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¶ The fame of The Little Church Around the Corner as a marrying place and meeting place for theatrical folk grew up under its second rector, Rev. Dr. George Clarke Houghton, nephew of the founder. From 1897 until his death in 1923 he performed some 30,000 marriages. As his successor he chose Rev. Dr. Jackson Harvelle Randolph Ray. Born in Mississippi 45 years ago, Dr. Ray is the seventh son of a seventh son, studied medicine, law, worked for the Brooklyn Eagle before he was ordained a priest in 1912. He helped found the Episcopal Actors' Guild, of which George Arliss is president, installed it in a wing of the Church. In its room are old playbills; in the Church, memorials to many an actor. Dr. Ray and his two assistants have performed some 15,000 marriages during his incumbency (total number since the Church was founded; more than 100,000).
¶ Famed brides & bridegrooms: Irene Castle; Actors John E. Hazzard, the late Holbrook Blinn and the late John Drew; Cartoonists Rollin Kirby and James Montgomery Flagg; Grace, daughter of General Cornelius Vanderbilt III; Evangeline Adams; Stephen Butler Leacock; the late Mr. & Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish; Ann Harding. Record year for marriages: 1930 (2.346). Record for one day: 43. Average endurance proportion: 85%.
¶ Famed funerals were those of Actors Edwin Thomas Booth and Maurice Barrymore; Baseball Manager Miller Huggins; Author William Sydney Porter (0. Henry); Thomas Hitchcock, founder of the family's polo-playing tradition.
*#182;By Ishbel Ross (Payson: $7.50).