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The “stripper-mobile”, now relegated to a parking lot curiosity, sits near Deja Vu and the Erotic Heritage Museum Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009.
Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Stripper-Mobile in Limbo
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The stripper-mobile is off the streets for now, and the Clark County Commission has proposed to amend a law that would keep it off the streets for good. In this video, see footage of the truck in its prime and hear Deja Vu Showgirls marketing director Larry Beard defend his innovative advertising technique. Another business may have it driving down the street again within two weeks.
Sun Archives
The world has not seen the last of the Las Vegas stripper-mobile, the truck’s owner says.
Fred Robertson, owner of Always Rolling Ads, only quit hauling exotic dancers up and down the Strip last week because the nude clubs that had leased the advertising vehicle decided they didn’t want to take on county commissioners. The commissioners had cited not just complaints from offended onlookers but concerns about safety — the dancers were “unsecured” in the back of the truck, and rubbernecking motorists might drive their cars into pedestrians or other vehicles.
Attorney Jay Brown, representing the clubs, one located in Las Vegas and the other in Clark County, said they decided to have the truck parked for the remainder of its lease because they wanted to be “good citizens.”
But Robertson has his own priorities. “It’s about the right to advertise, to try to help your business,” he said.
Despite its short run on the Strip, his advertising vehicle reportedly doubled the business at Déjà Vu and Little Darlings. With bikini-clad, high-heeled women dancing, wriggling and spinning around a stripper pole affixed to the truck’s Plexiglas-enclosed truck bed, the stripper-mobile also drew international media attention and made it into a Jay Leno monologue.
At least one other business took notice and is in final negotiations to begin using Robertson’s truck. He expects it will roll again in about two weeks.
A source close to the matter told the Sun that the potential client is another strip club. Robertson would neither confirm nor deny that.
“Will content make a difference? I don’t know,” Robertson said.
Steve Sisolak, the commissioner who began looking into the issue after receiving an e-mail from a “disgusted” constituent, said “content makes no difference.”
“It’s about live entertainment,” he said.
In fact, he directed county staff to prepare an amendment to the county code to add the words “live entertainment” to restrictions that “no vehicle shall display or exhibit any signage that contains moving or flashing lights or animation of any kind.”
The rationale for the existing code is safety, Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani said.
But the word “entertainment” is a big problem, said legal onlookers familiar with First Amendment matters.
Las Vegas attorney Dominic Gentile sat through much of Tuesday’s County Commission meeting. Gentile has been the pointman on high-profile First Amendment cases defending the operating rights of those who own adult-oriented newsracks.
On Wednesday, Gentile said the county can “definitely create a law related to public safety that could affect the ability of people ... in a vehicle without seat belts or some sort of safety restraints.”
Creating a stripper-mobile with safety straps of some kind would be difficult, he acknowledged. But if that were possible, Gentile then doubted the county’s ability to restrict anything related to entertainment.
“Because entertainment by its nature is expressive, and protected,” he said. “As soon as they touch that word, it’ll go somewhere. It’ll be a law until someone goes to court to enjoin its enforcement.”
Mary Ann Miller, the county counsel, said some advertising is more distracting than others. “But I don’t think there’s a blanket defense for entertainment,” she said. “Just because it’s entertainment doesn’t mean you can’t regulate it.”
She added that a change in the code will have to be “crafted carefully.”
Allen Lichtenstein, another well-known civil rights attorney who has defended the rights of handbillers on the Strip, said he believes “this is really about content.”
“And in dealing with issues of content that some people don’t like, the county’s been down that road with handbillers,” Lichtenstein said. “If you take all the mobile billboards off the road, they’ll go back to handbilling. So be careful what you wish for.”
There are but three groups of people who are out to make a bigger deal out of this than it should be or have been. CAVE people, those who forget this is Vegas, aka: Citizens Against Virtually Everything, lawyers & politicians. None of the above allowed this style of advertising to get traction and see if it would work safely and properly so now its parked to the applause of the moral motorists group and visitors pushing strollers down the strip at 11:00 p.m.
With all the flashing signs on all the hotels promoting upcoming and current shows distracting drivers its amazing how anybody could think this truck would or could be worse. Girls in bikini's dancing in the back of a truck,...in Vegas,...what would Aunt Agnes think?
You missed one group: Newspapers who increase online circulation by keeping that slide show alive!
