Leroy Griffith

Leroy Charles Griffith (born March 26, 1932) is an American theater and nightclub proprietor, former Broadway theater producer, and film producer. He has owned, leased, or operated more than 60 adult entertainment theaters across the United States, dating from the burlesque era of the 1950s to present day nightclubs. During burlesque's heyday, he was a prolific producer of live stage shows featuring showgirls, strippers, comedians, and other stars of the era.
His business endeavors in the adult entertainment industry have, for decades, put him at odds with restrictive municipalities, and he has taken legal action, often successfully, to be able to operate his establishments.

Griffith was born in Poplar Bluff, Missouri to Floyd R. and Stella Griffith. His father was a theater owner. The younger Griffith began as a projectionist, cashier, and usher at a local theater in his hometown. At 17, he left for St. Louis and a job working concessions for Oscar Markovich at the Grand Burlesque Theater. At the Grand, Griffith started as a "candy butcher," hawking candy and trinkets to audiences before and during intermission. "In those days," he said in a 1993 interview, "they had probably 30 people in the cast, a chorus line, an orchestra, two comics, a singer, a vaudeville act, and then five exotic dancers. It was a good show."

Griffith with actress Britt Ekland during filming of the burlesque movie The Night They Raided Minsky's in 1967. The film was shot in one of Griffith's Manhattan theaters, the Gayety.

Griffith discovered that any profit to be made was not from the show itself but from the concession stand: "That's where I was. In between acts, the pitchman would sell prize packages, candy, stuff like that. Concessions was where the real money was, just like it is with regular movies today." After working his way up to concession manager, Griffith began saving money, his eye set on greater aspirations.

Military service

In 1955, Griffith was drafted into the armed services. While stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska, he worked with Bob Hope's USO show (featuring Jerry Colonna, Mickey Mantle, and Ginger Rogers, among others) when Hope was on tour there in December 1956.

After an early discharge, Griffith acquired his first theater, the Star, in Portland, Ore. After a limited operation of a Kansas City, Mo., restaurant and another period of short-term employment with Markovich, he opened a theater in Detroit. He was in his mid-twenties.

Theater and club owner

Identifying "legitimate" theaters that were going out of business, Griffith began acquiring them. "These places would go under," he said in a 1993 interview, "and I'd go in and take over and make them successful with an adult policy." He soon acquired theaters throughout the United States.

South Florida (1961- )

"One time Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Sinatra, and Belle Barth came into the Gayety Theater [in Miami Beach] when I was running it. We had a Chinese dinner together, and then started watching the coming attractions for an X-rated film that was going to be running. For fun we shut the sound off and the three of them -- Frank, Sammy, and Belle -- improvised the sounds to go along with the scenes. They were all moaning and groaning and making funny noises. It was hysterical." — Griffith

On a visit to Miami Beach in 1961, Griffith noticed the Paris Theater at 550 Washington Avenue was for sale. He leased it, then bought it, originally staging burlesque, including featuring Tempest Storm. But back in the early '60s, Griffith didn't call it "burlesque"; doing so would have been against local law. "You couldn't even use the word," he recalled in a 1993 interview. "I had one big stage show called 'The Top Stars of Burlesque,' with Blaze Starr and all these people. I told the city, 'It's not burlesque. It's the top stars of burlesque. There's no law against the people of burlesque.' The city decided they'd fix me by charging me $1,000 for a special license to do the show. I said fine. I was going to have to pay $1,600 for a regular permit anyway."

A promotional poster for Griffith's '60s Broadway revue, Hello Burlesque.

Griffith continued to open new venues throughout South Florida, from Broward County in the north to Key West in the south. In addition to bringing in live acts, he began showing movies. He also began producing films and exhibiting them in his theaters.

A young Mickey Rourke once worked for Griffith as a cashier and projectionist at one of his Miami Beach theaters.

Film producer

Griffith produced Bell, Bare and Beautiful (1963), Lullaby of Bareland (1964), Mundo depravados (1967), and My Third Wife, George (1968).

Film appearances

Griffith played brief cameo parts in some of his films. His recollections of the burlesque era are featured in Leslie Zemeckis's 2010 documentary, Behind the Burly Q.

Broadway producer

This Was Burlesque, a revue conceived by and starring burlesque star Ann Corio, was staged at Griffith's Hudson Theater on Broadway during the 1964-65 season. It went on to tour across the U.S. in various forms over the next two decades.

Griffith also produced Hello Burlesque, a live stage show featuring showgirl Julie Taylor, "Miss Sex 5th Avenue."

