Another Big Night at ‘The Little Inn’ (conclusion)

It normally doesn’t take your correspondent a week and a half to complete a thought, but it’s been a hectic week and a half. Forthwith, here is Part Four of “Another Big Night at the Little Inn.”

“Thank you for the 48 hours notice,” said Bro. Trevor Stewart to Master of Ceremonies Bill Thomas. “I appreciate the gesture!” It was true. Trevor had been drafted into the program at the proverbial eleventh hour. Not having a talk formally prepared, he nonetheless professorially clutched a sheaf of papers as he spoke engagingly of the ways brethren of the 18th century supported the arts in their communities.


“We know from playbills and other ephemera that, as the 18th century went on, Freemasons, as individuals or lodges, were involved with theatrical performances,” he said, beginning a short lecture on what could be titled “Processions: Masons in Regalia.” Torch-lit parades, even with military bands, would march from the tavern/lodge to the theater and back. “This happened frequently.” I don’t know if Trevor realized it, but he was expanding on a detail in the talk he gave in this very room 52 Mondays ago.

This started around 1723. It was “strange in England,” because a ban on Masonic processions was attempted in 1745 in the wake of scurrilous embarrassments. “But the Irish, bless them, had frequent processions,” Trevor said. We know from newspapers, diaries and playbills that comedies and Shakespeare were the frequent beneficiaries of Masonic sponsorship. “In the early 18th century, there were 11 lodges dedicated specifically to the name of Shakespeare!” And in fact, we had a Shakespeare Lodge with us that evening. The Bard’s comedies were very popular, but his historical plays – “Henry IV,” “Henry V,” and “Henry VI” also were underwritten by the brethren. These dramas, particularly “Henry V,” were popular because “they espoused ideas that went to the heart of the Hanoverian times” with melodrama, heroism and idealism.

This item has nothing to do with Trevor’s talk exactly, but it is in the archives of the Livingston Library, and was included in its exhibit at Fraunces Tavern Museum seven years ago. It is the program of St. Patrick’s Lodge’s St. John’s Day procession in New York City in 1795. The lodge was accompanied by 10 other lodges, two marching bands, a contingent of Knights Templar, and the Grand Lodge officers. They marched from City Hall, through what is today the Financial District, and to “the Church,” which I take to mean St. Paul's. They returned to City Hall by a different route.

There were exceptions though.

“Prior to 1745, there were plays of ‘Macbeth’ sponsored by the Masons,” Trevor Stewart explained, but that stopped because the Hanoverians, “a very querulous people,” feared any talk of rebellion.

There were several motives at work in the Masonic patronage of the performing arts. The brethren quickly arranged to sponsor plays and to put themselves on parade, “making a spectacle of themselves in a theatrical and political statement.” These processions had order, and were characterized with “great dignity and decorum.” The brethren were not only on display in the street, but at the theater they’d sit in special boxes with the Lord Provost and other civil authorities. “Masonic lodges were taking active part in the body politic at this time. They were guys who had arrived, socially.”

They were opportunistic, but they also raised money to give to charity, and “not just Masonic charity, but any charity.” A playbill in 1785 told how “a poor house and asylum for the mad folk” in Edinburgh was one such recipient. “They were motivated by the idea of being good, and being charitable to the less fortunate.”

“The gentlemen Masons were putting on street theater, but more importantly than that, they played a crucial part of the body politic at the time,” Trevor added. “As the 18th century progressed, the legitimate activity of a gentleman was not just to be in the isolation of his lodge room, but to also be out in the streets, in coffeehouses, literary clubs and attending the theater, culturally inspired.”

“So, what has this got to do with us? We can’t parade in the streets with our regalia as much as we might wish,” he added, “but we can sponsor plays and musical performances. Why not?”

He then went on to explain how last year’s International Conference on the History of Freemasonry featured the young musicians of the Royal Academy of Scotland, thanks to the sponsorship of the Grand Masters of England, Ireland and Scotland. He also told of the lavish catalog provided to him that chronicled a major artistic exhibition in London, but that had no mention of Freemasonry. “Why not?” he asked. “We can’t parade in the street, but we can make that statement.”

The Magpie Mason could not agree more! There is so much opportunity to show ourselves to the public. Not by bowling against the Elks lodge down the street, but by sponsoring the arts, especially in and around New York City. Just off the top of my head: Lincoln Center has “Mostly Mozart” and the Duke Ellington festival; there is “Shakespeare in the Park” in Central Park; the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival is just across the Hudson from West Point; “The Magic Flute” pops up at the Met and NJPAC on occasion. I may have been the only one who knew, but a mere 72 hours after this dinner-lecture the chamber orchestra called Suedama Ensemble would perform a concert inspired by Freemasonry just a few miles away! (But more on that later.) All of these endeavors rely mightily on private sector sponsorship.

