Stripper

A Baltimore police lieutenant facing more than 50 departmental misconduct charges took the stand in his own defense at a hearing yesterday and denied working at an underground strip club - an allegation at the heart of the case against him. Lt. John M. Mack, a 17-year veteran assigned to the Northwestern District, told a three-member police trial board that the sole reason he was at Ronnie's West Side Gallery, in the 2100 block of W. Lanvale St., in...

It's a good bet that "Gypsy" will always be playing somewhere. One of Broadway's most distinguished shows, it gave theater legend Ethel Merman her greatest role as Mama Rose with its opening in 1959, and has been brought back in revivals there and in film. The latest local production opens Saturday at the Chesapeake Music Hall dinner theater for a seven-week run. Owner, choreographer and Jill-of-all-trades Sherry Kay Anderson will be heading the cast in Merman's famous role. Based on the autobiography of burlesque stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, the Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim musical centers on quintessential stage mother Rose Novick, who "has a dream" that younger daughter June can break into show business.

If you're a new novelist hungry for attention, it helps to mention embarrassing facts about yourself on the inside of the book jacket. Served time for a major felony? Be sure to include the name of the correctional facility. Suffered addiction or abuse? Don't forget to specify the number of years. First novelist Tawni O'Dell has so much personal information to confess that she's produced a three-page autobiographical statement to accompany review copies of "Back Roads" (Viking, 338 pages, $24.95)

An article in yesterday's Today section misstated the name of the actress portraying the trumpet-playing stripper in the production of "Gypsy" at Theatre on the Hill. The actress is Dine Mongold.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 8/04/98

An article in yesterday's Today section misstated the name of the actress portraying the trumpet-playing stripper in the production of "Gypsy" at Theatre on the Hill. The actress is Dine Mongold.The Sun regrets the error.Although the musical "Gypsy" is named for stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, the main character is actually Gypsy's mother. A production doesn't stand a chance without a strong Mama Rose (the archetypal stage mother), and at Theatre on the Hill, brassy Valerie J. di-Lorenzo is definitely a strong presence.

A third nightclub on The Block lost its license to stage striptease dancing this week as Baltimore continues its heightened regulation of the red-light district.Club Chez Joey is the latest strip bar to have its adult-entertainment license revoked because three dancers were convicted of prostitution within a year. The bar will remain open while appealing to the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals.After years of lax enforcement, the city has cracked down in recent months on prostitution, obscene stage acts and zoning violations on The Block, the nationally known but deteriorated adult night-life zone.

Nightclub dancers in Baltimore may soon have to get a license to strip.In another attempt to crack down on adult entertainment, the administration of Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke wants strip-tease dancers, bartenders and barkers to be licensed to work in lounges on The Block and elsewhere in the city.The proposal, introduced in the City Council last night, would require employees of show bars to pay a fee for an annual license that would be issued by the housing department.To get the city's permission to work, a dancer, barker or bartender would have to be at least 18 years old. The bill, if approved, would allow the city to suspend or revoke the license if an employee is convicted of drug use, prostitution or related criminal offenses.

Even in the face of possible danger from unruly patrons and the mean streets, crowds of young women flock to Volcano's on Wednesday nights, eager to chase away the boredom of midweek and to eye the male strippers that perform there.And as has happened before, this week revelry gave way to tragedy as two college students were gunned down in a explosive display of violence. To those familiar with the club, though, such mayhem is a result of a few troublemakers and the crime-ridden area that surrounds the nightspot.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The peep booths at the Lusty Lady Theatre are barely bigger than telephone booths, but the men who hurry in and out -- and there are lots of them at dusk on a Friday evening -- don't seem to mind.They've come for the view. Put in a quarter, or a dollar or a twenty, and a tinted screen rises to reveal a clear window, behind which four young women dance wearing nothing but high-heels.The vacant sign lights up on booth No. 4, and a blond-haired, fresh-faced dancer who calls herself Polly enters the booth.

A stripper on Baltimore's Block and two of her friends were charged yesterday in the fatal beating of a cook who was killed soon after he left work at the Brass Elephant restaurant on North Charles Street.The arrests capped a two-week investigation and might end a mystery for the victim's friends and family, who had wondered how the 26-year-old went out to buy beer and ended up beaten in Armistead Gardens in Northeast Baltimore.Police said that the victim, Michael Wayne Cole, who lived in the 900 block of N. Calvert St., walked to the Flamingo Bar on Custom House Avenue Aug. 1 and befriended a 24-year-old stripper who dances under the name of "Tammy."