News and information from the New Orleans area
Carnival New Orleans
BARRY KERN WINS THIS ROUND, DAD HAS TO FOLLOW PAST AGREEMENTS
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The owner of the world-famous Mardi Gras World has been ordered to relinquish his title and give ownership of the float-building company to his son.
Orleans Parish Civil District Judge Reese Kern made the ruling today, forcing Blaine Kern Sr. to hand over ownership of the company to Barry Kern at a shareholders meeting April 26.
Judge Reese Kern
Blaine Kern Sr. founded the company more than 50 years ago and provides floats for the majority of Mardi Gras Krewes that ride during New Orleans’ carnival season, including Rex, Bacchus, Endymion, Alla, Orpheus, and Caesar.
Barry Kern filed a suit against his father Oct. 1, 2010, to evict him “from any directorial or officer position” and to appoint “a receiver to manage and/or dissolve” Blaine Kern Artists (BKA).
That lawsuit made headlines across southeast Louisiana and, and just two days later, the Times-Picayune reported that an intermediary team composed of the Captains of Endymion and Bacchus had stepped in for Blaine and Barry Kern and resolved their differences.
Six months later, Barry Kern sued his father again, claiming Blaine Kern Sr. “failed and refused to consummate the agreement.” A violation of the October agreement requires the violating party to pay $100,000 to the other party, according to the suit.
The suit alleged that Blaine Kern Sr. had agreed in part to sell his shares of the company to Barry Kern, “including payment of debts of Blaine Kern, Sr., lease of facilities owned by Blaine Kern Sr., and a lifetime consulting contract with Blain Kern Sr.”
Blaine Kern Sr. improperly acted as a manager of BKA, the suit alleged. Kern allegedly fired his other son, Brian Kern, asked for BKA to pay his personal expenses and demanded the cashier at Mardi Gras World to give him money from the cash register.
The suit claimed “Blaine Kern Sr. has no right to exercise any managerial control over BKA. “The agreements between Barry and Blaine Kern were arranged by Owen “Pip” Bennan, the captain of the Mardi Gras krewe Bacchus, the suit said.
The meetings resulted in a seven-point letter of intent and a four-point agreement, which essentially transferred control of BKA from father to son. Soon after the agreement was announced, a recorded offer of settlement was filed in Orleans Parish on Oct. 5, according to court documents. The case remains active under Judge Michael Bagneris.
The original suit stated Barry Kern is seeking control of BKA because his father, 83, has acted under the influence of his fourth wife, Holly Brown, who is nearly 50 years younger than him.
The October suit alleged that Blaine Kern’s spending has made BKA “technically insolvent” and that the company has bounced payroll checks to employees. It also claims that Blaine Kern named Brown as co-captain and treasurer of Blaine Kern’s Krewe of Halloween in the Boo Carre, which has failed to make timely payments on equipment and materials provided by BKA.
The suit also makes the claim that Blaine Kern improperly fired Barry Kern, who was named president of BKA in 1995 after successfully running similar companies in Europe, Las Vegas and Orlando. Barry Kern has since resigned as president even though the suit claims Blaine Kern had no authority to fire his son.
Brown is not mentioned in the most recent suit filed by Barry Kern.
New Orleans attorneys Randall Smith, Stephen Gele and Melissa Desormeaux are representing Kern.
Barry Kern Lawsuit Hearing Set For Friday
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The dominant float building company in New Orleans continues to air its dirty laundry publicly. A hearing has been scheduled for Friday in the civil suit filed by Barry Kern, who once again, is suing for control of the New Orleans float-building enterprise that his father, Blaine Kern Sr., founded.
Blaine Kern
Barry Kern
This is the biggest float production company in New Orleans, and possibly the world. They build Rex, Bacchus, Endymion, Muses, Orpheus, Alla, and many other parades. They travel around the world building floats and props for a myriad of uses and users.