Livingston Library Executive Director Tom Savini had the sobering answer.

“We need to look within before we look outside to help others,” he said, explaining how the library’s priority now is to find the resources to create the position of archivist. In the works is a database to record the histories of New York lodges, past and present.



Hopefully the means will be found to support many parallel projects in the effort to preserve Masonic culture, both within and without the temple.

‘Big Night’ (continued)

Bro. Robert L. Barrows, Grand Organist of the Grand Lodge of New York, was next on the program Monday night, speaking on “Freemasonry and Music.” A musician himself, even a choral director, Bob is well known for his lectures on a variety of music subjects. “This is what it’s all about, isn’t it?” he said, opening his remarks with a rhetorical question about culture, either the Craft or life in general. “Or it should be.” He came not to discuss famous musical Masons like Mozart, Haydn and Sibelius, but to explain “the why” of music in Freemasonry. “Why should the arts concern us at all?”

He answered his own question in two parts.

There is a shared camaraderie. Music in lodge should be accessible to “the rankest amateurs in the room,” he explained. “I don’t know about your lodge, but in my lodge….” Laughter ensued. Getting serious again, he explained that music serves a unifying purpose that reinforces what perhaps is the most important goal of the lodge: to bring people together. Freemasonry adopts no creed, but its use of music appears to have been borrowed from church and synagogue. “It’s not that we ‘took,’ but our use of music comes from the same source.”

Secondly, Barrows cited “an enormous craving” for a personal relationship to the mythos of Freemasonry, especially to the Sublime Degree. The lodge’s use of music “creates a timeless and perfect parallel universe that connects all of us in a virtual temple not made with hands,” he said.

“You can’t just do that by talking about it, folks. You have to do it. And we do that through the evocative power of the arts,” he added. Through the arts we can evoke the richness of the whole of the gentle Craft.” To not have that would be a “tragedy,” an atmosphere “we can get at the corner bar.”

“The arts are, for us, more than a paste-on adornment,” Barrows said in conclusion. “They are the core. Without them, we cannot express our true Masonry.”

During the Q&A, Bro. Barrows said something else equally worthy of notice: that Ludwig van Beethoven and J.S. Bach were Freemasons. He explained that a coffee house the two composers frequented was known to be an establishment where Masons gathered.


Next on the agenda was to be the lovely and talented Bro. Robert G. Davis, author, lecturer, Secretary of the Valley of Guthrie, &c., &c.

But he couldn’t make it, due to a sudden scheduling conflict. But the paper he was to deliver did arrive, and was presented by Bro. Marcus Fuller of King Solomon-Beethoven Lodge No. 232 in NYC. Its title: “Freemasonry and the Theater Arts.” Bro. Fuller, an actor seen in several television series, including “Law & Order,” was wisely chosen to give the talk.

“DEAD! Dead! This whole deed is done!” Fuller cried, beginning the paper with an excerpt from “The Ruffians Lament,” a drama set in the wake of You Know What.

Fuller explained how Masonic degrees are all theater. Hundreds of degrees that are “ritual in structure, but theatrical in nature.”

“All the stories of human occurrences become plays,” he explained, alluding to Aristotle. “Comedy, tragedy, pleasure, magic, education. Man loves to imitate. What we Masons do is basically theater, so why aren’t we better at it?” To answer that question, Fuller took us on a historical tour, back to the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, to examine the period when craft guilds staged mystery plays in their towns. These plays, with the supervision of the church, even turned into competitions among the various guilds. They influenced the social lives and education of the thousands of people who saw them, until the plays were outlawed by King James, “making them at least semi-secret, or at least deeply esoteric.” The Master Mason Degree is a mystery play.

Of course the obvious theatrical experience in American Freemasonry is found in the Scottish Rite where, since the 1880s, the AASR has used all the tools of the stage to introduce its initiates into “a rich world of fantasy and pageantry.”

“Masonry had reinvented itself as an art,” Fuller said. The degrees went from the dark rooms of the lodge to the pageantry of “a powerfully heightened initiation,” that made it possible to “mass produce” Masons. “It is a highly charged romantic experience” to those found on both sides of the footlights.

Fuller closed with a quote of his own: “I went to the theater as a child and looked into the lights,” he said. “And men told me the truth.”

From left: Bros. David, Philippe, Rob and Luther.

