The Lofty and Exalted Order of Uplifters or simply The Uplifters was a men's

Gentlemen's club

A gentlemen's club is a members-only private club of a type originally set up by and for British upper class men in the eighteenth century, and popularised by English upper-middle class men and women in the late nineteenth century. Today, some are more open about the gender and social status of...

 social club at the Los Angeles Athletic Club

Los Angeles Athletic Club

Los Angeles Athletic Club is an athletic club and private social club in Los Angeles, California, USA. It awards the John R. Wooden Award to the outstanding men's and women's college basketball player of each year....

 founded by Harry Marston Haldeman in 1913. Originally from Chicago and a member of such a club there called The Bugs, Haldeman, a plumbing magnate and grandfather of H.R. Haldeman, sought to create something similar. Its membership included Marco Hellman, Sim W. Crabill, Ralph Hamlin, Ernest R. Ball, Byron Gay, Will Rogers

Will Rogers

William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....

, Walt Disney

Walt Disney

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

, Spencer Tracy

Spencer Tracy

Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...

, Clark Gable

Clark Gable

William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...

, Busby Berkeley

Busby Berkeley

Busby Berkeley was a highly influential Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns...

, Leo Carrillo

Leo Carrillo

Leopoldo Antonio Carrillo , was an American actor, vaudevillian, political cartoonist, and conservationist.-Family roots:...

, Harold Lloyd

Harold Lloyd

Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. was an American film actor and producer, most famous for his silent comedies....

, Darryl F. Zanuck

Darryl F. Zanuck

Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...

, Ferde Grofé

Ferde Grofé

Ferde Grofé was a prominent American composer, arranger and pianist. During the 1920s and 1930s, he went by the name Ferdie Grofé.-Early life:...

, Eugene Biscailuz, Hays Rice, Clarence R. Rundel, Louis F. Gottschalk

Louis F. Gottschalk

Louis Ferdinand Gottschalk was an American composer and conductor born in St. Louis, Missouri. The son of a Missouri governor, also named Louis, he studied music in Stuttgart, Germany, where his father, a judge, was American consul.He came to attention as conductor of the U.S. premiere of Franz...

, and L. Frank Baum

L. Frank Baum

Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...

. Baum created the group's name, wrote its anthem, "Haldeman," and scripted most of their amateur theatricals until his death, several of which were revived posthumously.

Eventually the group moved out of the Los Angeles Athletic Club to avoid the scrutiny of prohibition

Prohibition

Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...

, ultimately purchasing a ranch in 1920.

High Jinks (Amateur Theatricals) of L. Frank Baum

These shows continued to be performed well into the 1920s. Their earliest date for performance, if known, is stated below. Lyrics from many of the songs were published in Alla T. Ford's The High-Jinks of L. Frank Baum (which was available either as a two page pamphlet (100 copies) or a miniature book

Miniature book

A miniature book is a very small book, sized from .5 inches square to roughly 2 by 3 inches—no larger than 3 inches in height, width or thickness. These books became more popular in the last few decades of the 19th century because they were portable and easy to conceal. One could carry a vast...

 (500 copies)). The songs included were from the 1938 Silver Anniversary edition of The Uplifters' Hymnal. Also included are the tongue-in-cheek

Tongue-in-cheek

Tongue-in-cheek is a phrase used as a figure of speech to imply that a statement or other production is humorously intended and it should not be taken at face value. The facial expression typically indicates that one is joking or making a mental effort. In the past, it may also have indicated...

 by-laws (board executives are the Grand Muscle, the Elevator, the Royal Hoister, the Lord High Raiser, and the Board of Excelsiors), also written by Baum, and a list of every man who attended the first meeting. The Uplift of Lucifer was published privately in 1963 by Manuel Weltman's Wagon and Star Press, with The Corrugated Giant and historical information. He sold the books at-cost over concerns of copyright

Copyright

Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...

, and they have since become prized collectibles. The other plays remain, aside from the aforementioned lyrics, unpublished. More recently, Pastor Dennis Lawrence Cuddy used the existence of the play to "prove" that The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

movie is satanic

Satanism

Satanism is a group of religions that is composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared feature include symbolic association with, admiration for the character of, and even veneration of Satan or similar rebellious, promethean, and...

.

• Stagecraft, or, The Adventures of a Strictly Moral Man (14 January 1914; Music by Louis F. Gottschalk)
• High Jinks (24 October 1914; Music by Louis F. Gottschalk)
• The Corrugated Giant (1915)
• The Uplift of Lucifer, or Raising Hell: An Allegorical Squazosh (23 October 1915; Music by Louis F. Gottschalk)
• The Birth of the New Year (31 December 1915)
• Blackbird Cottages (28 October 1916; Music by Louis F. Gottschalk) (minstrel show
  Minstrel show
  The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....
  
  )
• Snow White (1916; Composer Unknown)
• The Uplifters' Minstrels (1916; Music by Byron Gay)
• The Orpheus Road Show: A Paraphrastic Compendium of Mirth (1917; Music by Louis F. Gottschalk)

The songs that made it into the Hymnal are "Never Strike Your Father, Boy" from The Orpheus Road Show; "We're Having a Hell of a Time" from The Uplift of Lucifer, "Susan Doozan," from The Uplifters' Minstrels, and "Apple Pie" (a song parody).