CORONA NORCO : Bar Owner to Fight City’s Blocking of ‘Exotic’ Shows

A Corona tavern owner plans to go to court in an attempt to force the city to allow exotic male dancing and female oil wrestling in his establishment, his attorney said Thursday.

Andrew Papac, owner of the Black Stallion restaurant and Bootleggers bar on Magnolia Street, decided to sue after the council voted Wednesday night to deny an entertainment permit for the shows, said attorney Walter Ingalls.

The City Council had no power to withhold the permit “because none of the activities are illegal,� Ingalls said. The city ordinance requiring an entertainment permit, he told the council Wednesday, is “patently unconstitutional� and vague, violating First Amendment guarantees of free expression.

“There is a variety of ways of entertaining people,� Ingalls said Thursday. ‘The courts have given broad latitude to that because they are forms of expression.�

Denial Recommended

Sam Lowery, the city’s acting police chief, had recommended that the City Council deny the entertainment permit, writing in a report that “the community cannot afford the police time that would be taken from other priorities by permitting this added type of entertainment.�

Other communities that have allowed similar entertainment have experienced “a considerable police problem,� Lowery wrote. “. . . The problem comes from the over-exuberance of drinking customers and performers caught up in the excitement of the moment. This causes police problems.�

The Police Department “is not trying to make this a moral issue,� Lowery told the council Wednesday night.

The chief’s report contained “vague assertions . . . but no substantiation,� Ingalls told the council.

Councilman Al Lopez, who cast the sole dissenting vote on the motion to deny the permit, said police problems at or near a bar have nothing to do with the entertainment offered inside.

Bootleggers’ owner and manager “have taken care to see they’re protected,� Lopez said. “They have more to protect than us up here (at the council table).�

‘Implied Nuisance’

The proposed entertainment, argued Councilman Gary Miller, would be an “implied nuisance� that would strain police manpower.

The council voted to renew for another year the restaurant’s permit to present live bands, an action that also followed the acting police chief’s recommendation.

The restaurant and bar share a building in an extreme eastern section of Corona, adjacent to Home Gardens and near the intersection of Magnolia Avenue and 6th Street. Areas to the south and west consist mainly of industrial plants, including a mobile home factory.

The closest residential neighbors are in Corona La Linda, a walled mobile home park across Temescal Street to the east.

Several residents interviewed there said they could recall no problems with Bootleggers or its customers. And nearly all of those interviewed said they didn’t oppose exotic dancing and oil wrestling at the bar.

“I’m for it,� said Corona La Linda resident Denny Simmons, who said he has been to the bar. He and his friends would be more likely to return if it offered female oil wrestling, Simmons said.

The bar and restaurant are “dirty-looking, an eyesore,� said another neighbor, Howard Owens. “But as long as (the customers) keep to themselves, what do I care?�

Bootleggers and the Black Stallion already “get a lot of business,� added his wife, Christie Owens. “The parking lot’s always full.�

Both said they have never noticed a problem with noise, traffic or drunk customers.

Their neighbor, Carl McKendrick, took a similar stand. “I’ve never been to the place,� he said, noting that the added entertainment would not encourage him to go.

“It’s a tacky way to get business,� McKendrick said. But “what they do over there doesn’t matter� as long as it doesn’t affect his neighborhood. “If that were to change, then it would be a problem,� he said.

The prevailing attitude seemed to be that expressed by Pete Rojas, owner of a nursery across Magnolia Avenue from both Bootleggers and the trailer park: “To me, it doesn’t make any difference. We’re right across the street, but I don’t see any problem with it.

“We have never had any problems. I go there (and) I’d go (to see the new shows)--just to take a look once, at least.