Questions on the history of stripping and lap dances
grand1511
Euphoria
Wednesday, March 3, 2021 6:40 PM
So a few nights ago I was watching the movie "Diner." It's set in the early '60s and there is a scene that takes place in strip club of that era. There's a 3-piece band (piano, sax, upright bass) playing half-heartedly. Dancers were doing more of a burlesque show than what we'd consider stripping today. No signs whatsoever of personal one-to-one or lap dances. Did these old-time clubs serve as a front for take out action? Or were there personal dances provided, just on the down low.
I've also heard stories from that era and earlier that traveling carnivals had girly shows. Does anyone know if there was ever any kind of high-mileage experiences there or was it all tease.
When did the lap dance as we know and love become part of the standard club menu?
I'm asking for Ken Burns. Thank you.
I've also heard stories from that era and earlier that traveling carnivals had girly shows. Does anyone know if there was ever any kind of high-mileage experiences there or was it all tease.
When did the lap dance as we know and love become part of the standard club menu?
I'm asking for Ken Burns. Thank you.
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In KCMO the Follies Theater, now a well-appointed venue for theater and music performances, was then the spot for burlesque shows. Mostly traveling performers, I think. All slow strip, bump and grind ..... no direct patron contact. Bazookas Showgirls has pics from that era in their front lobby.
Somewhat later two other 'adult entertainment' spots had live burlesque style stage shows. Interaction with patrons might include throwing out panties or other costume parts. One lady shot ping-pong balls from her vag into the audience. A few performers might parade down a main aisle but there was no direct contact with patrons. They also had porn movies, peep show loops, bookstore, sex merchandise, etc. Front for prostitution? sounds plausible but heard nothing to suggest it was so; other places...go-go girl bars probably were often better bets finding working girls.
I'm not sure when lap-dance strip clubs began operating here.
However, in Kansas, the Trop56 [Tropicana Club] billed itself as the the oldest continuously operating 'gentlemens club'. It started in the ***early 1950s***
Located in east-central Ks at rural crossroads. Back then it consisted of a roadside bar with girls. Behind the bar was a metal trailer that was a bordello.
With the advent of lap dances and VIPs it evolved into a nude strip club; VIP often included extras including FS.
Closed several years ago for good after owner died and relatives sold the property. Building razed and replaced with roadside camping and fishing store.
I do recall seeing a girly show at a traveling carnival in 1962 or so, when I was about 12 years old. I have no idea how I gained admission to the strip show but it scarred me for life--- assuming that a life long obsession with female anatomy and investing countless hours and dollars in pursuing sex with women counts as a "scar."
Its important to remember that just seeing a naked woman was much more rare. That was often erotic in itself. The internet changed, some would say ruined, everything.
Joe Redner from Mons Venus in Tampa is considered by some people (and proclaims himself to be) the inventor of the modern lap dance since Mons Venus was one of the first clubs to operate almost entirely as a lap dance factory and was thriving off LDs in the 1990s/early 2000s. That's probably a stretch, but Mons' rise in the 1990s does line up perfectly with the time when lap dancing became really popular in SCs.
In either case, table dancing in the 1980s was the definite precursor to lap dancing taking off in the 1990s. I think table dances started off at $5 each, then when lap dances were introduced they were $10 as a step-up. Then it became table $10/LD $20.
My first in the club contact occurred in the early 1980s in Houston. That’s where I had my first lap grind. They were not too intense but it was a welcome improvement to have the ice cream cones reaching out to touch me that way.
But there were no VIP rooms back then. Over time, I learned to sit in darker, more secluded parts of the strip clubs. This led to better grinds and the dancers encouragement to let my hands roam. But there were usually limits on where my hands could roam. Titties and ass were OK but nothing was allowed under the G-string.
With one glorious exception on a frigid night in Texas in the late 1980s, I never had any in the club extras. That night was an aberration. I’ve never come close to anything as marvelous as that in a club since then.
By the 1990s, wicked grinds and mutual grope sessions were becoming widely available, at least if you were a regular customer.
I don’t know when VIP rooms became common in the USA. I think I was living overseas when VIP rooms became commonplace. I became acquainted with them around 2003 and bought my first “forever VIP membership” in 2008 (and my member has never been happier).
Now, if you have money and/or are a regular who can spot the high mileage girls, anything and everything is available in some of the better clubs.
The most remarkable aspect in all of this is that the price of a lap dance per song has been constant at $20 for over 30 years. What other vital service has been so immune to inflation for so long?
I first visited a strip club in the nineteen eighties in Indianapolis with some friends. There was a stage show but no stage tipping where customers could momentarily touch the girls. The girls looked unfriendly, never came to our table and there was no dj encouraging customers to take the girls back to a private room. I'm pretty sure there were no lap dances. I didn't like it and didn't go back to a club until 25 years later in 2010. I saw customers going up to the stage to tip girls. I did the same thing and the girl smiled at me and said I could touch her so I did. Then she asked if I would like to go do a lap dance and we went and did one. I had been living next to the club a couple decades and had never visited but would have earlier if I had known that clubs had changed since the eighties.
Lapdances were being done at the O'Farrell Theater in the 70s and 80s, very well documented (along with the Mitchell Bros famous 1st amendment fights) and that's almost certainly where it started.
Across the city, the Condor claims to be (and likely is) the first of what would go on to be strip clubs. First topless club, in the 1960s.
So, ironically, it all started in what is now one of the worst SC cities. But man, you guys wish you were here around 2000 :)
I know from books and movies that strip clubs and burlesque clubs used to have live musicians. This was before the good sound systems we have today. Comedians like Lenny Bruce also performed at strip clubs.
Some of these people’s affiliates now operate Kittens Cabaret in south Seattle.
Thank you, Talents West.
“Extras” have been available in the “down low” since the beginning of human civilization, as “prostitution” is the “oldest profession”
There is an Historical marker at the original Condor Club site. Full text: "The Condor; Where it all began; The birthplace of the world's first topless & bottomless entertainment; Topless – June 19, 1964 Bottomless – September 3, 1969 Starring Ms. Carol Doda; San Francisco, California"
https://tuscl.net/photo.php?id=7341
Carol Ann Doda
She was the first public topless dancer
Born: August 29, 1937 Vallejo, California, U.S.
Died: November 9, 2015 San Francisco, California, U.S.
America's First Top-less Dancer Carol Doda Poster https://tuscl.net/photo.php?id=7342
“In 1964 Doda made international news, first by dancing topless at the city's Condor Club, then by enhancing her bust from size 34 to 44 through silicone injections.”
“Her breasts became known as Doda's "twin 44s" and "the new Twin Peaks of San Francisco".”
“Doda's act began with a grand piano being lowered from the ceiling by hydraulic motors; Doda would be atop the piano dancing, as it descended from a hole in the ceiling.”
“She go-go danced "The Swim" to a rock and roll combo headed by Bobby Freeman as her piano settled on the stage.”
“In Yosemite National Park, Doda Dome was named for her”
The first high mileage dances I remember getting were at a club called Nightlife in San Diego in the 90's. They were $5 a song. The owners of this club also owned 10's in Tucson that I think is still open.
I remember extras being available since I was able to go to bars in the early 80's but never gave a thought to the origin of the lapdance. I couldn't afford much at an early age.
he was a confident of david crosbee when david was in the group called the birds, which most of you are to young to remember. when the other birds kicked crosbee out of the group for being an asshole my grandpappy left the city of angles and went to las vegas where he said “hey wouldnt it be much better if you could hire a girl to get naked and dance on your lap?”
the rest is history