PORT HUENEME : City Keeps Its Name Off Group’s T-Shirts

After working for years to banish prostitution from their city, the last thing Port Hueneme officials want--even in jest--is to be associated with a house of ill repute.

That’s why the City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to turn down a request by the Cabrillo Music Theatre to sell T-shirts reading, “The Best Little Whorehouse in Port Hueneme.”

The theater troupe requested permission to use the city’s name on the T-shirts to publicize an upcoming performance of “The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas” at the Dorill B. Wright Cultural Center in Port Hueneme. The production will be staged for two weekends beginning Sept. 11.

“They thought it would help sell T-shirts,” said Sydney Malin, a Port Hueneme resident who is helping with the production. “It was a lighthearted gimmick.”

But the council decided that Port Hueneme citizens wouldn’t think the reference was very funny.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate,” said Councilman Ken Hess, who made the motion to turn down the request.

Councilman Dorill B. Wright, for whom the cultural center is named, said outsiders may think the city is being stodgy. If they knew Port Hueneme’s history, they might be more sympathetic, he said.

Prostitution and gambling were commonplace in the community during World War II, Wright said. When the city incorporated in 1947, one of its first priorities was to ban card rooms and close down the red-light district.

The effort was successful for many years, but prostitutes reappeared on Hueneme Road near the city’s border with Oxnard about four years ago, Wright said.

“The prostitutes were so bold as to be directing traffic right at the entrance to our city,” he said.

A coordinated sting effort between the Oxnard and Port Hueneme police departments successfully rid the cities of the streetwalkers, Wright said.

“We don’t want to discourage them from advertising their production,” said Wright of the theater group. “But this request flies in the face of everything the city has tried to do over the last 50 years.”