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Text:
Editorial Note: For the sake of anonymity, some names and some identifying details in Part I have been altered.
Part I: What the Adult Entertainment Business Is NOT
Joe, a hiring manager with a major United States domestic commercial banking operator, bluntly inquired during a job interview with my friend Merl, “So, your last fifteen years of work experience has been within the adult entertainment field?” My onetime work colleague and longer-term pal was somewhat taken aback by the seemingly accusatory line and tone of what commenced to feel like a quasi-interrogation.
Merl responded that for the previous decade and a half, he was an employee of a mid-cap legacy casino operator; working at the corporate level within the marketing department. The gaming hospitality entertainment organization to which Merl contributed was, until its acquisition and subsequent dismantling, well respected amongst pivotal members of the gaming hospitality industry and by Wall Street analysts, perceived as an efficiently and effectively operated mid- cap, multi-state licensed corporation. Joe somewhat dismissively retorted, “So, your business experience has been with adult entertainment?!” Merl was clearly not going to obtain this super straight-laced position! For this interview at least, it seemed an unwarranted Hawthornian scarlet letter of “A” for “A”dult Entertainment was proverbially pinned to Merl’s chest, and he found himself in a Kafka-esque situation of absurdity trying to explain a matter that would have been comical if a desperately needed position of employment was not on the line.
Until I had heard Merl recall this scenario with regret, I had not considered https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-adult-entertainment-really-david-paster?trk=mp-author-card Page 2 of 131 Delineating the Adult Entertainment Business | David Paster | LinkedIn 8/17/15, 9:14 AM
casino gaming to be a form of an “adult entertainment business”. Yet, upon further consideration, I could almost recognize a sliver of merit with Joe’s insinuation. As Sheldon Addison, aspiring political kingmaker and overlord of the Las Vegas Sands corporation, will tell anyone he pays to listen, casino gaming remains a vice that should be disseminated with prudence.
Various forms of gambling, including but not exclusive to commercial, Indian, limited stakes, historic, racino, horse/dog racing, lottery, charitable and even Internet facsimile have evolved over the last few decades until reaching a contemporary status of near socio-cultural ubiquity. This wagering activity, partially legitimized by government codification, is sanctioned in 48 out of 50 states and the condoning and vested interest government even cooperatively promotes varying forms of wagering partially as a means to reap a voluntary / regressive tax, too often derived from a populace that is profoundly limited in terms of discretionary expenditure. Gambling has, with it's growing presence, become normalized from a taboo vice isolated to the middle of the desert to merely another hedonic hospitality recreational activity.
Void of even a minuscule tinge of irony, the Simpsons' spiritual leader Reverend Lovejoy interjects on the debate on whether to bring gambling to town in the 1993
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episode $pringfield (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gabling), "Once the government approves something, it's no longer immoral!". Six years later, the Simpsons creators brewed up an even more black comedy than the titular inspiration for the 1993 episode Dr. Strangelove with the episode where neighbor Ned Flanders engages in a road trip, buddy adventure with Homer to imbibe "white wine spritzers" and learn to free himself via the "Homer Method" in Las Vegas during "Viva Ned Flanders". For the record, between casino focused follies, during 1996 in the "Bart on the Road" episode he encapsulates Flanders' anti carpe diem mindset, Bart claims Homer says, "Branson, it's like Vegas, if it were run by Ned Flanders".
The inclusion of gambling, in the collective mindset, as an activity to be understood as fundamentally no differently than a day at the ball game, evening attendance of a concert, or a trip to an amusement park, has allowed casino gaming, as an alternative outing, to shed a proportion of its historically inherent taboo or stigma. By regulation, to participate in casino wagering activity, an individual must be of majority age (i.e., 18 or 21 years old, depending upon the jurisdiction). Therefore, technically Joe was correct in his congregation of casino gaming activity as an adult entertainment entity. Yet, this particular amalgamation is still normatively suspect. The philosophical extension, as will be provided as follows, is not quite robust enough to pass a litmus-type test of societal reasonableness.
Following the logical path of age limited participation as the primary defining
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element differentiating adult from populace inclusive or general attraction entertainment, it may be contended by (adamant prohibitionist) Carrie Nation types that individuals bellying up to the bar and imbibing a beer at family friendly chain restaurants like Chili’s, T.G.I.Friday's or Applebee’s are just as much participants with a variance of adult entertainment as the patron sipping a libation and passively viewing the stage show at a gentlemen’s club. This is assuming that there is no gradation of situational based “vice” or the belief that a "sin is a sin". That is, having an alcoholic drink at a chain restaurant is no better or worse than partaking of a beverage at a gentlemen’s club. The adult entertainment activity in question is the consumption of inebriates, not the environment in which the activity occurs. By this logic, the flare bar tending extravaganza and shot downing at T.G.I.Friday's could be considered a format of adult entertainment. Yet, except for those whose perceptions are radically conservative, located at the far right of the societal behavior continuum, chain restaurants bars are not considered by the majority populace to be locales of adult entertainment business.
