Club 64 Strip Club
Best Owners of the Year You will be
astonished at the ambience and glamorous surroundings
inside the Club 64 strip club.
Jack Corbett
The Looking Glass
Magazine selection of Club 64's, Frank and Sherry Marsala, as strip club
best owners of the year has to come as a surprise to many people. Why not
Score’s out of New York, or Spearmint Rhino out of Las Vegas or some
other very large, well financed and widely known club? Well, for one
thing Score’s of New York charges more than $10.00 for a beer and we
think that customers are treated too much like a number at Spearmint
Rhino or for that matter at any other Vegas Club that we have been to.
But in Club 64 in East St. Louis you will never get lost in the shuffle
while bottled beer normally goes for $3.00 with dollar a bottle beer
specials every Tuesday night. But the overall friendliness you will find
here along with the very affordable drink prices are just the tip of the
iceberg. You can also have just about more fun here than you can have
practically anywhere else. And this is by design. It is because of the
owners and what they have done with this place that makes it a Mecca for
having as much fun as possible at affordable prices while being
surrounded by luscious, delectable babes. Life just doesn’t get any
better than that.
Okay, by now I probably have a few pissed off strip club owners upset at
me either because they did not win or because they don’t think that
Frank and Sherry Marsala deserve the Alphapro-Looking Glass Club Owner
of the Year trophy. So calm yourselves, grab yourself a beer, stuff
yourselves in your lazy boys and pay close attention to why we singled
Frank and Sherry out for being club owners of the year. To sum it up,
these are the reasons: 1. Hard work and dedication, 2. A philosophy that
puts them light years ahead of their peers, 3. A forte for constant
innovation, and 4. A relentless pursuit of excellence. Let me explain.
1.
Hard work and dedication
First off, any club
owner who is unwilling to spend lots of hours tending “the store” is
doomed to ultimately fail. When Frank was general manager at the
Platinum Club, a position he held for nine years, he was nearly always
at the club, working hard until the bitter end. And I do say bitter
because the Platinum Club closed between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. I often sat
with Frank in his office as he peered deeply into a monitor so that he
could keep track of everything that was happening in his club. In a
fraction of a second Frank could go from putting the dressing room, to
the parking lot to the bar downstairs, to the bar upstairs, the
VIP room’s private area, and so on onto that monitor. He would then use
a mouse to zoom in on whatever he wanted to see. But even the most state
of the art equipment available isn’t going to cut it if the operator
isn’t doing his part. But Frank was relentless and still is. He was constantly on
that monitoring system so that he could stay on top of whatever was
going on at the Platinum club. But Frank wasn’t at the club in the
afternoons. That job was his wife’s as Sherry was the daytime manager at
the Platinum Club.
The Marsala’s have brought this same hard work ethic to Club 64, only
this time, they are the club owners.
2. A
Winning Philosophy
Several years ago, I
wrote an article for both "Exotic Dancer’s Bulletin" and "Xtreme Magazine"
about Deja Vu’s chances of emerging triumphant in the very competitive
St. Louis Metro East Night Club market. From what I had seen of the Deja
Vu Clubs I had visited, entertainers rarely spent much time with any
individual customer. Their shifts were kept in a constant state of
ferment for one thing. Girls would be constantly called away from their
customers on some pretext or another that had been planned by
management. One of them was what is oftentimes called “Showtime” when
all dancers had to go up on the stage after which they would fan out
throughout the room giving short low cost lap dances to the men in the
crowd. But it wasn’t just show time. It was all sorts of mickey mouse
gimmicks that required all dancers to get up and leave the
customers they were with.
Compounding this were the quotas. Girls were required to sell so many
drinks, do so many privates and so on. Because of these quotas imposed
by management, it became a numbers game with the girls who felt
tremendous pressure to approach as many men as possible throughout the
evening. The problem is that most men who go to strip clubs do not like
being treated as just a number. Particularly the older men who have
money and who are willing to spend that money on dancers who make them
feel good.
