Take Off Your Hat!

by Midnight Freemasons Founder

Todd E. Creason, 33°

The picture is of the Illustrious Brother Ernest Borgnine, 33° and Frank Sinatra fight in "From Here To Eternity" (1953)

I wrote this piece a long time ago--you'll see a little dated terminology in use.  It got a lot of lodges thinking (and a few Grand Lodges) and it both delighted and ticked off a lot of people.  Maybe it was because I was one of the first people to say it, but it needed to be said.  It has been said a lot of different ways since. There's still a few "influencer Masons" out there trying way too hard to be relevant.  I think it's worth saying again.

We've all seen that scene in a movie. Some army sergeant challenges his superior officer by saying "if you weren't wearing that hat, I'd teach you a lesson." Of course, the captain takes off his hat, and the two wind up in a fist fight--just two equal men settling a quarrel between them. 

Symbols of rank and authority are respected because they represent something larger than just the one individual. They represent the values of the military or of the law enforcement agency in which those individuals wearing the symbols belong. Those individuals are still human beings, but while they wear the rank and insignia of their office, they represent everyone involved with that organization. They often have to suppress their personal feelings while they are representing the entire group. 

The same is true of Masonry. When we wear our hats, lapel pins, rings, or have that emblem on our bumper, we are out there in the world representing ourselves as Masons. We are still human beings, but when we make that choice to represent ourselves publicly as a Freemason, we need to act like one. We should work very hard to make sure we are demonstrating the core principles and values of the Fraternity that more than 6 million Freemasons belong to world-wide. 

The same is true on social media. I couldn't tell you the number of times I'm disappointed by the way Freemasons behave on social media. A couple weeks ago, I unfriended and blocked a number of Freemasons because I didn't want to be associated with the things they were posting, saying, and doing on social media. I'm not a prude, but I was embarrassed. I don't want our Fraternity tarnished by the poor judgement of a few of our Brothers that seem to lack the good sense to conduct themselves appropriately in a public setting. 

If you're wearing the red fez in your profile picture, then act like a Shriner--that fez represents us all and you should conduct yourself accordingly. And if you display the square and compass on your homepage, then don't get into ugly debates and call people names and generally act like an idiot--again, you represent us all. Part of being a Freemason is learning to subdue our passions and keep ourselves within due bounds. Likewise, if you see that behavior and say nothing to your Brothers that are involved in it, you're contributing to it yourself. When we see our brothers acting foolishly, we should gently try and correct their behavior because it reflects badly on us all. We are, after all, our Brother's keeper. Right? 

Now people will criticize me for saying this. That's a given. They'll say that just because they're a Mason doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to express an opinion, post what they want or get into a debate on social media if they feel like it. You're right. We live in a free society that values few things more than free speech. I'm just saying that if you're going to do that, and you can't keep the discussions civil, then do so as an individual, not as a member of an organization that holds in high regard values like tolerance, equality, and harmony. An organization of men from many ethnic, religious, political and educational backgrounds. If you can't represent the best values of the Fraternity, then do us all a favor and don't represent yourself as a Mason. 

In other words, take off your hat! 

~TEC

Todd E. Creason, 33° is the Founder of the Midnight Freemasons blog. He is the award-winning author of the Famous American Freemasons series.  He is a Past Master of Ogden Lodge No. 754 (IL) and Homer Lodge No. 199 (IL). He currently serves as Secretary of St. Joseph-Ogden Lodge No. 970 (IL).  He formerly served the Grand Lodge of Illinois as the State Education Officer. He is a Fellow at the Missouri Lodge of Research (FMLR) and a member of the Scottish Rite Valley of Danville. 

Is Lodge My Church?

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Robert H. Johnson

Recently our good friend and Brother, Alex Powers, posted something interesting on the Kansas Masonry Facebook Page. For some background, Alex posts a question for contemplation almost daily. Sometimes they're deep philosophical questions, and other times they're more straightforward. If I'm scrolling through Facebook and I see the question, I stop to read it. Sometime's I answer them, and sometimes I stop and think about it--maybe I reply, perhaps I don't. 

I almost always answer straightforward questions about my Lodge experience or procedures and customs that we might use in Lodge. The reason being, it's hoped others might also read the replies and see where their own experiences and traditions are similar or different from the others that they are reading about. This is a great way to see the universality of the Craft and create more informed and confident Master Masons. 