Out of the public hospitality realm and into the private, if a hotel guest is able to order a pay-per-view “mature” movie to be watched in the assumed privacy of his or her own rented quarters through a service such as third-party contracted, in- room entertainment providing and profit sharing with hotel vendors like LodgeNet Interactive™ or Spectravision™, does the presence of a means of delivery designate major hotel chains to be in the same collective as porno theaters as purveyors of adult material? As an aside, the choice of some hotel https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-adult-entertainment-really-david-paster?trk=mp-author-card Page 5 of 131 Delineating the Adult Entertainment Business | David Paster | LinkedIn 8/17/15, 9:14 AM
chains such as Omni™ and Marriot ™ to discontinue offering “dirty movie” fare via its television systems may have been more motivated by economic realities wrought by developing personal technologies than the proselytizing of corporate citizenry constructs.
Intermittent economic trends, reflective of the elements comprising the Bass Diffusion and Product Life Cycle Stages models, are adequately disruptive to create situational openings for business practice change (i.e., lodging facilities can, with minimal negative effect, discontinue an established amenity). The relegation of surcharge soaking in-room telephone and pay-to-use Wi-Fi devolve to novelty amenity relic rank for the majority of individuals that come prepared for myriad forms of communications. Adult movies steered through in house entertainment systems with sometimes less than discrete room billing and in room phones with less functionality than substitutable personal devices lose relevancy.
To be equitable, the Rowling family, de facto owners of the Omni™ hotel chain and the namesake Marriot family are political traditionalists and religiously (conservative Christian and Mormon respectively) adherent; consequently, the decision to limit LodgeNet’s entertainment offerings might have less ulterior motive than one might suspect. Essentially, the diminishing opportunity costs, due to the significant demand decreases demonstrated with this niche revenue source, allowed the families to simultaneously to not only jettison an increasingly less popular and arguably, controversial revenue source, but also fulfill conscientious obligations. Having had the good fortune to spend some time with a member of the immediate Marriot family, the author can attest to the high quality of the Marriot clan’s character.
On a more holistic level, one need not search too intensely to find the practical extinguisher of the referenced adult movie pay per view service provision in some hotels that cancelled contracts with LodgeNet and others. Reminiscent of the band, The Buggles presciently proclaiming with their song on the 1980 Age of Plastic album “Video Killed the Radio Star,” the patron's private means of media transmission, specifically in the forms of Internet compatible laptops, tablets and even smart phones, mortally wounded LodgeNet™ and other in room entertainment services’ product / service staples. Now patrons reflectively
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wonder about the marginal benefit derived from playing video games or watching a movie, adult-oriented or not, via the hotel television “entertainment” system.
Out-of-room technologies simply made some in-room technologies effectively obsolete. In this vain, the question must be posed, when is the last time anyone saw a John Joseph Houghtaling invented “Magic Fingers” quarter fed machine to vibrate the box spring mattresses of a no-tell motel bed? For the literary minded, the “Magic Fingers” contraption was a perennial favorite manifestation of contemporary hospitality technology of Professor Humbert Humbert’s nymphet, Lolita.
As a matter of history, during the sexually repressive era of pre-Hefner early 1950s, when Vladimir Nabakov penned his ode to hebephilia, hotel room televisions were often third party installed and coin operated; a primitive pay- per-view system predecessor known as “Covideo”.
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Returning from the theoretical hospitality scenarios and venues as to what might be considered as an erroneous adult entertainment tangent, it is appropriate to conclude that Joe, the bank interviewer, probably misconstrued the essence of what Adult Entertainment Business truly is by including Merl’s participation within the field of casino gaming.
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This amuse-bouche phenomenon investigation is not intended to be a comprehensive review of a complex topic; rather, it is merely a contextual overview.
Part II: What Adult Entertainment Business IS - A "Quick and Dirty" Review of Historic and Contemporary Adult Entertainment Manifestations
Introduction:
Adult entertainment is, in its most comprehensive sense, a means of monetizing human sexuality’s needs and desires. The various streams of modern adult entertainment to be explored are only inclusive of commercial enterprises that were or are legally operated in the United States. It is necessary to understand that the adult entertainment industry is evolving. Some of today’s product and service technologies were unimaginable in times past and some, at one point, contemporary offerings have become effectively obsolete.
The basic dividing line of the libertarian pursuit of engaging with an adult entertainment business is one that separates patrons of consenting ages' involvement via replicated depiction or possessing qualities inherent to live (in person) interaction. The primary and passive depictions means of adult entertainment based material are print (e.g., literary), imagery (photos and film) and auditory (e.g., sound recordings). Live adult entertainment businesses are, to varying degrees, participatory and offers two basic format: anticipation building exhibition and sexual fulfillment / satisfaction.
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Some may argue that the term "adult entertainment" or its use as a commercial driver is somewhat of a misnomer. After all, a proportion of the milieu is targeted to individuals with stunted or even juvenile sensual comprehension. A unifying theme is that while universally acceptable to rule utilitarian libertines, most of the activities are participated in by individuals being led by respective shadow selves. As Carl Jung, Freud’s figuratively “adopted eldest son, his crown prince and successor" concluded, “Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.” - “Psychology and Religion” (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.131
The modern psychologist Dr. Ariely pondered, “Every one of, regardless of how ‘good’ we think we are, under predicts the effect of passion on our behavior… Even the most brilliant and rational person, in the heat of passion, seems to absolutely and completely divorced from the person he thought he was…The question is asked, “What happens when our irrational self comes alive in an emotional place that we think is familiar but in fact is unfamiliar? If we fail to really understand ourselves, is it possible to somehow predict how we or other will behave when ‘out of our heads’?”.
