MUSICAL CHAIRS! - Besthostingplanever.com
MUSICAL CHAIRS! - Besthostingplanever.com
MUSICAL CHAIRS! - Besthostingplanever.com
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THE LAST SHELBURNE CO. PICTURE SHOW<br />
BY KURT ENNS<br />
FILM PRODUCERS ARE MASTERS OF THE<br />
PITCH. THEY PITCH YOU THEIR IDEA, AND<br />
MAKE IT SOUND SO COMPELLING AND REAL,<br />
YOU WANT TO GIVE THEM THE SHIRT OFF<br />
YOUR BACK TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.<br />
That’s exactly what Jimmy Kendrick and<br />
Mary Barstow of Seacoast Entertainment<br />
did to the residents of Shelburne County.<br />
The future looked rosier than Technicolour<br />
back in May 2008, when the pair snapped up<br />
the dormant Shelburne Park film studio, thanks<br />
to a sweetheart deal from Frank “King of Economic<br />
Development” Anderson.<br />
In hype reminiscent of Headz Gamez<br />
blowhard Kerry Martens in Parrsboro, Jimmy<br />
and Mary pitched their vision of success to anyone<br />
who would listen, and talked up their plans<br />
in the Chronically Horrid, vowing to invest<br />
millions in the film studio and start-up businesses,<br />
creating hundreds of jobs.<br />
For all of his well-publicized faults, Frank<br />
Anderson, of the now-defunct South West<br />
Shore Development Authority (SWSDA),<br />
succeeded in creating ideal conditions for Seacoast<br />
to thrive, when he kicked in a $1.75-million<br />
mortgage and a two-year mortgage-free<br />
honeymoon.<br />
Fast forward to July 2010. From their home<br />
base in Winchester, New Hampshire, Seacoast<br />
directors Jimmy and Mary indicate in documents<br />
filed with the Office Of The Superintendent<br />
Of Bankruptcy, that the enterprise is<br />
insolvent and carrying a $2 million debt load.<br />
With the assistance of Halifax bankruptcy<br />
trustee Peter Wedlake, Seacoast has made it<br />
known it intends to file a proposal to creditors,<br />
a financial pitch if you will, that would keep the<br />
<strong>com</strong>pany out of bankruptcy. Seacoast has until<br />
October 12 to hammer out this particular pitch.<br />
And the truth of the matter is that it may be a<br />
hard sell. Seacoast now owes SWSDA<br />
$1,915,998, representing the unpaid, Andersonbrokered<br />
mortgage and the accrued interest<br />
thereon.<br />
Then there are the unsecured creditors: Aliant<br />
($8,000); Irving Oil ($2,000); Nova Scotia<br />
JIMMY A NO-SHOW<br />
A WARRANT HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR THE ARREST OF SEACOAST EN-<br />
TERTAINMENT CZAR JIMMY KENDRICK, WHO FOR A BRIEF, SHINING MO-<br />
MENT LOOKED LIKE HE WAS GOING TO BE SHELBURNE COUNTY’S AN-<br />
SWER TO CECIL B. DEMILLE.<br />
It may sound like movie-of-the-week fodder, but the 59-year-old film<br />
studio mogul is a fugitive from the law, after he failed to appear on<br />
August 26 at Barrington Provincial Court on two impaired driving<br />
18 ATLANTIC CANADA FRANK SEPTEMBER 28, 2010<br />
Power ($19,000) and Scotia Survey ($1,800).<br />
The Municipality of Shelburne is owed<br />
$117,000 for unpaid property taxes, and has<br />
had to resort to placing liens on Seacoast’s property,<br />
which is now under a foreclosure notice.<br />
Bankruptcy Office proceedings automatically<br />
delay a sheriff’s sale by 30 days, but because<br />
Seacoast has been given additional time to appease<br />
its creditors, a foreclosure sale probably<br />
couldn’t take place until Christmas at the<br />
earliest.<br />
The municipality’s debt is expected to grow<br />
by $30,000 to $40,000, once the next round of<br />
tax bills is issued.<br />
Meanwhile locals are left shaking their collective<br />
heads at the fact that Seacoast, a <strong>com</strong>-<br />
Mary Barstow & Jimmy Kendrick<br />
pany that enjoyed minimal overhead for two<br />
years, could find itself in low water so soon.<br />
Then again, after 27 months, Jimmy and Mary,<br />
those wizards of self-promotion, only managed<br />
to lure two productions to Shelburne, Moby<br />
Dick and a low-budget vampire flick from Halifax.<br />
The millions in investments never appeared.<br />
Neither did the hundreds of promised jobs.<br />
Sure, Jimmy and Mary screened a few free<br />
flicks on the outside of a building, threw up a<br />
mini-golf course, and printed a few editions of<br />
Good Times, a free, intellect-challenged newspaper,<br />
but good luck taking that to the bank!<br />
Does Frank Know?<br />
atlanticfrank@eastlink.ca<br />
related charges (Frank 586, 590).<br />
Yankee Doodle Jimmy, believed to be in his native New Hampshire,<br />
was represented in his long-running legal sideshow (11 docket<br />
appearances in one year!) by Raymond Jacquard of Nickerson Jacquard<br />
in Yarmouth, who did not return my detailed message.<br />
BTW, Raymond also acts as legal counsel for the Municipality of<br />
Yarmouth, a funding partner of the defunct South West Shore Development<br />
Authority, which is owed over $1.9 million by Seacoast Entertainment,<br />
its largest single creditor.<br />
I’m no Roger Ebert, but the Jimmy Kendrick Story looks to be in<br />
equal parts tragedy and farce.