I didn’t like the manager of Dollies Playhouse Howard at first. And not for Jade either who would later prove to be on kick A–stripper. But both of them would later play a prominent role in Life of an Exotic Entertainment Photographer. Which you can now buy for your Kindle or Smartphone. Or buy it either at the lulu bookstore or at amazon.com. But it’s best to check it out at Jack Corbett books first. To eliminate any confusion on which edition of the book is best for you.

Now that Dollies Playhouse Howard was really something. And so was Jade, but I wouldn’t find out just what a kick A– stripper Jade was until I’d get to know her a lot better.

As far as I assumed when I first met Big Howard, is that he was the Dollies strip club’s doorman and bouncer. He was big, and he looked as if he had come to life on the wrong side of the tracks. I’d learn later that he had been a starting lineman for the Collinsville, Illinois high school football team. Which got him a lot of fans. Many of them becoming his drinking partners later on at, Killian’s his favorite bar.

Dollies Playhouse Howard was missing a few teeth. And had a gruff voice that made him look the part of being an East Saint Louis hooligan.

But I was meeting Big Howard in a very bad neighborhood. Washington Park, Illinois is next to East Saint Louis, which used to be called Murder Capital U.S.A. It mostly consists of impoverished black neighborhoods. While hosting over half a dozen strip clubs. As for whatever municipal government Washington Park had, corruption doesn’t even begin to describe it.

When I first started coming to the Dollies Playhouse Strip Club back in 1995, Washington Park’s corruption had become a huge scandal. I had been going to Main Street, which was a great place as far as I was concerned. It was the best strip club on the Saint Louis East side as far as I was concerned. A beautiful bartender used to serve me drinks there. While my best friend met a stripper at Main Street and married her.

Back then Main Street’s owner, Thomas Venezia was THE MAN. Until his empire of strip clubs vending machines and other questionable businesses imploded. Over twenty-four men and women faced criminal charges including Washington Park mayor Sylvester Washington.

None of this was particularly horrifying to me at the time. But after Thomas Venezia shot his girlfriend before turning the gun on himself, I was totally mortified. Because the pretty bartender who had been serving me drinks, was the girlfriend Venezia had murdered.

And now, one of the Dollies Playhouse owners has disappeared. While Marriah has been telling me that the other owner, has murdered his missing partner. While my hangout of all hangouts is here at the Dollies strip club where the suspected murderer is providing me with my own table, internet connection and my first two drinks on the House.

So I think all of you can understand why Dollies Playhouse Howard might have made me a little suspicious at first. But it didn’t take long before Big Howard started hanging out at my table.

Because Howard was a lot like me. He loved his alcohol and he thoroughly enjoyed having a great time.

Dollies Playhouse Howard usually worked the club’s dayshift which ended at around 7 p.m. And then he would just keep hanging around in the club. Where he could drink beer and tequila with impunity. I soon found out that Big Howard was my type of guy.

The Dollies strippers liked Howard to the very core of his being. And who wouldn’t? Big Howard’s sense of humor totally off the scale.

And then Jade kept turning up. I couldn’t quite place her at first. Although Jade was obviously one of the club’s strippers, it oftentimes seemed that she’d show up when she wasn’t working her shift. By this time my table, my laptop, my digital camera and the club’s internet connection had become a magnet for a lot of the Dollies dancers. And for some of the customers as well.

This is because no one was bringing digital cameras into strip clubs back in 1996. I was taking pictures of the topless dancers, the club’s DJ’s and a couple of its managers back then. And no one had ever seen the likes of my digital camera. Or of our Lost Angels chatroom where everyone around me could converse with men and women all over the world.

And speaking of Jade, I swear up and down that Jade would oftentimes come into Dollies just to be with Big Howard and me.

Looking back at it all, I can truthfully say that most of the strippers who’d hang out with me had very high IQ’s. While they marched to the beat of a different drummer. A lot of the girls had never been on a computer before. While those who had, oftentimes became thoroughly addicted to them. It didn’t take long for Jade to start learning how to use my digital camera. How to manipulate our digital pictures and to copy them onto my laptop’s hard drive.

It didn’t take long for Jade to acquire her own computer and find a way to access the internet. I think she started out using America Online which started out giving away its internet access for free. But what separated Jade from so many of my stripper friends is her total fearlessness and willingness to be in the middle of a fight. Jade became the epidemy of what true friendship is all about.

I don’t know if this is true or not. But as I was first getting to know Jade she had been working at the C-Mowes strip club. Which had barred me for life because I had beaten up its bouncer.

Jade had once encountered Nipples in the strip club’s ladies room badmouthing me. And afterwards Jade would tell me she knocked the hell out of Nipples.

I will never know if Jade actually beat Nipples up or not. But I will say this. I have never met a group of people who could hold a candle to my stripper friends. I cannot remember a single one of them ever failing to pay me back. Not that I made a habit of lending strippers money. And sure, I found some of them to be unreliable. But out of all the girls I’d actually hang around with, I can’t count a single unreliable woman out of the entire lot. They would become my best of friends.

As would Dollies Playhouse Howard. Who you will be seeing a lot more of as I continue this blog. But you will soon be meeting another Howard. So do not confuse Dollies Playhouse Howard with lawyer Howard who would soon become a great companion of mine. To keep things simple I’ll try to keep calling Dollie Playhouse Howard, Big Howard.

To find out more about Dollies Playhouse Howard and several of the other main characters in Life of an Exotic Entertainment Photographer click here.

You will also learn more about the alphapro.com google search engine which I’ve found to be an essential tool for my web site. Alphapro has been here for twenty-five years and it’s enormous.