Flustered, sweaty and rushed from Another Dimension (it’s actually a beauty salon we filmed an interview in) we arrived at Gary Town Hall. To our relief the front desk was expecting us and ushered us up the grand marble staircase, past the oil paintings of all the past mayors, to Mr Mayor’s (we had googled how to address him) office. We explained that we had a bit of a set up to do for the interview and that we need to bring in some white perpsex pyramids. The receptionist took this in her stride and told us to bring them up. Even more flustered, sweaty and rushed we then lugged three large pyramids through the mayorial offices to the board room to set up for the shoot. Although Mr Mayor had not actually seen The Wiz, he complimented us on the pyramids and told us that he liked them, even affectionately patting them as he walked past.
The questions were fielded more professionally them we may have hoped – Mr Mayor may dress with some flamboyance – but he answered like a politician. He stressed the future greatness he saw for Gary and, as Natalie from CDOP predicted, told us that he was “proud to be mayor of a tough but great city”. He saw the Megaplex as the change Gary needed – something to bring jobs, tourists, industry and investment. He explained that there were 10 millions MJ fans in America and more throughout the world and the Megaplex was going to bring them to Gary. But he very patiently answered our questions for about 40 minutes on various aspects of Gary, MJ and The Wiz.
When we got back to ReMake Estate Robert had cut loose – he had taken on the original design for the mural and made it his own – complete with the Emerald City, mountainscapes, a pond with ducks and a detailed yellow brick road.
