Leroy Charles Griffith (born March 26, 1932) is an American theater and nightclub proprietor, former Broadwaytheater producer, and film producer. In a career spanning 75 years, he has owned, leased, or operated more than 70 stage and cinematic theaters across the United States, dating from the burlesque era of the 1950s to the present day.[1]
During burlesque's heyday, Griffith was a prolific producer of live stage shows featuring showgirls, strippers, comedians, and other stars of the era. After burlesque's decline, he made the crossover to exhibiting adult films and operating adult nightclubs, notably past and present Miami-area clubs such as Club Madonna, Deja Vu, and Wonderland.
His business endeavors in the adult entertainment industry have, for decades, put him at odds with restrictive municipalities, and he has taken legal action, often successfully, to defend his constitutional rights and be able to operate his establishments.
Early life
Griffith was born in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, to Floyd Roy and Stella Duncan Griffith. His father was a theater owner. The younger Griffith began as a projectionist, cashier, and usher at a local theater in his hometown.
At 17, he left for St. Louis and a job working concessions at the Grand Burlesque Theatre for East Coast-based theater concessions magnate Oscar Markovich (1895-1982). At the Grand, Griffith started as a "candy butcher," hawking candy and trinkets to audiences before and during intermission.[2] "In those days," Griffith recalled in a 1993 interview, "they had probably 30 people in the cast, a chorus line, an orchestra, two comics, a singer, a vaudeville act, and then five exotic dancers. It was a good show."[3]
Griffith discovered that any profit to be made was not from the show itself but from the concession stand: "That's where I was. In between acts, the pitchman would sell prize packages, candy, stuff like that. Concessions was where the real money was, just like it is with regular movies today."[3] After working his way up to concessions manager, Griffith began accruing money for higher ambitions.
A June 1955 Billboard magazine column noted that the 23-year-old "Leroy Griffith, concession manager at the Folly, Kansas City, Mo., is now the owner of the Missouri Coffee Shop with an enlarged dining room and a new air-conditioned system."[4]
After discharge from the military, Griffith acquired his first theater, the Star, in Portland, Ore. After a limited operation of a Kansas City, Mo., restaurant and another period of short-term employment with Markovich, he opened a theater in Detroit. He was in his mid-twenties.
According to a 1959 Billboard article, Griffith was described as one of the "brigade of regulars" employed by the popular King Reid Shows, a carnival that traveled the New England and Canada circuit. Griffith managed the carnival's "Club 17," which featured burlesque shows.[5]
Theater and club owner
Griffith outside his Roxy Theater (today, Club Madonna) in Miami Beach, Fla., c.1975.
Identifying "legitimate" theaters that were going out of business, Griffith began acquiring them. "These places would go under," he said in a 1993 interview, "and I'd go in and take over and make them successful with an adult policy."[3] He soon acquired theaters throughout the United States.
Ohio (1958-1960s)
Griffith was co-operator of Toledo's Town Hall Theater with "Queen of Burlesque" Rose La Rose (1916-1972), a nationally-renowned stripper who, having shrewdly saved and invested her earnings, retired in 1958, settled in Toledo, and purchased the Town Hall and, eventually, another local theater. She was one of the rare and earliest women on the burlesque circuit to evolve from performer to independent business owner.
South Florida (1961-present)
On a visit to Miami Beach in 1961, Griffith noticed the Paris Theater was for sale. He leased it, then bought it, originally staging burlesque, including featuring headliners such as Tempest Storm and Blaze Starr. But back in the early '60s, Griffith didn't call it "burlesque"; doing so would have been against local law.
"You couldn't even use the word," he recalled in a 1993 interview. "I had one big stage show called 'The Top Stars of Burlesque,' with Blaze Starr and all these people. I told the city, 'It's not burlesque. It's the top stars of burlesque. There's no law against the people of burlesque.' The city decided they'd fix me by charging me $1,000 for a special license to do the show. I said fine. I was going to have to pay $1,600 for a regular permit anyway."[3]
"One time Sammy Davis Jr.(above left, with Griffith in 1966), Frank Sinatra, and Belle Barth came into the Gayety Theater [in Miami Beach] when I was running it. We had a Chinese dinner together, and then started watching the coming attractions for an X-rated film that was going to be running. For fun we shut the sound off and the three of them – Frank, Sammy, and Belle – improvised the sounds to go along with the scenes. They were all moaning and groaning and making funny noises. It was hysterical." — Griffith
In February 1963, Griffith appeared before the Miami Beach city council to plead for live stage burlesque to "liven up a dead town."[7]
Griffith continued to open new venues throughout South Florida, from Broward County in the north to Key West in the south. In addition to bringing in live acts, he began showing movies. He also began producing films and exhibiting them in his theaters.