The philosophical questions are a bit different. In fact, earlier this week, Alex posted a question that began with a little admonition:

"Let's start off with this week's theme being one typically avoided in Masonic circles: Religion. Obviously, we will approach this in due bounds and remind all to do the same. And, of course, our team of moderators will keep an eye on as well. 

Today's topic: 

In your personal experience, do you utilize Freemasonry as a supplementary factor (to add to or enhance) to your religious practice? Or do you view and treat Freemasonry entirely separate?"

In case you skipped the quote, I bolded it. This is what I am going to address here in this short article. And let me go one step further. I want to say that this blog's description is: 

"A group of Master Masons talk about topics of Masonic interest--each from their own unique perspective. You'll find a wide range of subjects including history, trivia, travel, book reviews, great quotes, and hopefully a little humor as well on topics of interest for Freemasons and those interested in the subject of Freemasonry."

My own perspective is precisely what I want to lay out. I began to answer Alex's prompt, and while doing so, I thought I would keep it simple, but that I would also lay this out for the blog because this is a question that is always out there, looming like some kind of storm cloud. I wish it was easier to talk about things like this without having tons of disclaimers, but alas--it's a hotly debated topic; in fact, what's more hotly debated about, is that the question itself shouldn't even be asked! But it was-- and here is my answer. 

I grew up Roman Catholic. I attended Church in Naples, Italy, with my mom and dad weekly. My dad was in the service (Navy) and had been stationed there. It was a wonderful experience. Later, when we came home to the United States, we settled in Illinois after my dad had passed away. I was young, and I attended a Lutheran grammar school for a year. My mom wasn't a fan and pulled me out. I went to public school after that. My religious beliefs until my early twenties could best be represented by the poster that hung in Fox Mulder's basement office in The X-Files. And in reality, that poster is laminated and hangs on my own office wall right now.

"I Want To Believe" was my motto with religion and just about anything else. And let's be honest, there would be a certain comfort or contentment in knowing or believing for those out there who don't believe. To be sure, some atheists will say that they are already content and comfortable--I believe you. This speaks for the rest of us. I wasn't an atheist--I was agnostic in those formative years. I found it audacious in a sense to declare it one way or the other. Who am I to say whether something like God exists or doesn't?

After reading much literature on philosophy with varied authors and really focussing on my collegiate studies, which were themselves centered on philosophy in religion, I had arrived. I did not have faith that there was more. I KNEW there was more. I did believe--because the evidence was surrounding me. The readings and authors that did the most to sway my mind were Giordano Bruno, Cayetano Ripoll, Thomas Paine, Spinoza, and even Albert Einstein. They convinced me that intelligent design was written as we say in this Fraternity, "...in the book of Nature."

I cannot be classified wholly as a Deist, although it sometimes fits. To answer the question placed above, where does someone like myself stand? In an age where fewer people are going to church each year, finding an organized religion as fulfilling or are willing to have faith--we ask why? And I think the answer is because they want to KNOW. And while I had the confidence to say that I knew absolutely that there was something else--that there was intelligent design, I also understand that having this mindset could be considered a gift. To others, it may be too rigid. For me, it's right. Whatever your path is, whatever lens you see the world through, or your particular religion,  as long as it hurts no one--follow it. 

So, where do I stand on Alex's question? I suppose I see Freemasonry as the living practice of Deism, maybe even Stoicism. While we have the Abrahamic faiths as a foundation for the allegory, or rather, it's the mode of transmission we've chosen to use--the tenets of our institution are universal in application. Not one part of it is specifically applicable to only one religion. Hence Freemasonry's secular stance--at least in words. Often times many members belong to Lodges that do have a specific religious "flavor." I don't mean to be derogatory. I just don't have a better way to describe it. Other Lodges stay as objective and "vanilla" as possible--multiple VoSLs on the altar, specially written prayers that remove themes of one kind or another, and more.

It really does span the gamut. At this time, Regular Freemasonry requires a belief in a Supreme Being or God. It does so for some precise reasons, which I'm not going to get into here. Deism is a philosophy that has changed over the years very dramatically. So much so that in some jurisdictions, Deists aren't allowed to join Freemasonry. Would this have barred members like Benjamin Franklin? Perhaps. But that is not the question asked above. Deism has no church or divinely inspired text or VoSL. It would be nice to have something, I suppose, but what would it be? A VoSL for a Deist is probably considered--"The Book of Nature." This isn't an actual book, of course, it's analogous to saying--"Look around you. This is my book. This is my divinely inspired text." 

