Maywood ‘Players Ball’ Stirs Protest
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Johnathon E. Briggs, Chicago Tribune, Dec. 4, 2005
Often sporting a lime-green plaid suit and clutching a diamond-studded chalice for sipping Moet, the self-proclaimed “king of the pimps,” Archbishop Don Magic Juan, “spiritual adviser” to rapper Snoop Dogg, is known to hobnob with celebrities and is accustomed to red-carpet treatment.
But his anticipated arrival triggered protests Saturday night at a banquet hall in Maywood, where the glittering “mack daddy” was to celebrate his birthday and preside over the 30th annual “Players Ball Convention,” where a trophy is given to “No. 1 International Pimp of the Year.”
Appalled that a party glamorizing the prostitution of women was to take place in their back yard—across the street from the Maywood Police Department, no less—a coalition of about 100 residents, former prostitutes, elected officials and clergy protested outside Mariella’s Banquet Hall.
The message was clear: Pimping’s not welcome in Maywood.
Juan, once known as Don Campbell, was a notorious pimp on the West Side. According to his memoir “From Pimp Stick to Pulpit—It’s Magic,” he hung up his pimp “game” in 1985, found Jesus and is a preacher who ministers “to the outcasts of society.”
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(Posted on December 5, 2005)