At is root, Adult entertainment's effectiveness is based on man's foibles, particularly of the psychologic sort. Primarily the progressive stimulation indicative of Dr. Loewenstein’s “seductive variable(s)” stimulation reflective “Cold-Hot Empathy Gap,” under which there is the inability to understand the opposite state of emotion while an individual is experiencing an emotion.
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Definitions and Terminology Clarifications:
Erotic - 1: of, devoted to, or tending to arouse sexual love or desire
Pornography - 1: the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement 2: material (as books or a photograph) that depicts erotic behavior and is intended to cause sexual excitement 3: the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction
Amendment I to the United States Constitution - Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people
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peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Obscene - 1: disgusting to the senses : repulsive; 2a : abhorrent to morality or virtue; specifically : designed to incite to lust or depravity b : containing or being language regarded as taboo in polite usage
The Miller Test - The Miller test (also called the Three Prong Obscenity Test) is the United States Supreme Court's test for determining whether speech or expression can be labeled obscene, in which case it is not protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and can be prohibited. The Miller test was developed in the 1973 case Miller v. California.[2] It has three parts: 1) Whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards", would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, 2)Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions[3] specifically defined by applicable state law, 3) Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. The work is considered obscene only if all three conditions are satisfied.
Comstock Law - Be it enacted.... That whoever, within the District of Columbia or any of the Territories of the United States... shall sell... or shall offer to sell, or to lend, or to give away, or in any manner to exhibit, or shall otherwise publish or offer to publish in any manner, or shall have in his possession, for any such purpose or purposes, an obscene book, pamphlet, paper, writing, advertisement, circular, print, picture, drawing or other representation, figure, or image on or of paper or other material, or any cast instrument, or other article of an immoral nature, or any drug or medicine, or any article whatever, for the prevention of conception, or for causing unlawful abortion, or shall advertise the same for sale, or shall write or print, or cause to be written or printed, any card, circular, book, pamphlet, advertisement, or notice of any kind, stating when, where, how, or of whom, or by what means, any of the articles in this section…can be purchased or obtained, or shall manufacture, draw, or print, or in any wise make any of such articles, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof in
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any court of the United States... he shall be imprisoned at hard labor in the penitentiary for not less than six months nor more than five years for each offense, or fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than two thousand dollars, with costs of court.
Roth v. United States - A case in which it was determined that obscenity was material whose "dominant theme taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest" to the "average person, applying contemporary community standards," and was, "utterly without redeeming social importance.
This author’s interpretation of the semantic conundrum is that the business of adult entertainment need not considered pornographic nor inherently obscene; rather, it should be seen as one of many channels of the pursuit of holistic human sexuality. After all, no greater resource than Hugh M. Hefner declared, “Sex is the driving force on the planet. We should embrace it, not see it as the enemy”.
Another dictionary defines the erotic as “anything that arouses sexual desire and heightens sexual excitement,” while pornography is defined as “a commercial product designed to elicit or enhance sexual arousal by portrayal of sexually explicit images.” Yet, Hefner does not paint a proverbial bright yellow line of demarcation, “Pornography, I think, is a very negative label for erotica. I think that erotica or pornography is (sexually) explicit”. Realistically, the terms are intertwined and posses nuanced and often subjective meaning. Just as one man’s garbage is another’s treasure, one person’s erotica is another’s pornography. What is tasteful and artistic, beautiful and theatrical expressions to some, may be obscene to others.
Alternative Learning Resources:
For a more inclusive comprehension of the genre of adult entertainment and the milieu of erotica nested within a holistic context, a museum trip or two is suggested. Do not worry, these are not staid institutions sheltering squeaky linoleum floors and pretentious posers dressed from head to feet in intentionally depressing varying hues of black - always theta-black, sharing their ill-informed perspectives in exaggerated stage whispers. Actually, these centers of sensual edu-tainment are professionally and appropriately curated collections, consciously created to be visitor exploratory. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-adult-entertainment-really-david-paster?trk=mp-author-card Page 14 of 131 Delineating the Adult Entertainment Business | David Paster | LinkedIn 8/17/15, 9:14 AM
When visiting Las Vegas, NV, step away from the slot machines and forego a Cirque du Soleil show or two and visit the Erotic History Museum. Under the learned guidance of Executive Director Dr. Victoria Hartmann and Medici-level patronage of Mr. Harry Mohney of Déjà Vu Services fame, the two-story experience is purpose driven, but maintains a sense of appropriate whimsy. The author’s favorite element is the EHM “Wall of Shame,” that emulates the spirit of societal skewer and master literary debunker Larry Flynt’s Hustler magazine consistent feature, “Asshole of the Month”. Occasionally, popular culture’s (often self-proclaimed) emperors need to be told they are not wearing clothes, and their respective hypocrisies be exposed.
The Museum of Sex in Manhattan, New York, founded and executively directed by Daniel Gluck, attracts connoisseurs and the curious alike. Its mission statement is, “The Museum of Sex is to preserve and present the history, evolution, and cultural significance of human sexuality. In its exhibitions, programs and publications, The Museum of Sex is committed to open discourse and exchange, and to bringing to the public the best in current scholarship”. While not yet earning an equitable repute amongst the cultural elite as MOMA, the highly relevant MoSex has survived as an evolving institution for over a decade.