Theaters he has owned and operated, been an ownership partner in, leased, and/or managed include these:

Note: Click the "sort" icon at the head of each column to view data in alphabetical or numerical order.

State	City	Name of theater	Other names	Summary	Opened	Closed	Demolished	Seats
Maryland	Baltimore	Paris
Illinois	Chicago	Follies	Gem; London Dime Museum	Located at 450 S. State Street.	1890s		1978, following fire	434
Illinois	Chicago	Minsky's Rialto	Downtown; Loop End	Formerly located at 336 S. State Street, two blocks from the Gayety. Opened as a venue for vaudeville and movies, it was a burlesque house by the 1930s and closed in 1953. It is the site today of Pritzker Park.	1917	1953	1954	1,548
Indiana	Fort Wayne	Little	Capitol; Little Cinema	Formerly at Berry Street and Harrison Street.		yes	yes	435
Indiana	Indianapolis	Ritz	Middle Earth; Northside	Located at 3422 N. Illinois Street. Considered one of the leading movie houses in the city. Burlesque took over in 1962. Known as the Northside from 1958 to 1970. Remodeled, it became a rock concert venue and resumed its former name, but closed in 1972.	1927	1972		1,400
Missouri	Kansas City	Folly	Century; Folly Burlesque; Shubert's Missouri; Standard	Located at 300 W. 12th Street. Following a renovation in the 1980s, it remains in use today. Was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. in 1973	1900	open		1,078
Missouri	Kansas City	Strand		Located at 3544 Troost Avenue. Oldest still-operating theater in Kansas City. Began showing adult movies in the '70s.	1917	open		268 (650 in 1950)
Michigan	Detroit	Garden	Peek-A-Rama; Sassy Cat; Woodward	Located at 3929 Woodward Avenue. A century after its opening, it was undergoing an estimated $14 million makeover to become the 1,300-seat Woodward Theater.	1912	reopened		903
Michigan	Detroit	National	Gayety; Palace	Located at 118 Monroe Street. Has fallen into disrepair.	1911	1975		2,200
Michigan	Flint	Michigan		Located at 1614 S. Saginaw Street.	1929		1965 or 1975	1,500
New York	Syracuse	Civic	Adam and Eve; Civic Follies; Ritz; Syracuse; System; Top	Formerly located at 527 S. Salina Street.			yes	1,500
New York	New York City	Gayety	12th Street Cinemas; Casino East; Century; Eden; Entermedia; Louis N. Jaffe Art; Molly Picon; Phoenix; Second Avenue; Stuyvesant; Yiddish Art	Located at 181 Second Avenue, in Manhattan. Theater sequences for the 1968 film The Night They Raided Minsky's were shot here.	1926
New York	New York City	Hudson	Avon-on-the-Hudson; Savoy	Located at 141 W. 44th Street in midtown Manhattan. A former Broadway theater, now a conference center and special event venue. In 1954 it became home to the original version of The Tonight Show with host Steve Allen. in 2003	1903			1,100
New York	New York City	Mayfair Burlesque	Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe	Located at 235 West 46th Street. It was a theater in the basement of the Paramount Hotel. From 1938 to 1951, theatrical impresario and song writer Billy Rose operated his Diamond Horseshoe nightclub there.				400
New York	New York City	Metropolitan	14th Street; Arrow; "The Met"	Formerly located at 241 East 14th Street.	1914	1988	yes	600
New York	New York City	Shore	Loew's Coney Island	Located at 1301 Surf Avenue in Brooklyn, across from Coney Island.	1925	1973		2,472
New Jersey	Newark	Luxor	Luxor Follies	Formerly located at 264 Market Street.			yes	590
New Jersey	Newark	Treat	Cameo Twin Cinema XXX	Located at 68 Orange Street.		2010		750
Ohio	Cincinnati	Gayety	Empress; Gayety Burlesk	A Vine Street theater that opened as the Empress and became the Gayety in 1922. Its demolition made way for a main library.	1909	1970	1970
Ohio	Cincinnati	Imperial	Imperial Follies	Located at 282 McMicken Avenue. Presented adult films and later, in the '60s, live burlesque shows.		yes		771
Ohio	Cleveland	University	Circus Maximus; PAT (Performing Arts Theater); Scrump-Dee-Dump-Dee	Formerly located at 10606 Euclid Avenue.	1920s	1982	yes	900
