The Shining

Great Party, Isn't It?

Horace M. Derwent Requests
The Pleasure of Your Company
At a Masked Ball to Celebrate
The Grand Opening of

THE OVERLOOK HOTEL

Dinner Will Be Served At 8 P.M.
Unmasking And Dancing At Midnight
August 29, 1945

RSVP

The masquerade ball of 1945 commemorated the glitz and glamor, time, money, and heart that the owner Horance M. Derwent poured into the hotel after World War II. He shelled out roughly $3 million, only for it to still do poorly. Everything this successful entrepreneur, millionaire inventor, pilot, film producer, playboy from California touched turned to gold, except for the Overlook Hotel.

Rumors of prostitution, bootlegging, gambling, and organized crime plagued Derwent. However, they were true. He had connections to organized crime in Las Vegas, and he later achieved controlling interest in the hotel and used it for all sorts of salacious activities—such as gambling and prostitution—well into the '60s. Big hotels all have scandals, just like how every big hotel has got a ghost. Why? Hell, people come and go...

Derwent sported a pencil-line mustache that was a classic for the 1940's. His dark hair was balding and he had eyes that pierced you to the center of your soul. His rimless spectacles and his gold pocket watch were just two of the possessions he acquired to show off his wealth. Derwent was not a kind person. Not in life, and not in death. He is the true manager of the Overlook, the devil himself.

Derwent is bisexual, and he had an affair with a man named Roger. They met in Cuba, where they spent the weekend together. Roger became deeply infatuated with Derwent, and followed him back to Colorado. However, Derwent never maintains relationships with the men that he sleeps with so he became very emotionally and verbally abusive towards Roger. Derwent humiliated Roger any chance he got to flex his dominance and exploit his power.

Derwent told Roger that the only way that he would consider taking him back as a lover would be if he attended the popular 1945 masquerade ball dressed as a "doggy". This was solely out of cruelty.

That's how he became Roger the Dogman.

Roger was so hopelessly taken with Derwent, he spent the entirety of the lavish party dressed as a dog and performed tricks for Derwent on command while howling along to the live band.

The richest men in America flooded the dining room, their crisp and clean tuxedos had been pressed neatly before the outing. Tables were draped with thick white cloths, letting buckets of ice rest on top with bottles of champagne. Women wore elegant evening gowns with gleaming high heel pumps, and the postwar band was playing jazzy tunes in the background. Corks from champagne bottles were popping, and the tiny clinks of thin glasses paired beautifying with the laugher and chatter amongst the wealthy. The Gold Ballroom was decorated in gold and black balloons scattered through the room, with gold metallic tinsel and gold beads to appreciate the humble beginnings of the hotel. The war was over, or almost over. The future lay ahead, clean and shining...

Derwent, the man of the hour, held a foaming bottle in his hand, not caring that the sticky foam covered his bare hand. He was too merry. He was in a group of his fellow rich friends, laughing at Roger like he was their entertainment for the night. Roger was down on all fours, barking just like a dog.

"Speak, boy, speak!" Harry Derwent cried out.

Roger barked, which prompted the upper class around him to clap and whistle. He was sweating in his mustard yellow dog suit, but he didn't mind. He was promised a lover by the end of the night. All his trouble and all his pain were to be forgotten, because he was so besotted with Derwent. He thought that this would all be worth it for happiness sake, and they would be back in lovers lane and happy together once again.