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The shuttered Crazy Horse Too on Industrial Road has been shuttered since Aug. 23. (JOHN KATSILOMETES/STAFF)
Change afoot backstage at notorious strip clubs
T
here has been a lot of tap dancing in the land of lap dancing recently. A few developments from some of our more famous topless haunts: n After a six-month dormancy, a new owner of Club Paradise, across from the Hard Rock Hotel, plans to reopen the establishment in January. The new investor in the 20-year-old nightspot is Steve Park, the proprietor of clubs in Philadelphia, New Jersey and Atlanta. Club Paradise previously was owned by C.P. Food and Beverage Inc., managed from Chicago by Sam and Geralyn Cecola. That ownership schematic has proved infamous over the years. In 1997, Sam Cecola was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for defrauding the Internal Revenue Service and filing false income tax returns. He was released in 2000. To prevent his liquor license from being revoked, Cecola transfered majority ownership of the club to his wife. Club Paradise regularly was the focus of unsettling reports of illicit activity. Five years ago, a tourist from
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all levels of operation: Kansas City claimed he bartenders, bar backs, blacked out during an security guards, valets, early-morning visit to the cashiers, cocktail waitclub and was stunned to resses — everything but find $29,500 in charges, the dancers themselves. including a $4,000 bar tab As it has been explained to and more than $25,000 me, “No top-level dancer “unexplained services” would show up at a job from a sextet of exotic JOHN fair.” dancers. KATSILOMETES n The saying about Club Paradise was shut beating a dead horse apdown in early June after it plies here. Crazy Horse was raided by IRS agents III has prevailed over what has become and Metro Police detectives acting on something of a lifeless opponent, Crazy reports of credit card fraud and other Horse Too, in crisscrossing lawsuits violations. over the Crazy Horse Too brand. Park now wants to change the busiThe latest ruling states that the current ness’s reputation, and possibly its owners of what has been known as Crazy name, which is equal measures famous Horse Too cannot use that name in any and notorious. He is said to be a mellow advertising or marketing of the club. sort who hails from South Korea and is In February, then-owner Mike Galam eager to sort out the intricacies of the prevailed in U.S. District Court when Las Vegas marketplace. he sought to restore the club’s original Steering clear of Metro Police would name. He argued that when he bought be a great place to start. the club in May 2013, the name came The beginning of the new era of Club with it. Galam since has turned over Paradise begins this week. A job fair is ownership to a group of investors led scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesby onetime business partner and club day at the club. Park needs staff to fill
manager Craig Franze, founder of the concierge company Zexzoo and a man familiar with the Vegas strip-club scene. But Crazy Horse Too has been dark since Aug. 23, when it was closed by enforcement agents from the city’s business licensing department. The club had been hit with 18 violations of its liquor and cabaret license — which Galam consistently said was the result of repeated and unfair inspections from city officials, 27 total in 14 months. Crazy Horse III has been represented by Las Vegas attorney Puoy Premsrirut of Brown Brown & Premsrirut. At the moment, Franze is running the Mile High Gentlemen’s club in Clearwater, Fla. Galam is something of a partner there, too, but both he and Franze stress that Galam is not a formal investor. He just pitches ideas, evidently, based on his experience with clubs in L.A. and, yes, Crazy Horse Too in Las Vegas. And at this writing, the famous Crazy Horse Too sign on Industrial Road near the I-15 onramp remains in place, as dark and foreboding as a gravestone.
12/4/14 3:06 PM