Griffith added the Gaiety on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach to his theater chain in July 1964.[8]
A young Mickey Rourke once worked for Griffith as a cashier and projectionist at one of his Miami Beach theaters.[3]
Griffith – once a guest aboard Donald Trump's private helicopter long before Trump became president – hired Trump's one-time sex partner and adult film star Stormy Daniels for a two-night appearance at Club Madonna in 2018, during her “Make America Horny Again” tour. "I got her at the right price," Griffith told a local newspaper.[9]
Film producer
Griffith produced Bell, Bare and Beautiful (1963), Lullaby of Bareland (1964), Mundo depravados (1967), and My Third Wife, George (1968).[10]
A promotional poster for Griffith's '60s Broadway revue, Hello Burlesque.
Film appearances
Griffith played brief cameo parts in some of his films. His recollections of the burlesque era are featured in Leslie Zemeckis's 2010 documentary, Behind the Burly Q.[11]
This Was Burlesque, a revue conceived by and starring burlesque star Ann Corio, was staged for 124 performances at Griffith's Hudson Theater on Broadway during the 1964–65 season. It went on to tour across the U.S. in various forms over the next two decades.[13]
Griffith also produced Hello Burlesque, a 1965 live stage show featuring showgirl Julie Taylor, "Miss Sex 5th Avenue".
He directed and co-produced The Wonderful World of Burlesque, an off-Broadway show that ran for 211 performances at the Mayfair Theater, from May to June 1965.[14]
Griffith's theaters and clubs
Theaters he has owned and operated, been an ownership partner in, leased, and/or managed include these:
Note: Click the "sort" icon at the head of each column to view data in alphabetical order.
Black Gold•Club Madonna II•Gold Rush Cabaret•Kitty Cat•Pussycat•Pussycat II•Shadows•Tomcat•Wonderland
Located at 7770 Biscayne Boulevard. Has variously served as a strip club, night club, and adult theater.[27][28] Bought by Griffith for $165,000 in 1970 and renamed the Pussycat, he created three different theaters within: the Pussycat, the center theater, was a 900-seat theater that showed adult films including Deep Throat; the Kitty Cat featured female performers; and the Tomcat featured male performers.
Formerly located at 230 Lincoln Road.[43][44] "I used to do [benefit] shows at the Carib, which seated over 2,000 people," Griffith said in a 1993 interview, "and donated the theater, staff, advertising, and helped get talent. This all went to the widows and orphans of the firemen and the policemen."[3]c.1976
Formerly located at 550 Washington Avenue.[47][48] Griffith's first acquisition upon settling in South Florida in 1961. He originally leased it, then bought it, and staged burlesque there, under the name Paris Follies. Featured acts included Tempest Storm. He sold it in 1986, then bought it back after its owners failed with the nightclub Paris Moderne, and later sold it again.[3] The Art Deco building's interior has been transformed into an upscale restaurant.
