L.A. Invokes Law on Nude Dancing Near Homes, Cites Harbor Gateway Nightclub

The owner of a Harbor Gateway nightclub that features nude dancers has become the first person charged under a city ordinance prohibiting sexually oriented businesses near residential neighborhoods.

Francis E. Brown, owner of the Shanghai Lady, faces up to six months in County Jail and a $1,000 fine if he is convicted of the single misdemeanor count filed Wednesday.

City Atty. James K. Hahn said he expects many more owners of adult business to be charged as the city enforces the 1986 law, which prohibits massage parlors, adult bookstores, sexually oriented movie theaters and other “adult” entertainment businesses within 500 feet of homes.

The city Department of Building and Safety began serving notices of non-compliance when the law’s two-year grace period ended in March. The Shanghai Lady, located on Western Avenue just east of Torrance, was ordered to close by April 15, but remained open.

Hahn said the owners of 52 other businesses in Los Angeles could face criminal charges if they do not close or file for extensions.

Twenty-six other sex-related businesses affected by the law have already filed for extensions and most will probably receive them, said Jim Carney, head of commercial inspections for the Department of Building and Safety. The ordinance permits businesses to stay open until March, 1991, if they can prove they have a binding lease, need more time to recoup property investments or cannot find comparable locations in non-residential areas.

Brown’s lawyer, Stephen Jamieson, said his client should not have been charged because he is likely to close the business by June 1.

“I don’t think it will be the best test case of the constitutionality of the ordinance simply because . . . the business will no longer be operating,” Jamieson said.

Arraignment for Brown, who lives in Westchester, is scheduled June 30.

The Shanghai Lady has been in business for six years, featuring nude dancers on a single stage. Neighbors who have fought the club since it opened said they are ecstatic that it may close.

“I think dancing in the streets is appropriate, but with our clothes on, amen!” said Lin Anderson, chairwoman of a neighborhood group called Citizens Against Smutty Environments.

Anderson, who lives half a block from the Shanghai Lady, said she remains somewhat skeptical of the club’s promise, however, because closure has seemed imminent before.

She organized picketers in front of the club for six months after it opened and led a protest at the office of Arthur Berke, the Torrance dentist--now retired--who is the Shanghai Lady’s landlord.

Shanghai Lady dancers responded with their own line of scantily clad picketers.

In 1983, the club appeared doomed when officials from the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control revoked its liquor license for showcasing nude dancing. (State law permits topless, but not nude, dancing in places that sell alcohol.) But the Shanghai Lady remained in business without serving alcohol, charging $5 for nighttime admission and $3.50 for soft drinks.

In 1986, Los Angeles police vice officers asked the Police Commission to revoke the Shanghai Lady’s entertainment permit, alleging that liquor was being sold without a license and that dancers masturbated on stage. But the Police Commission refused to revoke the permit after a hearing officer failed to rule in the case.

This February, Berke began eviction proceedings against the Shanghai Lady that are still pending. He said he never would have rented the space to Brown if he had known what would go on there.

“I have wanted them out of there for a long time,” Berke said this week. “It has been six years of great stress.”