Ohio	Columbus	Little Art	Olentangy; Piccadilly; World	Located at 2523 N. High Street, it opened in the silent picture era as The Piccadilly. An adult movie theater from the '50s to its demolition.			1976	417
Ohio	Columbus	Livingston	Gayety	Located at 1567 East Livingston Avenue. As of late 2012, there were plans to renovate it.	1946	1970s		1,000
Ohio	Columbus	Parsons	Parson Follies	Located at 1293 S. Parsons Avenue.				830
Ohio	Steubenville	Ohio		Located on Market Street.				800
Ohio	Toledo	Gayety	Gayety Burlesk; Guild; Hollywood Burlesk; Strand	Located at 322 N. Summit Street.	1920		yes	390
Ohio	Toledo	Town Hall		Formerly located at Orange and St. Clair Streets.	c. 1887		1968
Ohio	Youngstown	Strand		Formerly located in Central Square. Closed as a movie house in the 1950s, then reopened featuring live burlesque and adult movies.	1916		yes	750
Ohio	Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio	State	Lyceum
Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	Aardvark	Cayuga	Formerly located at 4371 Germantown Avenue. Opened as the Cayuga.	1911 or 1915	1955	yes	460
Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	Howard	Howard Follies	Located at 2614 N. Front Street. In the early '60s, it operated with an adults-only policy and advertised as the Howard Follies.	1925		yes	900
Pennsylvania	Pittsburgh	Cameraphone		Located at 6202 Penn Avenue.	1908	c. 1967	yes	776
Wisconsin	Superior	Tower		Located on Tower Ave.
Oregon	Portland	Capitol	Blue Mouse	Located at 626 SW 4th Street. Renamed the Blue Mouse in 1958. Famous stripper Tempest Storm co-owned and operated the Capitol in the 1950s.	1928		1977	850
Oregon	Portland	Star	Princess; Star Burlesk	Located at 13 NW 6th Avenue. Opened as the Princess, screening silent movies. Became the Star Burlesk in 1939, presenting burlesque shows. Refurbished, it remains in operation today.	1911	open		300
Florida	Jacksonville	Little	Harold K. Smith Playhouse	Located at 2032 San Marco Boulevard. Its landlord, Griffith said in a 1993 interview, "was the county sheriff" at the time.	1920	open
Florida	Orlando	Luv		Located at 355 N. Orange Avenue.
Florida	Warrington	Navy Point		Formerly located on Sunset Avenue. Opened after World War II for the entertainment of military families stationed in the Pensacola area.	1946		yes	750
Florida	Tampa	Ritz	Masquerade; Rivoli	Located at 1503 E. 7th Avenue in Tampa's Ybor City section. Opened as the Rivoli; expanded in the 1930s as the Ritz and showed movies until 1982. Reopened in 2008 and is used for concerts and special events.	1917	open		1,004
Florida	Tampa	Casino	Casino Follies	Located at 1536 7th Avenue in Tampa's Ybor City section. Closed in the 1970s, then was renovated and reopened c. 2000. It is home today to the Tampa Improv Comedy Club.	1912	open		700
Louisiana	New Orleans	Carrollton		Located at 4710 S. Carrollton Avenue. A classic Art Deco-style theater, it suffered water damage during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 but has since been refurbished as a banquet hall.	1935	yes		750
Louisiana	New Orleans	Cine Royale	Center; Wonderland	Located at 912 Canal Street. It became an adult theater after 1975.		1997		600
Louisiana	New Orleans	Sinerama	Cinerama Adult; Martin Cinerama; Mike Todd's Cinerama; Pussycat; Trans-Lux Cinerama	Formerly located at 3615 Tulane Avenue. Under Griffith's management, it was known as the Pussycat and Sinerama.	1962	1984	2001	900
North Carolina	Charlotte	Astor	Neighborhood	Located at 511 E. 36th Street. Called "The Carolina’s Most Unusual Theater" in newspaper ads in the '60s, it was restored in recent years and today (as the Neighborhood) features bands and musicians.	1945	open		446
North Carolina		Climax I and II
Tennessee	Chattanooga	Capitol		Formerly located at 528 Market Street.	1940		yes	622