Located at 1527 Washington Avenue.[51][52] Griffith generated publicity there when, in 1967, he publicly invited city officials to a screening of the film, Man and Wife. "It was advertised as the art of making love 49 different ways," he said in a 1993 interview. "I don't remember inviting them, but I vaguely remember the incident. I think that was the first hard-core movie ever shown down here."[3] According to press accounts at the time, the officials seemed to think the movie was boring, but not obscene.[3] In 1994, Griffith converted the Roxy from an adult movie theater to an all-nude strip club (Club Madonna), which it remains today. Griffith successfully withstood an attempt by attorneys for the pop singer Madonna to prevent him from using the name.[53]in 1967
Located at 1536 7th Avenue in Tampa's Ybor City section. Closed in the 1970s, then was renovated and reopened c. 2000. It is home today to the Tampa Improv Comedy Club.[54][55]
Located at 1503 E. 7th Avenue in Tampa's Ybor City section. Opened as the Rivoli; expanded in the 1930s as the Ritz and showed movies until 1982. Reopened in 2008 and is used for concerts and special events.[56][57]
Formerly located at 336 S. State Street, two blocks from the Gayety. Opened as a venue for vaudeville and movies, it was a burlesque house by the 1930s and closed in 1953. It is the site today of Pritzker Park.[62][63]
Located at 3422 / 3430 N. Illinois Street. Considered one of the leading movie houses in the city. Burlesque took over in 1962. Known as the Northside from 1958 to 1970. Remodeled, it became a rock concert venue and resumed its former name, but closed in 1972.[65][66][67]
Located at 4710 S. Carrollton Avenue. A classic Art Deco-style theater, it suffered water damage during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 but has since been refurbished as a banquet hall.[68][69]
Located at 300 W. 12th Street.[83][84] Following a renovation in the 1980s, it remains in use today. Was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.in 1973
Village East Cinema•12th Street Cinemas•Casino East•Century•Eden•Entermedia•Louis N. Jaffe Art•Molly Picon's Yiddish Folk•Phoenix•Second Avenue•Stuyvesant•Yiddish Art
Located at 141 W. 44th Street in midtown Manhattan. A former Broadway theater, now a conference center and special event venue. In 1954 it became home to the original version of The Tonight Show with host Steve Allen.[92][93]in 2021
Located at 235 West 46th Street. It was a theater in the basement of the Paramount Hotel. From 1938 to 1951, theatrical impresario and song writer Billy Rose operated his Diamond Horseshoe nightclub there.The Paramount
Located at 511 E. 36th Street. Called "The Carolina’s Most Unusual Theater" in newspaper ads in the '60s, it was restored in recent years and today (as the Neighborhood) features bands and musicians.[100][101]
Located at 2523 N. High Street, it opened in the silent picture era as The Piccadilly. An adult movie theater from the '50s to its demolition.[110][111]
Located at 626 SW 4th Street. Renamed the Blue Mouse in 1958. Famous stripper Tempest Storm co-owned and operated the Capitol in the 1950s.[121][122][123][124]
Located at 13 NW 6th Avenue. Opened as the Princess, screening silent movies. Became the Star Burlesk in 1939, presenting burlesque shows. Refurbished, it remains in operation today.[125][126]
Formerly located at First Avenue and Madison Street. Opened as a burlesque theater featuring, among others, Sophie Tucker and Belle Baker. It later presented legit stage theater, then adult movies before its demolition.[138][139]
Formerly located at 425-433 9th Street NW.[142][143] Opened as The Imperial. Renamed Moore’s Garden Theatre in 1913. Renamed The Central in 1922. Renamed by Griffith as the Gayety Burlesque; presented live burlesque from the 1950s to its closing in the 1970s.
Legal battles
"If a judge in Washington, D.C., decides that the nekkid female torso isn't indecent, many showmen around the nation will follow the lawsuit brought by Hudson Burlesk producer Leroy Griffith."[144]
— Walter Winchell, in his July 31, 1966, nationally-syndicated gossip column
v. The City of Indianapolis
Griffith's Ritz Theater, in Indianapolis, Ind., began hosting burlesque performances in 1962 in addition to showing adult films. Outcry from neighborhood residents led to intense scrutiny from city officials and the local newspaper, resulting in the arrest of the show's star and Griffith on indecency charges and the confiscation of 15 film reels in a June 1962 raid. The city revoked the theater's license the next month.[145][146]
v. Linda Lovelace
In 1974, Griffith won a $32,038 judgment for damages against Linda Lovelace, who appeared in the 1972 hardcore film Deep Throat. He had hired her for a live stage revue at his Paramount Theater in Miami, slated for November 1973, but she failed to appear. The judge awarded Griffith just half of the amount he sought.[147]
v. The City of Hialeah, Fla.
