- Some people think history is boring,
but I think Ben Franklin
might have been involved
in some weird sex parties.
(grand orchestral music)
Guys, what do you know about Ben Franklin?
- Kites, kites.
- Ethics.
- Kites and--
- Kites and keys.
- And the feather with the ball, right?
He did that.
- Hang on a sec.
- Is that Newton?
- Yeah, nevermind, that was so Newton.
- He also helped Nicholas
Cage find treasure.
- Okay.
(laughing)
Born in 1706, Benjamin
Franklin is often regarded
as the model American citizen.
Throughout his life he was,
well, he was a lot of things.
Look at all these things.
Beyond all that stuff, though, he seems
like the kind of guy you
wouldn't mind sharing
a beer with.
But, if you did spend
some quality time with
Ben Franklin, things might get weird.
- Wait.
Are these saucy things?
- These are some saucy things.
- He's gonna ruin the
history books for all of us.
- [Shane] In the years
during and after America's
fight for independence,
Franklin spent much of his time
serving as a diplomat in Europe,
and it's a good thing he did.
Author Walter Isaacson
has argued that America
wouldn't have won the
war without Franklin's
diplomacy in France.
It wasn't all politics
for Franklin, though.
At the time, Paris was
regarded as one of the most
cosmopolitan cities up
to that point in history,
and a wave of cultural enlightenment,
paired with the strong economy,
afforded the upper class
with the means to, um, get just,
get a little crazy.
(tense music)
But we'll dig into that in just a moment.
Franklin seemingly found
himself right at home
in this environment.
To give you an idea of
his Bohemian life abroad,
consider the curious
morning routine he picked up
during his time in France.
- [Ryan] Oh Jesus Christ.
- I think it was powder on the balls.
(laughing)
- Powder the wig, powder the balls.
- That sounds awesome.
- Powder those balls and
get out on the street
and go do somethin'.
(laughing)
- [Shane] Writing to a friend of his,
Franklin described his habit
of taking what he called
air baths.
"I rise almost every morning
and sit in my chamber
"without any clothes whatever.
"Half and hour or an hour
according to the season,
either reading or writing.
"The practice is not in
the least bit painful
"but, on the contrary, agreeable."
- Describing sexual acts
in this kind of language
makes them feel dirtier than they are.
- This isn't sexual.
- There's no sexuality here.
- He's just sittin'
around his house naked.
- You know, if his hand happens to fall
to his lap.
- Do you think guys just
jerk off on accident or?
- I mean kinda.
- [Ryan] Wait, what?
- Uh oh.
Not this again.
- Ah damn, well I gotta finish now.
(laughing)
- [Shane] Franklin's
social calendar in Europe
was chock full of invites to gluttonous,
all night ragers where his status as an
American statesman made him a novelty.
The women of France allegedly
couldn't get enough of him.
One account describes hundreds
of women surrounding him,
placing a beautiful wreath upon his head
and practically lining up to kiss him.
- No, that didn't happen.
- That sounds like something,
though, that you'd do
to your old grandpa.
- What?
- What?
- Not like, like--
- So you are saying at family gatherings--
- No, I'm saying like, is that something
you're gonna do to someone
you wanna get with?
Like, put a fun hat on them and?
- It sounds like a fantasy for sure.
Like, "Oh they adorned me with a wreath."
- [Shane] Ben's home
life was equally saucy.
When famous painter,
Charles Willson Peale paid
Franklin a surprise visit one afternoon,
he spied the elderly
diplomat with a young woman
seated on his lap.
This sketch of his is
believed to depict the two.
Kind of a weird thing to sketch.
- It looks like she's got
a hearty grip on his balls.
- She's got a straight vice on there.
- They're still wearing
pretty much everything.
- Yeah.
- [Ryan] One thing I will
say that disturbs me about
this picture is the fact
that they both are looking
into each other's eyes as they do it.
- Yeah, the eyes are very striking.
- They're kissing but they're--
- [Sara] Yes.
- He looks shocked.
- [Shane] Some historians have evaluated
Franklin's habit of
charming the elite women
of Europe as a strategic ploy,
suspecting that he hoped
that they would speak
favorably of Franklin and his case
for American liberty to their
policy making husbands, but,
many others argue that
he was just a vulgar man.
Author Albert Henry Smith
wrote that Franklin's, quote,
"Animal instincts and passions
were strong and rank."
(laughing)
- Ew.
- You know, good ol' animal Ben.
- An animal.
- Rank.
- How young was Franklin at this point?
