Alex of Dollies Playhouse, her poetry

Alex of Dollies Playhouse in Washington Park, IL. met Jack Corbett years ago at C-Mowes where she was stripping

Alex met Jack ironically as a critic of Death on the Wild Side then only a 200 page manuscript. In those old days, Jack was going out with Lori Mellon, a dancer who worked the day shift while Alex worked the night shift.

Now you've got to picture this one since out of more than 2500 strip clubs in the United States this has probably never happened before. Guy comes into a club--ends up going out with one of the girls-but often ends up staying at the club well into the night shift . He drinks with the girls. One of them is Alex. And tells her: "I'm writing a novel and I'm wondering if I'm on the right track or not," and she replies "I'll tell you what I think of it if you bring it in." The novel is destined to be published. It eventually balloons into a 800 page manuscript which winds up being cut back to 464 pages in it final paper back form. Alex takes the initial 200 page manuscript home, reads it, then meets Jack back at the club several days later where she critiques the manuscript. The soon to be published writer takes the dancer's suggestions to heart and makes the suggested changes to the manuscript.

For the next few years the author and Alex meet at C-Mowes from time to time or at Dollies which becomes the author's favorite drinking spot. For a few weeks Alex winds up working at Dollies--then quits-drives a truck for a few months and works at another club. Alex then returns to Dollies working the night shift. And by this time, Alex is online from her home. Jack gets online everywhere he finds himself and has established an Internet hub in the club itself.

Alex

Obviously there is much more to Alex than just a stripper with a pretty face. For Alex is a writer herself.

And Dollies is much more than a topless club. It is a culture. It is a Mecca for people to meet from all across the American continent.

There is a glue here that binds-----a glue that has never been encountered before. The glue that brings and keeps people together from all walks of life. Their meeting place-----often in the Lost Angels Forum-online. Often at Dollies where men and women get together amidst the clinking of shot glasses filled with tequila or surrounded by bottles of beer sharing together what life has to offer or taken away.

The glue, a magnet, drawing people together from all walks of life----the women from the dancing profession as Alex puts it so well, an elite of strippers. As the group gets larger one thing becomes more and more obvious. The magnet draws people of talent and those with a thirst for adventure who are willing to share both with the others. But no...it is more than that even. We are leaving that to be discovered and this one's on you.

Alex is a poet. Her life has taken many twists and turns...sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Unlike most who have encountered so much of life's experiences Alex is leaving something behind for others sharing with her-- life's journey or who come after.

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Alex's Poetry

Food for Thought
Alex
12/24/94

I saw an old couple at Burger King today

And they were holding hands,

I wanted ask out loud if they had been together all their lives

But watching them,

I knew they always had.

I felt an overwhelming sense of grief

Knowing that we'll never see the same

An overpowering sense of hate,

For the disease that gives you so much pain.