Book Review

Shrine Circus: A History Of the Mystic Shriners Yankee Circus in Egypt

by John H. McConnell

     There’s no business like show business, they say, and the circus business is no exception. If you are interested in the business side of the circus then John McConnell’s Shrine Circus: A History Of the Mystic Shriners Yankee Circus in Egypt is the book for you. It is written from a management angle so if you want to read about circus performers and circus performances, you probably should look for another book.

     Shrine Circus starts out by explaining who the Ancient Arabic Order Of the Nobles Of the Mystic Shrine, otherwise known as Shriners, are and how they began after the Civil War. They are that fraternal order of businessmen who wear red fezzes and drive tiny cars in parades. They formed as an appendage to the Freemasons but developed a reputation for being a bunch of drunks with a penchant for mischief and disorder. To counter their unsavory public image, they engaged in a campaign of philanthropy that involved running free hospitals for physically disabled children. Contrary to popular belief, the Shrine Circus was not started to raise funds for their charity but to pay the expenses necessary for financing the fledgling secret society. The chapter outlining the history of the Shriners also goes into a long, unnecessary sidetrack about the history of Freemasons and the Knights Templar. This section should have been left out of this book.

     The most interesting chapter gives the history of the circus from its start in ancient Rome to its modern origins in Europe, its spread to America and its rise to prominence in the 19^th century. The circus of P.T. Barnum merged with the rival Bailey circus and the two eventually merged with another rival run by the Ringling Brothers thereby forming the now famous, and now defunct, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Throughout the warmer months of the year, they were one of many circuses that traveled around America by rail; their performances were given in tents alongside carnivals on rural fairgrounds. During the winter months, the performers and carnies were unemployed. Enter the Shriners whose major contribution to circus history was starting the winter circus. The Shriner’s Moslem Temple in Detroit began holding a yearly production in an indoor arena, hiring off-season performers to do their shows. The idea was a hit and other Shrine Temples around the USA began doing the same.

     McConnell’s narrative is broken into several sections. Each era of the Shrine Circus timeline is demarcated by who produced the shows. Al Dobritch was the most innovative and spectacular producer; his career went downhill as he became more and more coarse in his behavior and ended up extorting money from strippers in Las Vegas before falling to his death from a hotel window. The other producers tended to be unimaginative and mediocre in comparison; businessmen tend to have a conservative outlook by nature and their lack of creativity did not do the Shriners much artistic or financial good in the long run.

     Accounts of the Shrine Circus from the performance point of view probably takes up less than half the book. The rest is all about management. There is more information about advertising, telemarketing, accounting, labor union disputes, and committee formation than you might care to imagine. Financial mismanagement and internal power squabbling have proven to be endemic drawbacks. Circus management teams have even had a long history of disagreements with the Shriners themselves and at times the story reads like a bunch of grand poobahs bickering over which grand poobah is the grandest of all grand poobahs. If you take all references to the Shriners and their circus out of this book, it would read like a generic tale of any ordinary corporation.

     John McConnell’s Shrine Circus is not a well-written book. It is loaded with bizarre spelling and grammatical errors; sentence structures are awkward and information is unnecessarily repetitive. There is no overall sense of how a book should be put together. The author could have invested in a better editor and proofreader. Although it is well-researched, it is written without any regard for what a reader interested in circuses might actually want to know. It appears to be the work of a retired businessman who finally got around to writing the book he had always dreamed of writing. McConnell probably thought of himself as a great writer the way Donald Trump thinks of himself as a Valentino; it would be no use in telling him he is wrong since he probably wouldn’t listen anyway.

     Overall, Shrine Circus is a mediocre history book that would have benefited from more awareness of what an audience might want. Maybe that is also a reflection of the Shrine Circus’s trajectory as well. The bits about the performers are interesting and it does present a good historical perspective. It simply does not have enough of that type of content to make it a great book. It is the aesthetic equivalent of watching the greatest circus in the world on a tiny black and white television screen mounted on a desk in an office cubicle while trying to do paperwork.

McConnell, John H. Shrine Circus: A History Of the Mystic Shriners Yankee Circus in Egypt. Astley& Ricketts, Detroit: 1998. 

Book Review

Parade to Glory: The Shriners and Their Caravan to Destiny

by Fred Van Deventer

     There was a time in the 20^th century when the Ancient Arabic Order Of the Of the Nobles Of the Mystic Shrine, otherwise known as The Shriners, were the premier fraternal order of America. In Parade to Glory Fred Van Deventer chronicles the founding and rise of the order. As a book it does have its shortcomings but it is probably the most comprehensive and detailed account of their history that is available to the general public.

