Topless Club Touts Its Assets on Mobile Billboard
The Twenty/20 Gentlemen’s Club is driven to survive. But its landlords just want to drive it away.
Twenty/20 is a swank Century City restaurant and bar that features topless dancers. Though something of an anomaly in these politically correct times, the club has become popular among local executives and lawyers, who swing by for a quick lunch and a long ogle.
But the landlords evidently disapprove of such shenanigans--so much so that they’ve spent the better part of two years trying to get rid of the club. They argue that Twenty/20 is an illegitimate tenant that has no right to rent in the tony ABC Entertainment Center.
“We do not believe that this club is in keeping with the image of a first-class building,” said Chuck Kenworthy, an attorney for the landlords.
A Los Angeles Superior Court jury decided in November that the owners could evict their controversial tenants, and Twenty/20’s appeals to higher courts have failed. But the club’s owners got a temporary reprieve by filing for bankruptcy last month, according to Kenworthy. The eviction is delayed until the bankruptcy court decides what to do.
In the meantime, Twenty/20 is taking to the streets--and highways. The club has hired a full-time driver to tow a truck billboard on area roads. The sign features a picture of former Penthouse Pet Julie Smith in a revealing pose and alerts drivers to the unique combination of table dancing and happy hour buffets.
“We’ve found it to be a good way to market ourselves,” said Twenty/20 manager Phil Johnson, who added that the truck hits local beaches and special events as well as freeways and streets.
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HONK FOR HISTORY: One dollar at a time, the Culver City Historical Society is scraping together funds to build a museum honoring the city’s history.
Despite the city’s rich association with the film industry, the nonprofit society is not planning celebrity-studded, $1,000-a-plate fund-raisers. Instead, it is relying on a different sort of plate--$8 license-plate frames with the city’s “Heart of Screenland” logo.
The idea to build a museum is not a new one. The historical society has been conducting grass-roots campaigns for the project for 15 years. To date, the group has collected about $40,000 of the $500,000 or more it needs, said Hal Horne, the society’s president.
Said Horne: “It’s just a drop in the bucket.”
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PASTORAL SIGNAGE: For 16 years, neighbors and members of the Church of the Nazarene in Santa Monica have sought comfort in the pithy statements on the church’s outdoor sign.
The latest message provided ballast to more than a few after last week’s storms: “The deep waters Satan uses to drown us are used by God to cleanse us.”
Pastor Clarence Crites creates the short phrases and posts them every two weeks.
“It’s an attempt to make sense out of adversity,” Crites said. “Evil hits everybody, but I believe God can take evil and make some good come out of it.”
Crites often receives favorable calls, letters and notes about his captions.
“The only negative comments I get is when I leave a message up too long and it doesn’t get changed or if I misspell a word,” he said.
