Last week, we reported the surprising news that Ron Miscavige Sr., father to Scientology leader David Miscavige, had begun to emerge into the public eye in a rather unusual way.
We learned last summer that Ron had escaped from Scientology’s secretive International Base east of Los Angeles after reportedly spending many years of his life there. And “escaped” was the word that Ron himself was using to describe it, we were told. We hoped that he would soon talk publicly about what made him run away from the organization his son lords over, and also how he managed to get away from Int Base, with all of its layers of security.
But for now, Ron has written a short book about his childhood experiences, and he’s also been posting videos demonstrating exercise equipment that he markets through the Internet.
Previously, we showed you a glimpse of his “Exer-Genie” videos. And now we’ve received a copy of his childhood memoir, True Confessions of a Kid, which checks in at 112 digest-sized pages.
It’s a slim volume, to be sure, but we did enjoy these short glimpses of life in coal town Pennsylvania during the Second World War.
Growing up in Mount Carmel, Ron lived close to a wooded area the kids knew as “the green” where he had some of his early adventures. One involved setting a smoldering fire in an oak tree’s knot hole which turned out to have dire consequences for the tree and for a nearby house.
There are numerous stories like that in the book — kids looking for excitement and getting more than they bargained for. Ron seems to marvel that he even survived his childhood, the way he goofed around with sticks of dynamite and a .22 rifle that had a tendency to explode in his face.
But we found even more interesting the tales of his early years as a trumpet player in bars — as early as fifteen years old, he was playing professionally and buying beers for a dime a glass.
Ron seems to skip past his Marine years — perhaps he’s saving those for a future volume — and finishes the book with a tale about his days working in a plant that put oil under extreme pressures, and nearly blew up a town.
For Scientology watchers, we only spotted a few tell-tale signs of church vocabulary in the book. But for historians researching the Miscavige family tree, there are a few nuggets here that might prove useful.
Ron Miscavige can tell a tale, and he’s got a healthy sense of humor. Now, if we could just get him to tell us about his life playing trumpet for the Church of Scientology and living out at Int Base. And we can’t wait to hear about The Great Escape. Give us a call, Ron!
Here’s another look at Ron and his Exer-Genie…
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More Footage of Portland from Mark Bunker
Saturday was one of the wildest days we’ve had here on the blog. The day before, Mark Bunker had told us he had secured an amazing location from which to film Scientology’s “Ideal Org” opening in Portland, Oregon. He sent us a photo of the podium where things were going to happen so we could see just how good his vantage point was. We kept that secret, salivating for the next day’s festivities. But just a few minutes before things were supposed to start happening on Saturday afternoon, Bunker called us and let us know that Scientologists had intimidated a building owner so much he had rescinded Bunker’s permission to use his perch. For the next couple of hours, Bunker scrambled to find other locations where he could film the event. Every once in a while, he’d call in and we rapidly put what he told us up on the blog.
Eventually, he found a balcony about a block away where he was able to film Scientology leader David Miscavige speak at the event. But even there, a church operative, John Allender, did everything he could to disrupt Bunker. Now, Mark has put together a rather disturbing video where you can hear him battling with Allender, who is trying to reach Bunker’s camera.
Allender, of course, is already well known to the readers of this blog. In 2011, he was one of the initial “Squirrel Busters” who followed Lori Hodgson to Marty Rathbun’s home in Corpus Christi and began a bizarre five-month siege of the place. We called him a goon then, and it looks like he hasn’t changed his ways…
Bunker is looking into further fallout from his trip to Portland. He was telling us that there still may be consequences for the apartment dwellers who helped him do his filming, and for the parking attendant who was duped into helping out Scientology’s intimidation squad. Nice guy, that Allender.
Bunker has posted additional videos from Portland to his channel this morning, including David Miscavige speaking (with poor audio), an appearance by Bunker on the Lars Larson radio show, an appearance on the Terry Boyd radio show, and a lengthy and weird conversation with a woman outside the Ideal Org itself.
We had no idea that an Ideal Org opening could be so entertaining. So where’s the next one?
We checked Scientology’s website, and it lists five cities that will soon host Ideal Orgs. Does anyone have an idea which might be first?
Columbus, Ohio (Go, ‘Lumbus!)
Birmingham, England (And here’s the video describing this 33-million-pound project.)
Budapest, Hungary
Copenhagen, Denmark (Isn’t there already an Advanced Org there?)
Manchester, England
Montreal, Canada (Hey, that’s David Love country!)
Scientology’s ambitious plans also include three new Advanced Orgs! These are special facilities that can deliver the lower OT levels. (Only the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida can deliver OT Levels up to OT VII, and OT VIII — the highest level — can only be achieved on the cruise ship the Freewinds.)
One AO would be the first on the African continent, in a location between Johannesburg and Pretoria.
Another is planned for a location near Toronto.
And a third is going into a shopping mall in Mexico City.
That’s a lot of purchasing of buildings, renovations, and fundraising. And still, there’s no real sign that the membership of the church is growing. (Actually, there’s plenty of evidence that it’s rapidly shrinking.) What is Miscavige thinking?
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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 15, 2013 at 07:00
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