Billy's Topless
Encyclopedia
Strip club
A strip club is an adult entertainment venue in which striptease or other erotic or exotic dance is regularly performed. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, but can also adopt a theatre or cabaret-style....
on Sixth Avenue and 24th Street in the Chelsea
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
area of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Operating from 1970 to 2001, it was for many years considered a neighborhood landmark.
The bar
Billy's was a small establishment, more closely resembling a neighborhood bar than a strip clubStrip club
A strip club is an adult entertainment venue in which striptease or other erotic or exotic dance is regularly performed. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, but can also adopt a theatre or cabaret-style....
in both size and atmosphere; one writer described it as "no more illicit than if we had decided to go get hamburgers". Billy's contained only a small bar and a stage surrounded by about 24 chairs. The bar was fairly inexpensive, particularly for an adult establishment, and offered a modest (but free) buffet, often just a single dish over a can of Sterno
Sterno
Sterno is a fuel made from denatured and jellied alcohol. It is designed to be burned directly from its can. Its primary uses are in the food service industry for buffet heating and in the home for fondue and as a chafing fuel for heating chafing dishes...
, or a pile of cold sandwiches. Also, unusually for such an establishment, Billy's had no cover charge
Cover charge
At bars and nightclubs, or restaurants with live entertainment a flat fee for entry, sometimes known as a cover charge, is made, in addition to payment for food and drink...
.
The original owner of Billy's Topless was a man named Bill Pell. After Pell died in the 1970s, Billy's was acquired by Milton Anthony, owner of the AP Variety Talent Agency, an agency that had provided "topless go-go dancers" to numerous strip clubs in New York City since 1966.
An older anachronism in the New York adult entertainment scene, Anthony (born c. 1920) claimed he held to certain principles with his agency and in his club: no breast implants, no lap dancing
Lap dance
A lap dance is a type of sex work performed in some strip clubs in which a naked or topless dancer performs an erotic dance either in immediate contact with a seated patron, or within a very short distance. With full-contact lap dances, the stripper may engage in non-penetrative sexual contact...
, and no touching the dancers. As such, Billy's stood in marked contrast to expensive adult clubs such as Scores that tended towards dancers with a more stereotypically "Barbie doll" look and allowed direct contact with the patrons. Detractors of Billy's occasionally lower-end charm
Dive bar
A dive bar is a type of bar or pub. Dive bars generally have a relaxed and informal atmosphere—they are often referred to by local residents as "neighborhood bars," where people in the neighborhood gather to drink and socialize...
called it "seedy". Supporters tended to think of it as "old fashioned", and the kind of establishment that catered to "real people". The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
writer Robert Sietsema
Robert Sietsema
Robert Sietsema has been the food critic for the Village Voice since 1993. He is a member of the Organ Meat Society and contributor to Gourmet magazine.-Biography:...
called it an "old fashioned topless bar ... where the old grit still remains."
Closing
Billy's Topless suffered, along with much of the city's adult entertainment industry, under the quality of life directives of then-mayor Rudy GiulianiRudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani KBE is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician from New York. He served as Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001....
, who called New York's adult establishments a threat to public "health, safety and welfare" and a "corrosive institution". In his second term he aggressively targeted New York's sex industry for "reconstruction". Laws were enacted forbidding adult establishments from operating within 500 feet of a residence, school or place of worship, and the NYPD conducted raids on businesses that did not comply with the new ordinance.
The laws were initially drafted to target the sex businesses in the Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
area, but small, local establishments like Billy's were affected as well. The Chelsea community board (Manhattan Community Board 4
Manhattan Community Board 4
The Manhattan Community Board 4 is a local government unit of New York City, encompassing the neighborhoods of Hell's Kitchen and Chelsea in the borough of Manhattan...
) confirmed that there had never been a citizen complaint against either Billy's Topless or its customers.
In 1998, to avoid being closed down by the first wave of new zoning laws, Billy's took "topless" out of the bar's name, and the place was rechristened "Billy Stopless" and dancers had to wear bikini tops. In the mid-1990s, dancers at Billy's made $50 plus tips, which typically amounted to about $500 per night. After the change in policy to avoid the zoning laws, the bikini-clad dancers could expect to take home about $200. Patrons were quoted as saying, "You can see this on the beach for free. This is no fun."
In the end, the zoning laws won out, and Billy's Topless closed for good in 2001. The space was converted into a bagel
Bagel
A bagel is a bread product, traditionally shaped by hand into the form of a ring from yeasted wheat dough, roughly hand-sized, which is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked. The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior...
shop.
In 2006, an establishment bearing the name "Billy's Topless" appeared at 10th Avenue and 15th Street. It is unknown if there is any connection to the original "Billy's" beyond the name.
People
- Swiss dancer Monica Beerle, student at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary DanceMartha Graham Center of Contemporary DanceMartha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance is located in New York City and is the headquarter to the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and the Martha Graham Dance Company, which is the oldest continually performing dance company in the world....
, roommate and victim of cannibal-murderer Daniel RakowitzDaniel RakowitzDaniel Rakowitz is an American murderer and cannibal. He was born in 1960 in Rockport, Texas, where his father was a policeman. He moved to New York around 1985....
, danced at Billy's. Rakowitz was at one time suspected of having killed as many as eight former dancers from Billy's. - American novelist Alan KaufmanAlan KaufmanAlan Kaufman is an American novelist, memoirist and poet who was instrumental in the development of the Spoken Word movement in literature. He is the author of the memoir Jew Boy, the novel Matches, and is listed as editor of The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry.He is also listed as co-editor of The...
was once a regular at Billy's.
In popular culture
- The 1998 film RoundersRounders (film)Rounders is a 1998 film about the underground world of high-stakes poker. Directed by John Dahl and starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton, the movie follows two friends who need to quickly earn enough cash playing poker to pay off a large debt...
features a scene that takes place at Billy's Topless. - In the Will & GraceWill & GraceWill & Grace was an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 21, 1998 to May 18, 2006 for a total of eight seasons. Will & Grace remains the most successful television series with gay principal characters...
episode "The Buying Game", both Will and Grace mention Billy's Topless in an argument about proper venues for business negotiation. - The liner notes of the 1999 BlondieBlondie (band)Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
album No ExitNo Exit (Blondie album)No Exit is the seventh studio album by the US rock/new wave group Blondie. It was released in February 1999 and marked the first time the band recorded or performed together since 1982, when they released their previous studio album The Hunter....
include the phone number of the bar. - Billy's Topless is the subject of an oil painting by American painter Max Ferguson.