Mary's Club

Mary's Club

The club's entrance in 2014
Mary's Club
Location in Portland, Oregon
Address 129 Southwest Broadway[1]
Location Portland, Oregon, United States
Coordinates 45°31′22″N 122°40′40″W / 45.522804°N 122.67783°W / 45.522804; -122.67783Coordinates: 45°31′22″N 122°40′40″W / 45.522804°N 122.67783°W / 45.522804; -122.67783
Operator Mary Duerst Hemming (1930s–1954), Roy Keller (1954–2006), Vicki Keller (2006–present)
Website
www.marysclub.com

Mary's Club is the oldest strip club in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. In 1954, Roy Keller bought the business from Mary Duerst Hemming, who owned and operated Mary's as a piano bar beginning in the 1930s. Keller initially hired go-go dancers as entertainment during the piano player's breaks, then quickly hired them full-time due to their popularity. Topless dancers wearing pasties were introduced in 1955. The club also featured comics, musicians, singers and other acts. All-nude dancing began immediately following a judge's 1985 ruling against City of Portland ordinances that forbid it in places that served alcohol.

Former strippers include Courtney Love and Christine Jorgensen, though the club is known for featuring long-term dancers who are loyal to the family business. Since Keller's death in 2006, Mary's Club is owned and operated by his daughter Vicki. Mary's has become a Portland institution, having been included in several "best of" lists for strip clubs, and its neon sign is considered a landmark. The club has appeared in several films, including Bongwater (1997) and Brainsmasher... A Love Story (1993), and has been included in walking tours of the city.

History

Mary's Club, known as "Portland's first topless", is the oldest strip club in Portland, Oregon.[2][3] Roy Keller, who had been a foreman at a Portland shipyard,[1] bought the club in 1954 for around $25,000.[2][4][5] The former owner was Mary Duerst Hemming, who won the piano bar in a divorce settlement and operated the business "for more than 20 years" beginning in the 1930s.[2] The bar had been popular with sailors.[1][2] According to The Seattle Times, Keller initially hired go-go dancers to keep the crowd entertained during the piano player's breaks.[6] Due to their popularity, Keller laid off the musician and employed the dancers full-time.[6] He introduced "pasties-clad topless dancers" in 1955.[1] In that same year, two city council members advised Keller against installing pinball machines at the club.[4] Portland then had an anti-pinball ordinance that was being contested in court.[7] A Mary's Club team played in the Multnomah League of the Portland Basketball Association during the 1955–56 season. Teams included Interstate Hauling, Kent's Keg, Il Trovatore, Frolic Inn, Portland Air Base, and several others.[8]

Signage in 2014

Singers, comics, and piano players performed at the club. A newspaper advertisement in 1958 announced the opening act of Tiny Watson, "200 pounds of mirth and merriment", comparing her to Sophie Tucker.[9] Closing at the club was George James, "king of the keyboards".[9] In 1965, an Oregonian article focused partly on a topless dancer, Bambi Darling, performing at Mary's Club. She was said to excel in discothèque, "shaking and undulating" to the Mashed Potato, the Monkey, the Shotgun, and other dances popular at the time. Keller, said to resemble "a church deacon", praised his dancers and described his customer base as "more refined" than in the club's pre-1954 era.[10] By March 1966, Darling's "16 torrid acts" shared the billing with reptile wrestler Bobby Vale and with Gigi La France, promoted as the club's answer to James Bond.[11] Tom Waits reputedly sang about the club in the song "Pasties and a G-String", from his album Small Change (1976).[12] In 2012, one author wrote that the club featured "tattooed contortionist entertainers".[13]

All-nude dancing at the club began in 1985 after a judge ruled against City of Portland ordinances forbidding it in places that served alcohol. A lawsuit over pasties and G-strings arose after Portland annexed land formerly regulated by Multnomah County, which allowed tavern dancers to perform without clothing. A tavern forced by annexation to eliminate its nude dancing sued the City and won. "As soon as we got the word [about the ruling], we went nude," said a Mary's Club employee quoted in a news story in The Oregonian.[14]

Courtney Love (pictured in 1995) used to perform at the club.