I would be upset if they were driving in my street
in aliante at 11 pm, however on the strip I wouldn't think it bothers much.
government has the power to regulate for the health, safety and welfare of the public...
period...
end of story...
it is not about making the strippers wear seat belts...
it is about having a dangerous distraction rolling up and down the busiest street in town...
drivers will look...
drivers will crash...
people will get killed...
government has the power to regulate against those activities that will lead to people getting killed...
period...
end of stroy...
Bring back The Stripper-mobile! I'm sure if they install some type of "seat belt", that will make it impossible for the CCC to pass an ordinance banning it that will stand in court. This isn't Utah and this isn't California... This is Nevada, baby, and we like our freedom here!
Where else but in VEGAS......driving the srip is HARD ENOUGH without that thing taking eyes off the steering wheel or whats in front of them...There is a limit and this is it !! Keep their feet firmly planted on the ground and not flying about inside a tank.
As a former stripper, let me say, this is not about freedom. The drivers have enough distractions. This is dangerous. The people who want the stripper mobile are looking for a free show.
When I was dancing, we made good money without the antics. The quality of the dancers must be bad if they need this. And, you cheapskates go to the club. Stop begging for a freebie
LP
Its like food, a taste test,If it look good you will eat it.I think this is great idea for the strip club.For the cheapskates I guess you have to work it alittle more.My saying is, if in doubt throw it out.
the strip is just a road...
like any other road...
funny how no one questions whether or not this could be stopped on main street in a sleepy suburb...
the strip is no different...
period...
end of story...
in fact...
if you don't stop it on the strip...
it will eventually find it's way onto main street in a sleepy suburb...
period...
end of story...
First off, I have no moral beef with the stripper mobile. The stripper mobile is okay...if you are white trash and have zero taste. And if that is the type of people you want to attract to Vegas fine. Good luck getting taken seriously by serious businesses though, especially those considering relocating here. I am sure the Cleveland Clinic, who is considering moving here would love to have the stripper mobile rolling down LV Blvd, a few blocks from their future new home and billion dollar investment.
People get caught up in the morality of the thing, which to me (and most people) matters nothing. I'm only concerned about Vegas stooping to new levels of tackiness to promote one industry at the possible expense of other industries expanding here.
There are so many laws being violated its not worth listing here...a good lawsuit filed against the derelic owner of the mobile unit will sufficeintly put him on ice...I'm sure he is living commission to commission like a true LV scumbag.
Birdie,
Any number of things on the strip can create rubber necking and rear ending - no puns intended. That excuse is lame, at best. This wasn't about health and safety as much as it is about nanny staters and do-gooders trying to spoil someone else's fun.
hey patrick...
once again you are lost and confused my friend...
barely dressed ladies are the greatest distraction known to man...
ever...
in the history of the world...
just look at the picture above with the kids in the truck...
their damn eyes are going to pop out...
i am for fun as much as the next guy...
but this is dangerous...
drivers will look...
drivers will crash...
people will get killed...
that is wrong...
period...
end of story...
oh by the way...
don't you ever get tired on being on the same side of the argument as the bad guys...
wow wee...
how the hell do you sleep at night...
I really don't have a problem with the stripper mobile so long as it runs late night hours on the strip.
Hey, you know, Las Vegas has no standards and this rolling exhibit will make sure everybody knows it. Send your daughters to Las Vegas so we can turn them into highly paid whores.
Just perfect.
As usual, Birdie nailed it.
It's safety stupid. Crashing into a sidewalk to watch Delilah go around the pole and taking out the Smiths from St. Louis and the Joneses from Seattle wouldn't help Vegas. Or Seattle or Saint Louis.
It's a cheap thrill, so Vegas would be the place if any ever. Sorry, you cheap bastards. You'll have to pay Guido to watch Delilah bounce around.
Lawyers give free advice to get clients. Grocery stores offer free treats to entice purchase of specified products.
Why can't we endanger lives, destroy our city's image to further hamper our economy and force already destitute dancers to face the guilt associated with being the one whose enticing moves killed the kids on the strip when the driver swerved to watch HER?
Courting trouble. It's not about freedom of speech; it's about society surviving stupidity and not stacking the deck against ourselves. Who wants to jeopardize visitor numbers, health, safety and Delilah's conscience just so jackoffs can see some free flashy flesh float by?
"Old people, fat people, ugly people, and poor people are ruining Las Vegas. MOVE OUT! NO ONE WANTS YOU HERE! Go back to whatever craphole state you came from. You idiots move to a city nicknamed "Sin City". WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?"