While doing the article I interviewed the General Manager of the Washington Park Deja
Vu Club, Mike Oscello the General Manager of the PT’s chain, and Frank Marcella. Each
general manager had a different philosophy, and not one of them I’d say
was bad, but it was Frank’s philosophy that differed so radically from
the philosophies of the other two men. Whereas Deja Vu’s management
discouraged dancers from sticking with one man for very long, Frank
encouraged it, telling me, “I tell the girls to take their time with the
customers. As long a time as it takes. Guys who come to a club such as
Platinum Club will often have money and these kinds of guys are not
going to put up with girls who are not going to seem genuinely
interested in them."
One could call Frank a bullshitter, but upon leaving the club after
interviewing him, I asked Sherry how she felt about it. Funny thing is,
she expressed the same philosophy almost word for word as Frank’s.
Husband and wife did not have the time to get their stories straight so I
could only conclude that both Frank and Sherry Marsala were fully
committed towards making good on what they had just told me.
The second component of the Marsala philosophy came out when Frank was
still GM over at the Platinum Club. At that time all the PT’s clubs,
Deja Vu, and Crystal Palace all being the upper echelon clubs in the
area were charging $5.25 for beer. Even the lower echelon clubs were
charging at least $4.00 for beer.
Frank told me: “I keep trying to get my boss to lower his drink prices.
They should be around three bucks. Who in his right mind is going to
keep wanting to pay $5.25 for a single bottle of beer? I wouldn’t. If I
ever wind up owning a club, that’s the first thing I’m going to do. I’m
lowering my drink prices. Period."
And he did. Because as soon as Frank and Sherry opened Club 64 they
started offering bottled beer at $3.00. And now there’s the dollar
bottle specials on Tuesdays, and I’d swear they were selling $1.00
bottled beer on at least one other night as well. At least once.
Kiara
visiting from The Lumberyard of Des Moines, IA with Smoky.
3. Constant Innovation
Let’s start with
those huge 48 inch by 36 inch pictures I shot for Frank and Sherry they
have hanging on the walls of their club that can be seen from well over
300 yards out by car traffic coming up route 3. The pictures are backlit and
cost $160.00 for a single print. Originally I shot ten girls. So the Marsala’s didn’t even blink an eye about spending $1600.
But it was Sherry who expressed to me just how sharp the Marsalas are:
“It is something special we are doing for the girls so they can get some
recognition and to know that we do care,” said Sherry.
To my knowledge not one other club in the entire St. Louis Metro East
ever did anything like this. I've also noticed uncommon
loyalty to Frank and Sherry by many of the club's dancers. Such
loyalty is not by chance. It is inspired by the owners.
Then there’s that pretty room just off the back of the club. The room is
long and narrow. There are upholstered couches in it and tables. Dimly
lit inside, this narrow room is reminiscent of a forgotten era, from years
in the past, hardly ever to be revisited. Unless you take a trip
out to Club 64.
But guess what? That pretty little room started out not long ago as a
trailer off a semi truck. Yep, you heard that right, a trailer–one of
those things truckers haul all their cargo in. Frank and Sherry had
bought it along with a few others they are using for other things for
just $400.00.
I remember the first days when Club 64 got its start under the
Marcella’s as Mustang Sallys. It had been just a roadhouse karaoke club
called Magoos. But it had great location being just a half mile off
interstate highways 55, 70 and 64. It has and still has an East St.
Louis address. For one thing East St. Louis has a widely known
reputation for crime. And to those acquainted with this particular area
of East St. Louis, the area immediately surrounding Magoos was very
unsavory indeed.
I’m sure it didn’t cost Frank and Sherry an arm and a leg to buy the
place. The pair started having karaoke. And then they tried a few other
things including a swinger's club. Meanwhile Frank started on his addition, which was to start out
as a large backroom for the main bar. Frank did most of the work
himself, and spent a lot of time doing it.
