‘Mecca marks a magician’s birth’

    

Mecca Shrine chose McSorley’s
for its premier First Friday bash.

The nobles of Mecca Shrine, the mother shrine of the entire Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine world, gathered at McSorley’s Friday night to commemorate the birth of one of their own.

As you’ll see on his Mecca petition, Houdini
called himself an author, lecturer, and mystifier.

Harry Houdini, one of the most famous celebrities of the early twentieth century, was a magician, illusionist, and escape artist whose exploits drew thousands who came to watch in an age when mass media meant newspapers.

History says Houdini’s birthdate was March 24,
but Houdini, on his Mecca petition, said April 6.

The 150th anniversary of Houdini’s birth will be March 24 April 6, but Mecca has a new inspiration to get together and party: First Fridays.

Just launched, on the first Friday of the month, the nobles and their ladies will convene somewhere for food and drinks, not unlike the Lucky 7 plan at Azim Grotto, when the prophets do likewise on the seventh day of the month (this Thursday, in fact, at the Trailer Park down the street from Masonic Hall).

Houdini was a Master Mason at St. Cecile Lodge 568.

I haven’t been there since before the pandemic.
Good to see it hasn’t changed!

I guess Thom ordered his ale off the kids menu.

Mecca says they donated an antique fez
to McSorley’s museum.

The photos speak for themselves. Good to see Deputy Grand Master Steve Rubin getting out of the house for once!

(The Magpie Mason is not a Shriner. I had been with Salaam many years ago. What happened was the Knights of the North had a demit contest and—just to get on the scoreboard, y’understand—I gave up the Shrine and Sciots.)

All photos courtesy Mecca Shrine 1.

     

‘You guys give your $3M today?’

    

According to the loathsome “United Nations,” today is International Day of Charity, so join me for a minute in the following discussion on Masonic charity. Obviously, there’s much that can be said, but I’ll skip the Rite of Destitution and the measured instructions to assist brethren, widows, and orphans, and I’ll challenge our orthodoxy on “giving to charity.”

You’ve heard it countless times: “Masons give $2 million a day to charity!” And there’s a high probability that you have repeated it yourself. From what I understand, that unquestioned figure is now $3 million. “Masons give $3 million a day to charity!”

Let’s be reasonable and think this over. That daily $3M factors to about $1.1 billion a year, so the implication is Freemasons in the United States annually dig into their pockets to that sum to help others, but I’m not buying it.

The $2M figure dates to mid twentieth century, when membership in America crested at four million in 1959–or, if not precisely then, it at least was from that era. Therefore it sounded plausible, believable, and logical enough to become the mantra we all came to know. However, today the nationwide membership is down 80 percent from 1959, and we are back in nineteenth century statistics with approximately 800,000 regular Master Masons in good standing—and that’s with inconsistent census-taking from grand lodge to grand lodge. Are 800,000 Master Masons donating $1.1 billion during Anno Lucis 6023?

Come on.

Due to the manipulations of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States—try deciphering those 6,900 pages!—the nature of charitable giving has been altered, forcibly, in recent decades, and today we have charitable corporations of the 501(c) variety. Some are big, like Shriners Hospitals for Children; some are modest, like your lodge’s square club’s charity fund. The square club’s checking account is where you find the actual cash from the pockets of Masons. The Shriners Hospitals, which always has been the engine that drove the “millions per day” claim, are endowed to the billions of dollars, and actually do not need the fraternity. The fraternity needs the hospitals to legitimize its existence. When the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine inevitably ceases to exist, the hospitals corporation will change its name and carry on.

I remember about fifteen years ago the expert consultants retained by the hospitals’ trustees to identify potential improvements to the system advised closing two of the then twenty-two hospitals that had gone disconcerting time without treating any patients. The trustees said no, so the two hospitals remained open, spending millions each year to maintain empty beds, and padding the famous “millions a day” boast.

Plus there are many other 501(c)(3) institutions at work: other hospitals, clinics, and care providers; medical research centers; homes for the elderly (which admit people who have no connection to the Masonic fraternity, thanks to Medicare regulations); special education schools; scholarship foundations; and who knows what else among the fifty-one grand jurisdictions in the mainstream of the Masonic society in America.

