A Hollywood establishment identified for thriller, deception and drama, the Magic Citadel is now gripped by a brand new number of suspense.
Magic Citadel mansion proprietor Randy Pitchford, who purchased the institution in 2022, has offered a reorganization plan to his tenant, the Academy of Magical Arts. The AMA is the nonprofit membership that operates the fortress and whose performer-members have helped construct it into one of many world’s high venues for magic.
In a sequence of proposals, Pitchford has supplied AMA members a selection between embracing his plan — which provides him management over fortress operations and most income — or discovering one other clubhouse when the academy’s lease expires Dec. 31, 2028.
Members have till Sept. 29 to determine.
With backing from the AMA’s board of administrators, Pitchford presents this second as an opportunity for the academy to safe a vibrant future for the Magic Citadel whereas preserving its legacy.
However the proposal is inflicting “division, fracturing and confusion” amongst many AMA members, as one magician, Ralph Shelton, put it. Some members, who requested to not publish their names, instructed The Occasions they imagine that Pitchford is utilizing an ultimatum to take management of the fortress. Different members say they merely fear that Pitchford is giving AMA members too little info.
“The simplest individuals to idiot are magicians and scientists,” mentioned Shelton, a Huntington Seashore legal professional who put himself by way of legislation faculty by doing magic. “You recognize what they’re searching for and you’re employed round that.”
Pitchford didn’t instantly reply Thursday to requests for touch upon the allegation that he’s utilizing an ultimatum to take management of the fortress. However Pitchford and his staff had mentioned that by taking on the dangers and rewards that include operating the Citadel, his firm is releasing up the AMA to give attention to its non-commercial mission — selling magic — “for so long as it needs to make use of the Magic Citadel as its clubhouse.”
Since Sept. 8, the academy’s 4,664 members have been casting digital votes on whether or not to alter the group’s bylaws and different paperwork to permit the proposed realignment. In earlier polling, the members who voted have closely favored a deal. A “sure” vote would imply the reorganization would start as quickly as Oct. 1.
Pitchford realized magic on the fortress earlier than constructing a online game empire because the co-founder of Gearbox Leisure. In a Sept. 9 assertion to The Occasions, he famous that he and his spouse have been married within the Magic Citadel’s Palace of Thriller in 1997, “so our funding into its preservation and high quality is kind of private to us.”
As an AMA member for greater than 30 years, he mentioned he’s “thrilled that the Academy of Magical Arts, with the overwhelming help of the membership, are our ally in forging a daring, mission-first partnership for at the very least the following 30 years of magic on the Magic Citadel.”
The Magic Citadel, a 1909 Edwardian-style mansion, opened in 1963 as a clubhouse and efficiency venue for the Academy of Magical Arts, which was based and sustained for years by the Larsen household. From the beginning, the academy was a tenant within the constructing, leasing from personal house owners, the Glover household, on phrases usually described as “a handshake deal.”
For many years, guests have been drawn by the concept of dressing to the nines and roaming room to room, sipping cocktails as conjurers and sleight-of-hand artists ply their commerce. Performers and members have included Cary Grant, Johnny Carson, Orson Welles, Jason Alexander, Neil Patrick Harris and Larry Wilmore (who sits on the board of administrators). Exclusivity is a part of the enchantment, too. To get in, most friends want an invitation from a member.
The enterprise bumped into hassle in 2020 when the pandemic shut it down and a detailed allegations of sexual harassment, groping and racism. In 2021, the mansion reopened amid a management overhaul.
The most recent chapter within the fortress’s story started in April 2022 when Pitchford purchased the property from its longtime landlords, the Glover household.
Pitchford, 54, whose Texas-based firm created the favored Borderlands online game franchise, is a within the online game trade. His buy of the fortress, valued by the L.A. County Assessor at, additionally included an adjoining residence constructing and the 33-unit Magic Lodge subsequent door.
About the identical time because the fortress buy, Pitchford additionally purchased mental property rights to the Magic Citadel title from , who died in 2023.
When Pitchford was introduced as purchaser of the fortress, many academy members voiced optimism. “We have been completely thrilled past measure,” mentioned Paul Kott, an Anaheim-based business and residential actual property dealer who has been an AMA member for 50 years. “We all know his coronary heart desires to dedicate this place to the artwork of magic.”
