Lessons to Learn from the Family Kern
Thu, October 7, 2010 at 15:08 Kern Studios is the company that creates the floats for the vast majority of the krewes that parade; it also operates Mardi Gras World. If you haven’t heard, relations in the Kern family recently soured for a bit. If you need to know the details of the altercation and how it was resolved, The Times-Pic has a couple of articles on the subject. Read those, catch up and hurry back here.
The father-son altercation created uncertainty in the future of the company, which in turn led three of the largest krewes to parade (The School of Design, The Krewe of Endymion, and the Krewe of Bacchus) to cease paying Kern Studios. This was the beginning of a potential collapse for the 2011 parade season.
So how was the problem solved? ;)
Apparently the solution was to trick Blaine and Barry Kern into meeting with each other. This was done by the Captains of the three aforementioned organizations arranging a meeting with each Barry and Blaine, to discuss resuming payments and work; of course though, each (Barry and Blaine) was not told that the other would be present. The Captains then allowed for the two to work things out.
This little story has a happy ending. Things turned out OK. Barry and Blaine may one day even laugh about the whole thing. Nevertheless, it exposes a weakness that we have. Something our city relies so much on to keep our spirits high, as the Mardi Gras parading season, could have been dramatically hacked to pieces.
We as a community rely a great deal too much on Kern Studios. Thus, I encourage and implore the parading organizations to heed warning to these recent events. Kern Studios is not the only company that can prepare floats. I believe Arthur Hardy has a float building operation. I’m not sure if he is self employed, or works for one of the other float builders, but I understand that Henri Schindler was trained by the last of the Old-Line float designers. My favorite of them all though are the Royal Artists, who produce the most traditional, elgant, beautiful floats in all of Carnival. Not only do they provide the floats for Chaos, Proteus, d’Etat, and Hermes, but they’ve also done work for several of Mobile’s “Mystic Societies” (Alabamian for “krewe”).
Options exist, yet krewes flock to Kern Studios. This is dangerous, not just for individual krewes, but for our culture as a whole. Furthermore, long term financial success for a krewe, may actually involve owning at least a few floats of its own. If any of the readership is in a position of influence in a krewe that rents floats, please consider purchasing your own, at very least for the monarch. It would be a one time investment as the monarch’s float doesn’t typically change from year to year.
Monopolies are dangerous, and I wouldn’t want a mismanaged one ruining our traditions.
Reader Comments (7)
Really interesting. I never really thought about the Kern family bringing down Mardi Gras single-handedly.
Good one Ryan!
I didn't understand the undercurrent of doom and gloom on the part of many when it was anounced the Kerns were feuding, either. I knew they didn't make Le Krewe D'Etat's floats (I didn't know the name of the firm that did until you posted it, though) and also that there are other float companies that could have taken up the slack.
Besides Royal Artists, there's a firm called Mardi Gras Decorators that provides floats for several krewes, as well as props. They fabricated the fiberglass streetcar blanks used in the Streetcar Named Inspire public art project and some of the decorations at Story Land in City Park, also some of the Celebration in the Oaks decorations.
I don't think Arthur Hardy is in the float-building business. I sent him an email to check. I'll let you know what he says.
I think it's the wrong end of the stick to think the Captains did this primarily to "preserve Carnival".
Those three Krewes own their own floats, so they can take them elsewhere for completion. Note that the Krewes had already ceased paying bills to Kern Studios because of their issues (how's that for preserving Carnival?), but didn't take this action until the court case was declared.
These are ostensibly non-profit organizations, but there is a lot of money involved and they don't necessarily want people snooping into their business and going on fishing expeditions which might result in finding things which would be unseemly. I think there was extreme pressure from Muniz and Brennan for this reason - they don't want their krewes' finances related to Kern's finances out in court - as they would be. I've also read that's why Muniz isn't running for re-election in Kenner - disclosure.
I agree with Pete--I don't see the sense of urgency that BKA survive. After all, Blaine, Jr., split off Kern Studios years ago to do outside-NOLA projects and stuff like decorations for Harrah's, as well as movie productions. If somehow Blaine Sr. and Barry would have wrecked BKA, there would still be a "Kern infrastructure" that could tool-up float-building.
But that's secondary to the fact that there are other options.
Katy - It's not that the intend to. I believe that theKerns want to do good for Mardi Gras. Nevertheless, they also want to make money, but they apparently aren't doing well with that.
Loki - Thanks
P.Pete and Yat Pundit - Many Many of the krewes do not own floats at all. The krewes may figure things out if Kern were to disappear, but it would not be likely that this would happen before march.
Cade - do you believe that krewes are corrupt or something? Do you think they are misappropriating funds? Or is it simply that the secrecy they enjoy would not be preserved?
Ryan - Muniz has always claimed his krewe doesn't make a profit for him. With finances in the open, there would certainly be reimbursements and perks which would be questioned, rightly or wrongly.