extracted from "Masons Who Helped Shape Our Nation"
by Henry C. Clausen


ENTERTAINMENT

    "All the world's a stage," a line from Shakespeare's "As
You Like It," applies with especial significance to
Freemasonry. Thousands of famous entertainers have
been Brothers in the Craft. Through the tears and laughter
of the theatre, they have proved one of Freemasonry's
fundamental principles, the Brotherhood of Man. In seeing
others on the stage, we see ourselves and recognize our
common bonds to others. All men share in the joy and
sorrow, richness and poverty, life and death that the artist
depicts. Theatre can exalt man, make him worthy of our
attention and show us the goodness that may strive be-
neath apparent evil, asserting that men are one in spirit and
aspiration. It would be impossible to note all the great
personalities of the entertainment world who were or are
Freemasons, and the mention of a few will have to suffice
as representative of the other and very many Brethren who
have brought Masonic ideals to the macrocosm of the
world through the microcosm of the stage.
    In music, the names of three Brethren stand out--John
Philip Sousa, George M. Cohan and Irving Berlin. Brother
Sousa, apprenticed to the U.S. Marine Band to which his
father belonged, grew up amid martial glory and patriotic
fervor. He determined to head the Band himself and be-
came its leader in 1880, serving until 1892. His spirited
marches such as "Semper Fidelis" and "Stars and Stripes
Forever," to name only two, are immortal memorials to
American patriotism. George M. Cohan's foot-tapping
songs, such as "Give My Regards to Broadway," "Over
There" and "You're a Grand Old Flag," lifted American
hearts during the First World War. As late as 1937 Brother
Cohan, who had already had a distinguished career on the
New York musical stage, won critical and national fame for
his serious role as President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the
play, "I'd Rather Be Right." Congress, in a special act of
May 1940, voted him a gold medal that President Roosevelt
presented to Brother Cohan in The White House. A
lifelong Mason, having been Raised in 1905 in Pacific
Lodge No. 233, New York City, Brother Cohan received his
Scottish Rite Thirty-second Degree in 1906. Irving Berlin
was a fellow life member of the Craft, musical genius and a
member of Munn Lodge No. 190, New York City. He
received the Scottish Rite Thirty-second Degree on De-
cember 23, 1910. Melodies like "Alexander's Ragtime
Band," "Easter Parade" and "White Christmas" will never
be forgotten, but Brother Berlin's deep love of country is
most evident in his most moving lyric, "God Bless
America."
    In the field of mass popular entertainment, Brother Wil-
liam Frederick "Wild Bill" Cody's Wild West show, the
forerunner of the modern rodeo, has become a legend, but
some forget that, as a Pony Express rider as well as scout,
he helped open the West to settlement. Also in the West, as
Governor of the Territory of New Mexico, Brother and
General Lewis Wallace took time to write Ben Hur: A Tale of
Christ. As a novel, stage play, and then in successive film
versions, this epic tale moved millions to consider the
message of brotherhood Jesus and Freemasonry taught.
Brother Wallace received his degrees in Fountain Lodge
No. 60, Covington, Indiana, in 1850 and 1851. The specta-
cle of "Ben Hur" was not unlike what the Ringling Brothers
(also Brothers in Freemasonry) provided in their lavish
circus performances involving the great clown, Brother
Emmett Kelly, and the famous acrobat, Brother Karl Wal-
lenda, of the "Flying Wallendas." Brother Harry Houdini,
with his breathtaking escape stunts and magic tricks, pro-
vided more thrills to rapt audiences. In 1926 Brother
Houdini revealed the pride in America so evident in his
career when he bequeathed to the Library of Congress his
entire library on magic, the most extensive and rare collec-
tion in the world of books on this subject.
    The film industry, of course, is noted for its great number
of Freemasons. During the 1920's, for instance, members
of Pacific Lodge No. 233 of New York City were in southern
California and were impressed in learning of the many
Brethren in motion pictures. They suggested organizing a
social club and, during its heyday, the resulting "233 Club"
had over 1,700 Masons of the motion picture and theatrical
industries as its members, including Douglas Fairbanks,
Harold and Frank Lloyd, Wallace Berry and Louis B.
