The Carriage Room was a

strip club A strip club (also known as a strip joint, striptease bar, peeler bar, gentlemen's club, among others) is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease and other erotic dances including lap dances. St ...

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, in the United States. The bar and restaurant closed in 1988.

Description and history

The bar and restaurant operated for eighteen years at 1000 Southwest Broadway, underneath the

Broadway Theatre Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of ...

, in

downtown Portland Downtown Portland is the central business district of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is on the west bank of the Willamette River in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and where most of the city's high-rise buildi ...

. The club was one of seven owned by Roy Keller (three were in Portland and four were in

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

; only Carriage Room and Mary's Club were strip clubs). Carriage Room also hosted comedy acts as performances.

Sammy Davis Jr. Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, actor, comedian, dancer, and musician. At age two, Davis began his career in Vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the Will Mastin Trio, which t ...

and

Mort Sahl Morton Lyon Sahl (May 11, 1927 – October 26, 2021) was a Canadian-born American comedian, actor, and social Satire, satirist, considered the first modern comedian. He pioneered a style of social satire that pokes fun at political and current e ...

performed at the venue. In 1969, commenting on the public debate of topless dancing, Carriage Room owner Dave Russell told ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the West Coast of the United States, U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Tho ...

'': "What we're aiming at here is sort of the Las Vegas lounge show... We don't believe a show has to be topless to make money, but we have to compete with other clubs, and they have to serve what the customer wants." The newspaper said Carriage Room performers were not allowed to mingle with or accept drinks from patrons, or date male colleagues. In 1971, Lottie D. Freeman, who performed at the club as "Casey Champagne", challenged Portland's ban on bottomless dancing, claiming the restriction violated

First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

protections of freedom of expressions. However, circuit judge William M. Dale upheld the ordinance, ending a temporary injunction preventing officers from enforcing the ban for eight days. In 1976, a fire caused $7,500 damage, impacted nearby traffic, and threw smoke into the Broadway Theatre. Mostly the kitchen was damaged, but the restaurant was forced to close for several days. Comedian Wallace "Wally" Blair Woolstencroft served as master of ceremonies at the Carriage Room from the late 1960s to mid 1970s. In 1980, ''The Oregonian'' described the bar as a space where "X-rated entertainment rules the roost". Royce Looby Tomkin, once manager of Carriage Room and Mary's Club, died in 1984. Irene E. Pattison served as a waitress at Carriage Room for 32 years, starting in 1954. She managed the restaurant for eighteen years, before retiring in 1984. Vickie Anderson was a manager of Carriage Room and Mary's Club, as of 1984. During mid 1984, Carriage Room dancers reportedly "cruised the harbor on a motor launch, revealing their charms to the sailors" arriving for

Fleet Week Fleet Week is a United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, and United States Coast Guard tradition in which active military ships recently deployed in overseas operations dock in a variety of major cities for one week. Once the ships dock, ...

, as part of the

Portland Rose Festival The Portland Rose Festival is an annual civic festival held during the month of June in Portland, Oregon. It is organized by the volunteer non-profit Portland Rose Festival Foundation (named the Portland Rose Festival Association until the 2000s ...

. In 1985, Jonathan Nicholas of ''The Oregonian'' described the club as "Portland's most venerable pleasure palace". Furthermore, he wrote: Carriage Room closed in 1988 when the theatre was demolished, and Keller changed his focus to Carmen's Restaurant and Carriage Room Lounge in northeast Portland. In 2008, ''

The Portland Mercury ''Portland Mercury'' is an alternative bi-weekly newspaper and media company founded in 2000 in Portland, Oregon. It has a sibling publication in Seattle, Washington, called '' The Stranger''. History A prior version of ''The Mercury'' was ...

'' published a retrospective article called "Best of Portland 1988", which briefly profiled a dancer who performed at Carriage Room and Mary's Club. According to the newspaper, the women at Carriage Room were "more cabaret performers than strippers, taking the stage to perform (to a soundtrack on cassette tapes) in dramatic evening gowns, with less emphasis on getting undressed".

References

{{Portal bar, Human sexuality, Nudity, Oregon, Sex work 1988 disestablishments in Oregon Defunct drinking establishments in Oregon Defunct nightclubs in Portland, Oregon Defunct restaurants in Southwest Portland, Oregon Restaurants disestablished in 1988 Strip clubs in Oregon

Description and history

See also

References