Maybe in the aggregate, and thanks to inflation, the corporate expenditures plus the local giving might total that $1.1 billion. I don’t have time to obtain the IRS 990s of all Masonic charities great and small. I just think it should be understood that:

a) bragging about charitable giving is self-aggrandizing and wrong;

b) the boast itself is misleading (if not myth); and

c) the boasting has skewed the identity and purpose of Freemasonry in this country irrevocably.

So try to defeat the lazy habit of leaning on funds donated decades ago to fashion an identity for yourself as we approach the second quarter of the twenty-first century. This edition of The Magpie Mason is dedicated to the Right Worshipful Grand Lecturer of the Grand Lodge of Kansas. Earl and I had a chat on Faceypage three months ago, during which I asked if he could explain his “more than $3 million a day” claim.

“There’s something called Google that was invented three days ago,” he replied charitably. “You should learn how to use it.” Eleemosynary Earl then blocked me, so I can’t tell him the internet actually is very limited in practical use to a researcher.

I was a Scottish Rite Mason as a younger man, and worked my way East in the local Rose Croix chapter (even before I reached the East of my lodge). I leave you with a snippet of Rose Croix Degree ritual (as it existed in the NMJ twenty years ago) that followed a reading from Corinthians 1:

“Charity means more—much more—than the giving of alms. It is respect for the personality of others; it is pity for the suffering; it is a sincere fraternal regard for all men—of every race and creed.”

It’s also hard as hell, and bragging about money, real or imagined, devalues us all.

     

‘Pipe auction to benefit Shriners Hospitals’

    

An auction of smoking pipes next Friday will raise money to battle pediatric catastrophic illnesses, with Shriners Hospitals for Children among the beneficiaries.

It took me a little while just now to figure out what’s going on (these guys have no future in advertising, I’m afraid), but on December 10 at 8 p.m. Eastern there will be an auction via YouTube where bidders will vie to acquire new briars and other goods while raising some cash for children’s hospitals. The artisans who craft some of the pipes we smoke are donating their wares. We smokers will bid on these, and 100 percent of the proceeds will be divided equally between Shriners Hospitals and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Here are a few videos that display some of the pipes going under the gavel:

It is not necessary to buy anything to support these philanthropies. Your donations, via PayPal, will be accepted with equal gratitude.

Click here next Friday for the auction.

     

‘Shriners movie due this year’

Happy New Year!

One of many things to look forward to in 2021, possibly, will be a movie about the Shriners.

Johnny Royal, who made the documentary 33 and Beyond: The Royal Art of Freemasonry in 2017, will be back in November with a new production.

I can’t find much information on American Shriners of Freemasonry, except that it “explores the 150-year legacy of the Shriners, their connection with Freemasonry, and the impact their culture, rituals, and fellowship have had on American society and fraternal organizations.”

     

‘Camel goes nutzoid at Shriner circus’

     

Courtesy CBS News

News sources around the nation are reporting the rampage of a camel at a Shriner circus in Pittsburgh on Sunday that caused injuries to six children and one adult. Authorities reviewed video footage of the scene, and one unconfirmed report says a child threw a shovel at the camel, causing the animal to start bucking while a woman and two kids were riding it.

The worst of the injuries was a broken arm suffered by one child. It was said the camel was brought under control in 11 seconds.

Even more startling news is that the Shrine still exists.
     

‘Alakazam, Abracadabra, Shazam, Amscay!’

     
It’s rare I mention the Shriners here on The Magpie, but Bro. Bill (of Knights of the North, etc. fame) shared something on Facebook today that cracks me up.

An eBay seller offers a Shrine fez this week, claiming it was owned and worn by U.S. Army legend Audie Murphy, who was the most decorated American serviceman in the Second World War, and a Freemason and Shriner.

The starting bid, which has not materialized yet, is to be $998. I encourage any potential buyer to have a very close look before bidding.

The lot is titled “Audie Murphy Owned Hella Shriner Freemasonry Hat & Case Dallas Texas 1957.” The photo:

The lot description:

This is a hat that was owned and worn by Audie Murphy.

