[Dixielandjazz] Re: SF Topless Joints

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/14/05 1:23:52 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
robert at ringwald.com writes:

> 
> I know, I know, the owner was turning over the crowd, but there really was 
> not that many people coming in thus it really didn't seem to be working. 
> Perhaps Tom knows what the Condor is doing now?
> 
> 
Hi Bob & All:

I have not been there in many years, but have walked past it a few times on 
my way to the North Beach Jazz Festival.  If I recall correctly they turned it 
into a glass fronted S.F. Fern type bar with the windows facing Columbus 
Street.

In the hey dey of North Beach it was bad enough that the drinks were $4.50 
each with a two and often three drink minimum per person, in lieu of a cover 
charge which most people hated to pay except for the young service guys looking 
to spend their pay and see some topless and bottomless girls up close and 
personal.

Yep, $20.00 a drink was indeed ridiculous, but those guys on North Beach 
always did love to rip folks off,  too bad, because it was once a good area to 
work for many bands and I booked a lot of them up and down the street for several 
years before they all went  to just topless hustle joints.    14 rooms had 
been bought up by a syndicate from Denver, Colorado and I quit booking them the 
night the boss called a meeting on the corner of Columbus and Broadway, and 
informed me and all the managers of each room that he had hired an efficiency 
expert to monitor the clubs, and that if any band member was thirty seconds late 
or any dancer thirty seconds late for any show they were fired.

He also stated that he wanted all the bands to downbeat with the same song at 
exactly 8:30 p.m. every night, "Funky Broadway" tried to turn it into a 
machine.   He did it too, for about six months, but had to fire everyone :))  and 
the world got out about the clown and nobody any good wanted to work the street 
anymore.

In the late sixties and early seventies the place was magic and all the bands 
within 100 miles of San Francisco wanted to play there and Reno, & Lake Tahoe 
and Las Vegas casino lounges.  That was considered "Making it" in those days.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins