Scandal engulfed L.A.’s storied Magic Castle. Can new leaders turn it around?

Change has come to the Magic Fortress after a scandalous stretch — and visitors will discover it moments after they enter the storied venue.

For years, there was one thing of an open secret among the many membership’s roughly 4,000 members: the central staircase’s slatted railing afforded males on the ground-floor bar an intimate view of ladies as they ascended the steps.

A 2020 Instances investigation, which disclosed an array of claims about unhealthy habits on the Fortress, quoted a magician who stated different individuals joked about “prime seats” from which girls might be unwittingly ogled. That report uncovered allegations of sexual misconduct, racism and different points on the Fortress, residence to the Academy of Magical Arts, arguably the world’s most prestigious membership for magicians and magic lovers.

There was strain to renovate the venue’s staircase to guard feminine members and guests, but additionally skepticism from those that didn’t assume it was a significant subject. “For those who’re shiny sufficient, and it’s an issue to you, then you definately don’t stroll on that aspect of the staircase,” Homosexual Blackstone, chairwoman of the academy’s board of trustees, instructed The Instances in a current interview. “Widespread sense.”

Academy management ultimately opted to put in picket items alongside the railing. The tweak, made forward of the Fortress’s Could 2021 reopening — it had closed when the pandemic started — obscured the view from beneath. But some academy members query why it took so lengthy. “The quantity of instances they instructed me, ‘No, no, no’ — after which the article got here and it received fastened,” stated Kayla Drescher, who famous that she’d first identified the issue to the group’s management in 2019.

That’s not the one contentious change on the outstanding establishment, although to many members it’s not but sufficient.

In a March election broadly seen as a referendum on the earlier regime, the academy voted in eight new members to its board of administrators, the highly effective physique that oversees the group’s enterprise affairs. Solely certainly one of two incumbents on the poll was reelected.

The board, which expanded from seven members to 9, is probably the most numerous within the group’s historical past. It now consists of individuals who academy member Brandon Martinez stated he’s “extra prone to belief.”

“It alerts one thing completely different,” he stated. “I’m longing for change. It’s simply, everybody’s uninterested in holding their breath and hoping for the best issues to get accomplished and so they’re constantly not accomplished.”

The brand new board is led by Chuck Martinez, an academy member for greater than 40 years and no relation to Brandon Martinez.

“There have been issues on the Fortress that we’re all conscious of — I believe that’s very a lot taken to coronary heart by the whole membership,” Chuck Martinez stated. “It form of speaks for itself that the brand new board has 4 girls on it, three of whom are officers, [and] it has two gents of shade. It actually reveals loads of openness to show the web page and create a complete new period for the Fortress.”

Management might proceed to face fallout from the scandal that engulfed the Fortress in 2020. Amongst these accused of misconduct have been the venue’s administration, employees and performers — in addition to academy members. A few of the accusers had been visitors on the Hollywood facility and others labored there. Former staff who sued the academy alleged that complaints to administration weren’t addressed or that they suffered retaliatory actions. The academy’s beleaguered normal supervisor — who’d been the topic of a few of these allegations — resigned two weeks after The Instances’ report was revealed.

Final yr, the academy settled a lawsuit introduced by a former waitress on the membership’s restaurant who stated she was sexually assaulted by a busboy and fired for elevating the problem of the misconduct. Nevertheless it faces a brand new lawsuit from one other former worker who alleges office harassment and wrongful termination, amongst different claims.

The academy has introduced in new administration, hiring hospitality veteran Hervé Lévy in June 2021 as normal supervisor and chief working officer. He confronted fast monetary challenges: The group suffered important losses through the pandemic and membership has declined in current months. Nonetheless, the academy’s long-term future in Hollywood was lately solidified when one of many group’s members bought the Fortress property for an undisclosed sum, The Instances reported final month. The client, online game mogul Randy Pitchford, stated then that the Fortress, which opened in 1963, would stay the academy’s clubhouse and a magic efficiency venue.

Nonetheless, the previous couple of years have been one of the crucial troublesome stretches within the Magic Fortress’s historical past, stated Erika Larsen, daughter of the late academy founders Irene and Invoice Larsen Jr.

“So far as the establishment … I’m glad that it received shaken up,” she stated.

A recent begin

When Lévy started work on the Fortress it grew to become clear to him that the job of remodeling the membership could be the largest problem of his lengthy profession in hospitality.

The Frenchman arrived from the Griffin Membership, a Cheviot Hills tennis membership the place he had been normal supervisor and overseen a big transformation, from its office tradition to a $20-million renovation. The expertise was formative, however the dysfunction on the Fortress and the academy, a nonprofit public profit company, was on one other degree.

“I used to be very shocked,” Lévy stated. “[I had] by no means seen such a corporation with an absence of system and lack of primary instruments.”