And knowing Frank, I’m sure he enlisted the help of a few of his friends
volunteering their labor for free or at least at low cost.
I’m willing to bet that Frank and Sherry’s cost for building the new
addition was just a fraction of what most clubs are willing to spend,
but what they ended up with was stupendous. They put in a bar, one of
those bars that has plenty of atmosphere like you will sometimes see in
the movies. They put a stage back there. Then came the winding staircase
and the fireplace. Let me tell you, the place has atmosphere such as no
other club in the area has.
Frank and Sherry are the club’s owners. Period. Now that period amounts
to one helluva lot, so let me explain. I once brought in a tiger into
the club, with Frank and Sherry’s permission of course. It was a white
tiger. A cub weighing just thirty pounds. And we had that white tiger
club running around loose throughout the entire backroom area. Kloey
Love was featuring at Club 64 that night and Kloey just loved that
tiger. Couldn’t get enough of it. So did all the other entertainers. And
so did Sherry Marcella along with all the club’s customers.
Now just try going to a large club chain and tell the powers that be
there that you want to bring a tiger into their club. They are going to
wind up telling you no. And the reason is going to be “Fear of
lawsuits”, a fear that is entirely justified by the way. Seriously, who
in their right mind is going to allow a tiger in their club?
But Big Daddy did when he was owner of Big Daddys in Missouri and so did
Frank and Sherry. This is because all three surmised that although a
large tiger is potentially very dangerous a thirty pound tiger is likely
to pose minimum risk. Moreover, they could be there to judge for
themselves if things were under control or likely to get out of hand.
The upside to all of this is that tigers are fun. If you don’t believe
me, just try playing with one. So if people see a tiger in a club and
they get the chance to get up close and personal with it, they are going
to tell all their friends: “Guess where I was last night? Club 64 and
they let a tiger in there. Too cool man. Great place. Let’s all go there
sometime.”
My point here is that
with a relatively small club such as Club 64 where there is just a
single owner, the buck stops with that owner (Frank and Sherry).
They can turn on a dime to meet new conditions and situations without
having to go to a board of directors or an absentee owner who doesn't
always agree with them. This ability to turn on a dime illustrated
here by their ability to instantly approve a tiger being on their
premises gives smaller clubs such as Club 64 unprecedented
opportunities to push the creative envelope as far as they dare.
And when it comes to daring, the other clubs in the area cannot come
close to the Marsalas.
4. The
Relentless Pursuit of Excellence
I have seen Frank
actually get out a tape measure at 3:00 a.m. so that he could take
measurements in his club to see if he could move a state to a new
location. I’ve seen the man constantly observe his place in the late
hours and I could almost see the wheels turning as he thought about new
ways to improve its appearance. Then I’d come back a couple of days
later and see that he had made some rather substantial changes, and
mostly for the better.
And Sherry’s the same way. Just work with her as a photographer for
instance. The woman has exquisite tastes and when she’s working with an
entertainer who’s shooting for me, she’s like a relentless drill
sergeant seeking all the right angles and right looks.
“Put that lock of hair over your left shoulder,” Sherry might say to a
dancer. And then, “Now raise that right shoulder to emphasize the left.”
I remember that first time I discussed photography with Sherry when she
was managing down at the Platinum Club. She wanted me to get shots of
the St. Louis Arch and then to shoot a long legged dancer whose image I
would transpose over the St. Louis Arch. And I remember how detailed
Sherry got with me. It should be a blonde and she should be wearing a
certain type of outfit. I knew then that I’d be dealing with a real pro
anytime I’d be working with Sherry Marsala.
I will have to say that working with Frank and Sherry has made me a
better photographer. And it’s been fun. So if you fault me for choosing
them as club owners of the year, I only have this to say to you: “I’ve
always enjoyed working with people who are really good at what they do,
and Frank and Sherry are the best.”