	Washington, D.C.	Central	Gayety; Imperial; Moore's Garden Theatre	Formerly located at 425-433 9th Street NW. Opened as the The Imperial. Renamed Moore’s Garden Theatre in 1913. Renamed the The Central in 1922. Renamed by Griffith as the Gayety Burlesque; presented live burlesque from the 1950s to its closing in the 1970s.	1911		1973	851
Florida	Fort Lauderdale	Adam and Eve
Florida	Hialeah	Atlas Twin		Formerly located at 1446 W. 49th Street.	1969	1993		400
Florida	Miami	Boulevard	Black Gold; Club Madonna II; Kitty Cat; Pussycat; Pussycat II; Shadows; Tomcat; Wonderland	Located at 7770 Biscayne Boulevard. Has variously served as a strip club, night club, and adult theater. Bought by Griffith for $165,000 in 1970 and renamed the Pussycat, he created three different theaters within: the Pussycat, the center theater, was a 900-seat theater that showed adult films including Deep Throat; the Kitty Cat featured female performers; and the Tomcat featured male performers.	1940	open as a nightclub		974
Florida	Miami Beach	Cameo		Located at 1445 Washington Avenue. It is a nightclub today.	1936	open as a nightclub		1,061
Florida	Miami Beach	Carib		Located at 230 Lincoln Road. "I used to do [benefit] shows at the Carib, which seated over 2,000 people," Griffith said in a 1993 interview, "and donated the theater, staff, advertising, and helped get talent. This all went to the widows and orphans of the firemen and the policemen." c.1976	1950	1975		2,200
Florida	Miami	Dixie	Rio	Located at 222 NE First Avenue in downtown Miami. Renamed the Rio in 1965.	1948	1980		1,000
Florida	Miami Beach	Flamingo		Located at 320 Lincoln Road. Converted into a present-day nightclub.	1947	1980
Florida	Miami Beach	Gayety Burlesque	Deja Vu; SoBe Showgirls	Formerly located at 2004 Collins Avenue.			yes
Florida	Key West	Monroe		Formerly located at 623 Duval Street.	1912		1995, following fire	450
Florida	Miami	Paramount	Fairfax	Formerly located at 257 East Flagler Street in downtown Miami.	1922		yes	2,200
Florida	Miami Beach	Paris	Paris Follies; Paris Moderne; Variety	Located at 550 Washington Avenue. Griffith's first acquisition upon settling in the area in 1961. He originally leased it, then bought it, and staged burlesque there, under the name Paris Follies. Featured acts included Tempest Storm. He sold it in 1986, then bought it back after its owners failed with the nightclub Paris Moderne, and later sold it again.	1946	open as a nightclub		1,108
Florida	Hollywood	Pussycat
Florida	Miami	Rex Art	King Art Cinema; Rosetta; Second Ave. Art	Located at 7929 NE Second Avenue. First opened as the Rosetta.	1926	yes		981
Florida	Miami Beach	Roxy	Club Madonna	Located at 1527 Washington Avenue. Griffith generated publicity there when, in 1967, he publicly invited city officials to a screening of the film, Man and Wife. "It was advertised as the art of making love 49 different ways," he said in a 1993 interview. "I don't remember inviting them, but I vaguely remember the incident. I think that was the first hard-core movie ever shown down here." According to press accounts at the time, the officials seemed to think the movie was boring, but not obscene. Griffith converted the Roxy from an adult movie theater to an all-nude strip club (Club Madonna), which it remains today. Griffith successfully withstood an attempt by attorneys for the pop singer Madonna to prevent him from using the name. in 1967		open as a nightclub
Florida	Miami Beach	21st Street	Fine Arts	Formerly located at 2039 Collins Avenue, at the corner of 21st Street.	1963
Florida	Miami	Town		Formerly located at 265 East Flagler Street.		yes		472
Florida	Miami	79th Street Twin II Cinema	79th St. Art; Bard; Little River	Formerly located at 137 NE 79th Street.		yes
Washington	Seattle	Rivoli	Old Seattle; Tivoli	Formerly located at First Avenue and Madison Street. Opened as a burlesque theater featuring, among others, Sophie Tucker and Belle Baker. It later presented legit stage theater, then adult movies before its demolition.	1913		1970	900

