For whom the balloons fall

JOSEPH N. BELL

As you read this, my friend and neighbor -- Newport Beach’s

international “balloon man” Treb Heining -- will be trying to

convince dubious FBI and Secret Service agents in New York City that

a busload of high school students from Syracuse, N.Y., should be

allowed entrance on the following day to Madison Square Garden, site

of next week’s Republican National Convention.

Treb will explain that these young people are members of the

marching band at Baldwinsville High School who have volunteered to

blow up 100,000 balloons in six hours in return for a contribution to

their band fund that will enable them to enter an upcoming

competition in Michigan.

This opportunity pleases Treb -- who is known universally by his

first name -- almost as much as getting the convention job. “I’m a

band guy,” he said, “and I still remember when we were always trying

to raise money at my school. That’s why I turn to public school

musicians. They seem to be the first ones cut off from funding, and

it does my heart good to help where help is needed.”

He’s done all this many times before while raining balloons on

every Republican convention and one Democratic convention since 1988.

But there’s a special challenge in this one. Treb was part of a

Boston group that sought and was rejected for the balloon gig at the

recent Democratic convention. So when it came time for the climactic

drop of the balloons, Treb was at home watching TV with a

professional eye. The moment came -- but not the balloons. Instead,

an anguished producer’s voice, caught on an open microphone, pleaded

in language as colorful as the missing balloons that they come forth.

They did, finally (Treb said about 30% never made it out), but the

magic moment had passed.

“Balloons,” Treb added, with a note of reverence, “are the

signature of a convention. The highlight moment. Both parties want

the balloon photo on the front pages of our newspapers the next day.”

That photo doesn’t get there easily. Treb’s work week started when

he arrived in New York with his basic crew last Tuesday evening. On

Wednesday, he went to Syracuse to meet his high school helpers and

brief them on what they had to do. Today will be spent greasing the

way with security and setting up the necessary equipment.

On Friday, when the bus arrives from Syracuse, the student workers

will be accompanied into the upper reaches of Madison Square Garden

by a posse of Secret Service agents. There, the students will inflate

some 15,000 balloons per hour and drop them into enormous plastic

tubes hanging over the edge of a balcony.

Union crews will then dump the filled tubes into rigging nets in

the rafters of the Garden, where they will rest until the last speech

is delivered.

“Several levels of Secret Service sit with us the whole time we

inflate,” Treb said. “They want to be very sure that only air goes

into the balloons and only balloons go into the tubes.”

The tricky parts of this process are the trip lines that release

the balloons. “Every single trip line has to be labeled,” Treb said,

“and they have to work quickly and smoothly when the balloon drop

order goes out.”

He feels this is one area that might have caused problems for the

Democrats. He learned from experience that friction on the line

increases with length, making it progressively harder to pull the

trip lines.

“I predicted trouble for the Democrats,” Treb said, “because they

used 100-foot nets. I use 50-foot [nets] or less.”

Once his equipment is in place and rigged, Treb is mostly reduced

to reviewing his arrangements and assuring himself of how well they

are going to work.

Sherry and I know from serving on his New Year’s Eve confetti crew

over Times Square how meticulous those preparations are. Treb is also

in charge of confetti and streamers at the convention and predicted,

“They are going to provide some surprises, but balloons will still --

as always -- be the star of the show.”

While he awaits his moment in the convention limelight, Treb will

be attending the USC-Virginia Tech game in Washington, D.C., over the

weekend and directing the balloon display at an MTV musical show in

Miami on Sunday. Then back to New York to ponder such matters as word

from his producer that President Bush doesn’t like balloons falling

on his head “so we have to drop them around him but not on him.” Or

dreaming that while Bush is making his speech, Treb loses

communication with the people holding the trip lines. Or wondering if

protesters are going to mess up his schedule. Things like that.

Politics have no part in all this.

“My own political feelings don’t apply here,” Treb said. “I’m

happy to take a back seat. I just want everyone I work for to look

good. It’s a show, and I want it to be the best.”

So a week from tonight -- however you may feel about the speaker

-- if you are watching the climax of the Republican convention, take

a moment to tip one to the hometown boy on the press platform in

Madison Square Garden. He’ll be wearing headphones and glasses and

maybe sweating a little. He likes to say that, “When it’s over, I’m

either going to be walking on air or going out with my tail between

my legs.”

Maybe a little positive thinking from here will help bring those

balloons down when and how Treb has it planned. But not on the

president’s head.

* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column

appears Thursdays.