     Van Deventer begins with an account of the origins of The Shriners. The founding member, physician William Florence, was inspired to found a new fraternity based on a secret ritual he wrote himself. After the Civil War, he held a meeting in New York City with thirteen other men to draw up plans to get started. It was to be a club open only to the elitist of the most elite Freemasons in the country. After gathering enough support, the Mecca Temple was consecrated in New York with the Damascus Temple being the second to open in Rochester. Their popularity blossomed rapidly from there.

     The author of Parade to Glory is obviously an advocate of The Shriners. That does not stop him from giving a down to Earth account of their founding myth which involves secret books, lost manuscripts, and damaged documents that all serve the purpose of shrouding it in mystery. Supposedly the actor and comedian Walter Fleming went on a pilgrimage throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East where he discovered a network of secret societies derived from an order put together by Mohammad the prophet of Islam himself. It contains all the usual secret society lore involving Sufis, Rosicrucians, the Illuminati, the Knights Templar, and, of course, the Freemasons. In reality though, the founding myth is all fiction. Walter Fleming had never been outside of America, the jargon of The Shriners is more Hebrew than Arabic, and few, if any, Shriners actually knew anything about Islamic culture or history. Van Deventer claims the fantastic story of the order’s origins does not matter since their activities are what really counts.

     From there we get a detailed history of the growth of The Shriners. Far from being a smooth process, there were a lot of controversies along the way. Power struggles and financial mismanagement have been problems from the start. Conflicts with the mainstream Freemasons and some negative perceptions held by the general public have also followed them throughout their existence; their hard drinking, pranks, and loud parties earned them a reputation for being a bunch of rowdy drunks. There were also times, especially after World War II, when the organization grew so rapidly that they were unable to accommodate all their intiates.

     The Shriners thrived though and had more successes than failures. Parade to Glory provides plenty of accounts involving parades, circuses, conventions, and philanthropic activities. Some of the most interesting parts of the book tell the story of how the Shriners free children’s hospitals were established to help the physically disabled and victims of burns without regard to race or religion. Some of the less interesting parts of the book describe the internal politics of their organization. There are some long and dry accounts of meetings, committees, debates, and policy discussions. Interestingly, The Shriners are almost like a nation unto themselves with charters, legal codes, and bylaws that they manage quite effectively. Van Deventer’s detailed passages about their political and financial structures take up most of the book and are not especially fun to read, Do not bother reading Parade to Glory if you are looking for detailed descriptions of Shriner pageants and rituals. Those are secrets revealed only to initiated members. Conspiracy theorists will not find anything here either.

     While the AAONMS once held a prominent position in American society, their membership has been steadily declining in recent years and they seem to be an anachronism now. In our age of political correctness, the idea of successful businessmen play acting at being Muslims does not sit well with many people. Their gaudy Middle Eastern costumes and décor get vilified as examples of cultural appropriation. Using the Waters of Zemzem as a code word for alcohol is patently offensive to most Muslims since alcohol is forbidden in Islam and the Well of Zamzam is a stop on the hajj pilgrimage in Mecca. Blackface performers are called out and condemned in public as they should be (but to be fair there are a sizable number of African-American Shriners and some all-black splinter groups like the Moorish Science Temple and the Black Hebrew Israelites grew out of the AAONMS). Animal rights activists have decimated circuses with lawsuits. Exclusive clubs open only to men are roundly condemned by feminists. Clowns have become associated with horror movies and serial killers thanks to the likes of John Wayne Gacy. Most Shriners are now elderly men in an ageist society that does not believe in degrading anyone unless, of course, they are over the age of 50 in which case they receive an extreme amount of scorn from younger people. But the Shriner’s children’s hospitals are still thriving; this is ironic considering that these hospitals were possibly the most politically correct and non-discriminatory institution of the 20^th century. When it came to philanthropy, they really did practice what they preached unlike today’s social constructionist theorists who do not appear to do much to help anybody but themselves.

     There are not many books about The Shriners, or most of the other old time fraternal orders either. These clubs and philanthropic associations are a fading relic from the past. We live in an age of mass shootings and epidemic levels of depression, suicide, and loneliness; people spend most of their time staring at cell phones or playing video games or bickering on social media, overly-sensitive Americans take themselves too seriously and appear to have lost their ability to have fun. Even sports have become more about winning than enjoying the competition of the game. Maybe a little brotherhood, charity, and fun are what is missing in our times. Parade to Glory is not an especially well-written book but it does open a window on a sector of 20^th century society that is vanishing. Reading it may make you realize just how much our country has changed and not always for the better. 

Van Deventer, Fred. Parade to Glory: The Shriners and Their Caravan to Destiny. Pyramid Books, New York: 1964. 

Shriners Parade Through San Francisco

stock footage (1966)