It was before my time, and if not for YouTube I wouldn’t know about it, but ITV had a series (exported to CBS) from 1955 to 1959 based on the English folktale of Robin Hood. Episode 87 (the eleventh of the third season) of The Adventures of Robin Hood is titled “The Mark.” That’s as in a master mason’s mark.
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| Foot to foot and all that. |
Philip Ray plays Walter, the operative master mason superintending the rebuilding of an abandoned church. As the paper thin plot plays out, we see Walter employ his mark for an unorthodox purpose, moving the story to its only inevitable conclusion. The writing is terrible and the acting is worse, but such was early television.
In a flagrant betrayal of Masonic secrecy, this TV show renders a funny shortcut in making a “mason of the mind.”
These episodes ran twenty-five minutes, but if you can’t do it, just pick it up seventeen minutes in.
This brings back memories of elementary school. The theme song goes, "Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen. Robin Hood, Robin Hood, with his band of men." I've got an earworm now, but at least it associated with pleasant memories. --S. Brent Morris, PM
ReplyDeleteThat’s funny because the tune was appropriated by Monty Python for a sketch about a highwayman who took from the poor and gave to the rich, and that brings back memories for me.
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