ney for the criminal division.
The court has ordered Dillenbeck, 54, to stay away from the pier and has prevented him from storing his belongings on public property.
“This ban is totally unnecessary, extreme, and I feel it is intended to hurt and punish me. What the city is doing is wrong,” said Dillenbeck on Tuesday from his cell phone. He was huddled underneath a tarp near the pier as he tried to stay dry in the rain. “What they are doing is taking away my livelihood. If this is allowed to continue, even for a short while, I will be ruined economically. I will lose everything, and at that point, there will be no more Bubbleman.”
For the last decade, Dillenbeck has put smiles on thousands of children’s faces by simply blowing a few bubbles. During a performance, Dillenbeck will set up bubble-blowing machines he designed and built, each capable of producing millions of bubbles a day. The displays draw huge crowds.
In the past 10 years, he has received plenty of attention from law enforcement as well. Dillenbeck has been cited and arrested numerous times for violating laws against camping and sleeping in public, as well as performing after hours.
He has had so many run-ins with the law that Dillenbeck has been labeled a nuisance and has been ordered to stay away from the pier and other locations for months at a time.
The bans hurt his ability to make a living, Dillenbeck said, but none have been as devastating financially or as far reaching as the current stay-away order. Dillenbeck said the order essentially bars him from performing because it does not allow him to store some of his belongings and equipment nearby when he’s blowing bubbles.
“The judge said no storing, so I don’t know what (Dillenbeck) needs to have to do his performances,” Haviland said. “He has a large amount of property, so I can’t comment on (whether this bans him from performing) … the case is still pending.”
Stay-away orders are like restraining orders. They are generally used in cases in which a person has been put on probation or convicted of a crime. As part of the punishment, they are not allowed within a certain distance of a particular location, said Haviland.
“We try to get (a ban of) 100 yards for most places, so if they go back to that location, they are arrested for a violation of their probation. We file them routinely for a lot of things, like theft, trespassing and camping,” she said.
About 98 percent of the orders are for at least two years, Haviland said. Anyone with an order against them can go to court and ask for it to be removed, but there is no guarantee that the request would be granted.
The order couldn’t have come at a more difficult time for Dillenbeck, who said he has been living on the streets for almost a year, unable to afford transportation back to his workshop/apartment in North Hollywood. He owes money for back rent on the workshop, which is where he builds the bubble machines he uses in his performances. He often sells the machines, some going for as much as $200 a piece.
Dillenbeck has been unable to get to his shop since his van was impounded last year after he failed to pay the vehicle’s registration. He said he has been trying to save enough money to purchase another car, but that has been difficult because of the stay-away orders, as well as changes in the hours of operation at the pier and a drop in tourism following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“Without transportation, I can’t get back to my shop, which means I’ve had to find places to stay around here so I can work to save up money,” said Dillenbeck, who says he can make as much as $300 on a good day blowing bubbles. “If I do get a ride back home, how will I get back down here to work? It’s a catch-22.”
Those who are familiar with the pier said Dillenbeck has not been a nuisance as a performer, but rather a positive presence.
“I think his bubbles bring a lot of really good feelings to people, especially at events,” said Linda Sullivan, a member of the board for the Pier Restoration Corp., or PRC, which oversees operations at the pier. “I think it is unfortunate that he has had problems (with police). The pier will miss him.”
Sullivan said Dillenbeck joined the street performers’ working group, in which “he helped everyone get along.”
Ben Franz-Knight, executive director of the PRC, said Dillenbeck has been banned from the pier not because of his performances, but because of what happens afterwards.
“As far as his performances, (Dillenbeck) has followed all of our guidelines like anyone else … but his business with the police department comes afterwards, regarding where and how he stores his equipment,” Franz- Knight said.
Many people said Dillenbeck’s problems are rooted in his anti-establishment beliefs, cultivated during time spent in an artists’ commune near USC after he dropped out of film school there. Not wanting to back down, Dillenbeck has often clashed with police, which has given officers more incentive to enforce the law, some said.
During the late 1960s, Dillenbeck, like many others during that era, began to explore his interest in electrical engineering and acoustics, which eventually led him to design a sound system that was used during rock ’n roll tours for such famous acts as Fleetwood Mac and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
At that time, blowing bubbles was just a hobby, but grew into an obsession, Dillenbeck said. It eventually consumed his entire life to the point that he is now so far removed from the music industry that he has no idea how to get back to it.
“After 25 years of being away from it for so long, it would take a long time to get back into it, plus the music industry is such a highly competitive field now; I just don’t think I would stand a chance,” he said. “Besides, (blowing bubbles) is what I love to do. I get to put a smile on someone’s face, maybe bring laughter into their lives, and that is so hard to give up. I’ve always been more interested in making a contribution than in making money.”
Sullivan said Dillenbeck is “very bright, articulate and could have probably made a lot of money doing something else,” but that isn’t what he’s about.
“He just loves seeing the kids’ faces light up,” Sullivan said. “That seems to be enough for him.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 5, 2006. Read the original PDF.