Operating the Magic Fortress requires catering to 2 distinct audiences as a result of the ability on Franklin Avenue capabilities as a clubhouse for its members but additionally welcomes most of the people. Folks can go to the membership with an invitation from an academy member, by staying on the adjoining Magic Fortress Resort or through banquets and company occasions. (If you wish to go badly sufficient, there’s normally a manner.) As such, the venue is a well-liked vacationer attraction — the academy’s aura has been burnished by celeb members equivalent to Johnny Carson and Cary Grant — although the membership’s strict gown code has been recognized to stymie some would-be guests.

To enhance the operation, Lévy stated he overhauled the employees, administration construction and management model. Among the many notable modifications, the human assets division was beefed up with the hiring of a brand new director — a management place that beforehand didn’t exist, Lévy stated.

Hiring introduced the employees to just about 160 staff. That’s smaller than the Fortress’s pre-COVID-19 employees of 193, 184 of whom have been laid off when the venue closed in March 2020, Lévy stated.

Academy of Magical Arts Normal Supervisor Hervé Lévy oversees a employees of almost 160 individuals on the Magic Fortress.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)

After a powerful 2019 that noticed the academy generate a revenue of about $1.4 million, it misplaced almost $900,000 in 2020, in accordance with the academy’s controller. The Fortress launched into a phased reopening final yr and misplaced about $328,000.

Pitchford’s buy of the Fortress and its namesake lodge from a household that had lengthy owned the property is predicted to alleviate monetary strain felt by the academy. The group leases the Fortress, and for years, it had been constructing a money reserve that was earmarked for a purchase order of the turreted mansion, which was constructed as a personal residence in 1909. However through the pandemic, that cash grew to become a lifeline. Money holdings of $8.46 million fell by about 50% from 2019 to 2021.

“That was going to be the constructing buy fund — that in the end turned out to be the pandemic survival fund,” Chuck Martinez stated. “However pay attention, it saved the Fortress.”

The academy will stay a tenant on the Fortress, however in Pitchford, who received married on the venue, it has a landlord with a imaginative and prescient for the ability that aligns with the group’s plans.

Thus far this yr, the academy‘s funds have endured an up-and-down stretch: it misplaced about $194,000 in January amid a closure tied to a COVID-19 surge, however swung to a virtually $6,000 revenue in February and a good greater one in March when it netted roughly $228,000.

The academy has raised dues for each new magician members, whose perks embody performing in some areas of the Fortress, and new non-magicians, who’re given affiliate memberships. New, native magician members now pay a $2,500 initiation charge and $150 a month, up from a $1,000 initiation charge and $67 a month in 2020, Lévy stated. New, native non-magician members pay a $6,000 initiation charge and $225 a month, a rise from $114.50 a month in 2020.

Lévy stated smaller month-to-month will increase have been assessed to current members, although these ranks have thinned, with about 800 of roughly 3,300 not renewing memberships for 2022. Now, the group has about 2,500 paying members, with an extra 1,500 or so individuals receiving lifetime or honorary memberships which are free, he stated.

Lévy attributed the losses to a number of elements, together with older members who died through the pandemic. He hopes so as to add 10 to fifteen new members a month this yr.

Specializing in such positive aspects and never the scandals of the previous could be a balm for the brand new board of administrators. “We are able to … construct for the long run and make it one thing that we’re actually happy with,” Chuck Martinez stated.

Chuck Martinez, president of the Academy of Magical Arts board of administrators.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)

Martinez’s victory got here in a board of administrators election that was distinctive from the beginning. The academy launched using a nominating committee however allowed others to be nominated by petition. In line with academy management, 4 members of the earlier board sought the committee’s suggestion, however simply two — Sara Ballantine and Ralph Shelton — made the minimize. Solely Ballantine was reelected.

Three members of the prior board of administrators didn’t search one other time period, amongst them its president, Randy Sinnott Jr. An government at a software program firm, Sinnott stated that the board work, which is completed on a volunteer foundation, had change into too time-consuming.

“Navigating the AMA by way of the pandemic, and doing this cultural change, recruiting Hervé — all of the issues now we have accomplished over the previous couple of years — have taken hundreds of hours of my time,” he stated.

Outdated points linger

Even because the academy charts a course ahead, it’s contending with authorized points targeted on its previous.

A lately settled lawsuit filed by former Magic Fortress waitress Stephanie Carpentieri towards the academy and two former colleagues revealed a variety of alleged misconduct.

Carpentieri alleged in her L.A. County Superior Court docket lawsuit that administration didn’t act after she reported a number of sexual assaults by busboy Hector Portillo to her superiors, amongst them Joseph Furlow, then the final supervisor. Carpentieri additionally confronted verbal and bodily abuse from eating room supervisor Mikael Hakansson, in accordance with her grievance. Finally, she was fired, a termination that the lawsuit alleged was a retaliatory act in response to her disclosing the misconduct.

The academy, Portillo and Hakansson denied the allegations in a courtroom submitting. The case was settled in July 2021, authorized data present. Phrases weren’t disclosed.

Company line up on the entrance to the Magic Fortress in 2019.