To handle the brand new holdings, Pitchford and his spouse, Kristy Pitchford, created corporations referred to as Magic Citadel Enterprises (for mental property) and Magic Citadel Leisure (for actual property), collectively often known as MCE. Additionally they enlisted Erika Larsen, daughter of chateau pioneers Invoice and Irene Larsen, as president of Magic Citadel Enterprises, and Jessica Hopkins, granddaughter of Invoice and Irene Larsen, as .
In January 2024, the AMA’s management instructed members that the group’s lease on the constructing wouldn’t be renewed — inflicting a amongst members — and that academy board was negotiating with MCE in hopes of conserving the group in place.
On July 30, 2024, AMA members mentioned they acquired an e-mail that included a warning from MCE saying that if it couldn’t make a cope with the academy, MCE may “create a brand new membership with attractive options and pricing” that “may presumably result in [the academy’s] demise.”
(In a later e-mail alternate with The Occasions, Pitchford mentioned he didn’t recall that particular sentence; he didn’t reply to a request to verify or deny the passage.)
In December 2024, AMA leaders invited members to vote on a proposed “decision implementation settlement” for MCE to take over the Magic Citadel’s business operations whereas the academy remained on web site indefinitely and targeted on its nonprofit function, together with awards applications and academic efforts.
MCE reported that greater than 90% of ballots favored the deal. Opponents mentioned {that a} minority of members solid votes. A second vote yielded related outcomes.
Additional particulars emerged in a “white paper” doc that MCE circulated in February 2025. It mentioned MCE would function and accumulate income from the fortress reward store, bar, restaurant, field workplace and valet parking. AMA members would pay dues by way of a brand new entity which might divide that income between MCE and the academy. The Magic Citadel would serve “because the unique clubhouse of the AMA indefinitely.”
MCE additionally pledged to speculate $10 million in capital enhancements and upkeep and relieve the AMA of remaining lease and trademark-related monetary obligations. In the meantime, the AMA board of administrators would step by step shrink from 9 members to 5, two of them nominated by MCE.
In March, the Magic Citadel introduced that the MCE and AMA board of administrators had signed a decision implementation settlement, the framework for a deal. An AMA spokesperson mentioned that MCE and the AMA board of administrators “have negotiated phrases for long-term entry. Particulars of the settlement is not going to be launched.”
“I feel [Pitchford] has tried to do every part in his energy to protect the character of this iconic place,” mentioned longtime member Christopher Hart, who serves as chair of the academy’s board of trustees, which oversees creative selections on the fortress. Hart performed “Factor,” the disembodied hand, within the “Addams Household” films.
“The rumors have been so rampant in so many instructions,” mentioned Homosexual Blackstone, a longtime member who has served in lots of roles on the academy board of administrators and board of trustees. Blackstone mentioned she nonetheless has analysis to do earlier than casting her vote however “I do know that [Pitchford’s] love and fervour for the magic are super.”
Nonetheless, for some, doubts persist. “I don’t assume the membership is being given what they should make an excellent choice…. How lengthy can we keep? how a lot is it going to value?” Kott requested.
Now comes one other membership vote. On Sept. 8, members started a binding vote on proposed modifications in academy bylaws and different paperwork that will make the brand new deal potential. These modifications embody creation of a Magic Citadel Membership, separate from the Academy of Magical Arts.
That “is a crucial wrinkle,” Shelton mentioned.
The idea of the Magic Citadel Membership “is to not compete with the A.M.A., however we would have liked a brand new entity to gather dues on behalf of the A.M.A. and MCE per the association,” Randy Pitchford mentioned in an announcement to The Occasions Sept. 15. As soon as an settlement is in place, Pitchford mentioned, “All membership actions, occasions, initiatives, and many others, are and shall be led and directed by the Academy of Magical Arts.”
The aim, MCE leaders have mentioned, is “a seamless transition with a give attention to an uninterrupted member and visitor expertise.”
If the membership rejects the modifications, Christopher Grant, president of the academy’s board of administrators, mentioned in an announcement that “MCE will terminate its present lease with the AMA” and the academy would wish to discover a new clubhouse by January 2029.
Additional results of a “no” vote, particularly for academy-member performers and audiences on the Magic Citadel, are tougher to foretell.
In his Sept. 9 assertion, Pitchford instructed that the brand new proposal places in place “the identical sort of relationship that based and created” the Magic Citadel within the first place.
“Change is all the time scary,” Hart mentioned. “Members simply need the identical expertise they’ve all the time had and cherished concerning the fortress.” The proposed modifications, Hart added, “may make the fortress better than it’s ever been.”