I love this argument. So we should have no industry or jobs here unless they perpetuate the Sin City nickname?
The concept of a city built entirely on hedonism has proven to be a gigantic failure. We have nearly 15 percent unemployment. If Las Vegas wants to truly by a major city, and be taken seriously by other industries and businesses, it needs to draw a line somewhere before it irreversibly turns itself into a second rate cartoon.
My opinion has nothing to do with morals. Personally, I could care less what degenerates like JonnyTwoFingaz do in their spare time. Rather, my opinion is based entirely on economics and the hope that Vegas can become a truly thriving city. The stripper mobile is completely tasteless, and the vast majority of even blue staters would agree. It perpetuates the (inaccurate) belief that Vegas residents are nothing but self-indulgent, white trash, mouth breathers.
Like I said before, the Cleveland Clinic is considering building a billion dollar facility a couple of blocks from LV Blvd. They will need to attract the best doctors and administrators in the country to run it. Do you think they want the tacky, tasteless stripper mobile patrolling their neighborhood?
I'm sorry, but, how many crashes occurred because of this?
Hook,
The reason the mobile wouldn't get far inside the hotel is the ~12,000 parts per million of carbon monoxide exiting the exhaust pipe and entering the lungs of the paying hotel folks.
Even in Vegas, Baby, people still can die when exposed to the most powerful neurotoxin known to man.
It runs 'em down like a two ton truck crushing a cranium on a concrete slab.
Air, be honest now, the latest studies on that here in Vegas showed no statistical difference between non-smoking workers in smoking areas and non smoking workers in non-smoking areas of the Casino.
Some people just hate when other people enjoy life.
Patrick,
The truck, sir, is the one with the tailpipe. In Hook's scenario, the babe-mobile was in the hotel. My point was merely that exhaust from the truck dumping into the lungs of the people who might have wanted to come here to gamble, see a show or ball their co-worker could prove distasteful, so to speak. As is your common practice, you completely missed the clear reference and jumped to a topic about which you have a statistic to share. Thanks!
You're right, I misred your post. But get real. One whole truck would not dissuade that many people from coming here. But maybe you weren't aware that carbon monoxide emissions have been severely reduced in vehicles by modern technology. As is your common practice, you make a big deal about nothing.
Patrick,
Many of us worked long and hard to reduce CO production in vehicles. Some of us still care about this place and these people. We even waste our time dealing with some who don't value life, Mr. Gibbons, as we do.
Does this mean that we will be seeing seat belts on school bus's and the many shuttle bus's around vegas?
How about parades where we see folks standing/dancing on floats?
Personally I think the stripper mobile is in baaaaad taste..but ... that's just my opinion!
They still don't strap kids in on the school bus. I can't picture a parade with straps. But I can picture a stripper-mobile using straps and whips and toys to HEIGHTEN their appeal.
Whoever said "white trash mouthbreathers" gets my vote for the bet cartoon image for Vegas and our contribution to culture. I think it was that homo_erectus character.
Look at it this way: All those young ladies in those new City Center clubs will have a place to work after they get laid off from their places of employment due to lack of business.
And it IS a safety issue. It is safe to assume that there are plenty of drunk drivers on the Strip, a lot of bravado from the testerone-charged 20-somethings that visit every weekend. Add those two together and it is an accident waiting to happen.
Air,
Unless you were inventing engines you didn't do a darn thing to reduce carbon monoxide emissions. And don't think for a moment that me stating your claims are absurd means I don't care.
10 years ago the average vehicle put out 600lbs of carbon monoxide into the air every year. A larger truck today wouldn't put out much more. Now how many trucks and cars do you think pass up and down the strip every day?
Your point was silly, at best. I think you were reaching just to have something tangible to base your objections on (ie, you have no evidence to suggest the advertisements physically harmed anyone so you have to make a bogus statement that just might sound reasonable to some).
