Thursday, September 22, 2005

Strippers help tease back New Orleans nightlife (MSN)

First strip club reopens in city's famous French Quarter

Updated: 5:35 p.m. ET Sept. 21, 2005

NEW ORLEANS - In a sign that things may be returning to normal in New Orleans, strip shows are back in the city's famous French Quarter.

Erotic dancers and strippers are entertaining crowds of police, firefighters and military personnel instead of the usual audiences of drunken conventioneers and tourists in Bourbon Street's Déjà Vu club, which reopened this week.

It's the first strip joint to resume business, three weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck.

"It's nice to get back to work, and all these men need some entertainment," Dawn Beasley, 27, a dancer at the club, said Tuesday night. "They haven't seen anybody but their buddies for two weeks."

The crowd hooted and hollered as women peeled off their tops and gyrated as customers tucked tips into their G-strings. ( more...)