Fond memories of the Don Hamilton strip clubs...

Being told by a dancer at Henry's in Inkster on a regular (slow) weekday: "Ain't nobody back there right now. You can bend me over a chair and ain't nobody gonna care."

Nope. Can't say I did.

17 comments

  • slickpeter
    15 years ago
    That is one of the benefits of the slow economy here in Michigan -- emptiness of the back room and a wristband seller who doesn't care -- offers of that sort happen all of the time
  • CTQWERTY
    15 years ago
    Peter, ever visit Tycoon's? I was pleasantly surprised with a late Thursday night visit. Other weeknights weren't as worthwhile. Friday night was too crowded.
  • Otto22
    15 years ago
    The absolute disregard of the Bouncer/Wristband Vendor in the VIP at Bogart's to the activities of the dancers within 5 feet of him. The dancers must tip him heavily. Maybe that's the job I want when I grow up. :)
  • Book Guy
    15 years ago
    This type of economic boon to the customer hasn't really started up in New Orleans. :(
  • slickpeter
    15 years ago
    To answer a couple of you ---yes I have been to Tycoons - generally in the affternoon --between the lunch hour and happy hour ---have gotten good mileage when there --it has been about a year since I have been there ---my business rarely takes me to that side of town ---- generally work western burbs and downriver. Tycoons goes back about 20 years - has had a great history of pleasing men on East Eight mile road

    It is generally not the dancer who tips the wristband seller/bouncer - it is the customer - but in the Detroit area not to important - they generally just let the action go on
  • stripclubspy
    15 years ago
    I think you guys are missing the main point about the Hamilton clubs... it's not that the VIP bouncer is being tipped by the girls to look the other way... the management of the clubs is actually encouraging extras, because they know that's what brings in so many guys. Someone else mentioned on this site that the bouncer in the VIP at one of the clubs actually sells condoms. Additional evidence: there is a dancer at Bogarts one might call an FS specialist. She typically comes in late every night - 9 or 10 - and doesn't have to pay the late "bar fee" of $130, just the regular $80 or $85, because mgmt knows she brings in so much money to the club.

    BTW, my understanding of the "tip-out" or "bar fee" mechanics is that the dancers all pay the fee at the end of the shift to the DJ or bouncers, and I think they split up the money. At Henry's, I think the fees are flexible depending on how busy the place is, but at Bogarts it's sink or swim. That's one reason the dancers are so aggressive.

    One more point: the dancers all have to sign a contract saying they will not engage in prostitution. This covers the mgmt if they get busted.
  • stripclubspy
    15 years ago
    I found these two old reviews of Leggs Lounge (now John's Hot Spot). They kind of sum up opinions of the place, although I'm not sure if the second one is sincere or just sarcastic. He did give 5 stars! I especially like the "pros and cons" section of the first review.


    Stretch Marks, Beer Guts, Dry Heaves
    by markymarkmarkasdf

    No matter how low your expectations are for a strip club, Leggs is sure to go below. Perhaps the stretch marked, overweight, large gut type of lady is what you are into? If so, Leggs is just the place for you. Otherwise, you had better steer clear. You can find much better looking girls pretty much anywhere, and don't have to pay for them. Frankly, I would have preferred to pay the dancers to put their clothes on so I could eat a hot dog from their gourmet buffet than lose my lunch looking at them.

    * Pros: Exits clearly marked.
    * Cons: The girls take their clothes off.


    5 Star Rating: Highly Recommended
    11/10/06
    Hot Dog Cooker
    by podolakc

    I will recommend this place all day. Any strip club where you can order a hot dog from the rotisserie machine, sit down, and enjoy while watching strippers with duct tape on there nipples, is an awesome habitat! Dont forget the mayonnaise!
  • stripclubspy
    15 years ago
    This article if full of interesting tidbits for those interested in the darker side of things... I was amazed, for example, that the manager claims to have contract papers from 1200 dancers. I mean, I know the place has been around for ever, but still...


