3 minute read
REMEMBERING TWO PILLARS:
Brs. HAROLD LLOYD, 33°, AND MANLY P. HALL, 33º, GC
by Mark Dreisonstok, 33º, Managing Editor, Scottish Rite Journal
Freemasons come from all walks of life. The Scottish Rite Journal recognized this truth recently by placing biographies of two very different California Freemasons side by side: Harold Lloyd, master comedian of silent cinema, and his contemporary, Manly P. Hall, who wrote deeply about the esoteric mysteries of the Craft.
The lives of Ill. Lloyd and Ill. Hall show us the two columns upon which our Fraternity rests: philanthropy to the community and introspection of the self.
“Ill. Harold Lloyd, 33º: Master Comedian and Good Citizen” was penned by Mark Beachy, founder of the online Maryland Theatre Guide. Mr. Beachy reminds us of Br. Lloyd’s best-remembered scene, hanging from the hands of a clock high above a street in Safety Last! (1923). Mr. Beachy then asks:
Could it be that Harold’s future as a Mason and notable Shriner was foretold in one of his films? In Pay Your Dues (1919), wearing a fez, Harold goes through the [comic] initiation rites of the fictional Ancient Order of Simps, Young Turks Lodge No. 13.
In an instance of life imitating art, Lloyd would join the Blue Lodge, the Scottish Rite (attaining the 33º), the York Rite, and the Shriners. In 1949, he became the Shrine’s Imperial Potentate, the order’s highest position.
Mr. Beachy also interviewed Ill. Lloyd’s granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd. She recounted how her grandfather had been horrifically burned in a film accident. He would later take her with him as he visited children being treated in Shriners Hospital burn units.
While Br. Lloyd represented the philanthropic side of Freemasonry, another renowned Mason, Ill. Manly P. Hall, 33º, Grand Cross, embodied the Fraternity’s devotion to mysticism and scholarship. Br. Roger Himmel, 32º, KCCH, visited the Philosophical Research Society, which Ill. Hall founded in Los Angeles. In his article, Br. Himmel provided a thoughtful appreciation of Br. Hall’s life and work.
Manly P. Hall was an autodidact with broad interests, including, Br. Himmel relates, “Masonry, Hinduism, Greek Philosophy, and sundry other topics.” These interests led him to write a study of the wisdom of antiquity through the Renaissance entitled The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928). This work made him a “legendary Masonic writer.” The book, along with the Philosophical Research Society and its splendid library, “furthered Masonic enlightenment in our world with … inestimable gifts.”
The lives of Ill. Lloyd and Ill. Hall show us the two pillars upon which our Fraternity rests: philanthropy to the community and introspection of the self. Both are vitally needed in our world today.
Cover Photo: Manly P. Hall. Oil painting by Edmund Hodgson Smart. 1927.
