38 replies to this topic

[Holden West]

‘Good girls gone bad' or fiscal godsend?

Globe & Mail
Becki L. Ross
Last updated on Friday, Jul. 24, 2009 02:19PM EDT

After the Second World War, the port city of Vancouver strengthened its place as a financial headquarters in western Canada. By the 1950s, Vancouver was heralded as both a playground for outdoor recreation and a model of indoor cultural sophistication and nighttime entertainment.

Prohibitions against commercial entertainment on Sundays were revoked. Vancouver basked in growing economic affluence, optimism and new opportunities for leisure. By the 1960s, the entire city centre glowed from the electric energy of 18,000 neon signs. The eight-lane Granville Bridge (built in 1954) and the rezoned, densely developed West End enabled easier access to the city's core.

Inspired by visionary urban planner Jane Jacobs, local citizens rejected the construction of an elevated freeway that would have splintered the centre of town: This decision not only distinguished Vancouver from most major North American cities; it showcased the city's downtown as a compact, intimate destination.

To the city's workers who toiled for long hours, a “night out” on the weekend promised a much-welcome diversion. To suburban couples in New Westminster, Burnaby, Coquitlam, North Vancouver, Delta, Richmond and Surrey, dressing up for nighttime amusement meant temporarily escaping the comfort and familiarity of detached homes, small children, and shopping malls.

Vancouver's independent nightclubs employed thousands of workers – as well as stripteasers, there were the club owners, managers, booking agents, doormen, bouncers, ticket-sellers, hat-check girls, cigarette and cigar girls, go-go dancers, choreographers, photographers, costume designers, club secretaries, bookkeepers, MCs, DJs, cooks, kitchen staff, bus boys, prop, set, and lighting specialists, waiters and waitresses, cleaners, bartenders, musicians (who supplied dancers with live accompaniment until the mid-to-late 1970s), and lawyers (who defended clubs when busted by vice squads).

Other workers whose earnings were derived from commercial striptease included specialty shoe, hosiery, makeup and liquor suppliers, cab drivers, hair stylists, manicurists, pedicurists, security guards, wig-makers, tanning salon operators, clothing and fabric retailers, drug sellers, child-care workers (who minded the kids of dancers), plastic surgeons (who did boob jobs), media pundits and newspaper owners, who raked in piles of dough by selling daily advertising spots to nightclub promoters.

In all, commercial striptease became as vital to the city's postwar economic growth as its railway facilities, sawmills and grain elevators.

more

Stripped bare

Once numbering in the dozens and celebrated in pop culture, Vancouver's globally infamous strip clubs have been reduced to a handful of survivors




Once numbering in the dozens and celebrated in pop culture,
Vancouver's globally infamous strip clubs have been reduced to a handful of survivors.

Photo-Dan Toulgoet
=====================
Victoria's notorious Kings Hotel on Yates is now fully gentrified, leaving Monty's as downtown's only remaining stripper bar. With the revitalized Rialto beaming on Douglas St. can Monty's be far behind?

Is it a welcome change or sad passing of an era?

[VicHockeyFan]

Hmmmm, no mention in that article about the little-known government of Canada buy-out of strip clubs. Sign a deal to not ever have strippers, and you can get over $100k from the feds.

It's a program to curb the Hell's Angels, that own both the stripper agencies that provide the girls, for a percentage of their salary.

You won't find the program in writing anywhere, but it indeed exists.

[Holden West]

HA's have a monopoly on BC stripper services? So any patronization of clubs benefits organized crime?

[VicHockeyFan]

HA's have a monopoly on BC stripper services? So any patronization of clubs benefits organized crime?

There used to be six or seven agencies that handled strippers in Vancouver, but now two are controlled by the Angels or associates and one is an independent, Richards said.

In the early 1990s, Richards said, the now-dead Hells Angels member Donald Roming was one of the key enforcers helping push others out of the stripper business -- at one point seriously assaulting one of the owners of another agency.

