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Hollywood Tropicana Memories

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Today's Sunset Stripentry below reminds this LAist of a Rodger Jacobs piece, "Wrestling with Mariel Hemingway.""I didn’t tell Steve about the dreams until we were well into our second year of marriage. At first he laughed it off as a silly recurring dream but when he realized the serious intensity of the nocturnal wanderings of my mind he opted for some rather unique therapy. This was back in the day when the Hollywood Tropicana was still up and running, though just barely. The club was on Western Avenue in Hollywood between Sunset and Santa Monica Boulevard. The night that Steve and I went to the Tropicana they had only recently lost their liquor license due to one violation or another. The cover was ten dollars with a two soft drink minimum.

The main attraction at the Tropicana then – as always – was the oil and mud wrestling. The dancers first come out and do a tasteful strip with costumes and then the customers who want to get in on the action bid for the girl and the winner of the bid gets to wrestle with the dancer."

Ah, the good old days when patrons didn't care about the quality of the food or drinks at strip clubs.

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