California Club Hints Readiness to Integrate

Leaders of the elite California Club are now indicating to public officials that they are willing to integrate the club with women and blacks in the near future, but, in exchange, they also are seeking a delay or an amendment to a proposed Los Angeles ordinance that would outlaw discriminatory membership policies at most large private clubs.

In another development, the exclusive Friars Club in Beverly Hills has inducted widely known attorney Gloria Allred as its first woman regular member.

Several California Club members interviewed in recent days said that the club’s directors have discussed the integration of the club and that a variety of approaches are being made quietly in an attempt to get the ordinance, sponsored by Councilwoman Joy Picus, clarified to make clear that the clubs will still be able to exclude persons they regard as socially undesirable.

Hope for a Delay

The members, who spoke on condition that they not be identified, said that the club would vastly prefer that the Picus ordinance--and a move in the state Franchise Tax Board to end business tax exemptions for dues and meals paid for at discriminatory clubs--be delayed indefinitely.

But this is now regarded as unlikely.

Picus said last week that she intends to proceed with the ordinance without any change in its language. It is scheduled to come before the full City Council today, and Picus said she has received assurances from an aide to Mayor Tom Bradley that Bradley will sign it if it is adopted.

In addition, Conway Collis, chairman of the state Board of Equalization, said he will go ahead with his move to bar the business tax exemptions.

Collis said he has been talking periodically with two ranking California Club members--attorneys John C. Argue and Charles G. Bakaly Jr.--about conditions under which the club might follow its downtown neighbor, the Jonathan Club, in planning to integrate its membership.

Collis said he had told them that he would favor clarifying the proposed discrimination bans to make it clear that the clubs would still have the right to exclude persons the organizations regard as socially undesirable, as long as they did not do so for reasons of gender, race, religion or ethnicity.

Bradley’s legal counsel, Mark Fabiani, said last week that Bradley also might be willing to see the ordinance clarified in such a way.

Bakaly did not return telephone calls seeking comment, and Argue, while returning calls, would not speak on the record.

But California Club members who were interviewed said the club’s latest position is that it is willing to integrate, as long as it can do it quietly and over a “reasonable” time span.

‘Glare of Publicity’

“We don’t want the glare of publicity the Jonathan Club has had,” one member said. “We’re certainly not going to call a news conference.”

The Jonathan Club membership recently voted by a 4-1 margin to admit women, although no announcement of such admission has been made as yet.

Collis said he believes that too much time has elapsed and there is too much public interest in the issue for the club to do it quietly. He said in his discussions with Jonathan Club representatives that he has been seeking a public announcement that it will integrate.

Members said that the club’s board of directors met May 8 for a discussion of the integration issue and that while no announcement of the results had been made to the general membership, there were rumors that it had approved a poll, similar to one recently held by the Jonathan Club, on the question of admitting women.

Approval of Poll Denied

However, this was denied by one of the board members, Gordon B. Crary Jr., who told The Times that he was not present for the entire May 8 discussion but was certain that he would have been informed had anything of the sort been done while he was out of the room. Three other board members, reached by telephone, declined comment.

Unlike the Jonathan Club, which more than a decade ago removed a provision in its bylaws formally barring women, the California Club must still formally change its bylaws to admit woman. This requires a meeting or a vote of the membership, either of which can only be undertaken with 30 days notice.

At the Friars Club, meanwhile, club President Milton Berle said at the ceremony inducting Allred as a member: “This is the first time in our 32-year history a woman has applied. We hope many more will apply and make the club even more exciting than it is today.”

Allred, replying at the luncheon ceremony, declared:

“The Friars Club took this action without being compelled to do so by a city ordinance, a lawsuit, or even the threat of a lawsuit. Their action shows leadership, courage, imagination and good will. . . .

“Other all-male private clubs such as the Jonathan Club and the California Club should act quickly to follow the lead of the Friars Club in admitting women, rather than taking the position of waiting to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th Century. Equality is more important than exclusivity, and the right to human dignity is more important than a so-called right to discriminate.”