The Bearded Gentleman's Club of Metropolis (also known as the Beard Band) was an exclusive gentleman's club located in the city of Metropolis. Its membership included men who took extreme pride in their facial hair. Niles Caulder was once a member of this group, but parted company, when he came to believe that his own beard was no longer of consequence. The members of the Bearded Gentleman's Club of Metropolis could not abide this. Though it caused them great emotional pain to do so, they hired an assassin named Ernest Franklin - The Beard Hunter, to track down and kill Niles Caulder, returning his beard to the club. Franklin encountered Caulder at a supermarket. Armed with only his genius-level intellect and the products her could find in the grocery, he succeeded in defeating the Beard Hunter, which also resulted in the villain's death.