@Honeydewmelons
I think your posts are really cool on here. That’s why I asked a few days ago if I could ask some questions, and now here I am getting around to doing that.According to your profile, you initially danced in 1977 to 1985? What was that like? I only started dancing in 2016. But sadly, it’s tough to find much in the way of history. Occasionally I’ve managed to hear bits and pieces from older dancers who worked during the 90s and 00s…but many of them very much also keep to themselves. I have also read old posts from stripperweb whenever I could, but most of the older stories describe the 90s.(and there weren’t that many of them around anyways)
Questions I have:
1 What was it like back at the day for many of these places?
2 How did one get a job to work at there?
3 What was the dress like? I’ve heard some places that more elaborate costuming in a different time
4 What was the typical age of the girls? Was there a minimum or maximum age limit?
5 What were the ages of different customers and what were their personalities like?
6. What would be the “routine” of a typical shift?
7. How much interaction with the customer was typical? Just your stage set and then ignore them? Chatting with customers? (Probably not lapdances?)
8. What was the beauty norm at these places? For example, I remember some stripperweb dancer describing her DC club in the 90s when they had to have pubic hair, and it was considered ugly to not be there. Today’s standards are definitely different, lol
I’ll probably have more questions later. But I’ll start with that. 😊
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There were two different kinds of strip clubs one you worked on the bar and you want around the bar now I'm pretty sure some girls were hardier than others so send may have only did a half a bar got off you know took the rest and some could do a full bar
And as best as I recall now if you can imagine night time in a bar that's dark smokey and these particular bars that had dancers on top there wasn't a seat to be filled not only that there are people up against the wall waiting for the people in front to spend all their money so they can move into one of the seats
On top of that I never seen it or heard about it any girls falling off which is pretty amazing considering dark bar wet having glasses on it people's drinks their money and who knows what they may have had their cigarettes but we didn't wear high shoes either most girls just wore ballet slippers some had bare feet can you imagine that bare feet on top of a bar I'm sure the bartenders did their best to keep everything dry
Not only that really hard on the knees because like you're standing up and you're moving say to the next customer and the customer who's sitting in the chair doesn't want to look all the way up at you he wants you to come down and like talk to him or you know they want to look at your boobies or and of course some of them want to try to put their fingers in your g string so you're trying to out wit them from doing that while trying to take their money lol
So your hunched down with your butt almost touching the bar while you're face to face chatting with the customer and trying to get him money as they're sort of trying to grope you but of course most girls you know let their boobies be touched but of course some girls were allowing men to get a little feel of their private areas cuz they were making money so it just depended what kind of girl you were and I didn't fall anybody for doing anything whatever if you wanted to do that that was fine with me but I wasn't letting any man touch my private parts so what happens then is when like if you're 22 seconds into it and they're not giving you any more money you stand up and you move to the next person now imagine doing pretty much at least I would say 2 hours a night in a 5-hour shift no considering if you got off the bar halfway or if you did around a whole bar
Pretty exhausting at the end of the night and in fact I made so much money I feel the duffel bag and that when my manager roommate came and pick me up every night I went right home and went to bed I didn't care how much money was in the bag he either stayed up and counted it or counted it in the morning you know kind of depending on what time we actually got home
So actually this is the first part of your first question
And to boot you got paid to work there initially just for showing up I forget how much it really was but I think it came to like $12 an hour
And you only expected to pay the bartender a couple dollars I guess they would have really liked having like a percentage of whatever you made but I never knew how much I made so I guess I should just hand them a handful of ones and put it in their tip jar don't quite remember any of that
The other place was called The Plaza... I thought it was on bustleton ave my guess it was either in bustleton Welsh... Bel Air... Grant plaza.. but I'm thinking it was up further than Grant... So I always thought I had it in my mind that it was up at the feasterville trevose shopping center but for some reason I counted it out I don't know why because I lived in Croydon...
So if anybody's following this thread are there any bars in Bel Air or feasterville trevose or Grant shopping centers...