"Without speaking ill of the dead, he was responsible for laying a very serious beating on a 67-year-old man who was involved with one of the independent companies at the time, to the point this guy was hospitalized," he explained.

http://www.canada.co...fc-f5a2a55a43b0

[VicHockeyFan]

...Girls, girls, girls
Body Shop and the Marble Arch*

- Motley Crue - Girls, girls, girls

* Former Vancouver stripper bar.

[VicDuck]

The government ruins everybody's fun.

[Caramia]

I remember the strippers at the King's very fondly. And there was a bouncer who looked like Santa Clause. Between them, they did a lot of watching out and watching over the underage kids who hung out on lower Yates St. I recall one stripper there who used to replace the blanket she used in her act every few months, and always got the old one dry cleaned before giving it to the street kids. It was widely known back then that if you were in trouble, you could run to the Kings and they'd protect you. Sort of like a sleazy version of block watch.

[VicHockeyFan]

I went to the Mayor's Open Door the other day, John Luton was sitting in, he mentioned how he and his buddies used to try to sneak into the Kings when they were 17 or 18.

[Mike K.]

When did the Kings close down, and where exactly on Yates was it located?

[VicHockeyFan]

When did the Kings close down, and where exactly on Yates was it located?

Oh, you poor young child. It became Steamers in maybe 1992 or so.

[victorian fan]

I think strippers first appeared in beer parlours in Victoria in the late 60s/early 70s.
The Colony for one.

[VicHockeyFan]

Back in my day, there were at least 7 stripper bars at any given time. And this is back when females would never go in, unless they were working. Now go to the Lion on a Friday night, its nearly 50/50 M/F.

Westwind (Langford where Station House is now)
Colony (Brass Rail - now the site of Shark Club/Sandman Hotel)
Red Fox
Monty's
Kings
Oly's (Olympic Hotel - Now Best Western Johnson)
Sherwood (Now Hecklers 123 Gorge. Rd. E.)
Ice House / Tramps (now Soprano's)

I believe the Glen Lake Inn still has a permit to operate an exotic dance lounge.

Duncan had the Village Green with strippers, I don't think Duncan has dancers any more.

[victorian fan]

And this is back when females would never go in

Not quite true.

[VicHockeyFan]

Not quite true.

Well, it was a rarity. Usually if a female was there, you whispered to your buds that she must be one of the dancers. Generally, there were no female servers either. Now I think both strip bars use famale servers on the floor, and Monty's has no male servers or bartenders.

At least that's what I hear.

[victorian fan]

Can't say I noticed the dancers much. I used to go to the Colony when beer was 15 cents (Women & Escorts) and carried on at the Brass Rail with my husband where we sat a the bar.
Now we only go to Christies.

[VicDuck]

How many strip clubs are left in Victoria?

[VicHockeyFan]

How many strip clubs are left in Victoria?

2.

Or at least, that's what I hear.

[VicDuck]

2.

Or at least, that's what i hear.

lol

[Phil McAvity]

^LOL indeed!

VHF probably pleads with them to stay in business because he knows his nightly drunken visits aren't enough. He's probably recommended better accountants to them as well.

I forgot about many of those peeler joints so thanks for the (s)trip down memory lane VHF. Can always count on you to know such things.

The weird thing about strip joints are that in spite of the social stigma of it largely gone there are fewer now than ever. On a personal note i've never really understood the fascination with strippers. It's like taking a starving man to a banquet and not letting him eat.

[Bob Fugger]

- Motley Crue - Girls, girls, girls

* Former Vancouver stripper bar.

Bon Jovi's third album, Slippery When Wet, was named after a road sign on the Sea-to-Sky, as they were driving back from a video shoot in Whistler to their favourite Vancouver strip club, No. 5 Orange.

The Richie Sambora interview to which this is attributed describes Whistler as "this remote place in the mountains outside of Vancouver." It's come a long way in 25 years.