Club 281 - Montreal's unique strip club for ladies - Montreal 375 Tales book excerpt

Club 281 281 St. Catherine E., 94 St. Catherine E. (1980—) When hunky Leonard Lalumière stripped down on stage at the former Club Abitibi in April 1980, he became the first man to dance for women at a male strip club in Montreal, pioneering a tradition that thrives at the same club decades later.
   Owner France Delisle, a former construction worker from Abitibi, had operated a Latin-themed bar for a decade when he caught wind of a wildly popular male strip club in Miami.
   Delisle sought to adapt the concept to his Latin-themed bar but was clueless on how to recruit male strippers in a city which had none. Delisle took to the streets and spotted the hunky Lalumière, 40, strutting down St. Catherine and followed him in his white Cadillac, eventually persuading him to become the first Montreal beefcake stage star.
   Andrea Puzo, who played for Canada's soccer team, became another early attraction for wide-eyed women who routinely giggled and screamed while watching the muscular entertainers flex abs and biceps and drop trou.
   The club was a smash, as busloads of transfixed women came to ogle and shower money and gifts on the 45 dancers showing off their manly charms on all three floors for 13 hours a day in the first five years. Stars included Randy "Johnny Banana" Thomas who invited women to pull bananas off of his belt, until only his own remained.
   James The Rocker was a top heartthrob, as was Andrew, now 47, whose soapy shower show is still an attraction after his 28 years at the 281. Fake cops, firefighters and businessmen, as well as acrobats, fire-breathers and a classical violinist also remain popular.
   The club relocated from its original home after UQAM purchased and demolished the building in 2002. France's daughter Annie took over just as the club moved a little west to the former Casa Loma, a spot where it still thrives. Early-era clientele took great pleasure in turning the tables on chauvinism, according to current owner Annie, but she says current audiences have no such political axe to grind. 
     
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Stories like this fill the must-read Montreal: 375 Tales of Eating, Drinking, Living and Loving, order your paper copy here now or buy it at Indigo or Paragraph.

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