It is a sad day for Las Vegas, Its alot of different thing's, morelity being one the other's are who would want to come here with a business unless your in the health care industry and you can make your money cleaning the hooker and their johns up from the filth they expose each other and their family's to. Yes we have bill boards and they are as well un-pleasant to look at and most of the women don't even look like that, look at the ones in the back of that piece of crap, that was ugly. I haven't seen so many flabby arms durning the waving, bad skin and pot bellies since I watch animal kingdom and the girls should be ashamed of them selves. Yes it ran about a week and there were no deaths yet and I say yet, it just takes someone to take their eyes off the road for a second and up to 20 people could be run down for a cheap thrill. I watched the scummy men holding up traffic, like the other person said to get a free thrill go to the club. I know a lot of people out there have no morals and if you want to live that way go to a dam Island and take all your friends with you because we all don't want to live that way. This is why we find kids raped and in trash or left on the side of the roads,this is sad and if you don't think so think of your mother, sister or daughter how would you feel?. Las Vegas needs to be known as a fun place to go not a place to go and get laid, the world is laughing at us and we will never be taken serious. What happens in Vegas goes with you.
Rent it to Steve who lacks sizzle and give him a seat in the back complete with a seat belt and a sign advertising him for re-election. I wonder how many would crash after looking at him?
Too much is not enough! I want my STRIPPERMOBILE!
You are in Las Vegas people, not Vatican City. It appears Las Vegas will die before the socialist regime ends. I am so tired of the government running our lives. Let free enterprise work, if the people do not like the van, they will not support the club. If you do not want to see something like girls dressed in scantily clad clothes dancing on a pole you shouldn't be on the Vegas strip!
I agree Wizard, it's just letting the world know what a cesspool we live in and come on in and make our lives a living hell then go back to your clean neighborhoods while we waller around in the filth. I have Grand children girls and boys and their parents are trying their best to raise them right, why do we make them think this is ok. I would like to see how the people who think its great live... Pigs
I have the freedom to go where I dam well please Dr. Scott, who are you to push your sick twisted filth off of others, If I don't like smoke I don't go to that place but I have other places I can go durning what ever hour's I like, if I have company and want to take them to the strip what am I supposed to do??? blind fold them. Your not a real doctor take that Dr. off the front of the name.... Scott
Where were did we rank last week in the nation for STD's #2... I rest my case.
First of all we don't walk the strip we park, I'm grown and bathing suits or not upside down on a pole with your legs spread is something I look at as trash like your name REDNECK, your most likely riding the strip in your el-camino giving the yell YOOO HOOO with a couple of beers. Your the type of person that would bring down a neighborhood. You go back to the wood to which you came and take you inbread women with you.
The Mexican's are as well wrong for handing out those cards, I remember walking the strip with my kid and it was early in the day and we had to kick pages of women sitting spread eagle off the side walk hoping my children didn't see it and that was the last time they went on the strip. They as well discuss me, look at mexico get a clue because they do it does not make it right, its people like you who would sell their mother, daughter and sister and maybe their boy's for a cheap thrill. I don't go to church either, its just I have morals... something lacking today and you wonder why so many marriages fail. I guess I have something alot of people don't these days...
no more of a distraction than signs on the strip, the TI pirate show etc... sisylack is a goody two shoes, the idea will be adopted in Amsterdam or Rio etc. and we will lose the business...this was a good draw for Vegas. I wish these people would go back to Utah
Thank goodness the STRIPPER MOBILE WILL BE BACK! I would like to be the driver.
I am glad that it is cool outside - on accounta cause the heat is ok - not much light because there is enough light on the strip. I like joe six-packs but not sure about lots of these comments. Maybe Sarah Palin should ride in the stripper mobile!
If you met your wife at a family reunion, You might be a redneck!
I say ban the card flippers, or at least make them pick up all the debris they pass out that gets tossed to the ground 2 seconds later. Maybe have a limit, 50 foot distance between them minimum. They're worse than ONE truck on the road, and I'm not really a fan of that truck either, but as another person said...."this ain't Utah, It's Vegas Baby"!
That skelton on the pole needs some cheeseburgers.
If there are no morals and standards, then why stifle creativity and free speech. Let the girls spread their legs for all to see on the boulevard.
I mean, who cares? right?!!!
Redneck, I did mis-spell in-bred I was so fired up but just to let you know your mother and sister's are holding it down and there aren't any openings....
I do not have an issue with a hot bunch of woman in a stripper van, the thing that is going to happen is there will be an accident and those hot woman will be injuried. It is not that tough folks - an object that is in motion, stays in motion until acted on by a greater force. In this case the pavement! Do you not see all of the signs over town that say "click it or ticket it!"