Audie became interested in Freemasonry in 1955.

He became a Shriner (Hella Temple, Dallas) on November 15, 1957.

Audie often participated in Shrine parades.

Please see all seven of my ebay pictures.

One of them was shown in The American Soldier book by Harold B. Simpson
on page 336. This photo shows Audie wearing the hat.
 Under the photo it says: Audie, shortly after becoming a Shriner, in a Dallas
 Shrine parade on November 15th 1957.

The hat is in a wonderful case that I think is leather. Audie’s initials are
 on the top and one of my pictures shows his name on the inside of the case.
 Both the hat and case are in Excellent Condition!


First, although the photo of Murphy wearing a Shrine fez is blurry, you can see clearly that he is not wearing the fez that is listed for sale here. The fez in the black and white photo from 1957 has the scimitar above the crescent. Just like my grandfather’s fez of 1960s vintage:

But the fez on eBay has the scimitar-through-the-crescent design. Second, the old fezzes were embroidered pretty simply. These “bejeweled” fezzes, with the fake rhinestones and all that, came later. (Murphy died in 1971.)

I communicated my concerns to the seller, and promptly received this reply:

Hello,

Thanks for taking the time to write and give me your opinion.

Because of where I purchased it I am 100% confident that this hat belonged to Audie Murphy. He became a Shriner in 1957...not in the 1960s.

My ebay picture is not real clear because the photo in the book is not good but if you have the book you might take a look at it closely and you will see that the men in the photo with Audie are all wearing hats and the designs on them are very different. My hatbox also has the design different from the hat.

I paid almost 3 times the amount that I am asking for them and from where they came I will say again that I am certain they were owned by Audie.

Thanks.

So buyer beware! This is why I buy only from newly signed up sellers in Russia and China.

I am no expert on the collectibility of Shriner fezzes, but paying three thousand bucks for one fez—and let’s say it was in fact owned and worn by Audie Murphy—is nuts. (And if you did something that stupid, wouldn’t you at least know to call it a fez, and not a hat?) The $998 isn’t much smarter. I have watched enough History channel to understand how famous people’s antiques, autographs, and personal effects are valued, and this offering is a bit much. No mention of a certificate of authenticity either. I do recall several years ago some of Sir Winston Churchill’s Masonic items went under the gavel and fetched about $500.

That’s Winston Churchill of saving-the-world-fame.

Audie Murphy is remembered as a peerless war hero and even a movie star, so I reckon personal effects of his that are connected to his wartime service and screen career would be the valuable mementos. His Shrine membership? A note in a book of Masonic trivia.

Caveat emptor! (That means look out for the quicksand.)
     

‘Storage Wars: The Shrining’

  

Courtesy A&E

The May 14 episode of Storage Wars (the original, in California) features the Shriners of El Bekal in Anaheim, who host bickering bidders Brandi and Jarrod, who are trying to learn the values of several pieces.

Nothing much to see here, but the kids donate the Shriner memorabilia, consisting of a set of four goblets—possibly antiques, possibly with gold trim—to an upcoming Shrine auction fundraiser. The other piece was a Shriner bobblehead which Jarrod damaged. Value: nada.

‘Florence Day’

    

Some gravesites become secular shrines for modern pilgrims. (Think Elvis Presley.) Others are the sites of mysterious annual traditions. (The three roses and half-consumed bottle of cognac left for Edgar Allan Poe, for example.) At the final resting place of William J. “Billy” Florence, the nobles of Mecca Shrine Temple initiated a modest commemoration of the life of the co-founder of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. July 25 was that celebration, the third annual Founders Day (on the Sunday closest to the Florence’s birthday), in the historic Green-Wood Cemetery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

In 2008, Noble Isaac Moore, who now is Outer Guard of Mecca Shrine in New York City, with then Potentate Mike Quigley, Chief Rabban Sanford Gottesman, and Noble Jim Reichman conceived the event out their fraternal regard for their famous founder, and their unshakable commitment to relishing a day of eating, drinking, and smoking. There was a desire on the part of other Shriners to dress up the event Sunday and make it more officious, but Isaac & Co. are having none of that, and if you know anything about Billy Florence and the creation of the Shriners, you’ll agree with them.