Knowing that's a long shot from that many years ago sometimes they stay as bars sometimes they go into the pizza parlor restaurant delicatessen business and sometimes the whole inside of a property gets demolished and turns into something new
The money laundering I don't really know but if it had any connections with Mafia underworld stuff I'm sure there was where it went I don't know and of course it's better I didn't know LOL
And I was in the know a little bit because my best male friend was a police officer on the force for 25 years so when I would tell him where I was working he wouldn't comment directly on what's going on but would just say be careful don't get involved... I never did get involved with any owners or managers kind of like you don't s*** where you eat...
Sometimes the stages were large and sometimes they were just little things stuck in a corner somewhere I guess just depending on how big the bar was
In my earlier career I worked at the Red Raven spanky's cherries tattletales on the boulevard it may have been called tattletales too.. the Esquire lounge at five points at Castor and cottman the last time I heard about that it was like a takeout steak shop..
the Cameo lounge on cottman and the boulevard I believe that's a whole big storefront of a some kind of Food Market across the street from the mall ...
I believe my very first stage dancing happened at the carousel lounge on torresdale avenue in Philadelphia now that whole block is used car dealership with automotive repair...... And as it turns out I think a year later my now x got a job working at a place right across the street where he stayed for 16 years...but of course he never let anybody know about me dancing he didn't like me dancing and I just started dancing a months before I met him... But he wasn't paying my bills so he really couldn't say much...
So let's move on so it was only stage work the customers didn't touch you you weren't allowed to fraternize in order to get tips they were handed to the bartender the bartender handed them to you or the guys used to make airplanes with their money and zip it to the stage or they used to roll it up in little balls and and throw it onto the stage for you of course if it missed the stage or whatever the bartenders had to go around and pick it all up sometimes at the stages were in close proximity to the actual bar with the customers you know you could both just reach over and they could hand it to you when you were done your set you just collected all your money you got up and they always had a little sitting area for the girls where you went to the dressing room to get ready for the next time you were up the girls would generally at night time it would be a 9:00 to 2:00 shift or maybe 9:00 to 1:00 shift and sometimes an eight to one shift so they're usually were at least three girls on the night shift at most places so you figure if you did three dances you were going to go back up after six more songs so you really didn't even have time to delete daily or anything cuz six songs go pretty fast and you're not going around the bar or anything so you literally dancing most of your night which ultimately too is pretty exhausting with three girls doing three sets all night long but I used to make a bag full of money don't really know how much that was cuz I was too exhausted to be counting it so I'd get picked up I got home and maybe chat a few minutes ..
Sometimes my roommate would have a friend or two there having a beer or whatever and he had male and female friends who would just come over stop by or whatever
In any event I made so much money that my roommate used to throw parties without me there yes he would use my money to throw a party of course some of these people were my friends too but still more his friends or if it happened to be females who may have been interested in getting into dancing he would be like you know talk to her and tell her things about dancing to see if she'd be interested in dancing so I did think I got a couple girls into dancing whether they stayed in it for long or not I don't know
And yes for the parties at the the apartment which was my roommate's apartment when I came home I didn't care if there was a party every now and then I would sit down and for taking you know maybe for another 30 or 40 minutes stay up say hi to everybody you know maybe grab some food probably have a drink and unbelievable as it may seem I didn't drink when I danced in my early career hardly... Maybe I had one drink and the rest I drank water or soda...
