Blown for Good - Marc Morgan Headley [81]
After all kinds of kicking and screaming from Lynnea, I got the job. I was now over all quality control. I would walk all over the base and check different tapes, films, videos and systems. I would spot check some items, and others, like systems, required that I check each and every one before they were sent out to Scientology organizations.
My wife was very proud of me. She was a real strait-laced Sea Org member compared to the wild unconformity I was known for. Now that I had a respectable position, I am sure she was happier. She no longer had to tell people her husband’s post was the Pancake quality control. I remember that when I told her family that I was the pancake quality control they thought that Gold had so many people they needed a dedicated post to check the pancakes being served for breakfast!
From my new position, I had a tiny bit more freedom. I was posted in the executive division of Gold. My direct senior was Claudia Olander. She had been promoted up the ranks from the security clearance office and was now an executive in Gold. Claudia had no idea what I was doing because my post was technical and hers was administrative, so I did whatever I did and she left me alone.
We had a big event coming up in October at Saint Hill, the big old organization in England where Hubbard had lived for many years, and that meant we would have cassette releases and films and some other items as well. I would be busy quality control checking all of the products that would be released before the event as well as the videos of the event that would be distributed.
About two weeks before the event, a big meeting was called. The event was not going to be in the Great Hall at Saint Hill after all. It was not even going to be in Europe or England at all. It was not only going to be in the United States, but would be held at the LA Sports Arena! This was a huge deal. Every year there was an event at the Shrine Auditorium in LA and it was a nightmare trying to fill the venue, which held around 6,300 people. If we squeezed 4,000 people into the lower seats and blocked off the balconies, we were lucky and that was with all LA staff in attendance as well!
Well, the Sports Arena held well over 15,000 people. I am sure that everyone in the meeting was thinking the same thing, why are we doing this? We were not told why. We were told that a very big announcement would be happening and that this would be the biggest event Scientology had ever had. Well in Gold there was a saying: The bigger the event, the more chances we have to screw it up!
The event preparations were crazy. We had all the Rehabilitation Project Force members in Los Angeles building the huge sets that would be loaded into the Sports Arena. All the event crew were barely able to pull off a decent event at the Shrine. This place was easily five times bigger than the Shrine and the acoustics were much worse than the Shrine. The Sports Arena sounded like a giant bathroom. It had so much echo that the sound guys were totally baffled (no pun intended) on how to deal with it.
Tons of lights were brought in. Tons of cameras were brought in. We even had a flying camera that was on a huge high wire that would fly back and forth throughout the event. They called it a “sky cam” or “cable cam”. There were enough speakers to fill the Shrine auditorium and have no room for people. The speakers barely made a dent in the Sports Arena. The budget for the event was inevitably going to be in the million dollar range. It was like there was a money hydrant turned on to put on this event, and money was pouring out for anything and everything that was needed.
The stage being built for the event had a giant gold background with huge pillars. There were two teleprompters built into the stage that would allow Dave Miscavige to look out at the audience and read his speech reflected on these two mirror devices while being scrolled on a TV beneath the stage. This was standard for any type of event where a speech was prepared ahead