Deism also has no church. There again, the Deist might say, "The world is my church." I'm wondering, though-- if Deism DID have a church, perhaps a Craft Lodge is it. Again, I'm not so sure I'm a Deist, and I don't go to religious services often. My opinion here might mean nothing to you based on that alone. I've said it in a room full of people to whom I was lecturing, "Freemasonry is my religion." Yikes! I just said that. 

You might say to yourself, "Freemasonry isn't a religion. It has no God." You're right. There is no God in Freemasonry--its members believe that whatever their individual God is, we can call it, "The Great Architect of the Universe" or hey, for me, "God"-- works. So I know there's something out there, something bigger, grander, incomprehensible. While I might not have a specific dogma, at times, I guess Deism is a good banner that fits me. The Craft offers me a place to meet others who can agree on a shared belief in an intelligent creator and interact with others who share the same universal beliefs regardless of their personal backgrounds. Maybe Lodge, for me, it's its own religion--even though folks might vehemently disagree. 

Lodge definitely adds to my dogma--it might just be my church. 

To quote an interview with Ernest Borgnine for "The Scotsman" in 2009:

"His religion now, he says, is Freemasonry. "I am very happy to say that I'm a 33rd degree Grand Cross Master Mason in the Scottish Rite. We believe in one thing, God. We believe in another thing: to help your fellow man. Be as kind as you can be to everybody."

~RHJ

More on Ernest Borgnine

The Scotsman Interview

Pew Research on Decline of Church

Fewer Adults Belong to a Religious Congregation

RWB Johnson is a Co-Managing Editor of the Midnight Freemasons blog. He is a Freemason out of the 2nd N.E. District of Illinois. He currently serves as the Secretary of Spes Novum Lodge No. 1183. He is a Past Master of Waukegan Lodge 78 and a Past District Deputy Grand Master for the 1st N.E. District of Illinois. He is the current V:. Sovereign Grand Inspector for AMD in IL. Brother Johnson currently produces and hosts weekly Podcasts (internet radio programs) Whence Came You? & Masonic Radio Theatre which focuses on topics relating to Freemasonry. He is also a co-host of The Masonic Roundtable, a Masonic talk show. He is a husband and father of four, works full time in the executive medical industry. He is the co-author of "It's Business Time - Adapting a Corporate Path for Freemasonry", “The Master’s Word: A Short Treatise on the Word, the Light, and the Self – Annotated Edition” and author of "How to Charter a Lodge: A No-Nonsense, Unsanctioned Guide. More books are on the way.

In Memory: Brother Ernest Borgnine

by Midnight Freemasons Contributor

Todd E. Creason

The Illustrious Ernest Borgnine, 33º

It's with great sadness, I mark the passing of Bro. Ernest Borgnine.  When I wrote Famous American Freemasons: Volume II, I had the opportunity to interview him over the phone in 2007--although that's not entirely accurate.  I didn't get a chance to ask many questions--he talked, and I listened, and for the better part of an hour, the stories he told me were amazing.  The movies he'd been in, the actors and actresses he'd worked with, and the way Hollywood was back when he began his career there.  Much of what he told me was in the chapter I wrote about him in my book, and many others he included in his autobiography Ernie--he was working on his book as I was working on mine.  I'd highly recommend it.  And for a period of a few months after that interview, every so often he'd call me and ask how the book was coming, and tell me about a movie I might want to watch that was coming up on Turner Classic Movies, and he always had a joke to tell me (if there was one I could repeat, I would).  I sent him the chapter when I finished it, and he loved it.  I share the entire chapter with you now.  There's not likely to be another Hollywood actor quite like Ernie--there certainly wasn't one before he arrived on the scene.

Chapter 24

AMERICA'S FAVORITE FACE

“If you’ve got talent and perseverance, and fate is willing to lend an occasional hand, the rest will take care of itself.”

