INSERT TWENTY DOLLARS AND CLICK TO ENLARGE
A nice vintage photograph of burlesque theater (strip joint)...open all night and all day. This would date well before the days of lap-dancers who have learned to squirm twenty dollar bills right out of your pocket while whispering absolutely sweet nothings into your ear.
Astoundingly, some collective group of demented, obsessed, likely "regular" participants at a modern day strip joint or two have together written a Wikipedia article on them with TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN FOOTNOTES! That would figure to about a dollar a footnote, given the average loss you would probably experience at a club today.
Save your money dudes...stay home and verify more quotes!
I have only been to one strip club and it was when I was a kid. It was in St. Augustine, Florida, it was late in the drizzling afternoon, off season and I was the only patron. There was one stripper there teaching a future stripper how to strip, and the lessons were conducted with Fleetwood Mac's Rumors Lp on a cassette recorder. I drank three beers and went back to my hotel in the rain. A rite of passage. It rained my whole trip except for the last day, when I burned so bad I drove back north with a wet towel over my charred calves.
I have three book recommendations, so screw the wiki article. The first two are by Herb Pastor, both refreshingly honest, frank and hilarious accounts by the self-named "Strip Joint Millionaire" whose extraordinary website is HERE. What a guy! Just browse the pictures and you will be typing his name into your kindle faster than a sawbuck disappears into a pair of sweaty panties.
The other book is one of the most unusual, curious and frightening books I have ever seen or read. Seriously...and if you know me, you know I do not generally read "best-sellers." It is "Headless Man In Topless Bar" and it is illustrated below. The subtitle says it all. "STUDIES OF 725 CASES OF STRIP CLUB RELATED HOMICIDES" I mean really! The book is authored by T. A. Kevlin.
Truly, the only thing more amazing about the mere existence of this title is the fact that I read it and enjoyed it! You can put it down and pick up the next day without loosing continuity, as each case is only a page or two long, but believe me, the author's research is commendable. As the jacket reads "Every case of strip club related homicide since 1964, which the author was able to locate in newspaper files, appellate court decisions, has been included." Now THAT is a serious obsession. Bravo!
Original Photograph of a Burlesque Club (Undated, Anonymous) taken from a slide Collection Victor Minx
