Menu
CB Arts and Humanities Review of Radio City - Rockettes Entertainment
Radio City - Rockettes Entertainment

Radio City - Rockettes Entertainment review: Intimidation and harassment 1

Author of the review
12:00 am EST
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

This happened a few years ago, but people should still hear about it. After attending the Radio City Christmas show in Minneapolis, I e-mailed Radio City to ask whether they would forward a letter of appreciation to the performing Rockettes.

A public relations staffer replied that yes, they would gladly address and forward the letters. To minimize their inconvenience, I enclosed a copy of the letter in 22 stamped and sealed envelopes, each with a printed Rockette addressee name taken from the Playbill. I mailed the package to New York, as instructed, along with a cover letter.

After a few weeks, I e-mailed the PR staffer for a status report. She replied that “they are being sent out to the individual women this week.” Several weeks later, I decided to confirm this. I easily located the parents of a Rockette through the Internet and asked them to please check with their daughter about whether she had received the letter. She had not. I e-mailed the staffer with this news, expecting an apology and an explanation for her lying to me. I instead got a phone call from a man at Radio City, presumably a lawyer, who told me that the letter, which he had read, would not be forwarded. (Nobody had ever asked me for permission, or even informed me, about opening the stamped, named, and sealed envelopes.) He also directed me to cease all communications with Radio City, threatening to “notify the authorities.”

The letter itself was not threatening or anonymous, and although it was heavy with praise for the Rockettes’ talents, dedication, and stamina (up to four shows a day), there was not a single reference to physical appearance or attractiveness. The letter also applauded the other performers, including men, and the backstage personnel. As for me, I myself am a lawyer, and far from being a convicted stalker or sex offender, I have yet to receive my first traffic ticket.

When I e-mailed the PR staffer and Radio City executives about my experience, including the phone call, I got a visit at my home from the local sheriff, passing on a message from Radio City to stop communicating with them.

Despite the intended intimidation and harassment, I wrote to several Radio City executives with the full story. People such as Peter Croken (General Manager), Susie Arons (VP, Public Relations), and Kathryn Schroeder (Director, Public Relations) signaled their approval of my blatant mistreatment by ignoring the correspondence.

One more thing. I eventually sent the letter, unsealed, to the parents mentioned above for forwarding, at their discretion, to their Rockette daughter. The parents wrote back with profuse thanks for my “beautiful letter.”

Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

1 comments
S
S
Sib in Texas
,
Mar 11, 2008 1:40 pm EDT

What a strange incident. Perhaps the organization has some ulterior motive for not passing on appreciative mail...most actors have a service that handles this. Call me cynical, but my thought was, perhaps they don't want their team to know how popular they are, in case they ask for a pay raise. Or, sometimes one person is caught in a lie, and covers for it by denigrating a whistleblower to others in the organization.

I would consider the visit from your "local sheriff" to be intimidation, and would contact authorities in the NYPD. That's not appropriate unless there is clear stalking here.