June 13, I was contacted by Susan Walls of Walls & Co via NewFaces.com concerning my daughter, Kathleen Cassandra. The casting sent stated that she was auditioning children for a live & TV performing group that would be used for a TV pilot. This was not an advertisement for any service, but rather a casting. Since my daughter does not sing, I brought my son Ray to Orlando for the audition where he was accepted into the group. Susan talked to him at length about the TV pilot he would be filmed for, a New York trip, and a trip to LA. She intentionally gave my son the impression that he had been accepted into a group that would make him a star.
At that time, Susan told me that I would be responsible for paying $200 for the entire year, which would include extensive technique classes in acting, voice, and dance. She said there would also be opportunities to participate in conventions, for which we would have to cover our transportation, lodging and part of our entrance fees. She said she was working with sponsors who would assume as much of the financial obligation as possible. Assuming, based on our contact, that this was a funded project, I figured the $200 to help out was a small contribution.
My son began rehearsals right away and performed in a benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina. The family and friends of all the performers paid $15 a seat for the performance. We still haven't seen any cancelled check or financial report of this event.
I was asked to help backstage and did so in lieu of watching my son perform, only to be told that I would have to pay $45 for a copy of the videotape. This from a project that one would assume the performers would at least gain some reels from until such time that it took off.
Susan and her partner began to talk to me and to my son about a singing solo. Then, after some time passed, told us that if he was going to sing, he would have to take lessons from Marrianne for $25/half hour lesson. What about the technique classes that were promised or the fact that our complete fee for participation was $200? I asked her. She tried to tell me that I was mistaken and the fee covered technique classes in acting, performing and dance, but not voice. (I have since found and printed the email she sent me stating that his full fee is $200 for the year and it would include technique classes in acting, dance, and voice.) I found it peculiar that a performance would consist of only 1 group act (which was rehearsed and supervised by a 13 year old girl with no adults to supervise.) and 15 singing solos. It made more sense to me once I realized that people were being coerced into paying for voice lessons. What better way to encourage this than to offer all these solos?
Then Susan began asking for almost $700 in advance for the New York trip that she had promised to find sponsors for. She wanted this money and $215 per person for the flight to New York, and $145/nt for the room - all nine months in advance. She claimed this was all to ensure special low group rates for us, yet I found cheaper rates for all of these online as an individual.
For the months that this story continues to change, of course, my son is more and more engaged in the project, in his fellow performers, and in the dreams this woman has fed on. Soon, she sent an email telling us that all the children needed to take technique classes, which she would offer us at a discount. This, on top of the voice lessons. The $200 complete fee for the year that was promised was fading as if it never existed at all.
Each time I tried to contact her to speak about the differences between our original agreement and the way her story had changed, she refused to pick up the phone or call back.instead, she sent a few blunt emails and also had a 17-year-old child call me while she coached him in the background to discuss fees and her broken promises.
Then I got an email in December that stated, as if this is a decision she has a right to make, For all Kids of KI will need to be under management with Walls Entertainment Group. Nothing like this had been discussed at all. I don't even know this woman, she isn't registered with any of the unions, and she certainly hasn't gotten my working child any work. Yet she is now stating that he MUST be under her management, thereby entitling her to a percentage of his earnings.
I am left with the following impression of Walls & Co.:
1. Susan Walls and Marrianne Pinkerton have decided to make a living selling lessons and sending kids on castings that have been posted all over the internet.
2. Rather than honestly approach this goal by paying for advertising, registering with the right agencies and building a business based on merit, they posted auditions and lead parents of talented children to believe that she is producing a TV pilot, which she claims to have connections and sponsors for.
3. She has systematically embroiled these parents and their children in her plans by continuing to promise results and pretending that she will offer services for only a very low fee.
4. As time goes on, and everyone has dedicated more time and energy, she has been changing the rules and the fees, all the while pretending that she did not already make certain promises. She is well aware of how difficult it is for a parent to dash their child's hopes and has made it very difficult for parents to make the correct choices in response to her dishonesty because of it.
5. She has extorted the parents in the group into paying for lessons that had already been promised, had them buy pictures from her photographers, and more.
6. Because she lucked out in finding WORKING kids, she has now decided that she will mandate that all the children be under her management as another source of passive income.
7. She has tried over and over to collect money (I'm not sure how much has been paid by other parents) for trips and conventions that are well over 6 months away. No one gets receipts, and if the money is sitting in an interest-bearing account, like I'm guessing it is, she certainly hasn't disclosed that information to anyone.
8. She organized a benefit concert and has not disclosed the financial records of what was earned and what was donated. She also gave our children hats to hold at the door to collect more cash with no receipts. I personally saw at least $60 in just my son's hat. Since our children worked for free, and we worked for free, and the concert hall use was free, and we supplied their costumes, I can only hope that she has not taken any monies at all for fees.
I have emails and hand-written notes to support all of my allegations, as well as the word of the other parents in the group. I am personally withdrawing my son from the group. However, it is a tremendous concern to me that she has emotionally damaged my son through her dishonest dealings and she plans on continuing to dishonestly engage other parents and their children in her schemes.
These are the facts as I know them. YOu make your own opinion.
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