Nightclub’s Owner Ends Agoura Hills Battle, Closes Doors

“You should put the title, ‘Spunky broad gives in. Spunky broad quits.’ ”

Madeline DiTrapani

Bear Cabaret owner

A controversial chapter in the history of Agoura Hills, one that earned snickers and the nickname of “Sodom and Agoura,” is coming to a close.

The owner of a nightclub that turned into a gay bar after city officials thwarted its efforts to stage topless dancing is giving up the fight and closing.

Madeline DiTrapani said Monday that she is closing the Bear Cabaret and selling its liquor license and building contents to her landlord, Arthur Whizin.

“You should put the title, ‘Spunky broad gives in. Spunky broad quits,’ ” said DiTrapani, who had engaged in a five-year battle with officials of the community at the western edge of Los Angeles County over the club’s adult-oriented entertainment.

Farewell Party

The cabaret closed Saturday night after a farewell party attended by about 200 people, she said.

The future of the property is uncertain.

Two local men have said they would like to give the club a very different identity--as a dance club for teen-agers. But city officials and the property’s owner said they may have trouble getting the proper permits.

The owners of the building said they would like to lease it to a family-oriented restaurant.

Under DiTrapani’s ownership, the club at various times featured male exotic dancers, female mud wrestlers and bare-breasted women.

When Agoura Hills incorporated in 1982, however, the city refused to recognize an operating permit issued by Los Angeles County. City officials also balked at providing a permit for topless dancing.

DiTrapani then thumbed her nose at city officials by turning the place into a bar catering to homosexuals. But she also applied for a conditional use permit that would have allowed the club to resume its topless entertainment.

City Passes Ordinance

The city responded by enacting an ordinance prohibiting topless entertainment within 660 feet of the Ventura Freeway. The Bear cabaret was within 50 feet.

DiTrapani escalated the battle in May, 1985, by filing a $10-million lawsuit against city officials, accusing them of violating her civil rights. She dropped the suit last July, however, after a judge rejected her request for a pretrial injunction against the city law.

DiTrapani said Monday that she is two months behind on her $3,700-a-month rent and tired of losing money.

“Business has died. It’s too big a headache,” she said, adding, “I’m depressed, to say the least. I just feel like a part of me is gone.”

DiTrapani said the bar’s homosexual clientele turned out to be “kind of fickle.” She said, “It was OK for the first six months. Then they just go other places. The locals were afraid to come out. They were afraid they’d be seen by their neighbors. The others didn’t want to drive that far. It’s too far away from the city.”

The club was empty except for Friday and Saturday nights, she said, and business had dwindled to the point that there were only 50 customers on a “good night.”

DiTrapani said she put the business up for sale four months ago but could not find any takers “who were coming up with any cash.”

Vance Moran, property manager for Whizin Enterprises, confirmed the cabaret’s closing but declined to give details, saying the transaction is still being negotiated.

Mayor Fran Pavely refused to comment at length on the cabaret’s closing, saying only that she hoped the next business at the site will “be a complement to our family-oriented community.”

Leased for Teen Dances

In recent weeks, DiTrapani said, she had been leasing the cabaret on Friday nights to groups holding dances for teen-agers. One group played punk rock music, littered the dance floor with broken glass and caused other problems, she said. So she began renting the club to two local men, who operated it under the name “Rumors.”

Those men, Craig T. Mathew, 27, of Thousand Oaks and his brother-in-law, Todd Ryzow, 20, of Oak Park, said Monday that they hope to lease the building and open the club on weekends, selling non-alcoholic beverages and fast food.

Clearly trying to appeal to wary city officials, Mathew said their club would have a strict dress code with “no torn jeans or holey sneakers.”

“The crowd we’re going for is a local community teen-ager who doesn’t have a place to go,” he said.

But Paul Williams, director of city planning for Agoura Hills, said city officials were unaware that the cabaret had been used in recent weeks as a teen club. Because the property is zoned for a bar and restaurant, the club would be have to seek a conditional use permit for dancing, a process that takes at least six weeks, Williams said.

The cabaret’s owner will be warned that such a use is in violation of city zoning, Williams said.