One would have to find a time machine to visit this locale; however, the near- decade-long defunct Hollywood Erotic Museum was an elaborate exhibition space situated on storied Hollywood Boulevard. This addition to the Hollywood renaissance was in an appropriate location, only miles away from Holmby Hills’ Kublai Khan, The Playboy Mansion, residence and party palace of Mr. Hugh Hefner, arguably, the societal contrarian spark and free speech catalyst who ignited popular culture’s sexual revolution. The HEM collection ranged from Pablo Picasso etchings, a 1948 stag film (allegedly) featuring a sex siren-in- training, Marilyn Monroe and a unique diorama relaying the judicial railroading of twentieth century teen years and very early Roaring 20s film star, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. By the way, unlike many enemies of first amendment rights, freedom of expression squelchers, as reliably featured in the afore noted Hustler feature, it may be garnered from the lyrics of the 1970s alternative minstrels, the Modern Lovers, “Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole”.
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Both the Las Vegas hosted Erotic History Museum and still standing New York City based Museum of Sex outposts provide especially excellent exposes on some of the key adult entertainment players and stalwart defenders of first amendment rights of expression including but certainly not exclusive to fortunately still with us Hugh Hefner, Alan Markowitz, Michael J. Peter, Herb Pastor, John Gray, Kings of the San Fernando Valley, Steven Hirsch and Steve Orenstein, the Mohney father and son team of Harry and Jason and the Flynt brothers, Larry and Jimmy, and the sadly missed, late Bob Guccione, Reuben Sturman, Leonard Burtman, and slightly askew but always provocative, Al Goldstein; all pioneering visionaries within their chosen domain and, possibly more importantly, proponents of the preservation of adult entertainment business essential civil liberties.
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Part II, Section 1 - "Passive Adult Entertainment" Part II, Section 1, Format 1 - The Written Word:
Some literati posit that the brain is the most important sexual organ and its most effective means of stimulation is reading and subsequent personal imaginative, envisioning. Erotica disseminated on the printed page has held influence of the collective cultural consciousness for half a millennium. E.L. James’ so-called “mommy-porn” erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey is merely the latest incarnation of human being’s fascination with contra-Freudian “Pain and Pleasure Principles,” a diluted version of Marquis de Sade derivative “sadism” and “masochism,” a linguistic variance itself on the author Leopold von Sacher- Masoch’s name. A bit of trivia: Sacher-Masoch is the great-great-uncle to the British singer and actress Marianne Faithfull on the side of her mother, the Viennese Baroness Eva Erisso. So, when Faithful’s gender-bending mate Mick (and the Boys) sing, “When the Whip Comes Down,” they know of what they profess. So, God bless “The English Vice”.
Edmund Burke wrote in his Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful (1757), “I am satisfied the ideas of pain are much more powerful than those which enter on the part of pleasure”
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Pietro Aretino's I Modi (1524)
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(1791)
(1879)
The Story of 0, written by Anne Desclos under the pen name Pauline Réage and published in 1954 shares a lot of conceptual constructs with its literary predecessors and descendants. One graphic artist asserted correctly,
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Hugh Hefner's contemporary 1962 thoughts on everything from Freedom of and From Religion to Pious Fraudulence were written by the pajama clad, Dexedrine and Pepsi fueled typing-maniac who early-on mastered the art of mindfulness in the originally serialized and then produced as a compendium, The Playboy Philosophy. It is interesting to note that while sex is certainly a popular topic, as with the body of writings continuing to be produced by Hefner's more politically oriented contemporary scribe Larry Flynt, the Hefner collective of near transcendental codification provides to the novice and experienced reader alike a genuinely nuanced sense of the man who not only reflected and reflects but respectively also shaped and continues to sculpt the times. A central tenet that Hefner shares with Larry Flynt is paramount to an entity subscribing to a libertarian perspective - a demand for transparency. One might believe that both purposeful publishing personalities would deny the sentiment expressed by the cinematic character Michael Corleone in The Godfather II, “We are all part of the same hypocrisy”.
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Hefner, in 1974, the same year Hustler magazine debuted and made it its not-so- implicit mission to challenge the status quo, once challenged his Icarus complex with this statement of self determination, "My parents are wonderful people and they instilled in me an idealism for which I'm grateful.... But my parents also raised a son whose skepticism of bullshit included even the bullshit they themselves accepted." Hefner's parents, well at least his mother's, proactive empowerment is reflected with the financial tribulation of starting a magazine anecdote, "The problem was that I had no money. I got a $600 loan against my furniture from the local bank. I went to my family and asked if I could borrow some money from them, or whether they would invest in the magazine. My father declined. He was an accountant, and he didn't feel that a magazine was a good business investment. My mother took me aside and said that she had some money of her own, and she would give me $1,000. She didn't believe in the magazine, but she believed in her son." The complementary to Hefner’s demand for autonomy is somehow simultaneously adversarial, but also inclusive in the primary belief stance of Larry Flynt, which is succinctly summarized in his de facto raison d'être, "The Right to be left alone".
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Eighteenth century philosopher Adam Smith, as per his tome, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, would have described the sometimes calculatingly wild but always genuine person that is Larry Flynt as a Prudent Man. Smith determined, “The prudent man always studies seriously and earnestly to understand whatever he professes to understand, and not merely to persuade other people that he understands it; and though his talents may not always be very brilliant, they are always perfectly genuine. He neither endeavours to impose upon you by the cunning devices of an artful impostor, nor by the arrogant airs of an assuming pedant, nor by the confident assertions of a superficial and imprudent pretender. He is not ostentatious even of the abilities which he really possesses. His conversation is simple and modest, and he is averse to all the quackish arts by which other people so frequently thrust themselves into public
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notice and reputation”.
