THE BASEMENT
Not to be underestimated, the Basement of Show World presented a far different depth of indecency, and also underwent several incarnations. The basement actually featured Live Girls in Private Booths before the construction of the Penthouse and the Triple Treat Theater, whereas Richie dramatically expanded the floor space up above. And for a time, ‘open’ windows on a half-moon Peep-A-Live stage allowed an interactive approach to bodily assessments in, where else, the Basement. But if touching, licking, sucking, and fingering weren’t preferable to the average peeper, the basement also offered Private Booths with Live Girls safely behind glass with a vibrator and a vibe all their own.
The unforgettable Lee’s Baby Doll Revue housed an assortment of Private Booth babies under the tutelage of the dynamic Miss Lee, with assistance from a nude dancer known as the Black Narcissist. Former booth babies during this period include the wife of soul singer Bobby Womack, and the mother of rapper/actor Tupac Shakur. In fact, the actress Bernadette Stanis (‘Good Times’) was reportedly married to a Show World manager. Regardless, customers on an endless quest for pussy (and in some cases dick) that had found themselves wandering aimlessly in the Basement were accosted by a semi-glamorous display of no-holds barred nudity; girls that often ‘needed to work’ no matter what and connected with the fellas on a deeper level.
If Lee’s Baby Doll Revue were an academy of sorts, then the title of reform school or perhaps detention center went to the legendary Estelle ‘Mama’ Santana, the former burlesk queen who took over following the departure of Miss Lee. In a sense, Show World in itself became a refuge for nomadic girls, and nowhere was this more evident than when the Basement became the underworld abode of Santana. Rejected girls, victims of abuse, addicts, the handicapped, and recently escaped runaways were not only embraced by Santana, but employed, and all they needed was a fake I.D. card (sold next door, in fact). Her sense of hospitality was unparalleled; she even put homeless girls up in her studio apartment high atop Show World (which had a bunk bed and wall-to-wall mattresses, although Santana herself preferred sleeping on the floor). Girls with ‘problems’ were immediately accepted by Santana; a seasoned and hardened veteran of flesh farms, and no stranger to the curve balls of an X-rated life. A former burlesk stripper herself (advertisements for her even appeared in the N.Y. Times), she related to girls who were struggling and on welfare, and overlooked defects in favor of nude potential; nothing that a wig and Maybelline wouldn’t cure.
Love Teams, too, grazed the Basement Peep-A-Live stage, which was connected to the dressing room and easily accessible for couples performing ‘shows’. Santana often bestowed bookings for shows upon down-and-out couples neglected in the live sex show of life. As some ‘lesbian lust’ Love Teams may not have been candidates for a beauty contest, Santana still gave them multiple bookings, and thus cultivated a loyal following amongst performers deemed somewhat undesirable in the sex business. In Santana’s world, attitude was everything amongst her ‘cubicle cuties’, and hustling a key ingredient in her special brand of chicken soup; the way you treated a guy far more important than the way you looked.