.

639
01:29:10,308 --> 01:29:11,480
Kayla: Expected harm.

640
01:29:13,140 --> 01:29:20,794
Chris: Okay, again, going back to my bias, I, having participated in this, now, I am definitely biased towards saying that the expected harm is negative.

641
01:29:20,932 --> 01:29:22,250
Kayla: Yeah, I think it's expected.

642
01:29:23,070 --> 01:29:25,414
Chris: Not harm help, expected fun.

643
01:29:25,502 --> 01:29:48,536
Kayla: I mean, everybody that we talked to had that experience. I didn't see anything. You know, usually you can find some sort of. You know, if we're talking about a destructive group or a group that has destructive tendencies, you can find message boards or subreddits that are talking about this. I didn't see anything being like, the Los Angeles breakfast Club is secretly ruining people's lives. I didn't see anything like that. So the best information we have says that the expected harm is negative.

644
01:29:48,648 --> 01:29:51,384
Chris: Guys, if there was a juicy scandal, we definitely would have said it in the episode.

645
01:29:51,432 --> 01:29:52,672
Kayla: I mean, there was the schism.

646
01:29:52,856 --> 01:30:01,728
Chris: Yeah, that's true. That's not harm. That's just merely juicy. Okay. Yeah. So this is, like, negative presence of ritual.

647
01:30:01,864 --> 01:30:03,940
Kayla: That's very high, high.

648
01:30:05,320 --> 01:30:20,032
Chris: As we have said, seemingly, like, the majority of times on, like, so many times on this show. It feels like the presence of ritual is really what gets things in the door. Like, that's what catches your attention. That's what makes it a topic for discussion for this show?

649
01:30:20,096 --> 01:30:20,464
Kayla: Right?

650
01:30:20,552 --> 01:30:21,864
Chris: And this is no different.

651
01:30:21,992 --> 01:30:26,936
Kayla: We got the handshakes. We got the initiations. We got the oil cans, the shovels. We got.

652
01:30:27,008 --> 01:30:29,576
Chris: Got the cryptogram. You won't tell me about Instagram.

653
01:30:29,608 --> 01:30:34,064
Kayla: We got all of this ritual, ritual. Niche within society.

654
01:30:34,232 --> 01:30:36,512
Chris: Oh, yeah. This is niche within niche.

655
01:30:36,576 --> 01:30:42,378
Kayla: At one time, it was not. At one time, it was, like, cornerstone of Los Angeles culture, but now it is very niche.

656
01:30:42,474 --> 01:31:14,880
Chris: Yeah. Okay. Okay. So it was, like, well known back in, I guess, if Ronald Reagan was a member. Okay. Yeah. Now it's niche. So I would say hi. But again, that only makes it a cult versus a religion if we decide, yes, antifactuality. I don't know. They bring in speakers to talk about real stuff. I almost feel like that makes that negative, too. Then again, it's not really about facts. It's more about logical fallacies, closed loops, that kind of thing.

657
01:31:15,500 --> 01:31:17,300
Kayla: Did not see the presence of that at all.

658
01:31:17,380 --> 01:31:34,122
Chris: Yeah, I didn't see any, like. Yeah, yeah. There was no, like, typical example of this is any evidence to debunk something that the group believes in is used as an example that the conspiracy is trying out there, trying to get you. There was nothing even remotely close like that here.

659
01:31:34,266 --> 01:31:36,194
Kayla: So no antifactual.

660
01:31:36,282 --> 01:31:36,950
Chris: Yeah.

661
01:31:37,250 --> 01:31:39,066
Kayla: Percentage of life consumed?

662
01:31:39,258 --> 01:31:44,114
Chris: Well, it's one morning every week, so we could probably calculate that.

663
01:31:44,202 --> 01:32:00,362
Kayla: You probably could. It's probably higher for, like, if you are club president, if you are club historian, if you are a member of the board, it's probably higher if you've taken on some sort of leadership role, because that always tends to be very life consuming. But as just a general member. Yeah. One day a week.

664
01:32:00,466 --> 01:32:03,738
Chris: Yeah. And the leadership. And it's all volunteers, including the leadership roles.

665
01:32:03,794 --> 01:32:04,010
Kayla: Right.

666
01:32:04,050 --> 01:32:19,882
Chris: So. So I'd say this is pretty low. Dogmatic beliefs, do they have beliefs? I guess they have the, like, golden rule, golden shovel, golden hard hat, golden jockstra. What else they have? What is it?

667
01:32:19,906 --> 01:32:23,538
Kayla: Golden shovel, oil can, golden rule, golden shovel, buried hatchet.

668
01:32:23,594 --> 01:32:31,360
Chris: Right, right. I I don't even know if those constitute beliefs so much as motifs. It's definitely something that ends in Eve.

