24
Saturday, April 21st, 1984, 1:37 P.M.
It was another typically gorgeous, Saturday afternoon in southern California as the Go-Go’s prepared themselves to visit the office of Mr. Abel Tudball, Head of Product Placement at CBS for one of their semi-annual meetings on merchandise distribution. Since all of the Go-Go’s merchandise was now legally licensed under CBS’ Product Division, the girl’s only responsibility was to agree or disagree on the items presented before them; Thus, the reason for the meetings. It was an integral part of the business side over at the network and the Go-Go’s produced more of it than anyone else due to the nature of who they were. The world looked at them like five Teddy Bears which, coincidentally, was one of products that they sold.
The meetings themselves could not exactly be described as stimulating, but it was always fun to see what new ideas Mr. Tudball and his associates had come up with. It was a nice ego boost for the girls to see their names and likenesses on things and to see how popular each item was. It was especially cool to see the dolls and the action figures. Unfortunately, Abel and his fellow nerds displayed their generational differences in age and came up with some pretty dorky stuff.
Merchandising was a tremendous cash cow for the studio and pure liquid for the Go-Go’s as well. The money went into the general partnership, got churned around, and came out on the other end in the form of a fatter wallet for the Go-Go’s Holding Corp. LLC. Charlotte made sure of that.
The girls and their manager, Ginger, had lunch at one of their favorite cafes, dealt with the usual smattering of fans and autograph seekers, then drove themselves downtown for the meeting. The office was located on 7th St. as each one of them made their way into the underground parking garage. After dropping off at the valet, they all met up together and took the elevator up to the ninth floor. After exiting the elevator, they walked down the hallway until they found the familiar office number 9500.
They knocked softly and entered. The receptionist, Shelley, was always thrilled to see them.
“Hey, guys!” she greeted. “How are you? We’ve been waiting for you.”
The seven of them exchanged greetings and then proceeded to engage in some female chit-chat that took longer than any normal, male chit-chat would take. The volume got louder and louder which eventually prompted the portly Mr. Tudball to enter the receptionist area and throw a wrench into their gossipy fun.
“Well, well, if it isn’t my favorite ladies in the whole world,” he exclaimed.
Ginger and the girls had to fake their enthusiasm in seeing the bald-headed “suit” while still keeping their plastic smiles glued to their faces. Actually, they didn’t dislike Mr. Tudball all that much. He was a nice enough guy and was only doing his job. The only problem in this particular scenario was that it was a Saturday, they had all just enjoyed a relaxing lunch, and now they had to adjust to the business side of life, which seemed endless at times. He also interrupted their afternoon mimosas.
“Come on in girls,” said Abel, as he motioned for them to enter his office. “Let’s get this party started.”
Obviously, Mr. Tudball did not know the definition of the word “party” when it came to the Go-Go’s.