Strip Clubs Say Red Cross Turned Down Funds : Charities: Organization cites a ‘misunderstanding’ about a fund-raiser for fire victims. The dancers are insulted, but Salvation Army readily accepts the $5,484.

A “misunderstanding” between the American Red Cross and three strip-tease clubs that had banded together to raise money for Southland fire victims proved a boon for another charitable organization after the club managers said they were snubbed by Red Cross officials.

“I think it’s kind of rotten,” John Sheridan, manager of the Funhouse, said Friday. “Some people don’t like this business, but the people involved in the fire don’t really care where the money comes from.”

Sheridan said a representative for the Funhouse, the Jet Strip in Hawthorne and the Odd Ball Cabaret in Van Nuys had contacted the American Red Cross Oct. 29 to propose a joint fund-raising event for fire victims. But the Red Cross turned down the offer, he said.

The clubs held the event anyway and raised a total of $5,484, Sheridan said. The clubs then offered the money to the Salvation Army, which gladly accepted.

Red Cross officials called the affair a “misunderstanding.”

Ron Farina, assistant manager of the American Red Cross in Los Angeles, said the clubs had asked his organization to co-sponsor the fund-raiser and wanted to use the Red Cross name in the press release and the advertisements.

“We don’t lend our name and logo out to events like this that are independent fund-raisers,” he said. “You don’t have any control over how they raise their money and what portion of the proceeds are remitted to us.”

But, Farina said, the Red Cross would have gladly accepted the money.

“We wouldn’t have been so prudish as to say, ‘No, you’re a strip-tease outfit,’ or ‘No, we don’t know where that money’s been,’ ” he said.

Farina said he apologizes if anyone was made to feel their money was “no good.”

But the clubs and some of the dancers who donated tips for the cause said they feel insulted.

“They’re taking off their clothes and performing nude thinking they’re going to help and basically you have an organization that snubs their nose at them,” said Funhouse assistant manager Stuart Cadwell.

The clubs’ second choice for the proceeds, the Salvation Army, jumped at the chance to receive the money raised during the Nov. 8 fund-raiser.