HoneyDewMelons
Retired Burlesque Belly Dancing GoGo Girl
Comments by HoneyDewMelons (page 4)
discussion comment
a year ago
Muddy
USA
@Brahma2k...Didn't realize anybody would miss me been so busy busy busy busy
discussion comment
a year ago
nicespice
I don't remember seeing any in any of the clubs that I worked either earlier or later in my career but I heard there were and I worked quite a few clubs
discussion comment
a year ago
nicespice
Well that's the way they did it especially in my first round of working and as far as I know it went way back and I guess that's just the way they did it until whatever happened to make the change that that the clubs could start to hire their own girls in any event I remember my agency the lady who ran it many many years and Who had most of the clubs in the Philadelphia area I would say like 70% and there were two other agencies that I know of so between those two they had 30% of the other clubs but I remember her saying after being with her for a few years that she was going to retire and I guess when she retired and or something happened with the laws and Philadelphia that the owners could hire their own dancers
discussion comment
a year ago
nicespice
I mean you may have had that a little bit but since there was an agent that handled all the earlier bookings at just about all the bars and clubs in the area I'm sure somebody tried to get away with it and I'm not really sure how the different agencies handled it if the dancer would come back and say you know the manager the owner try to get sex from me in order to work there but I'm kind of guessing if it was an ongoing thing with a few complaints the agency that I work for who had about 70% of all the bars and clubs in and around Philadelphia she would just tell them well you got to find another agency and hope that that agency could fulfill however many girls they needed in order the agency I had like I said had most of the bars and clubs and the other two agencies that I know of had 30% between the two of them
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
discussion comment
a year ago
rickdugan
Verified and Certifiable Super-Reviewer
Awesome conversation oy vey
discussion comment
a year ago
HoneyDewMelons
Retired Burlesque Belly Dancing GoGo Girl
As I was slowly getting out of dancing I just worked in retail for a couple of years then I somehow switched over to being a caregiver then I just took a couple of courses and stuff and became a CNA then I went to work in a hospital working in the kitchen and delivering food to the patients and making way more money than being a CNA and had every benefit under the Sun pulled my money together bought a rental property now I've been retired for a few years
discussion comment
a year ago
Heaven-sent
As a previous dancer I can answer this question and it is a resounding yes not only does each individual girl have her own thoughts about individual customers we also know the thoughts of the other girls and what they think of all the individual customers
discussion comment
a year ago
Muddy
USA
My fav burger king iced mocha coffee
Next in line mcds french vanilla iced coffee only 1.06 thru the app
discussion comment
a year ago
nicespice
@nicespice...question 4
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...
discussion comment
a year ago
shadowcat
Atlanta suburb
I think a lot of people these days they don't care about the football they just want to see the commercials...
discussion comment
a year ago
shadowcat
Atlanta suburb
I'm glad to see that some men can separate the difference of watching girls in a club as to watching girls when it comes to a family function so to speak...
discussion comment
a year ago
ilbbaicnl
Keep it in my pants when I do OTC. If I were a stripper it would stand for I like big bucks and I can not lie.
For me it depended on what kind of club I worked at and how many times I knew I would have to get go up on stage and dance... Of course bigger clubs expected you to have fancier costumes then the smaller bars and of course the local corner bar which I did a whole bunch of them in my career the less you wore the better...lol
discussion comment
a year ago
sweetjamesjones
I support the naked hustle
I really need to start this....
discussion comment
a year ago
5footguy
It truly is survival of the fittest these days... And whatever business you're in it's whoever's willing to do the most and go the furthest to get ahead of everybody else..
discussion comment
a year ago
nicespice
@nicespice... Back in the day before the dancers had to physically go to each club and audition... I can tell you how you're not getting hired pretty much right away and I'm sure it's happened to me once or twice in my career and honestly probably more than that cuz bars are looking for the type of girl that the majority of their clientele are looking for
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
discussion comment
a year ago
5footguy
Since most of the girls all worked the same bars within like a 5-mile proximity we all pretty much knew all the customers from all the bars at least all the regulars anyhow and in any event more customers mean more money for the dancers and the bartenders and the bouncers and the DJ...
discussion comment
a year ago
nicespice
So we are now on to the second part of the first question what were places like back then I already described on top of the bar work now this will be stage work
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
discussion comment
a year ago
Muddy
USA
Truly I expected a beautiful black woman...and she does not represent that country...
discussion comment
a year ago
HoneyDewMelons
Retired Burlesque Belly Dancing GoGo Girl
@skibum609 I can see being distraught over cancellation of the Saturday morning cartoons LOL
@PhredJohnson...Harry who...I know...that's going way back...
