Author's Note: * = Name changed from episode
Chapter 114: Interviews
After we all had finished eating breakfast, we headed to the Main Street in Tombstone, where both "Big Nose Kate's Saloon" and "The Birdcage Theatre" were located. It had been five years since the guys last investigated here, at "The Bird Cage Theatre".
"Big Nose Kate's Saloon" originally got its start as the "Grand Hotel" in September of 1880, and was declared as one of the finest hotels in the state. However, the hotel's life was cut short on May 25, 1882, because of a devastating fire, in which only the bar area survived. The building was rebuilt - although with several changes - and was given the name it has today.
"The Bird Cage Theatre" had it's first grand opening on December 24, 1881, and quickly gained a reputation as one of the wildest, wickedest theatres between New Orleans and San Francisco. It operated 24 hours a day, every day, from 1881 to 1889. Legend states that twenty-six people were killed during that time, and that over one hundred and forty bullet holes still remain in the building.
Upon arriving and meeting up with some of the locals, Zak discussed an idea he had thought of the night before. He suggested filming a short scene where they have a "tense encounter" as the guys "re-enter" Tombstone for the second time, and the locals would try to get them to leave. But, before guns are about to be drawn on both sides, the locals would change their minds and let them through peacefully.
The locals loved the idea and were all for it.
Zak had wanted me to be a part of the scene too, but I felt it was better if it was just the four of them, since it was always the men that did those type of confrontations back in the Wild West. Zak realized I was right, although still seemed upset that I wouldn't be a part of the scene, so he "officially" declared me the director of the scene. I'd be responsible for how the scene looked, the dialogue they spoke, and how it was shot.
I was beyond stunned that Zak was giving me such a big responsibility so early on in my time with the crew, but despite my nerves, I was determined to do the best damn job that I could. I wanted to make Zak proud.
While the few locals that would take part in the scene got a bit of makeup done, we also got two women – one of them Ashley – to agree to be a part of the scene too. They would be dressed up as Saloon girls, standing off to the side watching the men. When the men begin making moves for their guns, the girls would panic and quickly usher each other away from the scene.
While they were getting prepped, I sat down on the wooden deck of a nearby building with a notepad and a pencil and, rather quickly, had managed to come up with the brief exchange of dialogue. I was quite surprised with how easily it had come to me. When I showed it to Zak, he immediately approved of it and thought it was great, and thanked me for taking this on. I was thrilled with his response.
"Thank you for believing in me to be able to do it...I just hope I live up to the shows standards," I said softly.
Zak leaned down and lightly gave me a kiss on the cheek, and then smiled at me as he pulled back.
"You always do doll, you'll do great," Zak reassured me.
I smiled in response before we both headed toward the others to show them the "script" I had come up with, and then I started getting to work setting up cameras.
It took a couple of takes to get the scene down, and I made sure the cameras got the close ups I wanted, in order to show the intensity of the scene. I also took several takes of Ashley and a local girl and their "blink and you'll miss it" scene. Obviously, we wouldn't see the final result until editing later, but I had made sure to film them from plenty of different angles in case Zak wasn't happy with my own ideas.
After we finished with that, we stopped by "The Bird Cage Theatre" because Zak wanted to film a brief tribute to a local man they had met when the guys investigated here originally in 2009. His name had been Leroy Colomy. Sadly, and ironically, he had been shot and killed six months ago. Zak had formed an instant connection with him when they had met, and so we filmed Zak talking to *Bob Harris Jr., the owner of "The Bird Cage Theatre". However, because the shooting was still under investigation, not much could be said about the incident, but we were still able to get enough footage that we would be able to piece together a nice tribute for Leroy during editing. Zak also stated on camera that we were going to honour this investigation in Leroy's name.
~*~*~*~*~*~
After conducting a few interviews with other employees of "The Bird Cage Theatre", we met up with a woman named *Pearl Kennedy, who hosts Ghost tours at the theatre. Like many of the other employees, she had a story for us about how she was touched by a ghost.