In any case when I came home and if I was ready to go to bed everybody had to quiet down I mean they still could listen to music and I had the far bedroom so as long as I could sleep and by that time 3:00 in the morning I was pretty damn tired... And you think I'm a young girl 18 19 20 years old I should be up in partying all night long while I worked five or six nights and or days a week
So it wasn't like I just worked one shift a day I might have worked two or three night shifts and the other couple days worth a lunch and a cocktail or worth a cocktail and a night and or work a night and had to be at a cocktail the next day
So the explanation of lunch cocktail and night shift most clubs had a lunch which could have been anywhere from 11:00 to 2:00 sometimes they were only 2 hours like 11:00 to 1:00 or 12:00 to 2:00 then they had the cocktail hour which could have been anything from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m. and it could have been any variety hours in there but usually three or four hours and out of all these shifts you got paid to work there as I best recall $12 an hour... And of course night shift anything after 9:00 and like I said generally the bigger bars had three girls smaller bars may have only had two or it may have depended on the night you know whether it was a weeknight or a weekend some had all three girls come in from 9:00 to 2:00 or 9:00 to 1:00 some had them a little staggered and someone coming in at 8:00 someone coming in at 9:00 someone coming in at 10:00
And there was no fraternization generally the girls were off sitting in a separate area of the bar or they went to their dressing room... And if you went over to where the girls were sitting the bartenders would yell at you after they gave you a minute or two... And I believe they didn't let the girls drink a whole lot I mean they knew what the girls drank and if the customers bought them stuff and they felt like the girl had her limit of two or three drinks then they weren't allowed to buy the girls anything after that I guess that was good that way the girls didn't fall off the side of the stage LOL
So anyway you show up you go in the door you see the bartender and the bartender really knows why you're there so are you up first and you can kind of get a look by them alone whether or not you're getting in or not but if they tell you straight out of the manager's not in or you know why don't you call then you know you're not getting in because there is always a manager in the back on duty from before the bar opens till well after the bar closes., or sometimes what to do is they'll make you sit there for a few minutes and the cameras look down on you from in the office and they can see you and then what will happen is the bartender will tell you she'll go see if she can find the manager or see if they're in or whatever and then she'll leave for a few minutes going to the office which the manager is there and from seeing you on the camera he'll either say yes give her the audition or tell her to call if it happened to be like super busy for some reason... And if they don't give you the true phone number of the place like if she doesn't say you know this is our number give us a call then you know you got a 50-50 chance of getting in there but if they just say I wanted to try calling tomorrow you know when the manager's in then generally that means you're not getting in the club I've been through it been there done that know all their tricks... Because what will happen is that they just tell you to call it never just goes to the manager office first or it goes to some subpar manager and you know you'll say well I was in there yesterday you know about 5:00 you know sometimes if you leave your name they'll remember your name and say whatever your name is and if you said your name was starlight and they remember you from the night before the manager will be like in the background saying no no don't hire her LOL
So anyways I know I'm sorry that I slip off into a big long thought process about different things
Anyways back in the day well in Philadelphia bucks and surrounding counties I'm not sure outside of Philly New Jersey and bucks let me think back in my early days I didn't work in Jersey I just worked in Philadelphia and bucks county so there were talent agencies
I know there were three that I can recall there was the one I worked at it was called allied talent agency she was located at bustleton and Philmont something like that and she was the top agency around where she had I think I'm guessing like 70% of all the bars signed up with her to find girls to work for them and then there were two other lesser agencies that I guess shared the other 30% of bars to find girls to work for those clubs
And the only reason I picked this agency is cuz my roommate manager knew the lady whose business it was but I don't think I really ever asked him how he knew her but oh well could you do and I actually seen him well I live with him for about 6 months and then I moved out on my own and then I seen him maybe a few months later and then I seen him many years later I guess I might have been 30 and then of course I never seen him again but going over some obituary postings he died about 10 years ago and of course that time I think he was 72
Now since the agency I used she had so many clubs you had to come to her office and you had to bring an outfit and she had like a little room in the back you changed into it and you came out I mean you didn't have to dance around or anything I think she asked you a couple questions you know how old you are...why do you want to dance... do you have a car do you take a bus
Do you know how to dance.. have you danced with anybody else before...where do you live... What area were you looking to do most of your work are you willing to travel how far are you willing to travel...
Then I guess you would size you up and kind of place you where she thought you would work out best... If she knew a bar where they didn't really care for tattoos and piercings they wouldn't send a girl there who had those things... And pretty much I think some of the girls already stalked out some bars you know either they pass by them where they went in checked it out real quick or they heard from friends you know that you know they think that she could go work in that bar so they already kind of have a preset notion of where they want to go..