- He probably would have
been around 60 or 70.
- Oh god, the story got so much worse.
- How many butts did he touch?
- A lot of butts.
- [Shane] Based on Franklin's
party animal lifestyle,
it makes sense that he would
be in the same social circles
as some of Europe's more
notorious scoundrels,
and so he was.
So let us now turn our attention to a man
whose life would soon
intersect with Franklin's,
Sir Francis Dashwood.
(gasping)
- Shit.
- Sir Francis Dashwood?
(laughing)
(tense music)
- [Shane] Born in 1708, Sir
Francis Dashwood was the only
heir of a wealthy merchant.
He is perhaps best summed
by one author's description,
quote, "An enormously rich man
with a genius for obscenity."
Dashwood's primary interests
were seemingly set in stone
when in his formative years,
he embarked on his grand tour,
a traditional rite of passage during which
wealthy young men traversed through Europe
on a cultural odyssey.
As his tutor put it, Dashwood quote,
"Fornicated his way across Europe."
In one instance, he even
seduced the Empress of Russia
while claiming to be
Charles the 12th of Sweden,
a man who was, at that point, dead.
- Holy shit, this guy's like James Bond.
- Yeah, a little bit.
- Yeah.
- Did he have a magic penis?
- No.
- Why did girls find him so attractive?
- How'd you jump to that?
- Oh, I thought you said matching.
- I thought you said matching penis also.
- I feel like most men
have a matching penis.
- Yeah, you'd think.
(laughing)
- I don't wanna, okay.
(laughing)
- [Shane] These travels also
inspired Dashwood's fascination
with sacred rituals of the past.
He kind of hated the religious
institutions of his day
but he was simultaneously
mystified by Europe's
rich history.
So when he wasn't
womanizing, he was sauntering
through dusty catacombs
lined with mummified corpses,
or sitting in old Roman ruins imaging
the orgies of the past.
So it's this old mutual
appreciation for debauchery
and sacred history that would lead to
Dashwood's greatest
achievement and ultimately,
his friendship with Ben Franklin,
The Friars of St. Francis of Wycombe.
Or, as it was popularly known,
(tense music)
the Hellfire Club.
- Oh shit.
- That sounds cool.
- [Shane] Dashwood's Hellfire
Club was meant to attract
the most depraved and
intellectual men of the time.
And over the course of
the club's history, its
lineup would allegedly
include such notable men
as the Prime Minister of England,
the Lord Mayor of London,
several of England's
greatest artists and poets,
the Prince of Wales, and
possibly, as evidence
would strongly suggest, Ben Franklin.
See, Dashwood was publicly
known to sympathize
with the cause of the American rebels,
and he had exchanged letters with Franklin
on many occasions.
Furthermore, Franklin actually
visited Dashwood's estate
at West Wycombe for an extended period
in July of 1772, and during
his stay, there is a record
of a club meeting taking place.
According to author Daniel Mannix quote,
"There seems to be no reason why Franklin
"should have gone to
Wycombe at this special time
"unless he was a member.
"Only club members were
allowed at Dashwood's estate
"during club meetings."
So with Franklin's likely
involvement in mind,
let's look at what he
might have encountered
during his visits with the
Friars of St. Francis of Wycombe.
The members of the club
reportedly donned white
monk's robes, and were each
allowed to invite along quote,
"A lady of a cheerful, lively disposition,
"to improve the general hilarity."
These women also dressed the
part, wearing nun's robes
and masks to avoid an
embarrassing run in with
a husband or acquaintance.
- This is some freaky shit here.
- Eyes Wide Shut.
- That's where the train's
headin', I can tell.
- [Shane] One of the first
locations of the Hellfire Club
was on the shores of an
island in the Thames River.
Shrouded in a thick grove
of elm trees, the island
was the perfect location
for the makeshift monks
to spend an evening with
their dates away from
the prying eyes of the public.
It was also ideal because
it was home to the crumbling
remnants of an old medieval ruin built
in the year 1160 known as Medmenham Abbey.
Dashwood actually set about
reconstructing the site,
but as he had a flair for the theatrical,
he asked that it still
resemble a spooky old ruin.
But he did install a few upgrades.
A series of stained
glass windows depicting
the club members in
quote, "Indecent poses."
A brilliant pornographic fresco,
the John Wilkes, who wasn't
known to shy away from
vulgarity described as quote,
"Unspeakable."
And an expansive library stocked
with classical literature
as well as what was called, quote,
"The finest collection
of pornographic books
"in Great Britain."