    Topless-bar death inquiry deepens

    Police seize videotapes, say investigation of drugs and prostitution at Van Buren Twp.'s Leggs Lounge could take months

    Wednesday, May 8, 2002

    BY SUSAN L. OPPAT
    News Staff Reporter
    Ann Arbor News

    It started out as an investigation into what some believe was a deadly delay between the time a patron at a topless bar suffered a heart attack April 21 and the time someone called for help.

    Since last week, witnesses have come forward to tell investigators they believe the call for help was delayed while evidence of drug dealing and prostitution was cleaned up inside Leggs Lounge east of Ypsilanti in Wayne County's Van Buren Township.

    Police looking for videotapes that might prove if there really was a delay in the call for help have confiscated hundreds of surveillance tapes and $1.6 million in cash from the owner of the bar on East Michigan Avenue.

    Van Buren Township Detective Marc Abdilla believes the full investigation could take months. And, he said, the IRS is now involved, trying to determine whether the bar owner, John Hamilton, claimed the money on his tax returns.

    The 45-year-old bar patron, whose name has not been released because his family doesn't know the circumstances of his death, collapsed in the lounge during a private lap dance. According to Van Buren Township Public Safety Director Christopher Elg, the man had no illegal drugs in his system and his death was ruled to be of natural causes.

    Police had nothing to investigate, according to Abdilla, until the middle of last week, when several witnesses told police there was a significant delay between the time the man collapsed and the time someone called for help. They also said the bar was cleaned up during that delay.

    Elg said the delay could have been anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours.

    He said informants told detectives that dancers at the bar have sex with clients in upstairs rooms at the bar, that the sex is videotaped, and that there is drug dealing at the bar as well as other illegal activity.

    The informants said the bar keeps cameras trained on the exterior of the bar to monitor the approach of police, and that a strobe light in the bar and the private rooms warns clients and employees.

    They told police live video feeds are run from the bar to a house behind the bar, also owned by Hamilton, where the lounge manager lives and monitors activities, and that Hamilton's nephew, who lives in Wayne, was involved.

    Looking for information that might show criminal negligence in waiting to make the call for help, Abdilla and Detective Louis Keele obtained search warrants for the bar; for the home behind the bar where the manager lives; and for the Wayne home of Hamilton's nephew., who police informants also said was involved in the business. Officers raided all three last Friday.

    Police found condoms on the floor of the bar; lounge manager's Bob Martin's guns and several ounces of marijuana in the house behind the lounge; and several more ounces of marijuana, 300-500 videotapes and a 5-foot safe at a home in Wayne.

    Martin, Hamilton's nephew, said hundreds of the tapes were children's tapes belonging to Hamilton's nephew, but Abdilla said he has found no children's tapes among those seized.

    Abdilla said police asked Hamilton for the combination to the safe after he told them there was $1.4 million in the safe. When he refused to hand it over and police seized the safe.

    Van Buren Township firefighters used the Jaws of Life to pry the safe open the next day. What they found inside was more than $1.6 million in cash, stuffed into two black bags. Abdilla said Hamilton told him the money had been earned at horse race tracks. He told television reporters the money came from his business.

    Hamilton said this morning the cash is legitimately earned income he keeps on hand ever since he had a run-in with the IRS in 1990. He said that between his real estate investments, four bars and a shopping center, he earns $2 million-$3 million a year. He said he paid taxes on the money.

    He also said Van Buren Township police aren't after any evidence about the man's death.

    Hamilton said police are after tapes they believe exist that show police officers at the bar in the off-hours, doing things that could get them fired. He said Martin drunkenly told an intoxicated, off-duty officer several weeks ago that such tapes existed. Hamilton said they don't.

    He said the search warrant made no mention of the man's death.

    Hamilton and the township have been battling over a new ordinance that forbids topless dancing in a bar that serves liquor, and he said police are using this death to try another way to close him down.

