– a Not-So-Silent Mason by Tom Andrews

“I am a Shriner, because I believe in the ideals on which the Shrine was founded...we believe in the brotherhood of man, and in the dignity of the individual. We believe it is the function of government to preserve the rights and freedoms of the individual. We oppose an ideology that seeks to degrade human beings. We oppose any philosophy that declares the police state to be the highest human social achievement, and which would invade a man's conscience where only God may enter as judge.”

So spoke the Imperial Potentate of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine at their 1950 Convention in Los Angeles. The man in the five-star fez wielding the gavel at that convention and speaking those words was none other than the great star and comic actor Harold Lloyd, a man whose trademark round horn-rimmed glasses are probably better remembered than the enormous energy that he poured into Masonic charities, particularly those undertaken by the Shrine.

Harold Clayton Lloyd was born in Burchard Nebraska on Thursday, April 20th, 1893, the second son of James Darsie and Elizabeth Fraser Lloyd, and spent his formative years in several towns and cities throughout Nebraska and Colorado. After his family settled in Omaha, young Harold, from an early age interested in theater, met up with a drama teacher by the name of John Lane Connor, an accomplished actor who took an interest in Lloyd's promising talent and who soon became Lloyd's mentor and theatrical role model.

In 1910 his parents divorced and the sons chose to stay with their father, and just two short years later the fateful flip of a coin took the three away from Omaha and set Harold Lloyd on a path that would change his life. Lloyd's father had the misfortune of being struck by a beer delivery truck on the streets of Omaha and a court decision resulted in a $5,000 settlement. The three decided that a flip of the coin would choose their route out of Omaha – heads they would go to New York, tails they would go to California. The coin landed tails up, and the Lloyds packed their bags for sunny San Diego - a fortunate move, as what film companies existed at the time were quickly pulling out of the Empire State and relocating in the Golden State. The next year the Lloyds moved to Los Angeles, and the opportunities for Harold's acting career expanded exponentially.

From 1913 to 1917, having paired up with longtime friend and colleague , Harold Lloyd starred in several films in two distinct personas – first as a character reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin known as “Willie Work” and then alongside the first of his leading ladies, Bebe Daniels, in his guise of character known as “Lonesome Luke.” The last of these films came out in December of 1917...just three months after he had introduced a new character, one that would become the face of Harold Lloyd known around the world. Calling his persona simply “the glass character,” Lloyd dressed normally and simply donned a pair of round horn-rimmed glasses. This afforded him the opportunity, as he noted, to simply be himself. These films were immediate hits, and progressed from single- reel comedies to full-length, multiple reel films. In all, Harold Lloyd made 106 “glass character” films, releasing the final one, Speedy in April of 1928. Lloyd became perhaps the most popular silent film star of the era and many have called him the first “Hollywood Superstar,” so great was his fame and success.

Lloyd developed a reputation for his athletic prowess and the near-gymnastic abilities that he would display in his films. Working almost entirely without stunt doubles and without the benefit of modern safety precautions, Lloyd would keep his audiences on the edges of their seats as he would swing from hurtling trolley cars and dangle precariously off the ledges of tall buildings. Most famously, perhaps, was Lloyd's famous scene in the 1923 hit Safety Last! In which his character, having climbed the edge of a tall office building as a promotional stunt for a department store, ends up holding on for dear life as he swings from the hands of a large clock. Lloyd did his own stunts for the movie, all the more impressive considering the fact that he was missing the thumb and forefinger of his right hand – the result of an accidental prop explosion in August of 1919. Lloyd wore a close-fitting prosthetic glove for the rest of his career, but the driven and energetic comedian never let it slow him down or keep him from madcap stunts and outlandish on-screen escapades.

Lloyd would marry the second of his leading ladies, Mildred Davis, early in 1923, and the last film they made together was in fact, Saftey Last!, as the first of their three children was born later that year and Mildred left acting to raise their family. Biographers have often said that Harold Lloyd's life had a small number of key turning points. One was the flip of that fateful coin in 1912. Another was the explosion that damaged his hand in 1919. Another certainly was his marriage in 1923. In some ways more life-changing was a single event in 1925. Harold Clayton Lloyd was initiated in the Alexander Hamilton Lodge No. 535 of Hollywood at the height of his movie career.

After being being passed as a Fellowcraft and then raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason, Lloyd progressed through both the York and Scottish Rites, taking the Royal Arch Degree with his father. After receiving the 32nd degree of the Scottish Rite in the Valley of Los Angeles, he joined the Al Malaikah Shrine in that city, and devoted as much time as he could to that body. In recognition of his dedication and his service to his community and to Freemasonry, Brother Lloyd was invested with the Rank and Decoration of Knight Commander Court of Honour in 1955 and coroneted an Inspector General Honorary, 33°, in 1965.

Lloyd began to dedicate more and more of his time to Masonry and to the Shrine in particular as the years went by. As movies progressed from silent films to “talkies,” his cinematic career began to diminish and he increasingly devoted himself to charity. He became the Potentate of the Los Angeles Temple in 1939, and by the time he had retired from cinema altogether, in 1949, Lloyd had become the Imperial Potentate of the Shrine in North America, the first actor ever to hold that office. After being installed in the position, he gave himself to the work before him with his usual gusto and drive, visiting every one of the 17 Shrine Hsopitals that then existed across North America, and he made nearly 130 other visits to Shrine functions during his one-year term of office. He was recognized in a cover story in TIME magazine in July of 1949 – a story titled “The World of Hiram Abif,” that detailed his work with the Shrine.

According to TROWEL Magazine, a publication of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, in their Fall 1999 issue,

“During the 1950s and 1960s, much of (Lloyd's) time was devoted to the Shrine Hospitals, and he said his work for the Shrine gave him more satisfaction than anything he'd done in the previous decades. He was appointed a Director of the Shrine Hospitals for Crippled Children, and in 1963 he was elected President of the Shriners Hospital Corporation and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Shriners Hospitals for Crippled Children. His involvement in these activities was so pervasive that his granddaughter, Suzanne, believed for years that his occupation was that of Hospital Administrator.”

Brother Harold Lloyd continued to work tirelessly for the good of his fellow man, and did not let drop his working tools until the very end. As he neared the end of his life he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in July of 1969. His wife Mildred died the next month and Harold quickly began to slow down. He made his last public appearance in September of 1970, and on March 8th of 1971 Brother Harold Clayton Lloyd went from Labor on earth to eternal refreshment in the heavenly realm. He was accorded a Masonic burial from the Scottish Rite Temple in Los Angeles on March 11th, carried by pall bearers who were all brother Masons. Among those in attendance were Hollywood legends Morey Amsterdam, Milton Berle, and brother Masons Jack Warner and Red Skelton.

Film critic John Agee wrote, "If plain laughter is any criterion, few people have equaled him and nobody has ever beaten him." Brother Harold Lloyd came from very humble beginnings to the very apex of Hollywood fame in a golden age of cinema, but as Hollywood changed around him, he refocused his life to caring for the needs of those much less fortunate. He began his Masonic career while occupied with making people laugh, but he ended his Masonic record almost entirely with giving aid and comfort to people, particularly to young children. Brother Harold Lloyd – a great man and a great Mason – should still be an inspiration to us all.

Sources

D'Agostino Lloyd, Annette, Harold Lloyd – Magic in a Pair of Horn-Rimmed Glasses. BearManor Media. Albany, Georgia. 2009.

Jeffers, H. Paul, Freemasons. Citadel Press. New York. 2005.

TROWEL Magazine. The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. Fall 1999.