- This kind of sounds
fun 'cause it's like,
oh they probably all came
in and then he was like,
"Hey, Barry, I got a stained
glass window of you."
- Was it just a big stained glass window
of Franklin's boner or something?
- He was known for them.
- He was known for his boners.
- What?
To be clear, he was not
know for his boners.
- He was known for his boners.
Stop lying, Shane.
- Big Boner Ben.
- Stained glass dick.
- Now that the scene is set,
let's run through a hypothetical meeting.
Please refer to the educational materials
beneath your desks.
- [Ryan] Oh.
- Ooo.
- Ooo, are we putting on robes?
- I will say, if you
have a mask on like this,
I guess it would make
it easier to do weird,
debaucherous things.
- Yeah, don't you feel a
little sexier with it on?
- Oh, god, you're like one
of those medieval doctors.
I don't like it al all.
(laughing)
(slow, tense music)
- [Shane] In the cover of
night, the hooded monks
and their dates would arrive to the island
on a red gondola.
Stepping ashore, they were
greeted by the far off drone
of the Abbey's organ and the ringing
of a ghostly church bell.
Outside the Abbey, they'd
come upon an ominous statue
of Harpocrates, the
Egyptian God of silence.
(slow, tense music)
Once inside the Abbey,
Dashwood would pour his guests
a special cocktail of brandy and brimstone
and they'd all raise a glass and toast
to the powers of darkness.
- This sounds fucking incredible.
(laughing)
- I'm so into it.
- I love theme parties,
and this just sounds
like it just takes it to a next level.
- Except you just don't
wanna go to that last level.
- Yeah, I don't wanna, I
just wanna do the fun stuff
and everyone else is like,
starts kissin' in the corner
and you're like, "I gotta go."
- [Shane] With the striking
of a gong, the monks
would move further into the Abbey and file
into the chapel.
Here, it is suspected they
practiced a black mass,
in which a woman laid naked on the altar,
and the monks proceeded
to drink sacrificial wine
from her navel.
- This is pretty cool so far.
- Yeah, they're havin' fun.
- Oh yeah, you were in a fraternity.
- We didn't do that.
- You didn't do?
- Nope.
Only good things.
- Didn't do shots off the navel?
- Only did community service.
- Ah ha, lies.
- [Shane] Now, it's generally
thought that the members
weren't actual Satanists,
despite all these weird rituals.
Some members actually found this aspect
pretty boring.
John Wilkes actually
found the rituals so dull
that he once dressed a
baboon up as a demon,
bear with me, he locked it in a trunk
and he stowed it in the Abbey.
Then, when the members called
upon Lord Satan to appear,
Wilkes pulled a string to
release the frightened animal.
For a moment, the members
stared in disbelief.
Then they lost their minds.
The terrified baboon
leapt onto Lord Sandwich,
yes the guy who invited the sandwich,
causing him to allegedly shout,
"Spare me, gracious devil!
"I never knew that you'd really come
"or I'd never have invoked thee!"
- I like that, even among
this like weird society,
there was one guy who was like,
"This society is dull."
- The baboon also, after this happened,
jumped out the window, and
they weren't able to catch it.
- Yeah, that makes sense.
- Bye, suckers!
- So now there's a baboon
running around the city amuck.
- Fuck you.
(laughing)
- [Shane] As the alcohol
continued to flow,
the monks and their guests
might share dirty stories,
or read from the eras more popular works
of pornographic literature.
I've each provided you with
a snippet of pornography.
These are from a piece
published in 1740 titled,
"A Dialogue Between a
Married Lady and a Maid."
So without further ado.
- "There is between the thighs,
"just at the bottom of the
belly, a piece of flesh.
"Underneaths hangs in a bag
or purse, two little balls,
"pretty hard, and the harder the better.
"They call them stones,
and in them is contained
"that white thick liquor."
(laughing)
- I didn't find that that repulsive.
- No, very fun.
- Alright, well, here we go.
(laughing)
"He took hold of that
place which distinguishes
"us from men.
"At the same time he cried out,
"'O!
"'I have a maid!
"'A virgin to my share!'"
- I like that they seem
to not know the words
for penis and vagina.
- "The place that
distinguishes us from men."
- Yeah.
- Okay.
"His member was stuff and hard as a horn.
"Just as he had finished,"
uh why?
"My mother, who had heard me
shriek, came into the room."
- "'What a happy girl you are!," said she.
"'Pluck off this smock, which
I will keep for a relick,
"'since it is stained
with thy virgin's blood.'"
- A fun little souvenir.
