
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990                   TAG: 9003222630
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: GALAX                                 LENGTH: Medium

MALE SHOW RESULTS IN $100 FINE GALAX RESTAURANT MANAGER TO APPEAL

Vickie Bartlett told a judge Wednesday that the only complaint she got from women attending a male dancers show at the Winchester Restaurant Jan. 20 was that the men did not bare enough.

The performers stripped down to their briefs, and Bartlett, the restaurant's general manager at the time, said two women demanded their money back because "they didn't take enough off."

But there was one other complaint, from a state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board officer who charged Bartlett with allowing a striptease act, near-nudity and lewd conduct on the premises of an establishment licensed to serve mixed drinks.

General District Judge George B. Cooley ruled out the lewd conduct - "I admit I don't particularly like it but I've seen worse on TV than is demonstrated here," he said - but convicted Bartlett on the other two charges and fined her $50 on each misdemeanor.

Defense attorney Joe J. Steffen said immediately that the convictions would be appealed.

ABC Officer R.J. Love said he had received a call from Galax Police Chief Ray Melton two days before the Peter Adonis Traveling Male Dancers Show, billed in advertising leaflets as "Ladies' Night Out," was to perform at the restaurant.

Alice Ratliff, an ABC special agent based in Roanoke, paid $10 and was among the estimated 350 women customers who came to watch the five costumed male dancers.

"They each performed a striptease act. . . . They stripped down to what I would call an abbreviated bikini," she said. "It wasn't a full brief but it wasn't a G-string."

After stripping on stage, she said, they came down among the female patrons, kissed some and straddled others while making sexually suggestive gyrations. "They would dance in front of the female patrons and generally the patrons would place a dollar bill in their briefs," she said.

One of the announcers would make lewd jokes, she said.

Ratliff said the ages of the customers ranged from 18 to an 82-year-old woman whose birthday was announced during the two-hour show.

Bartlett, who now is an overseer at the restaurant, was allowed to remain free with no bond.

by CNB