Mayer. One of the outstanding patriotic activities of the
Club was a gigantic "Pageant of Liberty" in the Los
Angeles Coliseum on July 5, 1926 before an audience of
65,000 and employing over 2,500 actors and a chorus of
1,200. Brother Tom Mix, astride his horse, "Tony," por-
trayed Paul Revere, and Brother Hoot Gibson was a Pony
Express rider.
    The thousands of film artists who played in this pageant
owed their employment, in large part, to a fellow Mason,
actor and inventor, James E. Blackstone, who patented in
1892 and 1894 the first practical moving picture cameras.
Brother Blackstone held many Masonic offices during his
life and received the Thirty-second Scottish Rite Degree in
1901 in the Valley of Jersey City. George Brent, Eddie
Cantor, Joe E. Brown, Charles Coburn, Dan Derore, Gene
Autry, Will Rogers, Roy Disney (president of Disney
Studios and brother of Walt, who was a DeMolay as a
youth), Cecil B. DeMilie, Ernest Borgnine and Red Skelton
are only a few of the stars of the silver screen, radio and
television who have been or are Freemasons and have
found in the Craft principles that parallel the deep human-
ity of their theatrical profession. For more than half a cen-
tury, Brother Jack L. Warner, 33, has been a creative force
in the American motion picture industry. His name has
become synonymous with film excellence, and he has pro-
duced hundreds of the finest cinematic dramas and com-
edies that came out of Hollywood.
    Similarly, in sports as in the performing arts, Masonry is
well represented. James Naismith, the inventor of basket-
ball, was Past Master of Lawrence, Kansas, Lodge No. 6. In
1972 there were 63 Freemasons prominent in American
basketball, including Arnold "Red" Auerbach, who won
eight straight world championships for the Boston Celtics,
and was NBA Coach of the Year in 1965. Fraternal foot-
ballers of prominence numbered nearly three hundred in
1970 and, no doubt, have increased greatly in the last six
years. Forty-four Masons have places of high honor in the
Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York. Among
them are Ty Cobb, Bob Feller and Christy Mathewson. Of
special note is Brother Earle Bryan Combs. He has cele-
brated more than fifty years as a Mason and was elected to
the Cooperstown Hall of Fame due to his record while
playing for the New York Yankees from 1924 to 1936. He
played 1,454 games and had a lifetime batting average of
.325. After 1936 he coached for the Yankees, the St. Louis
Browns, Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies.
    Whether in music, theatre, film, radio, television or ath-
letics, Freemasons have attained national positions and
held the attention of America through their art and ability.
Their relationship to Freemasonry encouraged their
achievements as symbolic of what man can attain when
inspired with high ideals and beneficial goals. Their fame
as artists and athletes also gave credit to the Craft in mak-
ing millions of Americans aware of Freemasonry as one of
the chief pillars of American society. They came to recog-
nize the relationship between Masonry and character, be-
tween aspiration and success, between patriotism and ser-
vice. Men who had never heard previously of Freemasonry
saw its results in these great Americans and often were
brought to the threshold of their local Lodge by the exam-
ple of these outstanding Brethren.
    America owes much to Freemasonry. Freemasons owe
much to America. The relationship is mutual and benefi-
cial. The bounty of the land allowed opportunity, and
members of the Craft were quick to take the offered gift.
The principles of Freemasonry had taught them to explore
and develop, not to exploit and destroy. They returned to
the land and to the society it supported greater benefits
than the material and human resources they had utilized.
At the end of their labors, these outstanding American
Freemasons, who are representative of all the Brethren that
work diligently to fulfill Masonic goals, left America not
poorer but richer in wealth and spirit. They gave of them-
selves.
    Thus they began the act of creation that has been con-
tinuous for these two hundred years celebrated up to our
Bicentennial Year, 1976. The creation is still going on.
America is growing and becoming greater every day and
we, as individual Freemasons and as a Fraternity, have
been and are an essential part of that creative process. We
make it happen. Let us continue the example of yesterday
through action today. Let us carry on the tradition of
Freemasonry that has made America the greatest Nation in
the world. It is our duty. It is our glory. Truly, patriotism,
freedom and accomplishment are the touchstones of
Freemasonry. We accept this three-fold heritage of our
country and our Craft. It is ours to preserve--we must and
we shall.