vs. The City of Hialeah, Fla.

Griffith turned Hialeah's Atlas Cinema into an X-rated theater in August 1985, outraging Mayor Raul Martinez. "The issue is not censorship," Martinez said at the time. "It is morality. They will bring in derelicts, the sick of mind. They're like herpes -- wherever they go, everybody gets infected. We don't need that."

The day after opening, in a pre-emptive strike, Griffith's lawyers sued the city, charging that a Hialeah zoning ordinance banning porn cinemas within 500 feet of residences was unconstitutional. His court challenge failed and the theater was ordered shut down.

vs. The City of Miami

In 1987, city officials confiscated movie projectors, a refreshment stand, and other property from Griffith's Pussycat Theater. He had just won a court fight with the city over his right to exhibit a film called Three Ripening Cherries. He was accused of owing more than $50,000 in fines dating back to 1978. The city bungled part of the collection process in a technical snafu, so Griffith ended up accountable for only $21,400.

An auction of his theater equipment was conducted to satisfy that debt. The winning bid came in at $13,500, from Griffith himself, effectively reducing his penalties by another $8,000.

vs. Miami-Dade County

Between 1976 and 1987, the Pussycat was raided 18 times. Efforts by the county to charge him with a felony for screening two obscene movies within 5 years collapsed when Griffith's attorney pointed out that too much time had elapsed between incidents. When prosecutors then indicated they might like to charge him with a simple misdemeanor for the more recent indiscretion (showing the film American Babylon), his attorney argued it had been two years since that film had been confiscated, thus denying Griffith his right to a speedy trial. The judge agreed and threw out the case.

In April 1987, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office filed a ten-page complaint demanding that the Pussycat be shut down. This time the charge was brought under the Florida Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. Because the Pussycat had been raided 18 times in eleven years, prosecutors contended, it must be an ongoing criminal enterprise. "That's not what the RICO Act was put in for," Griffith retorted. A judge agreed and dismissed the complaint.

vs. The City of Miami Beach

In late 1989, after the cities of Fort Lauderdale and North Miami Beach outlawed alcohol in establishments featuring nude entertainers, Miami Beach officials—led by Mayor Alex Daoud—feared strip club operators would gravitate to their city and that Miami Beach "would be overrun with sex-mad drunken men and immoral, naked women."

Confronting Miami Beach city commissioners in 2009 on the city's ban of alcohol in nightclubs featuring nudity.

The imminent debut of the Gold Club, whose owners had intended to introduce nudity and alcohol in their new building on 5th Street, spurred the City Commission to pass local legislation prohibiting such a mix.

Griffith announced that if the Gold Club was allowed to open with liquor and nudity, he would move his hard-core films from the Gayety Theater (then known as Deja Vu) to the Roxy, which then was showing second-run movies for general audiences. In turn, he would convert the Gayety into an upscale nude bar to compete with the Gold Club.

Daoud said, "We don't have to sit idly by and watch [adult clubs] open up. It would be detrimental to the growth of our city that has been developing so nicely."

The city passed an ordinance in January 1990 prohibiting not only nudity and alcohol sharing the same room, but also banning any nudity near schools and churches. The Gold Club did open with nude dancers, but soon folded under the handicap of the no-liquor policy.

Griffith, meanwhile, successfully changed the Gayety into the all-nude, alcohol-free Deja Vu (without local competition), and turned the Roxy into an adult theater, Club Madonna. Daoud was removed from office a year later after being implicated on unrelated corruption charges for which he was later convicted and imprisoned. Griffith and Daoud have since become close friends.

Since the early 2000s, Griffith has been involved in legal disputes with the City of Miami Beach over its 1989/1990 ordinances banning the sale of alcohol in any establishment featuring nudity. He sued several city officials in federal court, alleging they conspired to deny him a fair hearing before the City Commission after he sued the wife of one commissioner for libel, slander, and defamation after she waged a campaign against him, claiming, among other things, that he was a tax cheat.

Griffith, for years, hosted annual shows at his Carib Theater benefiting the Miami Beach Police and Firemen's Benevolent Association. The city's police softball teams and the Miami Beach Policemen's Relief and Pension Fund have also been beneficiaries of his charitable giving. In 1997, the MBPD recognized Griffith for his donation of bicycles to the department, for use by its bike patrol officers.

Nationally-syndicated gossip writer Earl Wilson thanked Griffith in a December 1965 column "for his welcome Christmas check for the 'Earl Wilson Help the Needy Fund' which arrived just in time to aid some deserving folk."

Griffith with wife Linda (left) and fellow Miamian, singer Gloria Estefan.

Stage productions

• This Was Burlesque (1964) - producer
• Hello Burlesque - producer

Filmography

• Bell, Bare and Beautiful (1963) - producer, writer, actor (Theater Manager)
• Lullaby of Bareland (1964) - producer
• Mundo depravados (1967) - producer
• My Third Wife, George (1968) - producer
• Behind the Burly Q (documentary, 2010) - interview subject

• 1970s: Key to the City of Miami Beach (awarded by Mayor Harold Rosen)
• 1970s: Recognition for "unselfish contributions" to the annual All-Star show (Miami Beach Police and Firemen's Benevolent Association)
• 1997: Recognition for "outstanding dedication and service" to the Washington Avenue Bike Unit (Miami Beach Police Department)
• 1999: Recognition for "generous support" for the Miami Beach Police softball teams (Miami Beach Police Department)
• 2000: Recognition for "generosity and continued support" (Miami Beach Policemen's Relief and Pension Fund)
• 2007: Best Adult Club in Miami Beach (Club Madonna), The Miami SunPost