669
01:32:31,480 --> 01:32:35,368
Kayla: I don't think it's dogmatic to have the golden rule as one of your guiding principles.

670
01:32:35,424 --> 01:32:38,480
Chris: No, no. And there's not a lot of, like, everybody else is wrong.

671
01:32:38,560 --> 01:32:53,552
Kayla: I mean, even, like, the things that you could say maybe lean more towards dogmatic, such as, like, asking the pledge of allegiance to be said. They couched that in not dogmatic beliefs. They surrounded that with context. That was not dogmatic.

672
01:32:53,616 --> 01:32:56,986
Chris: Right. It's not blind jingoism. It's like love for an ideal.

673
01:32:57,098 --> 01:32:57,790
Kayla: Yeah.

674
01:32:58,130 --> 01:33:00,722
Chris: Okay, so, low zero.

675
01:33:00,826 --> 01:33:02,030
Kayla: Chain of victims.

676
01:33:02,330 --> 01:33:07,430
Chris: Chain of victims. Well, this is. This strikes me now as a bit of a loaded question.

677
01:33:08,450 --> 01:33:09,282
Kayla: Yeah. Chain of victims.

678
01:33:09,306 --> 01:33:10,162
Chris: Chain of something.

679
01:33:10,306 --> 01:33:11,426
Kayla: Chain of humans.

680
01:33:11,618 --> 01:33:13,442
Chris: Maybe we should change it to chain of recruits.

681
01:33:13,506 --> 01:33:14,034
Kayla: Yeah.

682
01:33:14,162 --> 01:33:26,444
Chris: I don't know. I felt. I didn't not feel welcome. Like, I felt, like, aggressively welcomed, but I didn't feel, like, recruited. Does that make sense?

683
01:33:26,572 --> 01:33:27,028
Kayla: Right?

684
01:33:27,124 --> 01:33:34,852
Chris: Like, I felt like, yeah, you should totally come back because it's great. Not like, hey, you have to. You should join this thing, and you're part of my downline.

685
01:33:34,916 --> 01:33:37,316
Kayla: And it felt like a non threatening church in that way.

686
01:33:37,388 --> 01:33:37,716
Chris: Yeah.

687
01:33:37,788 --> 01:33:44,348
Kayla: Good. You know, lots to be said, but a good religious institution will not make you feel, like, hounded into joining. And that kind of.

688
01:33:44,364 --> 01:33:47,240
Chris: I hope that they're listening and they hear, aggressively welcomed.

689
01:33:47,700 --> 01:33:51,120
Kayla: Aggressively welcomed in a really nice way. I really had a good time.

690
01:33:51,870 --> 01:33:52,318
Chris: Yeah.

691
01:33:52,374 --> 01:34:00,438
Kayla: You heard that guy in the beginning of the Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times story where he was like, these are my best friends that I've ever made. I haven't had a hard time making friends in the autumn of my life.

692
01:34:00,534 --> 01:34:12,870
Chris: Yeah. Yeah. But there's definitely a chain there, though, right? Like, I wouldn't say it's victims, but there's definitely, like, a, you know, so and so got me into it, and I loved it, and so now I'm telling you how cool it is. So hopefully you'll join us.

693
01:34:12,990 --> 01:34:14,518
Kayla: Medium. Chain of recruits is medium.

694
01:34:14,574 --> 01:34:15,382
Chris: Chain of recruits. Medium.

695
01:34:15,406 --> 01:34:16,406
Kayla: I think we have to change it.

696
01:34:16,478 --> 01:34:17,598
Chris: Change of recruit. Okay.

697
01:34:17,694 --> 01:34:24,278
Kayla: Because if we. Cause we call it chain of victims, that makes it so that we can't. Something that has a chain of positives can't be.

698
01:34:24,374 --> 01:34:24,894
Chris: Can't. Yeah.

699
01:34:24,942 --> 01:34:26,646
Kayla: Can't fall under this criteria. Right.

700
01:34:26,798 --> 01:34:28,582
Chris: It should be a neutral. Yeah, exactly.

701
01:34:28,646 --> 01:34:33,610
Kayla: Chain of recruits, safe or unsafe exit is our final. Our final criteria.

702
01:34:34,710 --> 01:34:36,942
Chris: I left the building pretty safely.

703
01:34:37,046 --> 01:34:38,330
Kayla: Correct. Same.

704
01:34:39,750 --> 01:34:43,692
Chris: You know, I peed because I had. I had my coffee and then I left.

705
01:34:43,846 --> 01:34:44,416
Kayla: Yeah.

706
01:34:44,528 --> 01:34:45,520
Chris: And I felt safe.