Courtney Love, whose signed picture hangs on the wall of the club, was among past strippers at the venue, according to Willamette Week.[12] Love wrote on the photograph that she "bought my very first guitar here showing my teeny little titties".[12] Christine Jorgensen was also once featured at the club.[1] However, dancers at the club have tended to be long-term employees, loyal to the family-run business.[1] Keller died in 2006, aged 90; the club is now run by his daughter, Vicki Keller, who has recalled that she first worked for the business at age seven, serving as a waitress.[6][15] Vicki had managed the business for the twenty-five years prior to her father's death; her daughters also worked at the club during that period.[1]

According to a 2013 profile by Portland Monthly, the club includes a full cocktail bar, more than two dozen varieties of beer and wine, and a menu with mostly Mexican cuisine. Mary's has a one-drink minimum and a $2 cover charge on Friday and Saturday evenings.[16]

Murals and marquee

Between 1956 and 1958, Keller hired La Monte Montyne to paint murals throughout the club's interior. The fluorescent murals depict scenes that Roy thought patrons would appreciate.[2] Several of them feature women in exotic locales, such as the Orient and the Pyramids. One depicts an "island beauty" watching sailors load bananas into a ship, and another shows merchant seaman working in front of a ship docked in a "Portland-like" harbor.[2] The mural with pyramids depicts a lounging Cleopatra-esque woman, while another features an "exotic priestess" performing a sacrifice and a volcano. According to Mary's, the murals receive "almost as much attention as the girls do!"[2] Mary's "retro" neon marquee has been called a "landmark for locals and tourists alike".[17] In 2014, one Willamette Week contributor said of the signage: "The marquee, blue and star-spangled and coyly advertising an evening of 'Dine and Dance,' is as iconic as the neon on the 'Made in Oregon' sign and the line outside Voodoo".[18] Its cocktail waitress logo is featured on clothing. The marquee also includes an epitaph to Keller.[17]

Reception

Mary's Club in May 2014

Mary's Club has been called a "downtown institution"[3][15] and a "Portland nightlife landmark".[19] In 2001, The Portland Mercury said Mary's was "a must-visit for any true strip club connoisseur" for offering both "friendliness and sexiness".[20] One reporter found the interior to be "cozy", with conversational dancers who seemingly enjoyed interacting with guests.[20] Following Keller's death, Willamette Week said the club "has cemented its place in history far beyond the city limits", both for once featuring Love and Jorgensen, and for offering nudity to a loyal customer base.[1] The newspaper's Mary Christmas wrote that Keller had achieved status of "regional celebrity" and could be credited for starting a local industry.[1] In 2011, one contributor to Portland State University's student newspaper, the Daily Vanguard, included Mary's in his list of the city's top five strip clubs, writing: "if you visit only one dance club in this town it should probably be Mary’s. The inside is stuffy and sleazy, but embodies that red-light district feel that fits right in with rowdy environment."[19] In the same year, Willamette Week described the club as "the undisputed grande dame of West Coast strips" and "a stubbornly degenerate landmark".[12] The publication's Matthew Korfhage quipped that entertainment came in the form of "Girls/ladies, friendly also brassy, oddly classy, with sterling taste on the juke, who let you see all of their piercings and tattoos. Also, video poker."[12] In 2013, Portland Monthly named the club an "editor's pick" for its dancers and all-female staff, and for having a "welcoming and relaxed" environment.[16] Thrillist.com included Mary's in its "definitive guide" to Portland's best strip clubs.[21] The website complimented its "glorious flashing sign that welcomes you to Downtown" and called the club "a part of Portland's past we should all cherish".[21] Men's Fitness included Mary's in its list of the "Top 10 Best Strip Clubs in America", calling it a "neon landmark" with blacklight murals and a "relaxed, hole-in-the-wall vibe".[22]