Much erotic writing is relatively ephemeral. Even the seminal collective of Victorian era vice laden tales, published as the Pearl, over a two year period (1879-1881) as a monthly periodical, not all that different from two current Penthouse publications productions, The Penthouse Letters and The Penthouse Forum.
Just how incredulous must the editor of the Penthouse Letters magazine be? It seems that the oeuvre is dominated by first hand sensual recounting correspondence that commence with the hedging phrase, “You won’t believe this, but….”
As will be discussed with the adoption and eventual dismissal of new technologies and their capabilities to channel adult entertainment and thereby conduct business, even early home computer fed BBS (aka Bulletin Boards) were accessed via 300 baud modems to garner "choose your own adventure" style, text only erotica.
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Near Real Time "Sexting" and more sensory inclusive Sex-Skyping are just the most recent evolution of sensual communications.
Part II, Section 1, Format 2- Static Imagery:
"Erotic" Cave Etchings
Naughty French Post Cards
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"Old West" Brothel Promotional Piece
The predecessor to the "Girls to You" cards distributed by "slappers" along the Las Vegas Strip.
Suggestive Animation
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Tales of Manliness
The Grandfather to Contemporary Lad Mags like Maxim and the late Stuff and FHM
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Early, "behind the counter", niche fetishistic magazine
The hobby of "photography" was quite popular amongst amateur hobbyist and led to the formation of photo clubs, featuring later to become icons like Bettie Page. The above issue of Art Photography, at the time a staple publication of Esquire, was actually edited by the man who was refused a $5 per week wage increase by Esquire, Mr. Hugh M. Hefner. He did okay breaking out on his own.
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Photo Clubs
"Naturalism" documentation was a work-around solution to the prohibitive measures of various government agencies practicing quasi-censorship.
Part II, Section 1, Format 2- Static Imagery; The Modern Magazine
1954 - The birth of a magazine known nearly as well for its excellent articles as well as championing the inherent, blooming sensuality of the proverbial "girl next door".
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"I've never thought of Playboy, quite frankly, as a sex magazine. I always thought of it as a lifestyle magazine in which sex was one important ingredient." - Hugh M. Hefner
Published in December of 1953, Playboy was certainly not certainly not the cultural "lock" one would expect. The magazine was so contrarian that one might note that there is no publication information showcased on the inaugural issue.
Playboy was and is more than just a magazine, the organization breeds an aspirational lifestyle and soon branded out to embrace the individuals who perceived themselves to be the solution to the question, "What kind of man reads
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Playboy?".
1960 Chicago - Flagship Playboy Club
(The late) Bob Guccione, not satisfied with only being the emperor of Playboy's number one rival magazine, decided to indulge in his desire to be a cinema impresario as well with the 1979 production of Caligula.
Not recognized for being a true innovator, Bob Guccione also was one of the first to partner (Unclothed) popular culture and more graphic "pornography". (The same year, actually a month prior, Playboy Magazine had published relatively tame imagery of the Material Girl.)
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The late 1960s saw a flourishing of more specialized / fetishistic magazine such as the 1967 copt of Corporal.
(The late) Al Goldstein, was described as "a cartoonishly vituperative amalgam of borscht belt comic, free-range social critic and sex-obsessed loser who seemed to embody a moment in New York City’s cultural history: the sleaze and decay of Times Square in the 1960s and ‘70s. Another writer called him "a hairy, sweaty, cigar-chomping, eczema-ridden fatso". He claimed to have had 7,000 sexual partners. If Hugh Hefner assumed the role of cerebral Super Ego of sensuality, then the always contrarian Al Goldstein served as the animalistic ID of raw sexuality. He started the aptly named low-rent Screw magazine in 1968.
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During 1974, social provocateur and unapologetic hedonist, Larry Flynt founded Hustler magazine. Flynt, like Hefner, is a grossly under-rated contemporary philosopher and competent while principled debater; consistently vigilant in thoroughly researching applicable facts before yielding his sharper than a sword pen to skewer deserved individuals.
Eighteenth century philosopher Immanuel Kant recognized the chasm between actuality and perception and consequently demarcated the duality of existence by identifying “noumenon,” the thing-in-itself (das Ding an sich) as opposed to the “phenomenon,” (Erscheinung) - the thing as it appears to an observer. Early Nineteenth century taleteller, Hans Christian Andersen, penned a short story with an almost parallel line of deconstructionist lucidity that encouraged children to embrace skepticism, identify individual and organization pretension and mitigate pluralistic ignorance, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”.
Not unlike the hypocrisy-free child of “The Emperor Has New Clothes” notoriety, who sees through the trickster tailors’ farce and exposes the pompous parading emperor clothed only in his own illegitimate sense of self satisfaction, Larry Flynt categorically refuses to ignore and / or quietly dismiss pivotal elements of logical fallacies, erroneously espoused by some, that might lead to conceptual misdirection. Larry Flynt maintains an almost preternatural ability to actively detect historic, present and expected culturally constructed maladies to a liberated society and attempts to mitigate the falsehoods through yielding powerful tools of truth.