He wasn’t handsome—something he had to struggle with as an actor.  It wouldn’t be hard for him to get a part as a cab driver or an army sergeant, but he would hardly be offered leading roles.  He looked like every other American—just another everyday face in a crowd.  As he walked down a New York street in October, 1950, he wasn’t even sure why he had gone into acting.  He had been going from audition to audition, looking for jobs.  He was lucky to work as an actor once a month, and he had a family to feed.  If he couldn’t find more work on stage or in the movies, he knew he would have to work for a living at something—sometimes he imagined himself working on one of the tugboats on the Hudson River or loading cargo on one of the loading docks.  He was beginning to believe that the big break would never come.

At the time, he certainly wouldn’t have believed that nearly sixty years later, he would be acting in his 200^th screen role at the age of ninety-two, and that he would be known and loved for his acting by four generations of Americans.  He certainly wouldn’t have believed that in his very near future he would co-star with some of Hollywood’s best— actors like Burt Lancaster, William Holden, Spencer Tracy, Lee Marvin, Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford, and many others.  He would have laughed out loud if he had been told then that within a dozen years he would be the star of an Emmy winning television show.   He would have been seriously concerned about a person’s mental health if he or she had told him that within five years of that moment, he would be standing before the Academy, thanking them for the Oscar he had just won for Best Actor.  But all of these things happened to this man because he believed he had a gift, and he had the perseverance to chase his dream of being an actor.  However, he has never forgotten to thank fate for lending an occasional hand, nor has he ever failed to thank his fans for his success.  

He is known by many names depending on the age of those fans.  Octogenarians most likely remember him as Marty.  Those just eligible for social security no doubt know him as McHale.  Those in their forties, remember him as Dominic Santini, the veteran helicopter pilot.   And the little kids are familiar with his voice as Mermaid Man on SpongeBob SquarePants.  His completely unbiased best friend for nearly forty years, George “Goober” Lindsay, called him “one of the Great Treasures of the entertainment world.” 

He is Ernest Borgnine. 

Ernest Borgnine was born Ermes Effron Borgnino on January 24, 1917, in Hamden, Connecticut.  He was the son of Italian immigrants, Charles and Anna Borgnino.  When his parents divorced when he was two years old, he and his mother went back to live in Italy, but five years later, they returned to Hamden, Connecticut, where he attended public school.

After graduating from high school, Borgnine joined the United States Navy in 1935, and served six years.  He was discharged in 1941.  He re-enlisted when the United States entered World War II and served another four years in the Navy, reaching the rank of Gunner's Mate 1st Class.  He received several decorations, including the American Campaign Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Service Medal with Fleet Clasp, and the World War II Victory Medal.  In 2004, Borgnine received the honorary rank of Chief Petty Officer, the U.S. Navy's highest ranking enlisted sailor at the time, for his support of the Navy and Navy families worldwide.

After leaving the Navy, he spent a few years trying to figure out what he wanted to do.  He began attending the Randall School of Drama in Hartford, Connecticut.  Following graduation, he began a performance career at the famous Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. His first role on stage was as the gentleman caller in Tennessee Williams' Glass Menagerie.  In 1949, he debuted on Broadway in the hit play Harvey, which later became a famous movie starring Jimmy Stewart.

Borgnine was married five times.  In fact, since he was first married in 1949, he was never a bachelor for more than a year.  His longest marriage, which has endured over thirty-five years, has been his last.  His shortest, which lasted barely a month, was to Ethel Merman in 1964.  He said of his marriage to Merman—“Biggest mistake of my life. I thought I was marrying Rosemary Clooney.”

In 1951, Borgnine moved to Los Angeles, California, where he received his big break in 1953 playing the cruel Sergeant “Fatso” Judson in From Here to Eternity.  The movie, which was a great success, helped Borgnine build a reputation as a dependable character actor although in the beginning, he usually played villains. 

Borgnine remembers one of the first times he was recognized, shortly after the film was released.  In the movie From Here to Eternity, the actions of his character lead to the death of a fellow solider, Angelo Maggio, played by Frank Sinatra.  One evening, Borgnine made an illegal lane change while driving, and was pulled over by the police.  Recognizing him, the officer yelled back to his partner, “Guess who I got this time—it’s the son of a bitch who killed Frank Sinatra!”  Considering the officer’s reaction, Borgnine gladly accepted the ticket and paid the fine—he thought he got off easy.

Even though Borgnine’s roles were usually as heavies and villains, such as the parts he played in Johnny Guitar (1954) and Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), in 1955, he was given an opportunity to try something different, and it paid off.  He starred in his classic role as a warm-hearted butcher in the film Marty—a part that earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor.  He was paid a paltry $5,000 to play the part, but when he was asked about it, he said, “I would have done it for nothing.”