- Remember your first night?
- I think we got the lesser of it.
I think we got let off easy here.
- I don't know about that.
- You had a playful little
description of balls.
- You said "thick white
liquor," that's hilarious.
- Yeah, thick white liquor.
- [Shane] With bellies
full of drinks and minds
full of smut, guests would
start to pair off and retreat
to any of the private
cells which were prepared
and stocked with the quote,
"Proper objects for
lascivious activities."
- This is probably what like
all Hollywood parties are like.
- You think Spielberg's
just runnin' through,
hard as a horn.
- Not Spielberg but like--
- You should've seen Spielberg last night.
His white liquor was so thick.
(laughing)
- Ew!
- [Shane] After operating
in secret for many years,
the details of the Hellfire
club at Medmenham Abbey
were recounted in a popular
novel in the year 1760.
It captivated the public's
imagination to the point
that tourists began to
line the shores to spot
the sex monks arriving.
But, not wanting to give
up his weird sex parties,
Dashwood bounced back by
having an elaborate system
of caves dug on his own
private property a few miles
away from the Abbey, and
it was here that the monks
of the Hellfire Club
continued to hold their orgies
in total privacy.
This new location, and
the fact that it was gated
from the public and accessible
only to club members,
lends further credence to
Franklin's participation.
As he once wrote in a letter,
"The exquisite sense of classical design,
charmingly reproduced at
West Wycombe, is as evident
"below the earth as above it."
Author Daniel Mannix argues
that Franklin's letter
must be referring to the
caves and further adds
that quote, "Franklin would
have been shortsighted
"if he hadn't joined the club.
"He was a diplomat trying
to help his country
"and the club gave him
the entree to some of the
"most influential men in England."
So as the guest list
for secret societies are
kind of hard to crack, we
will never know for sure if
Franklin attended any of
these salacious affairs
but his documented
friendship with Dashwood,
and his time spent at
the estate puts it well
within the realm of possibility.
And if you're left wondering if a sex club
fits with Franklin's moral
compass, then let's take
one last look at the man's true character
with some passages from
an infamous piece penned
by Franklin himself titled,
"Advice to a Young Man on
the Choice of a Mistress."
This is a letter in which Ben Franklin
encourages his friend
to go after older women.
It was written in 1745.
A copy of it sits in
the Library of Congress,
and it's kind of gross.
And here to present this
letter, through the magic
of theater, is Benjamin Franklin himself.
(laughing)
- [Kate] What?
- It is I, Benjamin Franklin.
By some curious miracle, transported to
a most peculiar time.
- Hm.
- Interesting.
- Yeah.
- So Ben, we've learned
a lot about you today
but we have some lingering questions.
- Right.
- Why did you enjoy the
company of older women?
- "Because as they have
more knowledge of the world
"and their minds are better
stored with observations,
"their conversation is more improving
"and more lastingly agreeable."
Wouldn't you say?
- Sure, I guess.
- Wasn't he like 70 years old
when he wrote this letter?
Why does he look so young right now?
- "Because the sin is less--"
- [Shane] No, no.
(laughing)
Ask him, he was old, he's an old man.
- I'm old.
- Hey, Ben.
- Go ahead, son.
- Why do you prefer the
company of older women?
- "Because the sin is less," my dear boy.
"The debauching a virgin may be her ruin,
"and make her for life unhappy."
- That's deep.
- Do you have anymore reasons?
- Yep.
(laughing)
"Because in every animal
that walks upright,
"the deficiency of the
fluids that fill the muscles
"appears first in the highest part.
"The face first grows lank and wrinkled;
"then the neck; then the breast and arms;
"the lower parts continuing
to last as plump as ever:
"So that the covering
all above with a basket,
and regarding only what
is below the girdle,
"it is impossible of
two women to know an old
"from a young."
- [Shane] To be clear--
- He's like, paper baggin' it.
- You're saying when you put a basket
over the head of a woman--
- Yeah.
I don't know.
(laughing)
- You don't know?
You wrote it!
- History will tell.
History will tell.
- I think history has told.
Do you guys have any final thoughts?
- It was a different time.
- He got really weird.
- [Shane] He was a pretty weird guy.
- He got really weird.
- [Benjamin] Thanks, dude.
- I mean, I definitely think
it would be an interesting
movie, but as a person, I wouldn't really
wanna hang out with him.
- [Shane] Well there you have it, folks.
Ben Franklin, a surprisingly
multi-faceted individual.
History, it's never
that boring if you just
know where to look.
(grand orchestral music)
