posted 02-02-2005 04:23 PM                    

quote: SOURCE

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Nude Juice Bar Survives Legal Challenges
DIRK LAMMERS
Associated Press

SALEM, S.D. - The mix of nude dancers, orange juice and black-and-white independent films wasn't in Bob Rieger's original business plan. But it has helped his Racehorses Gentlemen's Club survive amid the cornfields of McCook County and fend off a two-year barrage of challenges from politicians and outraged members of Citizens Against Nude Juicebars and Pornography.

"I've been to court with them four times, and I beat them every time," Rieger says.

When the county denied Rieger a liquor license for a bar, he opened a strip club with a juice bar in 2003. When it served a stop order saying a commercial business could not operate in area zoned for agriculture, Rieger went to court and won.

And when 74 percent of the county's voters passed an anti-nudity ordinance in June, Rieger found a loophole that exempted movie theaters. After a two-week hiatus, the club re-emerged as Racehorses Gentlemen's Club and Adult Movie Theatre and has been operating ever since.

Now the county is drawing up a new ordinance that would require his dancers to wear pasties and G-strings. And a state senator plans to push for a similar state law.

"At this point, it's harassment," Rieger says. "They're really picking on me."

McCook County State's Attorney Roger Gerlach says the proposed ordinance is not an attempt to put him out of business: "As long as they have some opaque clothing over the crucial parts of the human body, they can dance all they want."

In the meantime, customers continue paying $10 cover - actually called an all-day movie ticket - to watch strippers dance. Patrons can sit next to the stage or get a private dance in a small room off to the side. They can also grab a stool at the juice bar and order a $3 soft drink or a $4 juice or power drink.

When Rieger retooled his business as a movie theater, he said he would feature independent, artsy R-rated films. During a recent visit, though, hardcore fare was playing in the club's 17-seat theater.

The 15-member Citizens Against Nude Juicebars and Pornography has organized protests outside the club and filmed patrons in the parking lot to discourage them from entering. Salem hair salon owner Maxine Pulse, the group's co-founder, says she saw men drinking and urinating in the parking lot and dancers coming to the door nude.

"There's a line between right and wrong," Pulse says. "And it seems like anymore nowadays that line has got all jumbled up."

After Rieger seized on a loophole in the law that allows nudity in such places movie theaters, health clubs and college art classes, Pulse's group dropped its protests for fear of being hit with harassment charges.

Republican state Sen. Clarence Kooistra plans to take the fight to the next level and propose a state law that would Rieger's dancers to cover up.

"We do not want the Salem area and McCook County to be known as Sin City, South Dakota," he says.

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Why do I think Richard will be applying to this place next ?

CNN has just added this story the their site as well.

posted 02-04-2005 06:25 AM                    

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As long as they have some opaque clothing

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posted 02-04-2005 09:40 AM                       

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he presence of moving machinery in the booth & safety concerns should be the first consideration of what you wear there

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posted 02-04-2005 10:21 AM                    

quote: Jeffrey Korns

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Wasn't Pee Wee Herman the spokesperson for nudity in the theatre?

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Yeah, about this "incident"... I've always wondered, he was in a PORNO theater when they caught him! What did they expect to find him doing, planting daisies?? Second, it was probably dark in there, so the cops would have to shine a flashlight on him to "catch" him doing it. And third, what were two ON-DUTY cops doing at a porno theater when they weren't called there?!?

And the press had a field day with it. They hardly mentioned it was a porn theater and just said "a Theater in Florida" (so everyone would make the Disney-children-kid's show host connection) And poor Cowboy Curtis and Miss Yvonne lost their jobs at the Playhouse and Chairry and Conky were put into storage. THANKS a LOT, socially-conservative America!

=TMP=

posted 02-04-2005 01:21 PM                    

quote: Bruce Hansen

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Don't you just love people who think that they are so much better than everyone else that they have the right to run everyone elses life for them?

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Yeah, like the time all the churches in my neighborhood got together to picket an adult book store that opened up the road. It was so far out in the country and on a lonely stretch of road that its business would have suffered to the point of death if those assholes didn't call attention to it in the local media. After the story hit, everybody at my theatre wanted to know where it was so they could go buy shit from there. Business exploded and the church people looked like complete fools.