Baldheaded Club

Once upon a time in Canaan, a perpetually humorous man named John A. Rodemeyer presided over the editorial columns of the Connecticut Western News. The newspaper recorded the comings and goings of the region from 1871 to the early 1980s and the young Rodemeyer learned his journalistic skills in its offices soon after it was established.

He left Canaan, disappointed in love, only to return 30 years later after an illustrious newspaper career in other Connecticut towns, taking over the reins as editor of his hometown paper. He also resumed his relationship with his lost love, now a widow, marrying her in 1913.

In 1912 while in the editorial offices of the News, Rodemeyer, by now shorn of his own youthful locks, saw a picture of six local men—a Mr Belden, A Pope Chapman, Dwight M Moore, William E Hart, Fred E Eggleston and RH Whitford—sitting on the cement steps of the John H. Bendel clothing store in Falls Village. All were bald and Rodemeyer was struck with the idea of forming the Bald Head Club of America, a club that spread rapidly and enthusiastically across the country. About 60 bald heads met for dinner on November 25, 1912, to form what was termed “the jolliest club in America” and the Bald Eagle was adopted as its emblem.

Rodemeyer, who was known to embellish a good yarn— took every opportunity to lampoon himself and his Knights of the Gleaming Skull—even claimed that President William Howard Taft was a member.

The only requirements for membership were a bald patch of at least three inches in diameter, good character and payment of a dollar entry fee. The cause of baldness, the club members concluded, was loss of hair. And its central purpose was to get together once a year, make fun of all the falderal surrounding baldness and have a great time at a banquet.