    As proof there's nothing wrong at the bar, he said, with the search warrants, "there were 20 police in there, not one found anything to write a ticket for."

    Martin denied Tuesday that there was any delay in calling for help. He said there was a 35-minute delay before an ambulance arrived after the call.

    Huron Valley Ambulance spokesman Rob Dormire said paramedics were on the scene 10 minutes after the call came in at 5:05 p.m. They performed CPR on the man for 25 minutes, but could not revive him.

    Martin also said Hamilton, of Northville, makes too much money legally at Leggs and three other lounges he owns to risk the business on drug dealing and prostitution.

    Martin pointed at signs posted on the doors warning patrons against drug use at the bar, and said the estimated 1,200 dancers whose contracts are on file with the bar include signed agreements that they won't sell sex there.

    The private lap-dance rooms are monitored by video camera for the safety of the women, Martin said, but he denied they are videotaped. He denied Abdilla's statement that the rooms have mattresses, but Elg said the mattresses appear on at least some of the confiscated tapes.

    Martin also said cameras monitor the cash registers and the parking lots, for security reasons. He said the strobe light in the main bar is activated by the club DJ with a remote-control device if there is trouble in the parking lot as he walks dancers to their cars. He denied there are warning strobes in the private dance rooms.

    Neither Hamilton nor his attorney returned calls from The News Tuesday.

    Elg said police have not yet found a tape of what happened inside the lounge on the day the man died.

    [From The Ann Arbor News, 8 May 2002]
  • stripclubspy
    15 years ago
    Fond Memory: Being told the rather imposing middle-aged african-american getting a lap dance in the corner was a michigan state trooper.
  • stripclubspy
    15 years ago
    Was getting a LD at Bogarts when a dancer nearby had an asthma attack. My dancer runs to the dressing room to look for the girl's inhaler. Bouncer comes over to check on her, sees me sitting there by myself, and says "Did you lose something?"
  • stripclubspy
    15 years ago
    A dancer at Leggs Lounge tells me that when she applied the manager told her her family name was familiar. Turns out her mother had worked there as a dancer, and her GRANDMOTHER had worked there as a waitress. Hmmm... is it nature or nurture?
  • stripclubspy
    15 years ago
    Near the end of the night at Bogarts:

    Her (scanning the room, looking for final business): want a 2-fer-$30?
    Me (waiting for someone else): no, thanks.
    Her: 1-for-$15?
    Me: no, thanks
    Her: 1-for-$10?
    Me: no, thanks
    Her: 1-for-$5?
    Me: no, thanks
    Her: what are you, a f**king homosexual or something???
  • stripclubspy
    15 years ago
    At Henry the VIII, Inkster:

    Me (pointing at VIP entrance sign saying "NO Touching"): there's no touching?

    Her: ignore that.
  • stripclubspy
    15 years ago
    At Bogarts:

    Dancer goes ballistic when the top she removed for VIP dance is no where to be found. "Damn it, that's the only top I brought tonight!" She storms around the bar for 1/2 hour (topless) giving every other dancer the third degree about stealing her top. Later it turns up on the small side stage on the opposite side of the room from the VIP; she holds it aloft triumphantly and then slips it on again.
  • slickpeter
    15 years ago
    Great bit of history you have posted there Spy -----I have seen sme of the same issues take place at H8S - more than one dancer has lost part of her outfit in VIP ---At H8S there is now a sign that dancers can't use more than one chair nor can they be on their knees ---I asked about the sign yesterday and was told by Greg the daytime bouncer that it meant nothing ---just looks good if any undercover LE come into the club
  • stripclubspy
    15 years ago
    BTW, it's "John" Hamilton, not "Don", as the article says.
  • CTQWERTY
    15 years ago
    Wow. That's something.

    My dinner date worked at Bogart's. We went out after her shift ended. She got sick at the restaurant and I had to carry her out. Pretty memorable first date.
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