"Honestly, I just got done telling somebody that there's probably nothing they can do that will surprise me anymore, and boy, was I wrong," Pearl started. "I was in a long skirt that day, and a hand was on the inside of the skirt, and went all the way up my leg," she explained.
"You felt the hand go all the way up your leg?" Zak asked, motioning with one hand as if he was running his hand up a leg.
I tried to ignore the thoughts that came into my head as I continued to film him and Pearl. Aaron was standing nearby filming them as well.
"Yeah, mm-hmm," Pearl responded.
"How far?" Zak asked, and I managed to keep my laughter from escaping.
So nosy...
Pearl started laughing, but then bent down and touched her leg just above her knee.
"This far, and then I finally flinched," Pearl answered.
"Oh really?" Zak asked, sounding surprised, and intrigued.
"Yeah," Pearl replied, laughing slightly still.
"Did you get aroused? Or was it more like...you know, 'don't do that'-" Zak started.
"It was creepy," Pearl responded, amused by Zak's questioning.
Meanwhile, I was trying not to have heart failure at the fact that Zak had said "aroused".
Is it possible to become aroused by someone saying aroused...? I thought.
"You sure it wasn't a breeze of air, or somebody-" Zak started, but Pearl spoke up again.
"No, it was a full on hand," she replied.
"Do you think it was a ghost?" Zak questioned.
"Mm-hmm," Pearl responded immediately.
"Of a man?" Zak asked.
Pearl nodded, then spoke.
"The size of the hand, yeah," she said.
"Technically, you both got touched on your thigh though," Aaron suddenly said, referring to an incident where Zak had felt something had touched his upper thigh when they investigated here in 2009.
I turned my camera to film Aaron, while Aaron had lowered his camera a bit, but still had Zak and Pearl in the shot.
"Right, right," Zak said, looking at Aaron. "But mine was a female ghost," Zak said, matter of factly.
Aaron turned to look into my camera.
"Let's hope," Aaron teased.
There was silence for a few seconds before Zak responded.
"What do you mean, 'let's hope'?" He asked, sounding slightly scared.
"Let's hope. We didn't get proof that it wasn't," Aaron said, looking back at Zak.
By this point, Pearl and I were holding back our laughter.
Turning my camera to center more on Zak, I decided to speak up.
"How do you know it was a female?" I asked.
"Yeah, how do you know it was a female?" Aaron asked.
Zak stared into my camera momentarily with a bewildered look on his face before answering.
"I can't answer that," Zak admitted, causing Aaron to burst out laughing.
"You might be violated bro," Aaron said.
All Pearl and I could do was laugh.
~*~*~*~*~*~
After taking a break for lunch, we spent some time doing a few more interviews at the Theatre before we moved on to do some interviews at "Big Nose Kate's Saloon". There, we met up with an employee named *Megan Ferguson. She gave us more information about a man that was nicknamed "The Swamper".
"The Swamper" was a mysterious man who lived underground. He would dig, by himself, into the silver mines, and hoard his finds. One day, after not having shown up to work in a few days, people went looking for him, thinking he may have been ill. But this was when his own personal diggings were found. His death is still a mystery to this day. Some say he left town, while others say he was killed down in the mine by other miners, who were angry about his personal diggings.
"The Swamper's" dwelling, where he lived, is under "Big Nose Kate's Saloon", with a spiral staircase leading down to it. Normally, they keep the area barricaded shut, but we were allowed entrance to film some brief footage of the place, and we would also be allowed to go down into the dwelling during lockdown.
Because of the small area, and the mystery behind this man, the dwelling was a creepy and uncomfortable place to say the least.
We spent the rest of the afternoon doing some more interviews with employees of "Big Nose Kate's Saloon". Even though we most likely wouldn't be able to get all the interviews included into the episode, Zak always preferred to get as many stories as we could, so that we could use the stories to help us corroborate our experiences during lockdown. The more we knew what to expect, and what kind of activity took place at each location, the better.