Dancers defend ads for Crazy Girls show

By Jeff German (contact)

Friday, April 9, 1999 | 11:07 a.m.

The Riviera's Crazy Girls aren't crazy about a state senator's push to remove a sexy ad showing their bare backsides from Las Vegas taxicabs.

Several of the popular production show's dancers and cast members said Thursday they don't understand why state Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, finds the trademark ad too seductive.

"There's nothing dirty about our ad," Karen Raider, an original member of the dance team and the show's manager, said. "That's how people recognize our show."

Dancer Marla Gomes added: "Why all of a sudden has it become vulgar?"

O'Donnell chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, which has been considering a bill to reform the regulation of the taxicab industry. He said the cab companies have agreed to ask the Crazy Girls to replace the ad with something less risque.

He said he asked the companies to clean up the advertisements, which appear on the trunks of the cabs, as a concession for his work in pushing the regulatory changes.

"What I'm concerned about is the revealing nudity," O'Donnell said. "I don't want my 12-year-old to see that."

O'Donnell said the Crazy Girls ad isn't in keeping with the family image Las Vegas is promoting around the world.

"This community isn't just for adults only," he said. "There are a lot of kids here."

Ray Chenoweth, owner of Nellis Cab Co., said his company already has sent a letter to the Crazy Girls asking the show to replace the ad.

O'Donnell "asked us to do it," Chenoweth said. "He said he found it offensive and he felt we should have something more conducive to a family setting."

But Raider and Norbert Aleman, who created the show 12 years ago, said they have no intention of changing the ad, which they consider their signature in Las Vegas.

"We're not taking it down," Raider said. "It would really hurt the show if we had to do that."

Aleman said the ad has been on the trunks of about 250 cabs the past four years and has never before attracted any concerns from elected officials.

The ad -- which features the bare butts of seven of the eight Crazy Girls under the slogan "No ifs ands or ..." -- is a smaller version of two giant billboards in town. A similar life-size bronze statue of the dancers sits outside the Riviera.

In 1994 city officials sought to persuade the Riviera to take down a billboard on Fourth Street near City Hall, but the Strip hotel and the show refused.

When the Riviera unveiled the bronze statue two years ago, the National Organization for Women staged a mild protest. But there has been no controversy since then.

Dale Barsness, owner of Trans Ad, which has placed the ad on about 200 of the the taxis, is siding with the Crazy Girls in the latest tiff.

"The positive comments about the ad far outweigh the negative comments," Barsness said. "I think it's very eye-catching. It's not in violation of any ethical code as far as I know."

He said the ad brings a lot of business to the show.

O'Donnell is setting a bad precedent by meddling in the advertising business, Allen Lichtenstein, a lawyer and board member of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said.

"I don't think a particular state senator's view of what image he would like to see on cabs can dictate content-based restrictions on protected expression," Lichtenstein said.

Bob Vannucci, executive vice president of marketing at the Riviera, declined comment.

But Carole Montgomery, the X-rated Crazy Girls comic, said there was little question that the effort to ban the ad infringes on the show's First Amendment rights.

"We're in America," she said. "One of the things we have going for us in this country is freedom of speech.

"Adam and Eve were wearing fig leaves," Montgomery added, "and their butts were showing, too."

Raider and Gomes said the Crazy Girls consider themselves a part of the community and often participate in charitable events.

The dancers once posed in costume for a photo with former Gov. Bob Miller while he entertained the nation's governors at the Mirage.