When Lévy began work at the Castle, it became clear to him that the job of transforming the club would be the biggest challenge of his long career in hospitality. I'm glad that it got shaken up," she said. Still, the last few years have been one of the most difficult stretches in the Magic Castle's history, said Erika Larsen, daughter of the late academy founders Irene and Bill Larsen Jr. The Magic Castle is a three-story Chateauesque structure built in 1909 as a private home. The buyer, video game mogul Randy Pitchford, said then that the Castle, which opened in 1963, would remain the academy's clubhouse and a magic performance venue. However, the academy's long-term future in Hollywood was recently solidified when one of the group's members purchased the Castle property for an undisclosed sum, The Times reported last month. He faced immediate financial challenges: The group suffered significant losses during the pandemic and membership has declined in recent months. The academy has brought in new management, hiring hospitality veteran Hervé Lévy in June 2021 as general manager and chief operating officer. But it faces a new lawsuit from another former employee who alleges workplace harassment and wrongful termination, among other claims. Last year, the academy settled a lawsuit brought by a former waitress at the club's restaurant who said she was sexually assaulted by a busboy and fired for raising the issue of the misconduct.
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The academy's beleaguered general manager - who'd been the subject of some of those allegations - resigned two weeks after The Times' report was published. Former employees who sued the academy alleged that complaints to management were not addressed or that they suffered retaliatory actions. Some of the accusers had been guests at the Hollywood facility and others had worked there. Among those accused of misconduct were the venue's management, staff and performers - as well as academy members. Leadership may continue to face fallout from the scandal that engulfed the Castle in 2020. It really shows a lot of openness to turn the page and create a whole new era for the Castle." "It sort of speaks for itself that the new board has four women on it, three of whom are officers, it has two gentlemen of color. "There were problems at the Castle that we're all aware of - I think that's very much taken to heart by the entire membership," Chuck Martinez said. The new board is led by Chuck Martinez, an academy member for more than 40 years and no relation to Brandon Martinez. It's just, everyone's tired of holding their breath and hoping for the right things to get done and they're continuously not done." "It signals something different," he said. It now includes people whom academy member Brandon Martinez said he's "more likely to trust." The board, which expanded from seven members to nine, is the most diverse in the organization's history. Only one of two incumbents on the ballot was reelected. In a March election widely seen as a referendum on the previous regime, the academy voted in eight new members to its board of directors, the powerful body that oversees the group's business affairs. That's not the only contentious change at the prominent institution, though to many members it's not yet enough. "The amount of times they told me, 'No, no, no' - and then the article came and it got fixed," said Kayla Drescher, who noted that she'd first pointed out the problem to the organization's leadership in 2019. Yet some academy members question why it took so long. The tweak, made ahead of the Castle's May 2021 reopening - it had closed when the pandemic began - obscured the view from below.
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"Common sense."Īcademy leadership eventually opted to install wooden pieces along the railing. "If you're bright enough, and it's a problem to you, then you don't walk on that side of the staircase," Gay Blackstone, chairwoman of the academy's board of trustees, told The Times in a recent interview. There was pressure to renovate the venue's staircase to protect female members and visitors, but also skepticism from those who didn't think it was a major issue.