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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. Roy Keller, who had been a foreman at a Portland shipyard, bought the club in 1954 for around $25,000.〔 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.〔 The bar had been popular with sailors.〔〔 According to ''The Seattle Times'', Keller initially hired go-go dancers to keep the crowd entertained during the piano player's breaks. Due to their popularity, Keller laid off the musician and employed the dancers full-time.〔 He introduced "pasties-clad topless dancers" in 1955.〔 In that same year, two city council members advised Keller against installing pinball machines at the club.〔 Portland then had an anti-pinball ordinance that was being contested in court. 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. 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. Closing at the club was George James, "king of the keyboards".〔 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. 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. Tom Waits reputedly sang about the club in the song "Pasties and a G-String", from his album ''Small Change'' (1976). In 2012, one author wrote that the club featured "tattooed contortionist entertainers". 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 (the ruling ), we went nude," said a Mary's Club employee quoted in a news story in ''The Oregonian''. Courtney Love, whose signed picture hangs on the wall of the club, was among past strippers at the venue, according to ''Willamette Week''.〔 Love wrote on the photograph that she "bought my very first guitar here showing my teeny little titties".〔 Christine Jorgensen was also once featured at the club.〔 However, dancers at the club have tended to be long-term employees, loyal to the family-run business.〔 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.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://vimeo.com/13585927 )〕 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.〔 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mary's Club」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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