Outside of Masonry, Florence is remembered as a famous actor, which is notable considering the only other actor of that era anyone knows is infamous for murdering the president of the United States. Florence and Walter Fleming were Freemasons who had become frustrated with the absence of an outlet for merriment in Freemasonry. Of course this was the Victorian age, not too long after Freemasonry had left the taverns for its own dedicated temples, having emerged chastened from the devastation wrought by the Morgan scandal. It was a time when grand lodges banned alcohol from its lodges, and when the lectures of the degrees would be transformed from fraternally bonding group interactions to the monologues we know today. Blue Lodge Masonry was solemn and sober, and its charitable impulses were channeled outward to show everybody that Masons were good guys.

Perhaps the most comprehensive history of the Shrine is the book “Parade to Glory” by Fred Van Deventer. It doesn’t appear to be a very candid history – cleaned up for an innocent readership – but it may be the only book on the subject.

Anyway, the weather last Sunday was perfect for an outdoor event. About two dozen Shriners, their ladies, and other Masons like myself were in attendance. Michael G. Severe, Deputy Imperial Potentate, made the trip all the way from his home in Colorado!

The commemoration consisted of readings from Scripture, words of appreciation expressed by Potentate Ted Jacobsen, Severe, High Priest & Prophet Reichman, Oriental Guide Avery Toledo, and others. Past Potentate Gottesman read aloud the lengthy inscription on the bronze tablet in front of Florence’s impressive monument. It is William Winter’s eulogy of Florence:

By Virtue cherished, by Affection mourned

By Honor hallowed and by Fame adorned

Here Florence sleeps, and o’er his sacred rest

Each word is tender and each thought is blest.

Long, for his loss, shall pensive Memory show,

Through Humor’s mask, the visage of her woe

Dale breathe a darkness that no sun dispels,

And Night be full of whispers and farewells;

While patient Kindness shadow-like and dim

Droops in its loneliness, bereft of him

Feels its sad doom and sure decadence high

For how should kindness live, when he could die!

The eager heart, that felt for every grief;

The bounteous hand, that loved to give relief

The honest smile, that blest where’er it lit

The dew of pathos and the sheen of wit:

The sweet, blue eyes, the voice of melting tone

That made all hearts as gentle as his own;

The actor’s charm, supreme in royal thrall

That ranged through every field and shone in all.

For these must Sorrow make perpetual moan

Bereaved, benighted, hopeless and alone

Ah, no! for Nature does not act amiss

And Heaven were lonely but for souls like this.

But about the eating, drinking, and smoking: Most of us adjourned to the Bushwick Country Club, an exclusive resort on Grand Street. Beers, ribs, and oysters, with cigars for some, were enjoyed with great pleasure. A sudden rain kept everyone off the golf course (miniature), but there was plenty else to do.

With some time to pass between the memorial ceremony and lunch at the Country Club, I remained inside the Green-Wood Cemetery to look for Masonic headstones and other notable sights. To wit:

I don’t know who Capt. C.A. Mathisen was, but he must have taken his Freemasonry very seriously. In addition to the Square and Compasses on the front of his mausoleum, there are leaded stained glass windows showing other Masonic symbols on all sides.

Not every Mason’s gravesite was so grand. Here are some more “normal” headstones, but keep scrolling to the end for a special sight.

The name on the mausoleum reads Van Ness Parsons. No indication of a Masonic affiliation, but one would think a man entombed inside this pyramid surely was a Rosicrucian of some kind! Although some websites say he was an Egyptologist, but without saying anything more certain.

Of course that is a sphinx on the right. Flanking the entrance is Jesus as an adult, holding a lamb; and Mary holding the infant Jesus.

I do not know what type of stone this is, but the sphinx is eroding.

A winged solar disk, above the entrance of the pyramid.

    

    

Not far from the main entrance of the cemetery is this sort of Tree of Life mural on the side of a building on 18th Street at Fifth Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

    

‘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!