As part of a planned multi-year redevelopment of the former Ambassador College campus, the Hall of Administration is scheduled for controlled demolition between July and September, 2015. During preparation and throughout the demolition process, requests to film at this 4-story office building will be entertained on a case-by-case basis. This is a unique opportunity for production companies to film scenes which might require such scripted elements as: explosive pyrotechnics, controlled burns, interior simulated gunfire, vehicle crashes, demolition and/or other types of sfx and stunt sequences.
Fireworks as the WCG's Vatican goes up in an apocalyptic B-grade movie end worthy of a Basil Wolverton scenario.
From adulterous romps in department head's offices to in flagrante delicto in the Pastor General's office, this building has seen it all. From masturbating ministers listening to coeds tell their secrets to stolen gropes and kisses in the elevators. From gay romps in the AICF offices to the State of California coming in and changing locks kicking church officials out. From protests and sit-in's to exhibits of the terracotta soldiers from China to exquisite gold and silver crafts from Thailand. Kings and Queens walked its marble floors.Rather than a Bible passage in tribute, perhaps a reference to Shelley's Ozymandias poem is not inappropriate...
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Here endeth the lesson.
(Thanks to Gary and Reg for the heads up).
I really like the Ozymandias connection. But I hate to be a spoil sport - I just don't believe the "unofficial history." I think that malarkey is made up by people with prurient interests.
ReplyDelete-- Neo
If the WCG follows the poem, then some large relic will remain to be discovered by a future generation, which will cause them to know that it represented something great but temporary. I wonder that that relic will be. The temporary part I can envision, but not anything that might show any greatness. Here's a guess for the relic: maybe the marble from the to-be-demolished Auditorium will be retrieved and used somewhere else with a plaque. Does anybody have any other ideas?
ReplyDeleteThe debauchery most likely happened during the 1970s. Briefly, with much of the ministry leaving, early splinters forming, Dr. Martin and others disproving many of the foundational doctrines, and the abysmal failure of 1975, the ministerial police force lost control of the church, college, and high schools for a while. The whole thing looked as if it were coming unraveled, and a lot of really funky stuff was going on. When one of my relatives was attending Ambassador College, right before it temporarily closed down, students were sometimes having sex in the dorms, and marijuana was very popular. Eventually, through HWA's "back on track" the normal police state-like control was regained over the ministry and members.
ReplyDeleteI remember being at a party one time, and saying, "Man, if the ministers find out about this, we're all really screwed!" And one of the ministers' sons said, "No. They've got so much bigger things to worry about right now that they're not going to worry about a little old party." The thing is, I wasn't being paranoid. I had been at some parties in the past where everyone ended up getting called into a minister's office. What was happening in the mid '70s represented a major shift from the norm.
BB