19/10/2021
Richie Serrano was always a trendsetter. He would be married three
times, once to a dancer at the Las Vegas Hilton who performed with
Engelbert Humperdinck. The other two Mrs. Serranos worked for his outcall business. Rich was always attracted to st*****rs, ladies of the evening, and his conquests. I don't think Rich was really into sex—just the sense of a conquest. Like all the other guys in our dressing room, a lot of them boasted about their women conquests or male conquests or tr*******al conquests. Richie was a very smart man, very close to his family but kind of an oddball where his two siblings became New Jersey highway patrolmen and his other brother became an attorney.
The movie Flashdance with Jennifer Beals would be an icon of
the early 80s. Everybody wore the Flashdance sweatshirt, the
headband, and of course they loved Irene Cara's big hit “What a
Feeling.” That was the song that we used in our closing number. Oliver would call out each dancer for our closing number. While he's up in the DJ booth announcing the dancers, we hear Irene Cara's “What a Feeling.” Totally 80s. Richie announced as line captain, not only were we going to use the theme song for the closing number, but we were also going to wear leg warmers and headbands. Early 1980s you heard the vernacular term, “boy that's really gay.” Even the openly gay guys like Troy would say as we were getting dressed to be announced, man that's pretty gay. Richie as I mention was dating and eventually married Chrissy who was a dancer for Engelbert Humperdinck. He was really having a dance fe**sh, but of course making his living as a dancer and
then in marrying a showgirl, he was inundated with Flashdance. I was more of a Saturday Night Fever, Urban Cowboy influenced performer, and of course Eric Estrada as Poncherello in CHIPs on TV. I was in agreement with Troy—I thought that it was pretty ambitious to try to emulate the Flashdance moves. And I thought it was just not manly enough. But we pulled it off with those white Tuxedos and those Abraham Lincoln stovetop hats. Can you say true anachronism again: 1865, meet 1981? Our original choreographer was Timmy Conway, not to be mistaken for the comedy actor, but most of us knew him as Gay Tim. We all had show names, and we were all proud of it, Gay Tim never
squawked about his nickname. Gay Bob was a flamboyant Liberace type of stripper. He would strip to a song called “Istanbul Blues” from the film Midnight Express, starting out in a three-piece blue suit, and the women would swoon over him. He would kibbitz with Rich Serrano the Italian Stallion. When the film The Raging Bull came out directed by Martin Scorsese, I had never been exposed to New York, but I was into that film. I was also into Woody Allen films like Zelig about the amazing chameleon man who constantly changed his identity.
Well the legwarmers stayed and the headbands stayed throughout the 80s. During that time Al Phillips The Cleaners was the big laundry cleaning store in town. I used to take my uniform, the highway patrolman’s uniform, to Al Phillips cleaners on Maryland Parkway across the street from the Boulevard Mall.
Paul Sinatra's wife at that time Lori, who was daughter of Louis
Tavano, who was part owner with Ronnie and Al Maranto at Bogie's.
I've always said back then that it was such a small town.
Whenever I would bring my uniform in the girls would reek the
cost of perfume and sweat, Lori would always make a crack about it but she was always nice. Sexy Eric would also take his uniform or his headdress and g-string to Al Phillips also with his tuxedo. Between all the st*****rs going to Al Phillips, the cleaners was a hodgepodge of odors—it smelled like a French w**** house. I wore Oleg Cassini, and I had to buy at least two bottles a week. Sexy Eric would buy at least four bottles a week. If he didn't wear Liz Taylor, he went to find Frenchy's Brut. Brut is probably the cheapest cologne you could wear—that's Frenchie for you.This is part of the book, my memoirs, I hope it's not offending anyone on Facebook, it's history.
Tracy Vaccaro, Pl***oy model , (she eventually married
Los Angeles Rams football player Fred Dryer) with Bogie' s
dancer and Las Vegas Entertainer David “ Ra z z ma t a z z ”
Artigues.
