The Genius Sperm Bank Documentary

In the documentary we see that in 1980, a Californian millionaire established a very exclusive foundation for biological determinism or, in other words – a sperm bank. In fact, Robert Graham’s scheme was straight out of a James Bond film. His ‘Repository for Germinal Choice’ was created with the express aim of creating a master race of exceptional individuals.

It was housed - like all plutocratic supremacy ideas should be - deep inside a subterranean concrete bunker. However, the crowning glory of his Blofeld-like plan was that only scientific masterminds could donate. The crème de la crème, you might say - genius seed frozen in liquid nitrogen.

Graham had made his fortune by developing shatterproof plastic spectacle lenses. In 1978, he sold his company, Armorlite, and focused on his real vision – keeping America great by selective breeding. Troubled by his dubious notion that poor "retrograde humans" were gradually diluting America’s gene pool, Graham vowed to do something about it.

“Early in my life it dawned on me that bright, desirable citizens weren't reproducing themselves,” Graham said, during a rare interview in 1983. “The local doctor had only one child, the banker had one child and the richest and most famous man in town was childless.”

In fact, the inspiration for his super-sperm bank was 1946 Nobel prize-winning American geneticist, Hermann Muller. Muller had long advocated establishing sperm banks in which donations from brilliant men would be stored until after their deaths. The media and scientific fraternity rounded on Graham when he first went public with his repository. He was accused of trying to create a "master race." He retreated from the public eye until 1982, when his first ultra achiever baby was born…

By 1983, Graham’s super sperm bank was reputed to have 19 repeat genius donors. Three were former Nobel Prize winners for science and all but one was anonymous, Dr. William B. Shockley. Dr. Shockley of Stanford University was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1956.

Though the donor’s identities were kept secret, other information was available. This included: · weight, height, age · colour of eyes, skin, and hair · various hereditary characteristics, including information on existing offspring · most importantly an IQ of around 180 (that’s approximately 20 people out of the entire British population) Graham also wrote his own comments for each specimen such as: "A very famous scientist. A mover and shaker. And almost a superman." The donors were only known by colour-coded epithets, like Mr. Fuchsia, Mr. White, and Mr. Orange.