They could make more dancing 2 or 3 days a week than they could working a 40 hour job. Some were skanks, but most were working mothers or housewives. They didn't have to do anything else extra-curricular. The girls there could make $1,000 a night just dancing. That place was always packed standing room only and almost every customer there was in a business suit, day or night. One of the best was on Michigan in east Dearborn. I had a couple of pretty good friends that worked at those two clubs. It wasn't uncommon for the lunch or dinner tab to be $300 or more. Even a few Detroit politicians including Council members. Tables were filled with business execs, lawyers, bankers, celebrities, etc. Many a business deal was penned in them during lunch and dinner hours. Siloz and another one on 8 Mile I used to go to [[can't remember the name right now) were very nice places. I'm not sure where you've been but the ones I was in had strict dress codes which was basically business attire. I recall 1 or 2 establishments in the little triangle bordered by 8 Mile, Greenfield Road, and the Lodge Freeway. West side of Livernois correct? Open in the early 90s? The Foxes establishment rings a bell as well. Fascinating times, they were.Īnd I seem to recall a real dive on southbound John R near Remington. I can almost see a dissertation here for a Ph. The Sax promoted itself as the "oldest" topless club in the City, to which the Prof adds: no doubt. Then there was Sassy Sandy's on east Davison near Mound, and the Sax Club on McNichols not far from Hamilton, one of those lovely establishments where you could use the standard dive topless bar formula to estimate a dancer's age [[count the teeth and subtract from fifty). The dancers would get irked because if there was a hockey game on [[which there often was), most of us would be watching it and not them. They had a pool table, which was nice, because your Prof in those days was a bit of a hustler and could use the pool table to raise the money for the rest of the evening's festivities. The Foxes Den was the name, I think, of the dump on Livernois not too far from Davison, south of Davison if I recall correctly. The announcer, DJ or whatever you'd call it, was a scream, he would tell you which college this or that dancer was attending, for instance "gentlemen, please be generous in tipping the lovely Shondra, she needs the money for her sophomore year at Wayne State", whereas Shondra had actually attended Wayne State thirty years prior. Then you had the "Zoo" on Eight Mile not too far from the fairgrounds, a little bit east I seem to recall, where your friends could pay to have you mud-wrestle in your underwear with the ladies. The women were sort of comically ugly, and there were never more than three or four people in the place.
We recall the Please Station on Seven Mile just west of Van Dyke, which was perhaps the worst strip club in the history of the world, but the owner was a neat old guy. Ah, it practically brings tears to the eyes of your kindly old Professor, reminiscing about the days when he was young, single and stupid enough to blow his stack of cash in such wonderful old dives.