Jackson strip club's president: Controversial billboards 'bad for business'

A Memphis resident who describes herself as president of the Jackson strip club Danny's said today that the club's suggestive billboards should come down.

“This is bad for business. Very bad for business,” Lila Davis said. “When you get the city up against you, you are in trouble.”

Davis, 70, is listed as an officer on the incorporation papers for Baby O's Restaurant, the corporate name for Danny's Cabaret. She said she was unaware of the billboards or the controversy about them, but she said she is not surprised.

“I don't doubt that,” she said. “The young man that is doing that, I don't doubt that one bit.”

The young man in question is Blake Owens, son of Danny Owens, the former strip club king of Memphis. Danny Owens is serving a 27-year sentence in federal prison from a 1995 conviction for using his clubs for prostitution, gambling and money laundering.

“Blake does it,” Davis said. “The only reason that I'm the president is because his father is incarcerated and I'm the only one he trusts with his money.”

That conflicts with statements made earlier today by Blake Owens.

Owens said he runs a real estate business in Memphis and has nothing to do with the club. Instead, he said his brother, Daniel “Dax” Owens, runs the club. A federal lawsuit filed in August by a former Danny's employee names both Owens brothers as owners of the club, but Blake Owens said the claim is false.

“I don't associate with too many people down there (Jackson),” he said. “(Dax Owens) and I don't see eye-to-eye on certain issues.”

At the same time, Owens defended the billboards as harmless.

“Personally, I believe the boards are not offensive at all,” he said. “It is edgy, but it's kind of cute. It does represent the adult entertainment industry.”

The billboards in question show a woman in a bikini clutching a stripper pole with the slogan “Strippers love to climb our pole.” In a letter sent to the club this week, Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. complained the billboards could be viewed as too sexually explicit for public view.

“That is a little gross,” Davis said. “It is a good way to get your business shut down. I wouldn't want to drive by and look at it.”

Davis said she would talk with Blake Owens about replacing the billboards.

Owens said he talked to the mayor Wednesday and told him he had nothing to do with the club. City spokesman Chris Mims said Owens initiated the call.

“Mayor Johnson said (Owens) wanted to find a solution to this issue and he didn't like all the negative press,” he said.
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