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Ten years ago Lloyd's temple nominated him for Imperial Outer Guard, which is the first and only contested place in the Shrine's national hierarchy (candidates spend large sums on favors like fountain pens and tie clasps, and set up many a drink). Once in the hierarchy, called the Imperial Divan, the select and exalted nobles move up automatically one position each year until reaching the Imperial Potentateship. Lloyd was defeated for Outer Guard the first year; the next year his rivals withdrew, and he was unanimously elected.
As Imperial Potentate he now faces a strenuous and expensive year. The Imperial Potentate is expected to spend his year in office visiting temples. Lloyd plans to get around to more than 100 of the 160, including a temple in Honolulu to which he will go in September on a chartered ship, accompanied by 600 of his brethren (if the Honolulu dock strike is over). The Shrine puts up $12,000 for his year's expenses, but tips, entertaining and other odds & ends will probably leave him some $50,000 out of pocket by the end of his year. The job of Imperial Potentate is not only for good men, but for men who are well-heeled.
Pleased and proud at having contributed a man so well-qualified on all counts, the nobles of Al Malaikah Temple blew into Chicago last weekend. With them they brought 20,000 Harold Lloydish hornrimmed spectacles for their brethren to wear. Chicago citizens blinked. In hotels and bars, along the streets, everywhere, middle-aged men in red fezzes all began to present the same face. The Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine began to assume a familiar native character—"quiet, normal, boyish, clean, sympathetic, not impossible to romance."
*Female relatives may belong to the Order of the Eastern Star, which goes its own way. There is also the Order of DeMolay for boys; for girls, the Rainbow Girls and Job's Daughters.
**The 33rd degree is purely honorary. Harry Truman is the first President to receive the 33rd degree (Warren G. Harding was named, but died before going through the ceremony). Among the 4,200 honorary 33rd degree Masons: Generals Douglas MacArthur, Mark Clark and Jimmy Doolittle, Senator Arthur Vandenberg, Supreme Court Justice Harold Burton, Publisher Roy Howard.
†Inside the Shrine is still another playground, the Royal Order of Jesters. Membership is by invitation only.