It is only a matter of time until there is an accident, and then some beautifil girl will be hurt and people will be saying - "yeah that probably was not the best idea"
You have the right to advertise, no problem, Every sign down on the strip has a gal in a thong, big deal. You can not walk down the strip without someone handing you a card for hot women. But the primary issue here is safety. I love to see a beautfil woman, but don't want to see any of them injuried - the bottom line is that this is not safe!
mormonwithabrain.....I would expect nothing less from a mormon. Totally mindless
:D
the political signs that have rebar sticking up are a violation of osha safety regulations
The amount of lineage of the comments would be a good publication for prosterity.
The thought of a person sitting in a mobile knitting hand knit socks to be worn when cold weather is blowing the sand, snow and wind could be more of an attraction than the rolling stripper mobile. The advertising of such a rolling exhibit of domestic acuity would more than pay for the flight to Las Vegas to witness such an enterprising person.
Doesn't the use of the rolling mobile for this demonstration bring more reasonable thoughts to mind than a rolling mobile with strippers who totter around in high heels pushing walkers.
So what if some drunk rolls over the sidewalk watching Wanda wield her weapons in the wagon? It's what we want, right? Can't let a little stupidity fuq up our fun, can we? This is Vegas; we can be as stupid as imaginable, right? We need people to come here, right? So let's give 'em a show to remember. thump, thump, Crunch
Advertisement trick, cheap and unsafe. Where is a million dollar stage.
These guys are never learning until it's too late.
DRIVER DISTRACTION INDEX:
Hand held-cell phones...3 points;
cheeseburger...1 point;
naked babes hunchin at horny drunk guy from provo or keokuk in babe-mobile...off chart!
LV, built by pimps for johns, losers and drunks
go ahead. crush your strip strollers, and numbers will never come back. get a clue b4 it's 2 late.
I think it's hilarious and what else whould one expect to see in Las Vegas. Children don't belong on the Strip anyway and good parents should not bring them there.
I have read all the above arguements and I have a Class A License and would love to apply for a job driving the Stripper-mobile.
I live in Vermont where we can't even have Billboards to help business! Tourists come here and can't find what they are looking for. My wife and I go to Vegas every year and enjoy the free lifestyle! I wish that we had the chance here in Vermont to do what Vegas has done. This state (Vermont) is dieing because of the radical 60's hippies that control our state! Don't let that happen to Nevada!! If you get rid of all the glitter and free style of Vegas you will end up with a dead city and will be just like other cities and states that have no future. Vegas' future is in it's past! Bring back the old Vegas for the world to travel to and spend their money and enjoy!
Zip a dee do dah.
edandersonvt: Want to take it home with you? you can. Again we go back to... let me walk my dog on your lawn and I can go home where mine is clean and I won't have to pick it up. Get a stripper mobile in your town and roll it down your street, yes again its dangerous to the tourist and the stupid women riding in it in hopes someone will come to their clubs so they can bounce on their laps for a dollar.... The club owner is the one who is making the money. Yes put them in seat belts and let's see what happens than, they would then start using hand and mouth gesture's which are even worst because that is what they do.. its sad if that's all we have as a city and a people and again that's why we are not respected as a city. We have no winning sports teams but we got like they say Milk) we got Sex. WOW!!!!
Weapons of mass distraction bouncing for bucks and yucks and ?
Do you want to die for 'em ? Go to Vegas and gander while the drunks wander awound the woad. woops! gotcha
Patrick writes,
"carbon monoxide emissions have been severely reduced in vehicles by modern technology."
Air responds that it was actually work performed by people that reduced CO production.
Patrick writes, "Unless you were inventing engines you didn't do a darn thing to reduce carbon monoxide emissions. And don't think for a moment that me stating your claims are absurd means I don't care.
10 years ago the average vehicle put out 600lbs of carbon monoxide into the air every year. A larger truck today wouldn't put out much more. Now how many trucks and cars do you think pass up and down the strip every day?
Your point was silly, at best. I think you were reaching just to have something tangible to base your objections on (ie, you have no evidence to suggest the advertisements physically harmed anyone so you have to make a bogus statement that just might sound reasonable to some).
Who was reaching with immaterial, contrived vitriol?
I think we need hooker mobile!
To rmjlv
Get a life, Las Vegas was designed for adults. Stop insulting people who enjoy what Vegas was intended to be, better yet grow up and become an adult. If you want to live in Mayberry move there. If you do not like lewd activity then MOVE!
To all the citizens that voted for the high and mighty politicians, look at your TIPS and think next time before you vote.
Ram it down their throats!
We are Vegas! Rah! Rah! Rah!
Give us yer lusty, wanton mouth-breathers longing for love!
I got a light! it's red, but it works.