Washington Park Chameleon Club didn’t have a liquor license and had its bar girls providing sex for its customers. It was wonderful.

Young Howard, a young lawyer friend of mine from the Missouri side of the Mississippi and I used to meet at the Washington Park Chameleon. And Howard and I would oftentimes have toasts, to each other, the girls and the bar.

“I love Fucking Whorehouses, Howard would shout out for everyone to hear.”

And I’d reply, “I love this whorehouse. Best bar in town.”

I suppose the Washington Park Chameleon Club was the real deal. A whorehouse. But I loved the place and never paid one of the Chameleon girls a dime.

Athough I sure bought of them drinks. Expecially my favorites. I went out with a lot of the girls as soon as the place closed.

The way it all worked is Tommy had a back room area behind the bar that had its own jacuzzi room and a small bedroom next to it. If a customer wanted to take one of the girls into the back, he had to pay the “club” a twenty dollar towel fee. So if the police ever came into the bar, Tommy would tell them, “I don’t know what they are doing back there. I only get paid twenty-five bucks per towel.

As far as I know Tommy never made a dime whenever one of his girls did a trick other than the towel fee. While he avoided having to have a liquor license because he called the Washington Park Chameleon a private club.

Tommy oftentimes asked me to drive up highway 111 two miles to a Clark Station where I’d buy several cases of beer for him. Of course Tommy always paid me back. And gave me a lot of free beer in return for my services. So when the police came in to ask him about all the beer Tommy was keeping, Tommy would tell them, “Oh that beer belongs to Frank or Sam or Fred. I’m just keeping it cold for them.” Then Tommy would show the police a mug or two, telling them, “this one’s Fred’s special glass and this one belongs to Sam. They are members of my private club.”

I know all of you are going to ask, “How did Tommy make any money selling his beer so cheap when all he gets is two dollars a can and a few measley twenty-five dollar towel fees?

For one thing Tommy charged each girl working for him a fifty dollars tipout fee each time she worked her shift. But that’s a long time ago so I don’t really remember what he was charging back then. Tommy also owned and operated a towing company right down the street from Chameleon. It certainly helped that Tommy’s wife was working for the Washington Park Police. Because each time anyone was pulled over for drunken driving or had a car that needed a tow, Tommy would gladly tow the vehicle to his tow yard.

Then there were the fines. If for any reason a girl was late for her shift or couldn’t make it, Tommy would collect a $100.00 fine. Tommy had two phone lines, one for his towing service, the other for his personal use. But Tommy made sure that he never gave out his personal number to any of his girls. So if a girl couldn’t get to the bar on time. Or even taking one of her children to the hospital, Tommy could always tell the girl, “You never called me to tell me your excuse.

Yeah, a know a lot of you people reading this post are thinking that Tommy was a despicable degenerate. But I really liked the guy and always will.

It didn’t take me long to start doing a web site for the Washington Park Chameleon Club. Being the only man using digital cameras in the Saint Louis Metro East clubs I was always buying the latest and greatest digital cameras. Tommy would oftentimes buy a digital camera I had outgrown or a printer from me.

I also got a lot of free beer at the Washington Park Chameleon. Especially on those nights Tommy had his wife managing the bar for him. Tommy’s wife was always out for a good time And the Chameleon girls loved her to death. While Tommy never drank much while he was running the bar, his wife was a complete lush. And not half as strict as her husband. It got to be almost embarrassing for me because Tommy’s wife would oftentimes buy me six or eight beers.

While Tommy in his own way was the opposite of a comic book superhero character. Such as the Joker in Batman, played by Jack Nicholson.

The joker of course is the incarnation of pure evil. But Jack Nicholson’s hilarious playing the Joker. Tommy was a lot like Jack Nicholson playing the joker. Reveling in his ability to play off the villain.

The Washington Park Chameleon was a private club. And I don’t care what anyone else has to say about it. No one got into the Chameleon without Tommy’s say so. And Tommy either liked you or he didn’t. He kept the front entrance door locked while he sat at the very front of the bar evaluating whether he’d let someone in or not. He kept a .357 magnum revolver near him out of sight. And a sawed off Louisville slugger baseball bat near his right hand.

I can’t forget one night Tommy was bragging to me how he beat the holy hell out of a man with his baseball bat.

One night a young guy who had been beating up his dancer girlfriend came into the bar and started to get physical with his girlfriend. Tommy walloped the guy with his baseball bat a few times and threw him out of the bar. But when the man damaged his door frame on his way out, Tommy called the police and had him thrown in jail. Being the good samaritan that he was Tommy paid the man’s bail. But only after the man paid him far more than the door frame was worth.

I will never forget two nights in which the Washington Chameleon got involved with the police.

I was on my way home one night from the Dollies Playhouse strip club when an Illinois State trooper stopped me and gave me two tickets. One for failure to show proof of insurance. The other for not wearing a seat belt. With Chameon just two blocks away I paid Tommy a little visit. When I showed Tommy my two police citations, Tommy took them from me and went out into his parking lot without saying a word. Five minutes later he came back and handed me the two tickets the police officer had confiscated from me.

On another night the police raided the Washington Park Chameleon Club. I was inside having a few beers with one of the girls when four policemen entered the bar. Tommy jumped up from his barstool and greeted the police officers as if they were his best friends in the world. The police officers never got twenty feet past the Chameleon’s front door. As Tommy exchanged some friendly gossip with the police, I kept thinking about the girl who had just gone into the back room area to do a trick with a customer.

But the best part about the Chameleon was Angel. Although she was by far the prettiest girl in the Washington Park Chameleon club, she never allowed me to ever take pictures of her. Angel would soon become one of my best friends.

Related Links you might enjoy visiting

Jack Corbett In the Hot Tub at the Chameleon Adult Club

The Night the Police raided the Chameleon Club

Jack Corbett’s wild times at the strip clubs in Washington Park

Angie, my photographer for the Chameleon hot tub photo shoots with Krystal

To learn more about that motivates a lot of dancers such as Krystal and Angie and why they do what they do I recommend reading my latest book, Life of an Exotic Entertainment Photographer

For those who want to know more about the Washington Park Chameleon, its unforgetable owner, Tommy, the clubs in the Saint Louis Metro East I recommend that you read Scott Eden’s “Fantasies Made Fresh (Note….Especially those who want a mofe in depth view of Tommy’s character and appearance read the second half of Scott’s ground breaking article.)