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A contemporary primary source of revenue for legacy adult entertainment business brands is surprisingly not their collective marquee products (e.g., the magazines, videos, etc.) but rather a hard fought place in popular culture reflected by lucrative brand licensing and merchandising cross marketing and consequent sales.
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Part II, Section 1, Format 3- Moving Imagery; in Public Space:
Part II (C) - Moving Pictures:
1) In Communal Public Space
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The Hays Code of 1930
“I look back on the Roaring Twenties, with its jazz, ‘Great Gatsby’ and the pre- code films as a party I had somehow managed to miss” – Hugh M. Hefner
Prior to the introduction of home video capabilities (e.g., Betamax, VHS, ginormous LaserDisc), the consumption of pornographic films was a public, communal activity.
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Deep Throat, which was released in 1972, was a breakthrough in pornography due to is relatively high production values and launching of the "porno chic" trend.
The former Mitchell Brothers O'Farrel theater in San Francisco is as close to a parallel universe version of Bizzaro World as most individuals will ever approach without being possessed by the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson. one time (mostly honorary) night manager of this emporium of erotica.
Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride
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Dr. Gonzo: "How would Horatio Alger handle this situation?"
One of the first cross-germinations between traditional burlesque / strip clubs and widely distributed adult entertainment occurred with the production of pornographic films by the Mitchell Brothers.
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Behind the Green Door 2, the sophomore production effort by the Mitchell brothers in 1986, is notable for besides being a critical and popular failure, as the first safe sex film in which condoms were universally used. This novel approach set precedent for Vivid picture's wrap policy.
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Classic "Sexploitation" is a genre that made its presence known in the 1970s. The particular film, Diary of a Sinner, is representative of a sub-genre of adult films, namely being Canadian produced.
Debbie Does Dallas - The Movie (1978) became the de facto benchmark for the first popular home video pornography.
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Debbie Does Dallas - The Musical (2002) - That is Cultural Resonance
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Part II, Section 1, Format 3-Moving Imagery; in Public / Private Space:
Anthony Comstock's reformist dream shattered.
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Part II, Section 1, Format 3-Moving Imagery; in Private Space:
Like the contemporary cassette playing Walkman that made music listening a now private experience, the advent of VHS and Betamax in the late 1970s and its mass adoption in the early 1980s now made pornography viewing a potentially singular, solitary activity.
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DVDs continued the trend, but enhanced the medium.
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The "Amateur" gonzo style pornography was a direct result of less cost prohibitive cinematic technology, the ability to use magnetic and digital mediums thus avoiding the potential challenges with traditional film development, and subsequent ability to inexpensively produce content. (The same idea is in play with pervasive amateur Internet pornography).
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Sex will see seemingly no matter what the medium.
Internet Streaming / Online Content
Just as earlier mentioned, Internet technology has (at least) thrice forced obsolescence. Once DVD's could be purchased via e-commerce sites, there was little to no need to visit traditional bricks and mortar "adult bookshops". Upon mass dissemination of high speed / substantial band width capable Internet
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service provision, the now downloadable and "live" streamable content essentially hobbled DVD sales. Then, the entire distribution and pricing model was disrupted again with the advent of "Porn Tubes," where snippets of material could and is distributed at no cost to the consuming recipient.
Part II, Section 1, Format 3-Moving Imagery; The Internet Revolution
Deja Vu Services Internet disseminated reality show-style behind the scenes look at the operation of gentlemen's club titled, "Adventures in Boobyland" hosted by Jason "Cash" Mohney and his better half Dawn Beasley, has its own premium (pay) channel, but also gains exposure through mainstream and free distribution channels such as YouTube.
Like Napster and other entertainment medium sharing sites, Sex Tube, XHamster and their ilk cripple the profitability margins of Internet disseminated
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adult entertainment.
NEXT STAGE FOR VISUAL: 4D
4D Movie
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INSIDER'S "BEHIND THE SCENES PERSPECTIVE"
NARRATIVE DRIVEN EROTICA
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ANIMATION / PORNO MAGMA
Part II, Section 2 - "Active (Live) Adult Entertainment"
In the modern era, and certainly despite America’s arguably puritanical origins, the pursuit of pleasure and practice of “deviant” behavior has historically consistently been present. While there have been waves of liberalization (e.g., 1890s; the “Gay ‘90s”) and reactionary eras of conservatism (e.g., the Victorian period at the turn of the 20th century), and then returning with the counter balance swinging into the “roaring 20s”, sensually oriented “vice” activity has always been a facet of the American cultural experience.
Examples are plentiful, from old-west saloon-girls and “B(ar)” or “upstairs” ladies, more structured contemporary 19th century dance halls with Teutonic lineage Hurly-Burly girls and less protected taxi dancers, traveling carnival “a https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-adult-entertainment-really-david-paster?trk=mp-author-card Page 54 of 131 Delineating the Adult Entertainment Business | David Paster | LinkedIn 8/17/15, 9:14 AM
gander for two bit” tent side shows at the turn of the 20th century, full scale cabaret acts during and immediately following the “noble experiment” prohibition period, a fascination with burlesque and a boom of clandestine stag film exhibition parties during the post-war years, to, coinciding with the 1960s sexual revolution, and the emergence of mixed-gender visitation but still feminine essence centered “key clubs” such as the Gaslight or Playboy clubs.