Barry Kern, the president of Blaine Kern Artists, is seeking an injunction to keep his 83-year-old father “from interfering with the management of the company,” said Randall Smith, the younger Kern’s attorney. Barry Kern must be awfully upset to sue his octogenarian father. When you sue your elderly parent, you generally lose the public relations battle before it starts.
This is the latest chapter in a feud that went public last fall, when Barry Kern filed a suit alleging that Blaine Kern Artists was a company in fiscal crisis. He laid much of the blame at the feet of Holly Brown Kern, the elder Kern’s fourth wife, saying she was responsible for a big increase in her husband’s spending, often with company money.
Now I have some experience with Holly Brown Kern from before she was married to Blaine, and she controlled him pretty good back then. I am sure Holly is pulling a lot of strings behind the scenes now.
That dispute was settled in an agreement between the Kerns that was witnessed by leaders of three major Carnival organizations: Bacchus, Endymion and Rex, who also are longtime Kern clients.
But in the suit filed this week, Barry Kern claimed his father had not lived up to the pact, in which he agreed to sell his stock in the company to his son and attend a shareholders meeting where Barry Kern, 48, would be elected president. Whoever failed to live up to these terms would have to pay $100,000 plus attorneys fees to the other Kern, the agreement stated.
“We need to resolve who’s running the company so that customers can feel comfortable about paying their bills and move forward with planning for Mardi Gras 2012,” Smith said.
Judge Kern Reese will conduct the 9 a.m. hearing.
BARRY KERN SUES HIS DAD AGAIN!!
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Barry & Blaine Kern
The most renowned and biggest Mardi Gras float builder is feuding publicly again. The family organization that builds Rex, Bacchus, Orpheus, Endymion, and Zulu, among other icon parades in New Orleans has their dirty laundry out for all to see.
The son of famous Mardi Gras float designer Blaine Kern has once more filed suit against his eighty three year old father, this time claiming the elder Kern has reneged on an agreement they made in October.
Barry Kern filed suit against his father Blaine last year in an attempt to oust him from the family float business, but local Mardi Gras krewe captains built a truce. When Barry last filed suit, key Mardi Gras Captains forged a truce which was they believed was forever but…
Barry Kern announced Thursday that he is again suing his father. Here’s the lawsuit.
“No one is more saddened than I that my father has refused to honor the agreements we publicly made on October 5, 2010,” said Barry Kern in a statement. “I have been trying for six months to have him do so, but we cannot wait any longer. I love my dad, but I have been forced to act to protect him, my family, our company, our employees, and the best interests of Mardi Gras.”
In the suit Barry Kern alleges that Blaine Kern has interfered with his son’s managerial control in several ways, including: firing his other son, Brian Kern; demanding payments for personal expenses; reducing a contract with a client that put it below the amount needed just to meet costs; and appearing at the cash register at Mardi Gras World, demanding cash.
The original suit in October, 2010, contended that Blaine Kern had mismanaged the business, leaving it “technically insolvent.” Blaine Kern replied at the time that he had fired his son as company president for running the business into the ground.
Blaine Kern said this evening he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.
Blaine and Holly before marriage
PROTEUS & ORPHEUS ROLL ON LUNDI GRAS!!
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Proteus had some of the most beautiful floats last year, my Float of the Year 2010 was this Proteus float:
2010 Proteus Fish Float
KREWE OF PROTEUS
Proteus is the Second oldest Parade at New Orleans Mardi Gras. Founded in 1882, Proteus (“PROH tee us”) The shepherd of the Oceans, is an early sea-god, one of several deities whom Homer the Old Man of the Sea has always held elaborate masked Tableau Balls and the most beautiful Street Parade to date.
in 1893 the Krewe first introduced the tradition of call outs, Where masked costumed Krewe members invited ladies in attendance to step out on the dance floor with them. This custom was then adopted by many other Krewes including Rex.
The Identity of the King of Proteus is never revealed to the public. His Parade float is a giant Seashell and very march part of the New Orleans Carnival scene for generations.
Proteus did not parade from 1993 – 1999 but returned to parading on Lundi Gras (The Monday before Mardi Gras Day, Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday) in 2000. The Parade of The Krewe of Proteus Follows the Traditional Uptown or St. Charles Route ending on Canal Street. The actual Krewe of Proteus parade floats are still using the original chassis from the early 1880’s.
The Mythical Proteus
The son of Poseidon in the Olympian theology ( Homer,Odyssey iv. 432), or of Nereus and Doris, or of Oceanus and a Naiad, and was made the herdsman of Poseidon’s seals, the great bull seal at the center of the harem. He can foretell the future, but, in a mytheme familiar from several cultures, will change his shape to avoid having to; he will answer only to someone who is capable of capturing him. From this feature of Proteus comes the adjective protean, with the general meaning of “versatile”, “mutable”, “capable of assuming many forms”: “Protean” has positive connotations of flexibility, versatility and adaptability.
Proteus is also known as a shape shifter and can assume the guise of anyone or anything he so chooses. When held fast despite his struggles, he will assume his usual form of an old man and tell the future.
The so-called Old Man of the Sea, is a prophetic sea divinity, son of either Poseidon or Oceanus. He usually stays on the Island of Pharos, near Egypt, where he herds the seals of Poseidon. He will foretell the future to those who can seize him, but when caught he rapidly assumes all possible varying forms to avoid prophesying.
Proteus [PROH-tee-us], like all six of Neptune’s newly discovered small satellites, is one of the darkest objects in the solar system — “as dark as soot” is not too strong of a description. Discovered by Stephen Synnott, Like Saturn’s satellite, Phoebe, it reflects only 6 percent of the sunlight that strikes it. Proteus is about 400 kilometers (250 miles) in diameter, larger than Nereid. It wasn’t discovered from Earth because it is so close to Neptune that it is lost in the glare of reflected sunlight. Proteus circles Neptune at a distance of about 92,800 kilometers (57,700 miles) above the cloud tops, and completes one orbit in 26 hours, 54 minutes. Scientists say it is about as large as a satellite can be without being pulled into a spherical shape by its own gravity. Proteus is irregularly shaped and shows no sign of any geological modification. It circles the planet in the same direction as Neptune rotates, and remains close to Neptune’s equatorial plane
Orpheus is a Super Krewe founded by Harry Connick, Jr. They have Celebrity Monarchs-
Celebrity monarchs
- 2010: Steve Zahn, Sean Payton, Imagination Movers, Paul Mainieri
- 2009: Joan Rivers, James Belushi, Reno 911!
- 2008: Hélio Castroneves, Sidney Torres, Lance Bass, Kevin Meaney, Salt-n-Pepa, Christian LeBlanc, Ricky Paull Goldin, Sean Payton, Josh Gracin
- 2007: Patricia Clarkson, Sean Payton, Harry Connick, Jr.
- 2006: Steven Seagal, Josh Hartnett
- 2005: Sawyer Brown, Toby Keith
- 2004 Dominic Monaghan, Brad Paisley, Nicole Miller, Harry Connick, Jr. [9]
- 2003 Travis Tritt, Harry Connick, Jr.
- 2002
- 2001 Glenn Close (grand marshall), Whoopi Goldberg, Hoda Kotb, Harry Connick, Jr. [12]
- 2000 Whoopi Goldberg (grand marshall),
- 1999 Sandra Bullock, Forest Whitaker,
- 1998
- 1997 Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Anne Rice, Harry Connick, Jr.
- 1996 The Road Rules gang from MTV, Laurence Fishburne, Jay Thomas (’96 King of Orpheus), Anne Rice (’96 muse of Orpheus), Harry Connick, Jr.
- 1995 Anne Rice
- 1994 Little Richard, Branford Marsalis, Vanessa R. Williams, Dan Aykroyd, Harry Connick, Jr.
Other celebrity monarchs for the Krewe of Orpheus include Camryn Manheim, Debbie Allen, Tommy Tune, James Brown, David Copperfield, Delta Burke, Gerald McRaney, Josh Gracin and Christian LeBlanc.
joker float krewe Orpheus