restaurant as well. In addition to regular live music performances, Harry Houdini entertained crowds during the first season with masterful escapes. The opening weekend, which stretched through Independence Day, was a smashing success. More than 51,000 attended on Sunday, July 2 (estimates put the crowd at 60 to 75,000), and more than 100,000 attended on July 4. Daily attendance continued to exceed 20,000 on the weekends. Prominent citizens of Burlingame, Hillsborough, and San Mateo wrote a series of three newspaper articles, published two weeks later in mid-July, outlining their plans to take advantage of the publicity from Pacific City. 3CCC manager Imboden described plans to build temporary housing nearby. San Mateo mayor Thomas J. Brady wrote of that city's plans to acquire the Kohl estate, which would later become Central Park. By the time the season closed, more than one million had visited Pacific City. Financial peril The first signs of financial ill-health began in September 1922, when PCC was sued over the failure to pay back a small promisorry note. In December 1922, the Howard Estate filed suit to foreclose on the property over non-payment of a US$90,000 promissory note that had been signed by Dougall and Lackenbach; the first payment of $5,000, due the previous March 22, had not been made as scheduled and the only payment that had been received was $1,000 the preceding October. 3CCC brokered an agreement in which a three-member committee was appointed to investigate and report on the financial status of PCC in February 1923; 3CCC President John J. McGrath, who was one of the appointees, warned "that we will not stand for one local creditor or stockholder in Pacific City to lose a penny ... if they jockey and humbug, we are in position to make their investment worth about ten cents [on the dollar]." Lackenbach fired back days later: "... you have unwittingly placed the management of Pacific City in a very unfavorable light by reason of this article. It is not only unjust, but has absolutely no foundation. The management of Pacific City has at all times strenuously held that any reorganization or refinancing of Pacific City must first contemplate the payment of creditors in full with interest from the maturity of their claims." To calm the situation, 3CCC stated they supported both the Howard Estate and PCCC, but if the foreclosure suit was successful, it would antagonize many investors,