707
01:34:45,600 --> 01:34:46,220
Kayla: Same.

708
01:34:47,040 --> 01:34:53,904
Chris: But in all honesty, like, yeah. I don't know, like, it. I didn't get any stories of, like, yeah, my brother left, and, like, we shunned him.

709
01:34:53,992 --> 01:34:54,608
Kayla: Yeah.

710
01:34:54,744 --> 01:34:55,424
Chris: Like, there was.

711
01:34:55,512 --> 01:35:27,680
Kayla: You know, I didn't read any stories of, like, the membership declined, and so the leaders, like, clamped down with an iron fist to try and, like, keep as many people as they could and, like, cut them off from their families. Like, it didn't yeah, yeah. I didn't get that sense of anything like that occurring with this group. It was just kind of like people come and tend to stay now because it's like, you know, we talked to Nora Vedder, the president, like, she's come every week ever since moving here. We talked to Rachel skit, who came to a meeting and has gone back to every meeting for, like, four years. This is something that people want to keep coming back to.

712
01:35:27,720 --> 01:35:34,744
Kayla: But it does seem like if it falls off, if you are unable to make the meetings, you're not going to be shunned, criticized, removed from.

713
01:35:34,792 --> 01:35:37,118
Chris: Lose all your friends. Yeah. Yeah.

714
01:35:37,264 --> 01:35:52,394
Kayla: So, okay, let's go through. So high charismatic leader, medium to high, low expected harm, high presence of ritual, high niche within society, low antifactuality, low life consumption, low dogmatic beliefs, low chain of victims, low safe or unsafe exit.

715
01:35:52,562 --> 01:35:54,058
Chris: Actually, it's negative harm.

716
01:35:54,154 --> 01:35:54,562
Kayla: Negative harm.

717
01:35:54,586 --> 01:35:56,418
Chris: People are saying it's like, presence of fun.

718
01:35:56,594 --> 01:35:58,946
Kayla: So is this a cult or is it just weird?

719
01:35:59,018 --> 01:36:11,010
Chris: I think that lands pretty squarely and just weird, which just weird. Absolutely anticipated. I'm really sorry to the guy that yelled out, we're a cult. If you'd like to make your case, we'll have you on the show for sure.

720
01:36:11,130 --> 01:36:11,874
Kayla: Bonus content.

721
01:36:11,962 --> 01:36:24,670
Chris: Bonus content. But, yeah, it's definitely just weird with cult like rituals, which is, I think we see a lot with these more positive type groups.

722
01:36:25,010 --> 01:36:25,674
Kayla: Agreed.

723
01:36:25,762 --> 01:36:32,614
Chris: I will definitely. I definitely want to go back if I can, if I am capable physically.

724
01:36:32,702 --> 01:36:34,190
Kayla: Could you just stay up all night?

725
01:36:34,350 --> 01:36:35,430
Chris: Oh, that I could do.

726
01:36:35,470 --> 01:36:40,550
Kayla: Yeah. Los Angeles breakfast Club. Just weird. You heard it here.

727
01:36:40,670 --> 01:36:43,934
Chris: Okay. But there's still something that we haven't covered.

728
01:36:43,982 --> 01:36:54,310
Kayla: Hold on. Thank you to club president Nora Vetter, who arranged our visit to the Los Angeles Breakfast Club. And of course, to club historian Rachel Skitt for sharing so much historical magic about this group.

729
01:36:54,390 --> 01:36:56,182
Chris: And thank you so much to everyone we talked to.

730
01:36:56,246 --> 01:37:05,598
Kayla: Absolutely. A big thank you to every member of. Of LAbC who made us feel so welcome at the event. We didn't even say this, but your parents also came with us, and they.

731
01:37:05,614 --> 01:37:11,038
Chris: Had, like, such a good time. It was actually really fun, like, watching them, like, get into the sea shanty and everything.

732
01:37:11,094 --> 01:37:25,462
Kayla: Very welcomed in. And, like, your parents do have similar community to this. They are very active in their church, and so it was cool to see them find some of those similar community oriented things in this non church group. I thought that was cool.

733
01:37:25,566 --> 01:37:30,352
Chris: Yeah. Yeah. If we didn't talk to you, then I'm not thanking you. Screw you. Guys, I can't believe you didn't talk to us.

734
01:37:30,376 --> 01:37:49,264
Kayla: Stop. Thank you. Thank you. Even if you didn't talk to us. I also want to thank the Los Angeles Times, KCET, Friends of Griffith Park, Atlas Obscura, Alta Online, and the LA Daily Mirror for their articles about Los Angeles breakfast club that made this episode possible. And with that. What?

735
01:37:49,312 --> 01:37:49,760
Chris: No.