(Silvia Razgova / For The Instances )

Chuck Martinez and Lévy declined to debate the lawsuit, saying the alleged conduct in query occurred underneath prior administration. Sinnott declined to touch upon the litigation. Legal professionals representing defendants Portillo and Hakansson didn’t reply to requests to interview their purchasers.

Furlow, who was not a defendant within the case, stated in a press release that Carpentieri’s authentic grievance was taken severely and investigated.

Carpentieri declined to remark through her lawyer, V. James DeSimone.

Nonetheless pending is a grievance filed by Patricia Alaskey, who began working on the Magic Fortress in 2008, ultimately turning into the academy’s membership director. In that function, Alaskey reported to Furlow. However underneath Furlow — the chief who resigned after publication of The Instances’ 2020 report — Alaskey endured sexual harassment and different mistreatment, in accordance with a lawsuit she filed towards him and the academy.

In a single occasion, Alaskey’s June 2021 grievance alleged, Furlow gave her — as a “Secret Santa” current — a Victoria’s Secret lotion present field, together with a present card and the instruction to purchase her boyfriend “one thing good.”

At office gatherings, Furlow pressured Alaskey to drink alcohol, telling her it could be “enjoyable” to see her inebriated, the lawsuit alleged. Alaskey resisted, which led Furlow to harass her, it alleged. Alaskey additionally allegedly endured abuse from an academy member, who as soon as forcibly tried to kiss her by grabbing her face. This incident occurred in entrance of Furlow, who solely watched “in amusement,” in accordance with the lawsuit, which was filed in L.A. County Superior Court docket.

Alaskey was let go amid the mass layoffs in 2020, however her lawsuit contends she was really fired partially as a result of she had reported the claimed mistreatment. She and her attorneys didn’t reply to requests for remark.

In a courtroom submitting, the academy and Furlow denied the allegations. He reiterated that denial in his assertion, including that he’s “assured that the details will reveal themselves transferring ahead.”

A trial is scheduled for Could 2023, courtroom data present. Martinez, Lévy and Sinnott declined to debate the case.

The Magic Fortress, which looms over Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, opened in 1963.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Instances)

Furlow lately launched a web site to tout a yet-to-be-released guide about his time on the Fortress. It says that the “deliciously scandalous” memoir will reveal “the reality behind the Academy’s sleights of hand,” documenting points together with “inappropriate intercourse” and “on-site drug use.”

In his assertion, Furlow stated that the academy had been “on life help” when he began working there, and he prioritized “offering monetary stability and bettering the general expertise.”

“Any issues introduced up about my administration underneath the path of the Board of Administrators have been totally investigated,” Furlow stated. “I used to be cleared of any wrongdoing.”

Questions stay

A number of academy members stated they’re taking a wait-and-see method to the group’s new management. Some pointed to the group’s board of trustees as a supply of their warning.

The current election additionally gave members an opportunity to pick out new members for the board of trustees, which oversees “the magic features of the membership,” in accordance with the academy’s web site. The seven trustees working for reelection confronted three challengers, every of whom was defeated.

Among the many dropping candidates was Paul Draper, who ran a marketing campaign rooted in reform.

Draper stated that as a part of his platform, he had advocated for coaching on range and inclusion for not solely academy management but additionally extraordinary members of the group. “I’m seeing change within the magic world outdoors the Magic Fortress that’s transferring shortly, and I look ahead to the Magic Fortress catching up,” he stated.

The three-story Magic Fortress is a cavernous facility with a baroque decor.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)

Blackstone stated that the board of trustees has lately been engaged in “fixing issues we didn’t even know we had.” It has, for instance, labored so as to add images and paintings of Black and feminine magicians to the Fortress’s partitions. However certainly one of its current selections relating to decor has obtained a blended response.

For years, some members expressed discomfort with paintings that depicted turn-of-the-century magician Chung Ling Soo. He was a white man named William E. Robinson who pretended to be Chinese language, and copied the act of an actual Chinese language magician named Ching Ling Foo. A 2018 story by the popular culture web site A.V. Membership labeled Robinson’s act an instance of “yellowface,” and “a phony, racist Chinese language persona.”

Heeding complaints from members, the board of trustees eliminated certainly one of three items of Soo paintings forward of the Fortress’s 2021 reopening, Blackstone stated, and added an indication that describes the magician’s life and acknowledges that “moral issues loom massive from the vantage level of a century later.” Two images of Foo, the Chinese language magician, have been additionally added to the partitions, she stated.

One motive the trustees determined to maintain some Soo paintings on show, Blackstone stated, was that the magician was a “performer of such stature which you can’t ignore him. You may’t fake. You may’t say, ‘Oh, this individual didn’t exist.’”

However some members questioned why any photographs of him stay. “I don’t see us placing up portraits of comedians who carried out in black face on the partitions of any cultural establishments,” Brandon Martinez stated.

The rejiggering of the Soo paintings is the form of reform that some academy members characterised as a half-step towards change, and one they stated is emblematic of points on the Fortress. Martinez, for instance, pointed to the brand new signal in regards to the magician. It’s removed from important.

Of Soo, it says: “His data and ability have been plain.”