Decades, even centuries, before the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce coined the slogan, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” New Orleans embodied the “laissez les bon temps rouler” (Let the Good Times Roll) philosophy that allowed a conservative (and possibly repressed) banker from Iowa to visit the Big Easy, take in a “girlie show” and not have to suffer guilt or associative condemnation by town-folk. These geographically “end of America” cities, with mélange of peoples, attitudes, and cultural expectations, embraced their contextually historic role as naughty but still metropolitan centers in a pre-Hefner world (Bowden, 1992).
The same product (sensually based entertainment) and services (with varying degrees of patron-provider interaction) has been offered in all of the above noted incarnations and continues in the present with the proliferation of gentlemen’s clubs. The difference is to what extent these hospitality providers, with both established and transient product, bucked or conformed to the contemporary social norms.
While the “show” may have changed from the slightly risqué old-west Paris Pig Alle inspired “Can-Can” skirt-flipping, bloomer showing dance and carefully choreographed striptease of the burlesque era to the modern “pole” (public) and “tables”, “couch” (in public) and “lap” or “session” dancing (in private), the business model has remained relatively consistent. Bring men (and women) into an environment that is titillating and charge a premium for offering an altered version of sensualized reality.
Gentlemen’s clubs, it may be contended, contemporarily are tracing the route carved with the rapidly expanding and domestically near ubiquitous (casino) gaming hospitality presence, and are becoming more accepted as institutions and less marginalized as contemporary hospitality entities, especially within major convention and tourism urban hubs such as Las Vegas, San Francisco, New York
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City and New Orleans (e.g., Industrial Boulevard, North Beach/Telegraph Hill – Joe Carouba / BSC Management’s territory, pre-Disney 42nd Street and Bourbon Street); locales that, not coincidentally, have historically / culturally served domestically as sort of culturally progressive, societal “pressure release valves” (Bianco, 2004). Cabarets, burlesque houses, strip clubs, gentlemen’s clubs etc. were and are part of the woven cultural fabric of these host cities, and, by tenure, have achieved a semblance of normalcy in distinct locales.
Sensual Urbanism - The Unique Case of Las Vegas, NV as the American Experience's Moral Pressure Release Valve
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The dual legal sins, thanks to the Nevada freshman Assemblyman Phil Tobin's "Wide Open" Law of 1931, in which the men who built the Hoover Dam could engage were prostitution and gambling.
Candy Bar (along with a naval officer who affected a drag act) were run out of town in 1959, despite the more risqué Minsky's Follies already in production for two years at the Dunes Hotel & Casino.
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Bottom's Up served the needs of individuals who demanded a topless, low rent burlesque style show in the middle afternoon for multiple decades.
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Zumanity - Even Cirque du Soleil realized sex sells.
The Pioneering efforts of the Hard Rock to make sensuality patron inclusive:
Sex, (Alleged Drugs) and Rock & Roll
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The Glounge knock-off at the Palms
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The Celebutante Derivative
Slippery When Wet
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Popular Culture Innuendo and Less than Subtle Entendre
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The Integration of Industry and Civilians / Fans
Gentlemen''s Club Owners Expo
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Part II, Section 2, Format 1- Hedonic Hospitality Outlets
Part II, Section 2, Format 1- Hedonic Hospitality Outlets; Key Clubs
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Part II, Section 2, Format 2- Hedonic Hospitality Outlets; "Breastaurants"
Successful “breastaurants” rely on one key differentiating variable, which is the provision of unique work force solely comprised of generally accepted to be sensually attractive / aesthetically pleasing women acting as servers in a traditional hospitality environment of a restaurant. Still, there very existence in the labyrinth of adult entertainment hospitality is an anomaly. Unlike single- purposed bars, the bars and grills / restaurants actually welcome families, including minors.
Dr. Daniel S. Hamermash’s salient conclusion of his scientific research published in the book, Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful is that better-looking people tend to sell more products or attract more new customers.
If the business goal a “breastaurant,” as with most revenue seeking endeavors, is to churn more business and maximize profits to the firm, then the field of hospitality should recognize the material value of hiring certain population segments (e.g., attractive women) for essence based entities as protected under labor law by the Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ) provision(s).
The essence of what “breastaurants” are and the value added to the innuendo laden respective brands (e.g., Hooters, Tilted Kilts, Twin Peaks, Heart Attack Grill, Show Me’s, etc.), is based on the situational suspension of a concept of egalitarian sexes. Rather, “breastaurants,” like other commercial hedonic and libertarian enterprises prior, have found a legal means to not hire individuals who do not meet the parameters that comprise the essence of the brand. The labor law caveat is known as the Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ) construct. Poundstone asserted in 2010,There is a ‘beauty premium’ for the congenitally fabulous. For everyone else, there is a plainness penalty”.
The “breastaurant” constructs are not historically novel. Service precedent was established from the very club where uber-feminist Gloria Steinem went “undercover” to write “I was a Playboy Bunny”. The New York Human Rights Appeal Board found that being female was a BFOQ for the position of Playboy
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Bunny ™ (“Bevertainers” half a century before their time) at the Playboy Club ™; “finding the purpose of the job was to titillate and entice men and that female sexuality was reasonably necessary to achieve that purpose. See St. Cross v. Playboy Club, Appeal No. 773, Case No. CFS22618-70 (New York Human Rights Appeal Board, 1971)” (Brown, 2012).