The Academy Award opened many doors for him.  He appeared in many classic film roles and starred with Hollywood’s best actors.  He appeared with Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis in The Vikings, with Jimmy Steward in The Flight of the Phoenix, with Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson in The Dirty Dozen, and with William Holden in The Wild Bunch. He was part of an all-star cast that included Gene Hackman, Shelly Winters, and Roddy McDowell in the The Poseidon Adventure in 1972.

But Borgnine was not just a film actor.  In 1962, he was offered a part in a television pilot, Seven Against the Sea.  It was planned as a dramatic wartime series reminiscent of Henry Fonda’s film Mr. Roberts.  But the one hour pilot did not do as well as expected.  The show was completely revamped as the situation comedy McHale’s Navy.  As was the pilot, the series was set in the Pacific Theatre of World War II.  It focused on the crew of PT-73, led by Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale.

If Borgnine had any qualms about doing a sit-com instead of a television drama, he never showed it.   He happily played the straight-man to a superb cast of comics surrounding him, most notably, his naive bumbling second-in-command, Ensign Chuck Parker.  The part made the career of the young comedian Tim Conway.  Bornine said “[Conway] was always ad-libbing and coming up with comic bits that kept the show fresh and the cast on our toes.  You had to be sharp to act with him.” 

During the series, sometimes a character would mention an unnamed commander of the PT-109.  Of course, most Americans knew when the series originally aired who the wartime commander of PT-109 had been in real life—he was the President of the United States when the series debuted, John F. Kennedy. 

McHale’s Navy became a big hit, and aired from 1962 through 1966.  Ernest Borgnine received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 1963. The series spun off into two theatrical film releases.  Borgnine starred in the 1964 film version of the series.  In 1965, and another film was made, McHale’s Navy Joins the Air Force, Borgnine did not appear because he was working on the film The Flight of the Phoenix. But more than thirty years later, he appeared in a cameo role on the big screen again in the 1997 remake of McHale’s Navy starring Tom Arnold. 

Borgnine would return to television in the 80’s co-starring with Jan-Michael Vincent as veteran helicopter pilot Dominic Santini in the action adventure series Airwolf.   The series ran from 1984 to 1986.

When Borgnine was in his early 80s, he decided to see the country and meet his fans, so he and his good friend, Hugo Hansen, took off in a forty-foot RV.  They crossed the United States east and west, north and south.  They even went up into Canada and to Alaska.  “It’s a magnificent way to see our great country,” he said. 

In 1997, a filmmaker from Washington, D. C., Jeff Krulik, decided that seeing America through Borgnine’s eyes would be a good subject for a documentary, so he followed Borgnine on one of his cross country adventures.  They stopped and talked to people; they visited in cafes and ice cream stands.  Borgnine recalls that they even got lost in a cornfield at one point.  Borgnine says that to this day, he still gets letters about that documentary entitled Borgnine: On the Bus —his fans loved it.

Mermaid Man!

Borgnine’s great strength has been his ability to remain in the public eye over generations.  He is remembered by one generation as a 1950s film actor and for his role as Marty.  He is known by another generation as Quentin McHale.  Yet another generation remembers him for his role in Airwolf.  And Borgnine has reintroduced himself yet again to the latest generation.  Since 1999, Borgnine has provided the voice for the elderly superhero Mermaid Man in the cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants.  As Mermaid Man, he is once again paired up with his friend and second-in-command from McHale’s Navy, Tim Conway, who does the voice of his sidekick Barnacle Boy.  Bornine said, “I bitch from time to time, but this can be a great business. How many people do you know who are still working with old colleagues after so many years?” 