Griffith turned Hialeah's Atlas Cinema into an X-rated theater in August 1985, outraging Mayor Raul Martinez. "The issue is not censorship," Martinez said at the time. "It is morality. They will bring in derelicts, the sick of mind. They're like herpes – wherever they go, everybody gets infected. We don't need that."[3]
The day after opening, in a pre-emptive strike, Griffith's lawyers sued the city, charging that a Hialeah zoning ordinance banning porn cinemas within 500 feet of residences was unconstitutional. His court challenge failed and the theater was ordered shut down.[3]
"If I was a judge taking bribes, a banker trying to swindle my customers out of bank funds, a doctor selling drugs, I might feel bad. But seeing a nude girl? There's nothing immoral about that. And there are more judges and lawyers and cops and bankers in jail than theater owners. I'm not hurting anyone, or stealing, or anything like that."[3]
— Griffith, in a 1993 interview
v. The City of Miami
In 1987, city officials confiscated movie projectors, a refreshment stand, and other property from Griffith's Pussycat Theater. He had just won a court fight with the city over his right to exhibit a film called Three Ripening Cherries. He was accused of owing more than $50,000 in fines dating back to 1978. The city bungled part of the collection process in a technical snafu, so Griffith ended up accountable for only $21,400.[3]
An auction of his theater equipment was conducted to satisfy that debt. The winning bid came in at $13,500, from Griffith himself, effectively reducing his penalties by another $8,000.[3]
v. The City of Hollywood, Fla.
Griffith's attorneys filed suit in November 1987 against Hollywood, Fla., asking a Broward County judge to declare the city's ordinances banning nude dancing unconstitutional. They asserted that the city's censorship was a violation of the First Amendment.
The suit followed a series of incidents in 1985 in which police raided Griffith's Cine 1 & 2 Theater a dozen times, dismantling projectors and arresting employees on obscenity charges.[148]
v. Dade County
Between 1976 and 1987, the Pussycat was raided 18 times. Efforts by the county to charge him with a felony for screening two obscene movies within 5 years collapsed when Griffith's attorney pointed out that too much time had elapsed between incidents. When prosecutors then indicated they might like to charge him with a simple misdemeanor for the more recent indiscretion (showing the film American Babylon), his attorney argued it had been two years since that film had been confiscated, thus denying Griffith his right to a speedy trial. The judge agreed and threw out the case.[3]
In April 1987, the Dade State Attorney's Office filed a ten-page complaint demanding that the Pussycat be shut down. This time the charge was brought under the Florida Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. Because the Pussycat had been raided 18 times in eleven years, prosecutors contended, it must be an ongoing criminal enterprise. "That's not what the RICO Act was put in for," Griffith retorted. A judge agreed and dismissed the complaint.[3]
v. The City of Miami Beach
In late 1989, after the cities of Fort Lauderdale and North Miami Beach outlawed alcohol in establishments featuring nude entertainers, Miami Beach officials – led by Mayor Alex Daoud – feared strip club operators would gravitate to their city and that Miami Beach "would be overrun with sex-mad drunken men and immoral, naked women."[3]
Confronting Miami Beach city commissioners in 2009 on the city's ban of alcohol in nightclubs featuring nudity.
The imminent debut of the Gold Club, whose owners had intended to introduce nudity and alcohol in their new building on 5th Street, spurred the City Commission to pass local legislation prohibiting such a mix.[3]
— Griffith, recalling local regulations in '60s-era Miami Beach
Griffith announced that if the Gold Club was allowed to open with liquor and nudity, he would move his hard-core films from the Gayety Theater (then known as Deja Vu) to the Roxy, which then was showing second-run movies for general audiences. In turn, he would convert the Gayety into an upscale nude bar to compete with the Gold Club.
Daoud said, "We don't have to sit idly by and watch [adult clubs] open up. It would be detrimental to the growth of our city that has been developing so nicely."[3]
The city passed an ordinance in January 1990 prohibiting not only nudity and alcohol sharing the same room, but also banning any nudity near schools and churches. The Gold Club did open with nude dancers, but soon folded under the handicap of the no-liquor policy.
"There's nothing immoral about the human body. Evil's all in the mind."[3]
— Griffith, in a 1993 interview
Griffith, meanwhile, successfully changed the Gayety into the all-nude, alcohol-free Deja Vu (without local competition), and turned the Roxy into an adult theater, Club Madonna. Daoud was removed from office a year later after being implicated on unrelated corruption charges for which he was later convicted and imprisoned.[3] Griffith and Daoud have since become close friends.
Since the early 2000s, Griffith has been involved in legal disputes with the City of Miami Beach over its 1989/1990 ordinances banning the sale of alcohol in any establishment featuring nudity. He sued several city officials in federal court, alleging they conspired to deny him a fair hearing before the City Commission after he sued the wife of one commissioner for libel, slander, and defamation after she waged a campaign against him, claiming, among other things, that he was a tax cheat.[149][150][151]
Personal life
Family
Griffith married Linda Rivera in 1989. His children are from two previous marriages.
