Nudity arguments go back 23 years

BANGOR – In 1981, then-City Councilor Barbara McKernan wondered aloud whether the councilors were a bunch of “nervous Nellies” as they tackled the growing and controversial issue of nudity in bars.

More than 20 years later, city councilors are still wrestling with the issue of strip clubs in Bangor. The makeup of the council has changed, but today’s arguments are almost identical to those made 23 years ago.

Since that time, Bangor leaders have remained steadfast on their apparent resolve to keep sexual-oriented businesses off the city’s doorstep, despite some creative and controversial attempts by young entrepreneurs.

In 1981, exotic dancers helped beef up slow midweek sales at the Paramount Hotel’s lounge and at Domino’s, a nightclub under the Chamberlain Bridge.

The Show Ring in Brewer found a hit with occasional seminude male dance shows from Boston, but the real craze occurred on Wednesday nights at the Bounty Tavern in Bangor, where overflowing crowds forced club managers to close the doors nearly two hours before its weekly “wet T-shirt” contest began.

Around the same time, about 500 women went to see “Stevie Hot Rocks and the All Male Revue” at the Bounty Tavern one July evening and about 300 more women were left stranded in the parking lot, unable to get into the crowded club.

By October 1981, some Bangor councilors were arguing that liquor and nudity could cause problems in the city.

“We haven’t had any bad problems in Bangor,” said then-Councilor Don Soucy. “We are talking about what can happen.”

McKernan argued that there were better ways than a constitutional ban on nudity in bars to control what went on inside the establishments, and then-Councilor Claire Porter said the ban would be nothing other than censorship.

Council Chairman Paul Zendzian stepped down from the podium that night to speak against the ban, dismissing arguments that forbidding nudity would stem crimes such as prostitution, drug sales and muggings. Those crimes could be tied to alcohol consumption at any lounge, he said.

In the end, the final vote on banning nude shows in licensed liquor lounges was passed by that council with Arthur Brountas, Soucy, Albert Weymouth, now-Gov. John Baldacci and John Gass in favor and Zendzian, McKernan and Porter opposed.

Changing times and stricter ordinances kept things relatively quiet on that particular business front for several years until the mid-1990s when city residents began to learn about a few new businesses called “relaxation spas” that opened quietly around downtown.

They popped up on Harlow Street and Columbia Street, nestled between law offices and across from city hall. Their windows were decorated with palm trees and it was difficult to tell if they were travel agencies or beauty salons. That was until the owner of one such business on Exchange Street decided to privately videotape treatments that his clients were receiving by his female employees.

He was charged with violation of privacy and made his way into a pile of police reports and a reporter’s notebook. The doors to those unassuming storefronts were opened up and the terms “hand-release” and “genital massage” became buzz words among the Bangor populace.

But while many city residents and officials were in an uproar about Bangor’s newest entrepreneurs, they quickly discovered there was nothing illegal about the businesses.

The “hand-release” treatments fell into a legal loophole in the state’s prostitution law, which banned mouth-to-genital or genital-to-genital contact only.

In 1995, then-Councilor Timothy Woodcock proposed an ordinance banning that kind of activity, saying that genital massage parlors had a “corrosive effect on the value structure of the city.”

Unlike the 1981 nudity ban ordinance, which seemed to draw little outside debate before it was passed, dozens of people on both sides of the issue packed council chambers during the numerous nights the “hand-release” ban was debated.

Owners said their businesses kept their female workers off welfare and brought men from Massachusetts and Canada to the downtown area.

In the end, the council voted unanimously to ban paid sexual contact in Bangor. Later the Maine Legislature would change the prostitution statute to outlaw the practice statewide.

But on the tail of the City Council vote, exotic dancing returned to the downtown in a little place called Diva’s. The club pushed the city ordinances to the limit and in 1998 the council unanimously approved another ban that effectively tightened up the 1981 no-nudity-in-bars rule by adding zoning requirements for such businesses.

Amid City Council meetings and lawsuits, Diva’s at first opted for nudity with no alcohol. When owner Diane Cormier discovered the council had prohibited, through zoning, full nudity at her downtown location, she opted to put the girls in bikinis and to start serving alcohol.

With few to no problems reported at the State Street business, everything seemed quiet until Platinum Plus rolled into town with plans to turn one of the city’s most beloved and historical restaurants into a strip club. Pilots Grill, a sprawling restaurant on Outer-Hammond Street, has been empty and for sale since its popular owner Bill Zoidis decided to retire at the end of 2002.

Zoidis, an extremely well-liked and well-connected man, testified in favor of Platinum Plus before the city council last week. In a 5-4 vote, the 1981 nudity ban was overturned.

It seemed that the city’s new council had other ideas, and that for the first time in 23 years, Bangor civic leaders were paving the way for a large strip club to move into town.

Well, of course the rest is history. Thousands of phone calls and e-mails and threats of petition drives and downtown rallies and two days later the City Council had a change of heart.

Bill Zoidis got back on a plane to Florida and the owners of Platinum Plus have gone home. It’s still bikinis or bust for Bangor.