Anyone remember the Combat Zone?

11 comments

• Rod8432

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  12 years ago

  I was only there once, during the heyday of the 70s. About all I recall, except for being majorly on guard 'cause it was rough, was a place called the "Naked I Cabaret," home of naked college girls, supposedly. It was the best of times and the worst of times, as the saying goes.
• Alucard

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  12 years ago

  I remember hearing about it.
• Tiredtraveler

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  12 years ago

  I was in the combat zone in Boston the week before that girl was raped in the bar in front of the other patrons. I have not been clubbing in Boston since.
• gatorfan

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  12 years ago

  I think they sell porn videos now
• farmerart

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  12 years ago

  I was in various oil patch 'combat zones' during the 70s, none of them in Boston and none of them involving SCs.
• Ermita_Nights

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  12 years ago

  I visited often in the 1980s and remember it fondly. There were maybe three strip clubs but "Naked I" was the best. By then the area was in serious decline. The theaters had switched from porn to kung-fu, which is what brought me there. It was next to Chinatown and was a great place to be on Chinese New Year. There was very good, cheap Vietnamese food. Before the 1960s, the red-light district had been far north of there in Scollay Square. The City tore down the whole neighborhood, many blocks, and all the fun moved south. The "Naked I" had one main stage surrounded by the U-shaped bar with booths against the wall. Above the stage was a window into the dressing room. There was another smaller stage in a back room, with a separate entrance to a side street, in case you needed to make a quick getaway. The shows still had a faint whiff of burlesque to them. The girls would remove their clothing slowly and twirl it around rather than tossing it aside like girls do now. And the costumes were a bit more elegant than what you see today. I wish I could remember the pricing. I don't think there was a cover, but there was a two drink minimum, and both drinks arrived at the same time. I remember this because at the time I was unable to finish two beers before they warmed up to room temperature. I would not have that problem today. There was a little alley nearby that was I think the first place I ever saw streetwalkers. If you stayed out all night there was great dim sum available two blocks away. And the Zone had its own subway station, Essex. Today it's all very bland with no particular reason to visit. It's become a part of Chinatown, but I think most of the businesses are owned by Vietnamese. Even the kung-fu theaters are gone.
• SuperDude

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  12 years ago

  My brother's bachelor party was in the Combat Zone in the early '80's. Since then all of Detroit has become a combat zone.
• smokeshopjoe

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  12 years ago

  I thought he was talking about kinds of weed
• MADDOG_ROMEO

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  12 years ago

  I'm from Boston, but it was before my time....Heard tales about the Combat Zone and remember hearing the name Princess Cheyenne....
• samsmyles

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  12 years ago

  Princess Cheyenne is pretty famous: [view link] She later danced at the Foxy. She's mentioned in Ivy League Stripper: [view link] I went to school in Boston in the early 90's but never went to the zone. At that time the only two clubs left were the Naked I and the Glass Slipper. That wasn't a safe area. I always heard that the Zone went into decline after a Harvard football player was killed there in the mid-70's.
• samsung1

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  12 years ago

  From: The Bill Gates Interview (_Playboy_ Magazine) Excerpt: PLAYBOY: When you were at Harvard, did you frequent the Combat Zone, home of hookers, drugs and adult films? GATES: That's true. [Laughs] But just because I went there doesn't mean I engaged in everything that was going on. But I did go there. It's easy, you just take the subway. And it's pretty inexpensive. I ate pizza, read books and watched what was going on. I went to the diners.