Free Naked at Lunch by Mark Haskell Smith

began to grow, and fear of infiltration by Scotland Yard became a real concern, Booth spun off a splinter faction of core members that called itself the Moonella Group. It was an exclusive club—there were only about a dozen members—but they were committed to nonsexual social nudism and began to hold weekly meetings at the Essex estate of one of their female members.
    Early nudists loved to write manifestos, create rules and regulations, and otherwise codify their intentions in written documents, and the Moonella Group was no different. Fueled by what I can only call paranoia, the members drafted the “Resolution of the Moonella Group for the Due Ordering of Its Affairs,” which swore participants to secrecy. Not only were they not allowed to tell anyone about the existence of the group, but they weren’t allowed to divulge who the other members were, going so far as to give themselves “gymnic names” when they joined. I guess the first rule of a nudist club is no one talks about the nudist club.
    Naturally they had a secret handshake.
    It’s easy to mock the paranoid behavior of early nudist groups, but it helps to keep in mind that in 1925 there were public decency laws on the books and a nudist could easily have been sentenced to prison for cavorting in the buff outdoors, especially if men and women were naked together. Not only was the idea of naked men and women enjoying sunshine together illegal and scandalous, but there were fears that nudists were either communists or, as revealed in Nesta H. Webster’s ludicrous shit-stirrer The Socialist Network , part of the German-Russian-Jewish-led international conspiracy against Christianity.
    Eventually Booth and the others looked to set up a more permanent camp for their philosophizing and purchased some land near Bricket Wood outside of London. The “camp,” as it was known, was established in 1927 and formally named the Fouracres Club. Over time it evolved into the Fiveacres Club. ******** It was the first nudist camp established in England and is still, eighty-seven years later, a functioning nudist retreat center. I wonder what Booth and the other early gymnosophists would’ve said when Pink Floyd played there on Guy Fawkes Night in 1966.
    …
    The French have long loved fashion, and they weren’t about to be left out of this new clothing-optional fad. So in 1927, a couple of brothers, the naturopaths and physicians Gaston and André Durville, founded the Société Naturiste, and shortly thereafter published Fais Ton Corps ( Make Your Body ), a book that looked at the curative effects of sunshine, fresh air, and a healthy vegetarian diet. Like Ungewitter and other naturists at the time, they believed urban living was the cause of many of the diseases that were afflicting people and, like Ungewitter’s, the brothers’ books were bestsellers. As their popularity increased, they began publishing a biweekly magazine called Naturisme , and leased an island in the Seine at Villennes-sur-Seine that they called Physiopolis.
    Although the brothers would’ve preferred a fully nude retreat, there was pressure from the local police and the French minister of public health to keep breasts and genitals covered. Men wore shorts and women wore bras and panties. Jan Gay, author of On Going Naked , visited Villennes in 1931 and said, “Without being too harsh, one can call this island a pseudo-naked French Coney Island.” 25 Which is actually kind of harsh.
    Another group sprung up about the same time as a counterpoint to the Durville brothers. The Amis de Vivre (Friends of Living) didn’t go in for vegetarianism or abstaining from alcohol; they ate pâté, drank wine, and smoked cigarettes—in other words, they were French—but they did it in the nude. A collection of doctors, writers, and professors, they weren’t especially dogmatic about their pursuits; they just thought being naked was the most important part of nudism.
    As you would guess from the name, the