‘Big Night,’ Part Deux

Hamming it up with hats – Bro. Ari Roussimoff and his wife strike a pose.

“I love the holiday season,” said Ari Roussimoff, beginning his presentation Monday night at La Petite Auberge. This second annual dinner-lecture is the doing of the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, whose trustees selected the topic “Freemasonry and the Arts.” The fine arts and various performing arts, and even a by-gone era’s ways Masons promoted the arts were the subjects discussed. “It’s Christmas. It’s Hanukkah,” Roussimoff added. “I wish it would snow!”

Praising what he called the universality of this season of Jewish and Christian holy days, Roussimoff introduced the two paintings he brought to the restaurant. The pair are two-thirds of a triptych devoted to Masonic symbolism. All three components are oil-on-canvas paintings that lead the initiated eye through multiple Masonic degrees. Both of these measure 24x36, but the third portion was too large to transport. The complete triptych is on exhibit at the Livingston Library, located at the Grand Lodge of New York at 71 W. 23rd St., near Sixth Avenue.

Roussimoff spoke on “Freemasonry and Painting & Sculpture,” and he is worthy and well qualified to do so. The prolific painter and sculptor has had his work exhibited in 80 galleries, museums and other venues around the world, where his Russian, Ukrainian and Jewish imagery has won accolades. When not tending to those labors, Ari is a prize-winning maker of documentary films.

“The contributions to Freemasonry of artists are seen in aprons, tracingboards and too many artifacts to mention here,” he said. “Before standardized aprons, Masons wore hand-painted, individualized aprons. They used water-based paints, and some aprons even had jewelry. Still, you can’t call them folk art. For example, Jeremy Cross and Amos Doolittle actually signed their painted aprons.” He then lauded diverse artists who contributed to culture, from the famous Masons, like William Hogarth, to lesser known creators, including Lovis Corinth, Juan Gris and even Grant Wood. (The “American Gothic” painter also created a lithograph titled “Shriner’s Quartet” in 1939.) Roussimoff described Gris’ career, lamenting how despite being Master of his lodge, he never painted a Masonic picture. “It’s ironic. Gris was a Cubist, so he worked in geometry, in cubes.”

Focusing on his own work, Roussimoff displayed the two outer portions of his triptych, which he dubbed a “Parable of Light and Dark.” It is for the enjoyment of Mason and non-Mason alike, he explained. They parallel the legend of Hiram Abiff. The left portion is titled “Foundations.” It challenges the eye to keep pace. From the top left, the All-Seeing Eye surveys a cultural evolution. From the bottom, the operative workmen swing their tools. Emerging above are the Grand Masters of legend. A menagerie of architectural styles leads the viewer around the center of the painting. Beginning with the Beehive, a building of nature, the trail leads to classical temples, medieval cathedrals and Yakovlev-like towers, with Enlightenment icons the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower along the way. Observing from above are Pushkin (poetry), Wilde (theater), Twain (fiction) and Mozart (music).

Ari discusses his ‘Rebirth.’

The other painting available to us Monday was “Rebirth,” the third story of the triptych. Similarly it gives the eye a lot to consider. I suppose I ought to convey the artist’s explanation of the obvious eye-catcher: that double-vision pair of peepers denoting the supernatural Hebrew figure Melchizedek. “ ‘Rebirth’ is about today, not tomorrow. It is a rebuilding,” Roussimoff said. “The two sets of eyes show spirituality/creativity and the mind/intellect. I wanted to convey heart, soul and logic.”

Part III to come!

Another Big Night at ‘The Little Inn’

Tonight the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, of the Grand Lodge of New York, returned to La Petite Auberge in Murray Hill for its second annual dinner-lecture, this one titled “Freemasonry and the Arts.”

I’ll continue with a Magpie account of the evening shortly, but for now I’ll just share some photos.

These photos deny Bro. Ari Roussimoff’s work the justice it deserves. The colors, even in the subtly lit restaurant, are captivating and thrust the viewer into fantasy.

Thanks to the familiar symbols, the scenes are not entirely foreign, but clearly you’re taken into another world. (The poor quality of these photos is attributed to the need to shoot from an angle for lighting purposes. Really the best that could be managed without using more equipment.)

RW Bill Thomas, center, greets two of his guests. Bill is a Trustee of the Library. On Monday the 29th, he’ll be installed in the East of American Lodge of Research.

From left: artist Ari Roussimoff, Mark Koltko-Rivera, Daniel from the Livingston Library, and Tom Savini, Director of the Library.

That’s Bob Stutz on the right, as if you’re looking at him.

In the meantime, to read about last year’s festivities, click here.