736
01:37:49,880 --> 01:37:57,508
Kayla: Oh. Oh. I guess there's one more thing I should share before we sign off, because you haven't figured it out yet. You have not figured out the true meaning of the cryptogram yet, have you?

737
01:37:57,604 --> 01:38:00,324
Chris: Yeah, it's like the true meaning of Christmas.

738
01:38:00,452 --> 01:38:05,260
Kayla: All right, I'll read it one more time. Fvnem. Svfm.

739
01:38:05,340 --> 01:38:06,180
Chris: This is not helping.

740
01:38:06,260 --> 01:38:09,412
Kayla: Fvnex. Svfx.

741
01:38:09,596 --> 01:38:12,540
Chris: Vfx. Oh, it's about visual effects.

742
01:38:12,580 --> 01:38:14,524
Kayla: Oh, I see. Vf Mnx.

743
01:38:14,612 --> 01:38:24,808
Chris: Okay. The OIC part makes me a little sus. Like, is it. Is it one of those things where it's like, oh, I see. What do you call those with the letters or the words sound like words?

744
01:38:24,904 --> 01:38:34,580
Kayla: I don't know, but I will. I'll break this down for you. F v n e m. F v n e m f v N E. Hem.

745
01:38:35,200 --> 01:38:39,248
Chris: Okay, that doesn't sound like.

746
01:38:39,264 --> 01:38:51,086
Kayla: Have we any ham? I've heard from elsewhere that, like, maybe it's supposed to be kind of, like, poking fun at the way, like, a yemenite. A swedish person's accent might come through if they.

747
01:38:51,118 --> 01:38:53,078
Chris: Oh, cool. So we're making fun of foreigners. That's great.

748
01:38:53,174 --> 01:38:54,758
Kayla: I mean, swedish ones.

749
01:38:54,894 --> 01:39:01,326
Chris: Excuse me. A, we have. We actually have swedish listeners. And b, I'm of swedish descent.

750
01:39:01,398 --> 01:39:02,690
Kayla: Same baby.

751
01:39:03,950 --> 01:39:05,166
Chris: Okay, fine.

752
01:39:05,358 --> 01:39:11,110
Kayla: Fvnem, have we any ham? Svfm. Svfm.

753
01:39:11,230 --> 01:39:12,326
Chris: Svfm.

754
01:39:12,398 --> 01:39:13,390
Kayla: Yes, we have him.

755
01:39:13,510 --> 01:39:15,094
Chris: That almost sounds like more german.

756
01:39:15,142 --> 01:39:19,054
Kayla: Maybe it's german. I don't know. Making fun of some of those people.

757
01:39:19,142 --> 01:39:21,606
Chris: I am very sorry to all of our european listeners.

758
01:39:21,678 --> 01:39:26,358
Kayla: That may not be true. That is something that I heard not related to breakfast club lore.

759
01:39:26,454 --> 01:39:27,206
Chris: Oh, okay.

760
01:39:27,278 --> 01:39:47,810
Kayla: That this cryptogram actually has come up in other places since it was originated in the breakfast club. Like, it came up in television. And I just saw a TikTok about it, and Rachel was telling me that sometimes the breakfast club gets accused of, like, stealing this from the other places that it crops up, and it's like, no, this. We have pictures of it from 1925.

761
01:39:47,850 --> 01:39:48,706
Chris: Oh, that's interesting.

762
01:39:48,738 --> 01:39:52,402
Kayla: Yeah. Fvnex. Have we any eggs?

763
01:39:52,466 --> 01:39:53,570
Chris: Eggs. X. Eggs.

764
01:39:53,610 --> 01:40:00,842
Kayla: Yes, we have eggs. Svfx. Oh, I see. Vhef hem and x. V f v.

765
01:40:00,866 --> 01:40:02,802
Chris: F m n x okay.

766
01:40:02,866 --> 01:40:06,010
Kayla: Fvnem, have we any ham? Svfm yes, we have ham.

767
01:40:06,050 --> 01:40:06,394
Chris: Okay.

768
01:40:06,442 --> 01:40:14,030
Kayla: Fvnex, have we any eggs? Svfx yes, we have eggs. OIc, VFM and X OIc we have ham and eggs.

769
01:40:15,130 --> 01:40:19,154
Chris: This is ham, this is eggs. And this has been.

770
01:40:19,242 --> 01:40:31,750
Kayla: I have one more thing to say. I think that this cryptogram perfectly exemplifies the vibe and ethos of the Los Angeles breakfast club. A little quirky, a little kitschy, a little silly, and entirely wholesome.

771
01:40:32,610 --> 01:40:36,800
Chris: This has been cult or just breakfast?

772
01:40:37,540 --> 01:40:38,220
Kayla: Breakfast or just.