S: How did you make the leap from doing the chuckwagon to going into the nightclub business?
P: I always liked the nightclubs in Brussels in Belgium, when I was boxing. Now I’m too old for it, but in those days I liked the nightlife. But the girls taking off their clothes, I didn’t start with that idea. I had the first discotheque in Alberta, in Grande Prairie, the black lights, the flashing lights and all that, the go-go girls, I had that, but they were in bikinis, not undressed.
S: Why Grande Prairie?
P: I was a partner in a trucking business with another guy. One truck and we drove to Alaska, picking up asbestos and bringing it to Fort St. John. He drove and I drove. All gravel. Nothing was paved. It was an awful job. I sold out after not even a year. And that’s when I started the nightclub in Grande Prairie. Then I sold that and came back to Edmonton. I started a discotheque, not a striptease [club]. But we lost our lease and they demolished our building. I went across Jasper to 106th street and that’s where I started the striptease.
The first year we opened, the girls still had the little pasties on and the, what do you call it?…G-string. You couldn’t go naked in 1970. But then I was having breakfast in the Corona Hotel and there was Calgary, having the first nude shows and everything was OK. So I figured, what is good for Calgary is good for Edmonton. So I started doing it.
Well, of course, after 10 days they shut me down. They drove me and my girls to jail in the paddy wagon. They kept me overnight. The case was dismissed. Then I could do the shows, but with pasties and G-strings, but then the girls lost their pasties while they were dancing, then it was topless, then the G-string went, and [then] it was totally nude. Then I brought in the male strippers and the mud wrestling and the oil wrestling. Then other people followed me, and bars opened up all over the place.
S: Why open a strip club to begin with? Why did you think it would be better than a disco?
P: It was very simple. My disco was going Friday and Saturday, two days a week. I couldn’t live on that. The striptease could go six days a week.
S: And you never got a liquor licence?
P: The reason I never got a liquor licence is too much problems. There’ll be shooting and stabbing. Now, in order to have a liquor license you need so much overhead. You need security at the door, at the back door, inside. Eighty per cent of your income goes to salaries. We do our own supervision and we got no problem. If somebody is not satisfied, we give his money back. We don’t want no disturbance. It happens. Some guy expects more than what he sees and he complains, so, I’m sorry, here is your money back.
S: How much does it cost to get in now?
P: $10.
S: Did you ever think about opening a second club?
P: I’ve been approached a dozen times to open up another club in the city.
S: By who?
P: People from Vancouver and stuff. Why open another place? One place is doing good, the other place doesn’t do nothing. One place pays the other place to exist, so what’s the sense to have all those problems? You open one place and you do the right job, you do a good job, and that is sufficient.
S: What’s a good job to you?
P: Looking after customers and making customers happy. And keeping troubles out of the club. That is a good job. That is running a good club. You come in here, you’re not going to be touched or bothered by nobody. In other words, you’re protected in my place.
S: What have been the biggest changes for you?
P: Before, we had girls from other cities applying for the jobs. Now we got local girls, beautiful young girls, 18, 20, 22, 23 years old. They think nothing of it to come to work and take their clothes off. It’s nothing. They work their way through university.
S: Has your clientele changed much over the years?
P: No. People don’t change. We got an older crowd. We got no younger crowd because we got no liquor licence, [so] they can’t drink beer and howl.
S: Has there been a decrease in business over the years?
P: Yeah. Every beer parlour, every tavern, every hotel has striptease. There’s too many places now. There was a time when I was the only one in town. There’s so many places. There are agencies – 60, 70 girls – and they send them out to work for them. I got house girls. There are always eight, nine, 10 in the club, every day.
S: Has your attitude toward this business changed in any way over the years?
P: No. But the public’s has changed. Before I had problems. People were protesting against me and all that. Not now. I think it’s my age. I didn’t have no respect 30 years ago, oh no. A pastor and his followers came with a big bus and paraded in front of my establishment. And they paraded in front of the movie houses, too. The Blue Lagoon: I couldn’t understand it.
S: A little bit of controversy is good for a business, isn’t it?
P: Oh yeah.
S: You’ve always referred to burlesque as an art.
P: Yes. The way the girls dance and take their clothes off. Some girls haven’t got a clue. They think a strip club is just about being naked. At my club, it’s an art, a nice show. I picked it up in Paris, during the war, in the Moulin Rouge. I was there. Beautiful girls. Not one or 10 or 15, but 40 girls.
S: So you hire girls who are good at burlesque?
P: We go on character. We have a few beautiful girls. That doesn’t mean the beautiful girls are making the most money. You got girls who are older, in their 30s or late 30s, and they’re doing good. You know why? Because they’re really nice with the customers. They talk. The customers always got something to say. They got problems or whatever, and the girl goes along with it. They listen. Those are the girls I like. It doesn’t matter if the guy is 60 or 22. Same thing. I like that. That’s what I want in my club.
S: Has there been any philosophy that has guided you through business and life?
P: The way I look at business is once that door is closed and I go home, it’s a totally different life. I don’t talk business. Many of my girls do the same thing. They have a little kid, they have a babysitter, they have to drive the babysitter home, and then it’s normal ‘till nine o’clock the next evening. Same thing with me. If you don’t do that, you’re finished. I advise everyone who goes into that business to keep your private life separate. I’ve seen club owners go home with three or four girls and three, four, five customers. Never. My home has never been that way. I got a 148- pound bull mastiff and he wouldn’t allow it. I like it when I get home and it’s nice and quiet. I like to keep it that way.
S: Barton, your son, will take over the business?
P: He’s good. He knows what I’m doing. He knows everything. Barton was three years old when he helped me out in the club, picking up cups and such. He’s always helped me out.
S: And you’re still very involved with the club?
P: Oh yeah. I do everything. I got to go back there now. I’ve got two hours’ work to do.
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