There's No Business Like...

Working in show bidness can be tough duty. Ask anybody who knows. It’s not all laughs.

For instance, one evening a couple of traveling porn queens came by the Biograph Theatre. Naturally, they asked for the manager.

So I was fetched from my sanctuary office to talk with Annie Sprinkle and another woman (the one in the photo) who claimed she was from Richmond (Hermitage High). Sometimes, the X-rated touring performers from the live shows at the Lee Art Theater in the next block of Grace stopped by, so I figured that was the deal.

Like, maybe they were film buffs who wanted free passes? They had a limo parked in front of the theater. Their driver was a dwarf. No joke.

After what sounded to me like a lot of cocaine-driven nonsense about a glossy magazine spread, and how they'd been to other local landmarks, Annie asked me to pose in front of the theater with the other lady.

It was 1980. Those were simpler times. Why not?

As Annie told me to stand a little closer, what’s-her-name? -- I think it might have been Honey -- gave me a hug and flashed what I quickly suspected to be her left breast. My reaction was honest, spontaneous. The women had what they wanted. They giggled and piled back into the limo with the dwarf and drove off into the night.

My Biograph co-workers couldn't stop laughing, as they had seen the whole thing through the cinemascopic front windows.

Later the silly picture above showed up in Partner Magazine, a forgettable, low-rent skin 'zine. The feature displayed other shots of Honey in various flash modes in front of familiar local landmarks. Some were raunchier, so I was lucky. Roy Scherer brought a copy of the magazine by to me at the theater, to make sure I didn't miss it.

To change the subject, the very next year Grace Street was changed from a west-only one-way street to two-way. The change was probably toughest on the winos, but it wasn't easy on anybody. In some ways, that neighborhood hasn't been the same since.

And, good night Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are..."