In other words, there are elements that comprise a facility’s “essence” or core offering that cannot be practically substituted. To have attractive women serving in the role of essentially waitresses cloaked as bunnies was determined reasonable
Dr. Daniel S. Hamermash, author of Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful, states in an October 27, 2011 Wall Street Journal article by Sue Shellenbarger titled, “On the Job, Beauty is More than Skin-Deep,” states, “Research shows that better-looking people tend to sell more products or attract more new customers” (Shellenbarger, 2011). The same constructs apply for reverse-gender scenarios such as “Chippendale” style establishments. William Poundstone asserted in his book, Priceless - The Myth of Fair Value (and How Take Advantage of It), “There is a ‘beauty premium’ for the congenitally fabulous. For everyone else, there is a plainness penalty”.
At the end of the business day, what counts are the top and bottom lines (preferably for the breastaurant trade in short-shorts and tight tops); actually gross and net revenues.
The newest addition to the trend is "Bombshells" (a military themed breastaurant, which is owned and operated by RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc (formerly RICKS, parent company to the subsidiary gentlemen's club chain and stand-alone venues of Rick's Cabarets, Club Onyx, XTC Cabaret, Jaguars Club, Temptations Adult Cabaret, Vivid Cabaret (via a Steven Hirsch licensing agreement), Down in Texas Saloon,Downtown Cabaret, Cabaret North, Cabaret East, Tootsie's Cabaret, Silver City Cabaret, and the Black Orchid. Two other hospitality holdings are adult in their orientation, but do not qualify as adult entertainment venues, Union Square - essentially the good parts of Dave and Busters or GameWorks (NOT a manifestation of the colloquial "Adult Arcade" and the Vee Lounge - an ultra-lounge style space.
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Preparing the next Generation?
Superfluous Luxury Stalwart Whole Foods Consumer Indoctrination
South Park's Excellent Satire of Inappropriate Age Mixing with the "Raisins" episode.
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The neighbors to the North combination of the practical and sensual with unique dining options.
The Quebecois Sensual Poutine
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Part II, Section 2, Format 3- Alternative Sexualize Service Anomalies
At the Car Wash:
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Part II, Section 2, Format 1- Hedonic Hospitality Outlets; Casino Gaming Hospitality Bleed
"Bevertainers" at the Rio
Dancing Dealertainers at the Golden Gate
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Part II, Section 2, Format 2 - Live Entertainment; Burlesque
With the contemporary success of 1923 Bourbon and Burlesque, the former thrill of Ivan Kane’s Forty Deuce, and the capacity audiences cramming the House of Blues showroom for Dita Von Teese’s touring spectacle, the hospitality and tourism bellwether of Las Vegas, NV has demonstrated that urbane individuals, including a preponderance of enlightened, aesthetic appreciative women, seek an alternative, possibly stigma mitigating manifestation of risqué entertainment; a recreational endeavor that celebrates experiential authenticity.
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Part II, Section 2, Format 2 - Live Entertainment; Strip Joints and Integrated Gentlemen's Clubs
All though currency is supposed to be fungible, coherent arbitrariness constructs do not jibe with expenditure practices at gentlemen's clubs.
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Gentlemen's clubs, besides offering non-core activity amenities under roof (e.g., restaurants, retail, even swimming pool centered day clubs) also differentiate themselves by employing legitimate designers such as the Cabaret Design Group, which has a patent on the LED bar.
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A Little History Lesson About San Francisco, CA
While Joe Carouba's BSC Management is the current landlord of the North Beach area of San Francisco, the Condor has a storied history including two strip club premiers, topless (1964) and bottomless (1969) - both initiated by Miss Carol Doda. Yes, there is a plaque to mark the sea change in adult entertainment.
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Not taking a page from Joe Carouba's BSC Management concern, the Lusty Lady was not only employee owned but also unionized. The business model failed, it's offerings of live peep boths with bill validator activated, time controlled, mechanically receding dividers became awkwardly dated, and It was shuttered in 2013.
The last bastion of the independent gentlemen's club in San Francisco, which was formerly owned by fratricidal brothers
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Part II, Section 2, Format 3 - Participatory; Legal Brothels (in Nevada)
The Legal Brothel:
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Part II, Section 2, Format 3 - Participatory; Swingers and Alternative Lifestyle Clubs
2) Swingers and Lifestyle Clubs
Plato's Retreat
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Lifestyle (Fetishists)
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Danny the Wonder Pony - A holdover from Plato's Retreat to the Vault
Part II, Section 2, Format 3 - Participatory; Destination
Destination, Extended Duration:
Hedonism Resort (Negril, Jamaica)
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Disneyland is known as the "Happiest Place on Earth". Could this collateral piece from the early 1960s be seen as an homage?
Playboy Mansion
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(C) 2015. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Yarborough Planning, LLC its affiliates, or its employees. The information set forth herein has been obtained or derived from sources believed by the author to be reliable. However, the author does not make any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the information's accuracy or completeness.
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Author Bio: David Paster serves as the Principal of Yarborough Planning, LLC, an independent “libertarian hospitality” consulting concern, an active researcher at the university level, and is a member of the Association of Club Executives (ACE). He may be reached at [email protected] or (702) 813-5062.
Written by David Paster
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Jonathan Lee Harris 1st Gentlemen's Club Executive
Gentlemen'sVery, very interesting! Club Executive Besides well chosen content, you are a good writer as well. Thanks
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