In May 1964, Griffith saved the life of his 18-month-old son, Cash, after pulling him unconscious from the family pool at their Miami home. He credited his effort to reading about mouth-to-mouth resuscitation instructions while on an airplane flight the week before.[152]
Griffith's son Charles was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison after the 1985 mercy killing of his three-year-old daughter, who had been in a months-long coma in a Miami children's hospital following a freak accident. He was granted a retrial and, in 1995, took a deal to plead guilty to second-degree murder; he was released with credit for time served and good behavior.[153][154] He later published an addiction recovery magazine and opened a sober house for women transitioning from substance rehab, both dedicated as memorials to his late daughter.[155]
Philanthropy
Griffith, for years, hosted annual shows at his Carib Theater benefiting the Miami Beach Police and Firemen's Benevolent Association. In 1969, Miami Beach police chief Rocky Pomerance was disturbed by the publicity from Griffith's $2,200 donation to the association. Pomerance asked the group to give it back on the premise that "simple ethical morality" demanded it, but he was rebuffed. The group used the donation to create a scholarship fund for children of police and firemen killed before retirement.[156]
The city's police softball teams and the Miami Beach Policemen's Relief and Pension Fund have also been beneficiaries of Griffith's charitable giving. In 1997, the MBPD recognized Griffith for his donation of bicycles to the department, for use by its bike patrol officers.
Nationally syndicated gossip writer Earl Wilson thanked Griffith in a December 1965 column "for his welcome Christmas check for the 'Earl Wilson Help the Needy Fund' which arrived just in time to aid some deserving folk."[157]
Work
Griffith signs his Mundo depravados co-stars Tempest Storm and Herb Jeffries (left) to film contracts in 1967.
Broadway and off-Broadway stage productions
This Was Burlesque (1964) - co-producer
Hello Burlesque (1965) - producer
The Wonderful World of Burlesque (1965) - co-producer, director
Filmography
Bell, Bare and Beautiful (1963) - producer, writer, actor (Theater Manager)
1970s: Key to the City of Miami Beach (awarded by Mayor Harold Rosen)
1970s: Recognition for "unselfish contributions" to the annual All-Star show (Miami Beach Police and Firemen's Benevolent Association)
1997: Recognition for "outstanding dedication and service" to the Washington Avenue Bike Unit (Miami Beach Police Department)
1999: Recognition for "generous support" for the Miami Beach Police softball teams (Miami Beach Police Department)
2000: Recognition for "generosity and continued support" (Miami Beach Policemen's Relief and Pension Fund)
2007: Best Adult Club in Miami Beach (Club Madonna), The Miami SunPost
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References
↑ Norman, Forrest (February 2, 2006). "The Battle of Biscayne". The Miami New Times. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
↑ Zemeckis, Leslie (2013). "Florida". Behind the Burly Q: The Story of Burlesque in America. Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN978-1-62087-691-6.
↑ Davis, Kevin (December 10, 1987). "Theater Owner Sues Hollywood Over Ban". The (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) Sun Sentinel. pp.8B.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
↑ "Reading Pays Off: Resuscitation Saves 18-Month-Old Infant". The Miami News. May 18, 1964.[dead link]
↑ Pazdera, Donna (October 25, 1995). "Griffith Leaves Jail for New Life". The (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) Sun Sentinel. pp.1B.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
↑ "Father Granted New Trial". The (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) Sun Sentinel. March 30, 1989. pp.9B.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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!["One time Sammy Davis Jr. (above left, with Griffith in 1966), Frank Sinatra, and Belle Barth came into the Gayety Theater [in Miami Beach] when I was running it. We had a Chinese dinner together, and then started watching the coming attractions for an X-rated film that was going to be running. For fun we shut the sound off and the three of them - Frank, Sammy, and Belle - improvised the sounds to go along with the scenes. They were all moaning and groaning and making funny noises. It was hysterical." -- Griffith Sammy Davis, Jr. and Leroy Griffith.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/Sammy_Davis%2C_Jr._and_Leroy_Griffith.jpg/200px-Sammy_Davis%2C_Jr._and_Leroy_Griffith.jpg)