Thomas Lauderdale, known for his work with the Portland-based band Pink Martini, has shared his affinity for the club and considers it one of his favorite places in the city.[15] Portland Monthly published a video of Lauderdale giving a tour of the club. Lauderdale interviews Vicki Keller and shows the interior murals.[15] He wears a Pink Martini bomber-style jacket inspired by one sold by the business in the 1950s.[3] Films that include scenes shot at Mary's include Bongwater (1997), Brainsmasher... A Love Story (1993) and Dangerous Pursuit (1990).[2][15] Mary's has also been included in walking tours of Portland, including one by Lonely Planet called "Underground Portland".[23] In 2013, the club was the last stop on the "Seedy, Seamy and Sinful Portland" history tour, which takes adult visitors to sites in Old Town to examine the city's "darker elements".[24] Led by a historian, the tour otherwise includes saloons, opium dens, gambling halls, and bordellos that operated in Portland in the past.[25] This was repeated in the same historian's 2014 tour called "Shanghaiers, Saloons and Skullduggery: A Walking Tour of Portland’s Sinful Past".[26]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Christmas, Mary (July 19, 2006). "Pole Bearers: The Family Behind Mary's Club Says Goodbye to Its Patriarch". Willamette Week (Portland, Oregon). Retrieved February 9, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "History". Mary's Club. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 Austin, Tom (August 2007). "Portland, Oregon’s Indie Scene". Travel + Leisure (New York City, New York). ISSN 0041-2007. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  4. 1 2 "Council Duo Anti-Games". The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon). July 15, 1955. p. 31.
  5. ↑ "Mary Duerst Hemming". The Oregonian (obituary) (Portland, Oregon). October 28, 1992. p. E10.
  6. 1 2 3 Brunner, Jim (November 2, 2006). "When It Comes to Strip Clubs, Portland Has Nothing to Hide". The Seattle Times (Seattle, Washington: The Seattle Times Company). ISSN 0745-9696. OCLC 9198928. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Pinball Keeps Status Quo Until Trial Settles Case". The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon). July 15, 1955. p. 1.
  8. ↑ "PBA Results". The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon). February 9, 1956. p. 18.
  9. 1 2 Larson, Herb (May 10, 1958). "Grand Larsony". The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon). p. 7.
  10. ↑ Tugman, Peter (August 9, 1965). "Bare-Bosomed Beauties Boost Business in 2 Portland Bistros". The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon). p. 17.
  11. ↑ "Mary's Club". The Oregonian (paid advertisement) (Portland, Oregon). March 4, 1966. p. 29.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Korfhage, Matthew (January 25, 2011). "Drink 2011: Mary's Club". Willamette Week (Portland, Oregon). Retrieved February 9, 2014.
  13. ↑ Hanna, Judith Lynne (May 1, 2012). Naked Truth: Strip Clubs, Democracy, and a Christian Right. University of Texas Press. p. 189. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  14. ↑ Read, Richard (June 27, 1985). "Dancers at Taverns 'Bare Up' Well After Laws Stripped Away by Judge". The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon). p. 54.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 "Thomas Lauderdale Tours Portland". Portland Monthly. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  16. 1 2 "Mary's Club". Portland Monthly (Portland, Oregon). January 28, 2013.
  17. 1 2 Pine, Adam; Kuhlke, Olaf (December 24, 2013). Geographies of Dance: Body, Movement, and Corporeal Negotiations. Lexington Books. p. 31. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
  18. ↑ Singer, Matthew (March 12, 2014). "Strip Club Guide 2014: Our Favorite Clubs from A to Z". Willamette Week. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
  19. 1 2 Fong, Kevin (March 11, 2011). "Top Five Strip Clubs". Daily Vanguard (Portland, Oregon). Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  20. 1 2 Sanders, Justin (July 12, 2001). "Mary's Club: Theater Review". The Portland Mercury (Index Newspapers). Retrieved February 9, 2014.
  21. 1 2 Tyson, Drew (November 6, 2013). "The Definitive Guide to PDX's Best Strip Clubs". Thrillist Media Group. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  22. ↑ Gould, Joe. "The 10 Best Strip Clubs in America". Men's Fitness (American Media): 3. ISSN 0893-4460. Retrieved March 15, 2014.
  23. ↑ Palmerlee, Danny; Bodry, Catherine; Krause, Mariella; Lee, John; Mayhew, Bradley (September 1, 2010). Lonely Planet Pacific Northwest Trips. Lonely Planet. p. 187. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  24. ↑ Hottman, Sara (August 14, 2013). "Know Your City Tours Setting Up Kiosk in Ankeny Alley". The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon: Oregon Live LLC). Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  25. ↑ Turnquist, Kristi (July 5, 2013). "The Hot List: 'Music on Main Street,' 'Sinful' Portland tour, 'Portlandia' on Video". The Oregonian (Oregon Live, LLC). Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  26. ↑ "Alumni in the News: Dive into Portland’s Seedy History on the Shanghaiers, Saloons and Skullduggery: A Walking Tour of Portland’s Sinful Past | Historian Doug Kenck-Crispin of Kick A** Oregon History". Portland, Oregon: Portland State University. January 15, 2014. Retrieved February 22, 2014.

External links

External images
Gallery: "Viva Las Vegas at Mary's Club" (Beth Nakamura, The Oregonian)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mary's Club.
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