@Techman...awesome old time Burlesque Troupe...with orchestra..awesome...$1.80 holy smolly...stripping isn't what it used to be for sure... I did a little bit of everything in my stage show beautiful costumes what I could afford at the time most of my stuff came from Frederick's of Hollywood... Some costumes we're handmade... I did lots of styles of dancing go go jazz disco burlesque striptease belly dancing hula dancing also throwing in a mix of other types of dancing along with Riverdance...
discussion comment
a year ago
HoneyDewMelons
Retired Burlesque Belly Dancing GoGo Girl
@twentyfive... In my younger years just in Philly and Bucks and then in my later years Philly Bucks New Jersey and Daytona Beach.. and I know what you mean by misspent use if I wasn't working in a bar I was drinking in bars that I wasn't working at unbelievable how many beautiful summer days went by of course if you have to work you work but just to still be hanging around in a bar on days that you're not even working and I wasn't even a big drinker That's where all my friends went so that's where I went and even when vacation going down to the Jersey shore what did you do you drank you drank all day went to the clubs at night and you still drank some more and like I said I wasn't like a big drinker so I'm sure I had my fair share but just think of all those wasted days and wasted nights of drinking your life away.. in fact I can tell you what I drank and I'm really not sure what the drinking age was at the time I'm pretty sure 21 and I was a far cry from 21 and I'm sure I didn't look 21 but down the shore me and my girlfriend will wear the shortest shorts and the skimpiest little bra top and we would go right in and pick up our two bottles of wine which were called the $1.9 wine and if I had a little bit more money with me I used to get this brand which didn't actually tell you the flavor it just had cool names and was about 50 cents more so if anybody could figure out what brand that was I believe that brand is no longer being sold for a long time but the dollar nine wine brand is still being sold but of course different flavors...
discussion comment
a year ago
HoneyDewMelons
Retired Burlesque Belly Dancing GoGo Girl
@motorhead got love Jamie... I remember Elvis and Beatles songs but don't recall the memory of seeing Elvis or the Beatles... My earliest recollection of hearing and seeing someone singing songs of that time was Tom Jones my mother loved him and of course my dad hated him but of course he loved Joey Heatherton... And as for the Beatles my oldest brother well technically is not my oldest brother he was my step brother...my dad was married three times so I have to explain that his first wife he had a son and a daughter... Then he married my mother which I'm the oldest than unfortunately I had a baby sister right after me and not really sure what she died of but she didn't even make it out of the hospital but I guess they call that sudden infant death syndrome now... And then she popped out three boys within a few years so I Believe by the time she was 25 she had four for her own kids and two for my dad's previous marriage... Then after she left a few years later he married another woman well I'm not sure if they actually even married but she's actually the mother that raised me from 6 years old until 16 I would say after that kind of was on my own doing my own thing partially living with my half sister from my dad's first marriage
Well anyway when it comes to the Beatles my step brother who was collecting Beatles albums from the very start so he had all first issue recordings well a few years later he got married a month or so later his wife left him for a drummer in a band and she took all of this beatle albums... So that really sucked because they would have been worth a pretty penny in today's market... I buy and sell albums so I know the worth...
discussion comment
a year ago
HoneyDewMelons
Retired Burlesque Belly Dancing GoGo Girl
@ilbbaicnl I see that you have been through some of the changes over the years as have I I have only known two bars that you worked on top of the bar itself and the rest were stage dancing... And of course the stage dancing the customers either rolled up their money and threw it on the stage to you or made little airplanes or gave it to the bartender and the bartender handed it to you or if the stage and the bar were pretty much in close proximity to each other the customer and you could reach out and hand it over
Then I wound up working at The Red Raven and here they just had the stage in the middle and you were allowed to go around the inside of the bar and collect tips that way but you still weren't allowed to sit with the customers or really chat with the customers and you went just back in the dressing room to get ready for your next set and that's pretty much how it went for the rest of my early career that bars will still set up that way there was no table dancing no VIP rooms or anything of that nature at least in any of the places I've worked and as you tell I've worked at a lot of places in Philadelphia bucks county and New Jersey
Now when I came back to dancing I believe the first two bars I worked at was Dangerous Curves so kind of like a completely different setup big huge bar big stage and you were allowed to go on the outside of the bar to make money I didn't know if they had VIP rooms at that time or not I know I didn't do any of that of course I didn't know in fact when I came back to dancing and I did my first set on the stage I was wearing a beautiful two-piece bra and panty set from Victoria's secrets and had stockings on well anyway I dance my little heart out... So after I was done I was allowed to go around and collect my tips and then I went to the dressing room to get dressed after that you know went into the manager's office to see if they liked me and give me a schedule... Well the first thing out of the manager's mouth was do you take your bra off... And it took me back for a second and I'm thinking do I take my bra off so it didn't even register and I'm thinking what is he asking me do I take my bra off and I think he said something to the effect that the girls Go topless here and I didn't really understand what that meant because I'm from the old school where nobody went topless and if you didn't have a top one you had pasties on... And I think I just answered them yeah I can do that and we laughed and I worked there for a few years... And I worked there for a short time after it was Club Risque... Which at this point of time there was couch dancing VIP room and who knows what else went on... I also have a very interesting story about this bar which I will post sometime in the future
discussion comment
a year ago
HoneyDewMelons
Retired Burlesque Belly Dancing GoGo Girl
@shadowcat seems you are...
@gSteph I will try and read the article
@minnow I have a story about Lou,s Will post in the future...54-60
@Studme53 never worked there but was at the French Quarter 95-97
review comment
a year ago
joshc
Virginia
honey...it wasn't me... 😂