Shanghai Lady Will Be Closed Next Week

The owner of the Shanghai Lady, the long-embattled Harbor Gateway nightclub that features nude dancers, has agreed to close it next week.

Long Beach Superior Court Judge Elsworth Beam signed an order Thursday that calls for businessman Francis E. Brown to vacate the property at 21176 S. Western Ave. by June 1.

The order enforces an agreement reached late Wednesday between lawyers for Brown and landlord Arthur Berke.

Berke began eviction proceedings against the nightclub in February. And, in another effort to shut it down, Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn this week filed a criminal charge against Brown, accusing him of violating a Los Angeles ordinance that prohibits sex-oriented businesses within 500 feet of homes.

The court order apparently will achieve what picketers, police raids and a revoked liquor license could not: the closure of the Shanghai Lady.

“Thank God,” Berke said. “I hope it’s all over with, but I’ve had these hopes two or three times. . . . They played every card in the book.”

The retired Torrance dentist said he will take down or paint over the large “NUDE” signs that cover the stucco building at Western Avenue and Torrance Boulevard.

City officials in Torrance and Los Angeles have long said that the club was inappropriate on a commercial strip that is fronted by high-tech offices with homes in back.

The state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control revoked the Shanghai Lady’s liquor license in 1983 and Los Angeles police tried but failed to remove its entertainment permit three years later.

Protesters picketed both the club and Berke’s Torrance office.

But the Shanghai Lady somehow kept rolling along, charging $5 for admission and $3.50 for soda pop.

Stephen Jamieson, lawyer for the club, said Brown decided to close down because he had only a month-to-month lease. As part of the agreement, Berke also will forgive some rent payments owed by the club.

Brown will still be arraigned June 30 for violating the city’s adult entertainment ordinance, despite the planned closure, a spokesman for Hahn’s office said Thursday.

“We have been harassed so much in the last five years,” one nightclub employee said. But she said strippers, bartenders and other employees are ready to move on.

“I don’t think it will be too much of a hardship on anyone,” she said. “The sun will still come up and go down tomorrow.”