CORONA NORCO : Police Oppose Granting Permit for Exotic Dancing, Oil Wrestling at Bar

Corona should not permit exotic male dancing or female oil wrestling at a bar on the city’s east side, the acting police chief has advised in a report to the City Council.

“The community cannot afford the police time that would be taken from other priorities by permitting this added type of entertainment” at the Bootleggers bar on Magnolia Avenue, the acting chief, Sam Lowery, said.

He also recommended that the council renew the entertainment permit of the Black Stallion restaurant, in the same building, which has live music. The bands have not caused any “unusual problem,” he said.

Walter Ingalls, attorney for Andrew Papac, whose company owns both Bootleggers and the Black Stallion, described the dancing and wrestling acts as “a harmless type of entertainment” that would not be detrimental to the community.

Papac did not return a reporter’s telephone calls, and his staff referred all questions to Ingalls’ office.

The male dancers, Ingalls said, would appear in “bikini-brief-type bathing suits.” The wrestlers, he said, would be women in “one-piece bathing suits” who would wrestle in a pool filled with oil.

Owner’s Attorney’s View

“If (city officials) don’t like this kind of entertainment, I don’t think it’s grounds to reject the (permit) application,” Ingalls said.

The purpose of city entertainment permits, he said, is to ensure that applicants are of good character, and that the entertainment is consistent with public health and safety.

Lowery based his report on an investigation by police Lt. Fred Biggs, commander of detectives, who talked with police in other communities where the both types of entertainment have been permitted.

“While the ‘male exotic dancing’ is not as much of a problem,” Lowery said in summary, “the ‘female oil wrestling’ locations are a considerable police problem. . . .

“The problem,” Lowery wrote, “comes from the over-exuberance of drinking customers and performers caught up in the excitement of the moment. This causes police problems.

Police Time Priorities

“The police problem is the necessity of committing a percentage of police time that is more than the community can afford to be expended to assist one profit-motivated business,” his report said.

Use of private security would be inadequate to reduce the burden on city police, he added.

Ingalls said that bar and restaurant owners in Riverside and Orange counties and other parts of California generally have had good experiences with the operators of the oil wrestling and dancing shows, and there have been few show-related community problems.

When Bootleggers presented exotic male dancing in Corona earlier this year, the shows generated an estimated $7,000 a week in additional business, Ingalls said, adding, “We don’t know what the female (wrestling) review would contribute.”

But Papac mistakenly had believed a city permit for live music covered all kinds of entertainment, Ingalls said. “He didn’t realize you had to have a separate license for every type of activity.”

Dance Shows Stopped

When police told him another permit was required, Papac suspended the dance shows and delayed the planned opening of the wrestling, Ingalls said.

The nightclub was not cited because no police officers observed shows performed in violation of the city’s licensing requirement, Lowery said.

The male dance shows were “very successful,” Ingalls said. “There seem to be a lot of women in the Corona-Norco area that want to see athletic men dancing around in the briefest of costumes.”

Only one aspect of the wrestling and dancing would be illegal, Lowery’s report said: Allowing customers to participate in the wrestling would violate state Alcoholic Beverage Control regulations.