So the agency would give you a couple of light schedules and sort of depends on what time you wanted to work there's some girls who only wanted to work lunch and cocktails some girls just wanted to work at night some girls wanted to do all of it that was me I did all the shifts so that actually worked out well for me cuz it made me pretty popular and I would take like any shift of course I will run myself ragged
But it certainly opened me up to being able to get more shifts because I didn't have to fit in any mold of a timeline and it was also up to the agency to make sure there were girls there however many of the bar required per shift so we'll just take for instance one bar has a 12 to 2...4 to 7:00 and say a 9 to 2:00
The agency would have to find one or two girls for the lunch shift at least two girls for the cocktail shift and two to three girls at the night shift and that's only one bar and if this lady had 70% of all the bars and clubs that's a lot of girls per day per week per month
That left me open to pick up all these shifts that needed to be filled because I could essentially just pick up and go but of course too she had to make sure there were different girls at the clubs also people didn't want to see the same faces well sometimes they do but she had to make sure there was at least a variety of girls at each of the clubs and then once she got in the variety if she started I guess getting kind of strapped a day or two before this shifts needed to be covered then I guess she would call the girls who were ready there that week once or twice and of course they'd be there two or three times that week instead that'd be me...
So now in any event when she would give you you know just a couple of dates maybe just two or three one to make sure you showed up then whatever the bars that she sent you to would call her and let her know whether or not they like you or not so then of course now you showed up the bar likes you and I'm sure they would comment on other things like your personality you know whether you drank you showed up on time you danced or couldn't dance I guess maybe some bars didnt care if you danced... I used to have a friend she couldn't dance worth of Bean but she was tall and she was beautiful she had long brown hair down to her butt she had beautiful outfits but all she did was shimmy back and forth on the stage..I don't even think I ever saw her arms up in the air but she was awesome to look at...
So now the next part of you got paid to work there at every bar from every agency and I guess it was between 10 and $12 an hour and you had to give the agency 10% of what the bar was paying you and yes they kept records of what each bar was paying for that particular shift all across the board so they knew you made $30 for that shift you can say well the bar only paid me $25 they know the bar paid 30... And you I guess on a trial basis for about 2 weeks so they would make sure you showed up on time they would send you to a couple different bars to see where you fit in best and of course the more the bars okayed you the more other bars she was confident to send you to and then start giving you night shifts because they certainly didn't want to leave any night shift work short-handed so every two weeks or every week if you happen to live near the agency or we're passing by the agency you had to stop in and pay your dues I guess I want to say dues for them getting you the jobs... And of course they wanted you to try to work as much as you could cuz the more everybody works the more money they make
Now the other two smaller agencies since they didn't have that many bars you actually went to audition at one of the bars that they were in agency for and I guess you kind of did the same thing you want to trial for 2 weeks if you showed up so forth and so on
Age limit restrictions
Yes I believe you had to be 18 because that was the first question that my agent asked me and I said 18 even though I wasn't going to be 18 for a few months now I think I was like 17 and a half... And in my early career I don't know if they had an age limit there may have been clubs that did... Same as today there may be clubs that just one girls who are all under 25 or at least look under 25 some clubs don't mind the older... I think by today's standards they are looking for girls who of course keep themselves in shape but that's in the eye of the beholder pretty much looking for girls that are going to break their ass and try to get as many customers to fork over as much money as they can so they could take it away from the girls...
It's definitely more prevalent today or since the agencies stopped actually working in the bar started hiring the girls themselves since now they have a free hand of doing whatever they want with no fear of Retribution and knowing that some girls are more desperate than others in order to work at a particular Club or they may get asked to do parties or I think at one Club so I was asked if I wanted to go with a couple other girls at some kind of break time at a high stakes poker game entertain the guys I guess kind of no different than going to a bachelor party or whatever but I never did go do it I don't think I stayed at the Club much later then I was asked and that's not the reason I left the club I was actually at the club for quite a while I think at that point I was kind of weaning my way out of dancing and I was already working in a 9:00 to 5:00 type job part-time
At one club, the owner was getting a divorce, and feeling out my fav to be wife #4. He owned a shit-ton of business, very wealthy. But he was 40 years older than her, and a major jerk, so she wasn't going there.
I heard a bad story from a dancer who had to quit from Miss Kitty's in Illinois near St. Louis. The manager got nasty with her for not wanting to do extras with customers. But, she didn't say anything about him personally trying to get in her thong.