Landweir House
Chapter 15
Lights, Camera, Action
“Hello, I’m Bart Mason”
“And I’m Molly Harrison and we have an amazing season of Renovating History for you. We are in New Orleans helping to preserve the history of this magnificent city, saving it from the clutches of Hurricane Katrina.”
“That’s right Molly. We are restoring one of the Garden District’s most famous houses, The Landweir house. Join us as we continue on this amazing adventure back in time.”
“And cut. That’s just perfect you two.” Terry Marshall said as he stepped from behind the cameraman. “OK, let’s get the homeowners out of the make-up trailer and ready to go on.”
“They’re right here Terry.” An intern said as she gave the Landweir’s a little shove to get them in front of the camera.
“OK, great you two, now just relax and answer the questions that our hosts are going to ask you and remember, we’re all old friends here. We want the folks who are watching us to feel the warmth. OK? Great, and action.” Terry went back to checking something on his clipboard as Molly started to talk.
“Welcome back. With us this season are the Landweir’s, the owners of The Landweir house. Now Don, you say that the Landweir house isn’t a part of your family history but how did you come to posses the house that has had your name for over 150 years?”
“Well, Molly, my wife Lisa Marie and I were looking to move to New Orleans and so we went on line and saw that this property was going up for auction and that it was named Landweir House, and well, we figured that it was fate. We made a bid and got it.”
“Just to let our viewers in on the special plans that we are making for you, our researchers are looking into your genealogy and we have taken sample DNA from both of the Landweir’s to see what we can come up with. We’d love to connect you back to the original owners. We think that it would be a great surprise but that’s not the only surprise for this season.” Bart said as he turned it over to Molly.
“That’s right Bart. The Landweir Mansion has a lot of history that it has lived through and a lot of history to share with us. As always, Dr. Mortimer Jacobs, historian and author, will be doing the historical research to find the facts that will bring the story of this beautiful house to life for us.”
“And Molly this place has plenty of interesting stories to tell already. Katrina took off a huge piece of the roof and exposed a large portion of the master suite to rain damage. It’s the first thing that we worked on when we got on the scene. We made sure that the roof was secured. But let’s see what Mr. and Mrs. Landweir have been up to since they moved into the house only a few days ago. Don?”
Donald hesitated and shifted his weight and finally spoke. “Thanks, Bart. Well the house was owned by a one time famous Hollywood screenwriter, Robert Breen. Mr. Breen had no relatives or heirs and so the house went to auction, and we bought all of it including the contents.”
“And, oh my, what amazing contents.” Molly adlibbed.
“That’s right Molly,” Lisa Marie said as she took back control, “Robert Breen suffered from OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This manifested itself by making him into a hoarder.”
“You can probably tell by the way that Mrs. Landweir talks that she is actually, Doctor Landweir.” Bart said as he pushed his way into the frame. “Now, Doc, what exactly is a hoarder?”
“He collected things and could never bring himself to throw anything away. Luckily for us, because he kept some pretty cool stuff.”
“And that stuff we will be showing you in the coming weeks.” Molly said.
“Oh, it’s more than that, we will be posting the contents on E-bay for auction. A percentage of which will go to the people of New Orleans to aid in this time of crisis.” Donald said directly into the camera.
“Wait, wait, cut. What is this? What are you talking about?” Terry said as he ripped the headphones off and charged up to Donald.
“What? I was trying to bring a little aid in, that’s all.” Donald said innocently enough.
“Well I’m not totally against it, but run it past me first the next time.”
“OK, OK. Take a look at this” Donald said as he pulled an 8X10 black and white photo from his jacket and handed it to Terry. “Do you recognize any of the people in the photo?”
“Let me see, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Ronald Reagan, Groucho Marx, Truman Capote….”
“And many, many more. Now, do you recognize where the photo was taken?” asked Donald with a rye smile in his voice.
“Why, that’s the back patio.” Terry said.
“And there’s a thousand square feet of it. If we cut it into six inch squares and sold them for, say $1000 a piece with a beautifully framed copy of this picture, that’s…”
“Four million dollars. But how will you get four-thousand people to give $1000 for it?” Terry asked still counting money in his head.
“By advertising that a percentage will go for the rebuilding efforts of the city.”
“But how big of a percentage?”
“A percentage.”
“Ohhhhh, A percentage. I see, I see. So what’s my cut?”
“I’ll give each of the three of you a half a million dollars if you help me pull this off. Trust me, this is just the tip of the ice berg.”
“Hi, I’m Bart Mason and you can count on me.”
“And I’m Molly Harrison and for half a million dollars I’d kill someone if you wanted me to.”
They all looked at Terry. “Let’s do this thing.” He said.