ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI-FOX2now.com)—
A truck with revealing cargo passes through St. Louis, sparking outrage. It's called "the strippermobile." At first, Mayor Francis Slay said he didn't like it, but wasn't sure he could stop it. Now, the mayor is doing all he can to keep the Hustler Club "moving ad" out of town. Mary Ellen Ponder, St. Louis Goverment Affairs Director, explains, "We're having our attorneys looking into banning the strippermobile from St. Louis City."She says Mayor Slay has received a "handful" of complaints since the "reveals" on wheels came to town. It ran around Busch Stadium as the crowd was exiting, exposing pole dancers in bikinis to everyone including youngsters.
The strippermobile publicizes Larry Flint's "Hustler" Club in the Metro East. Efforts to get comments from them failed.
Dwight Kossman runs "stlstrippers," a division of Romeo and Juliet Productions. They provide strippers for private parties. He said if he could afford it, he'd use a "stripper-mobile" for advertising.
But, he takes issue, too, of supplying the young crowd with eye candy, "I don't see anything wrong with what they did, except for the fact that they put it out there in front of a younger audience."
The stripper-mobile was kicked out of Vegas for causing traffic congestion. It has run into controversy in cities like Baltimore, Tampa and New Orleans.
Ponder says, "I think we can find some reasons. Some safety reasons, especially, with the ways our seat belt laws are these days. The strippers are surely not fastened into any seat."
Kossman adds, "Every time the driver would hit the brakes, it was just like being on the MetroLink or something." Most of the time they brace themselves with the pole when not physically embracing the pole.
Ponder says, "Right now, it's legal. It's tacky. But it's still legal."
It gives new meaning to the term "recreational vehicle!"
In cities where they've run into trouble, the "strippermobile" was shut down so far without any argument.