Ernest Borgnine is still making movies.  In 2007, the 90-year-old actor starred in the Hallmark Original Movie A Grandpa for Christmas. His character discovers he has a granddaughter he never knew about after his estranged daughter is injured in a car accident. He is his granddaughter’s closest relative so she comes to live with him while her mother recovers.  They soon become great friends. For his performance in A Grandpa For Christmas, Borgnine received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor.  At ninety, he was the oldest Golden Globe nominee ever.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Ernest Borgnine has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1996, he was also inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

As of this writing, Ernest Borgnine is not yet ready to retire.  Even at ninety-two, he shows no sign of slowing down.  He married his fifth wife Tova in 1973.  They continue to enjoy an active life in Los Angeles, California, and Ernie (as he prefers to be called) continues to work on a regular basis.  He credits acting as helping to keep him young—that and another thing he remarked on in his now-famous Fox News interview in 2008.  He credits his success as an effective character actor to realizing early on that acting has to come from the heart not from the head.  He made three movies appearances in 2008.  He is currently working on another western, Death Keeps Coming, expected to be released in 2009.  This film will mark his 200^th film role in his remarkable career as an actor. 

Will it be his last? 

“Not likely,” he says . . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Illustrious Brother Ernest Borgnine is a member of Abingdon Lodge No. 48 in Abingdon, Virginia.  He holds the 33rd degree of the Scottish Rite of Masonry and is also a member of the Shriners.  The Illustrious Brother Ernest Borgnine tells of the difficulties he had in becoming a Mason. He did not know that at the time he became a Mason in Virginia, it was necessary to ask a Mason three times about joining before he could petition the lodge. He requested information from a friend who made no reply on two different occasions, but on the third request, his friend readily presented him with a petition and endorsed him.  He was accepted without delay into the Abingdon Lodge.

On November 9, 2000, he was presented with his 50-year pin by the Grand Master of Masons in Virginia, the Illustrious William Lee Holiday. 

It was obvious to all present at the 50-year ceremony that Brother Ernest Borgnine holds a warm and loving place in his heart for Abingdon, Virginia, where he became a Master Mason, and for its Barter Theater where be first honed his theatrical skills.  He has served the Craft with honor and distinction.  Regardless of his great success, he still displays great humility and a sincere love for the Craft and his fellow man.

~Todd E. Creason

Here We Go Again: More Famous Freemason Trivia!



Clark Gable as Rhett Butler

-Long before he was Hollywood’s leading man, Clark Gable worked a number of odd jobs. He worked in a tire factory, he sold men’s ties in a department store, worked at a newspaper, and as a telephone linesman just to name just a few. He once said that at the time Margaret Mitchell was writing Gone with the Wind, and inventing the character Rhett Butler, he was working for four dollars a day as a common laborer in Oklahoma.  That's a long way from Hollywood.

Red Skelton, 33°

-Red Skelton grew up in poverty. By the time he was twelve, he’d already worked a number of jobs, beginning when he was seven years old. He was a newspaper boy, he wracked balls at a local pool hall, in a bordello as a “towel boy,” and for “Doc Lewis” a traveling medicine man where he not only made the miracle medicine, but handed out the bottles to those foolish enough to buy them. He was discovered selling papers outside a theatre by another famous Freemason—vaudeville comedian and later movie and television actor Ed Wynn.

Ernest Borgnine, 33°

-In October 1950, Ernest Borgnine was about to give up on his dream of being an actor—he was too plain-looking, and jobs were few and far between. At best, he might get occasional roles as a cab driver, or a milkman. He was beginning to be more realistic about his future. Contemplating a career as a tugboat captain on the Hudson River, he would never have believed that within five years of that moment, he’d be standing before the Academy in a crowded auditorium—receiving the best-actor Oscar.  In his nineties now and more than 200 film roles later--he's still at it.  Go Ernie!

Will Rogers

-In one of Will Roger’s movies State Fair he worked with a former state fair grand champion boar, Blue Boy, who was massive in size, had large tusks, and a foul disposition. He nearly gave the director of the film, Henry King, a heart attack, when one day he found his missing actor asleep in the pen with Blue Boy, his head resting on the animal. “I’ve always been on friendly terms with hogs,” he said. He got a good laugh, and after the film, the director gave him the animal to eat. Will Rogers didn’t feel right about “eating a fellow actor” so he donated Blue Boy to an agricultural college, where the hog lived out the remainder of his life. Very typical behavior for Will Rogers.

~TEC
 
You'll find many more great stories and facts about famous Freemasons in my book series Famous American Freemasons.  This seems to be a popular topic, so if you have some interesting trivia or stories about famous Freemasons you think I could use for future installments, please email them to me at webmaster@toddcreason.org and I just might use them.  If you want a few more fun trivia facts, just click on the trivia link in the Favorite Topics cloud in the right column on my blog, and you'll see them all.