Guilty Till Proven Innocent

1998 was a year of firsts. During the day I was catering to families with small children. Ahh, but at night it was a different story. 9pm would bring out the new live shows. First a Rocky Horror Musical Review, then a gross magic show to entertain the crowd. We reached for a PG13 rating and may have stepped over a little. Opening weekend, Saturday night, in our open air theater the fun began. To me that evening appeared to go smoothly.

I was not able to watch all the shows, but caught bits and pieces. My job was to circulate from event to event, watch the front gate and provide customer service. I noted the crowd reactions as they left that night. I noticed nothing unusual. No unhappy customers, the normal fun poking by friends of the group member most frightened and the comments about how it was better than last year and how much fun they had. No idea that all hell was about to break loose.

Sunday came and went, then Monday morning arrived, and with it a force five hurricane. I was under investigation for child pornography. I could get no straight answers, till a mom called me. It appears that a man solicited her two daughters and a friend to work in modeling studio, gave them forms and literature and stated that he was one of the sponsors of the event and had my permission.

Lets recap. I was producing a mature show featuring songs glorifying homosexuality, a magic show going where none has gone before and of course I had to be guilty. The Denton County Sheriffs and Lewisville Police Depts. were all after my neck. Unknown to me I had one defender. The local Constable knew better. He defended me and kept them from arresting me. By Tuesday I felt like crawling under a rock, canceled all evening live shows and did my best to discover who was responsible for my situation. Wednesday arrived and I was vindicated, in writing from the police. I felt a little better, happy endings in these things are rare.

The down side is that I invested heavily in the shows. The upside is that it never made the press, whew! I never was allowed to see the documents, nor did I ever discover who was responsible. The problem was resolved.

Or was it? The fact is that this occurred opening weekend, I had the rest of October to worry about who? And again? None of my cast or crew had any idea as to who it could have been. This could happen to you.

The advantage that I had in this situation was my work with the local officials. The town of Roanoke Fire, Police, Paramedics and Constable Depts. My contributions and civic participation proved to be more valuable than I had ever imagined. The event was forgotten by all (except me) before Friday opening. My staff and crew never knew how serious it almost became and we cruised the rest of October unscathed.

If, indeed, there is a moral to this story it is…

1) If you ever believed things cannot possible get worse, think again.

2) Erase any doubt in your minds about how important community relations are.

3) And share your horror stories, so that we may all learn and be better prepared.

I have briefly covered some negative highlights of the 1998 season for Castle Dragon. Beginning next week we will travel back in time to 1979, my first commercial/ charity haunt. Once there I will proceed forward season by season, not to show you how great I am, no, no… but to reveal to you all the mistakes I have made. It is difficult to learn anything about this business, if all that is ever shared is how great it is. Join me weekly for a good laugh, at my expense, and some unusual information.

Next week, How Not To Build Your First Haunt

Mad Hatter

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