Burlesque Legend Dusty Summers tells you how she feels about full nude

Burlesque Legend Dusty Summers is as nimble with her words as she is with her feet. She’s direct, opinionated, and seasoned with a sass decades in the making.
Interviewing Summers was one of the highlights of our documentary team’s recent trip to Las Vegas and the Burlesque Hall of Fame weekend event June 1-4. During the trip, we also visited Lacy’s Lounge, a more traditional strip club, but one that emphasizes performance over transactions.
Documentary “Do the Dance” uses the examination of a precedent-setting 1969 strip club indecency trial to tell a broader story about the limits to Free Expression. The trial over bottomless dancing (full nude) made national news when Judge Earl Warren Jr. ruled the jury needed to see the dancer ‘do the dance.’
Summers worked at the trouble-making club, the Pink Pussy Kat in Orangevale, before embarking on a career as a touring exotic dancer. At age 69, Summers is still working as Las Vegas’ only stripping magician.
Summers left the Pink Pussy Kat before -- at the urging of the club’s owner -- the performers started dancing bottomless. The fully-nude go-go performances starting a multi-year battle between the beer bar and the local authorities. Summers would later share a billing with the performer at the center of the trial Susanne Haines. Haines won Miss Nude Universe in 1972 and was the headliner.
While Haines famously fought to go fully naked, Summer didn’t want to show it all then and doesn’t now.
To find out just what the sharp-tongued Summers said you’ll have to watch the documentary.

She was one of the featured performers at the Burlesque Hall of Fame weekend. Dustin Wax, executive director of the currently expanding hall was another one of our interviews.
Our two-night stay, also took us to Lacy's is located in North Las Vegas. It bills itself as Las Vegas' only Atlanta-style (hip hop) strip club. To pull himself out of a hole, longtime Michael Jackson impersonator and dancer Craig Parks started performing in male review shows then hosting big booty events before taking on his own space connected to the historic Palomino Club. We also talked to dancers Destiny and Dream.

'Scandal' in Colfax as film team wraps project

Concluding a grueling 48-hour race to finish, the Perpetual F film team turned in their 6-minute short film ‘Grand Forks’ Sunday night.
The project is one of more than a dozen shot and edited in between Friday and Sunday evenings as part of the Sacramento International Film Festival’s 48-hour film challenge.
The projects will screen at the festival on April 23.
‘Grand Forks’ is a creative adaptation of real event from the early 1970s. In the film, downtown Colfax stands in for the North Dakota town of Grand Forks.
“Pulling off a period-piece in a 48-hour challenge was super ambitious,” said Ed Fletcher, the writer and one of the producers on the project. ”The contest does allow teams to do some pre-production so we had a lot done before the clock started ticking.”
Directing the project was Damen Quincy Hayes, who is also teaming with Fletcher on a related documentary “Do the Dance.”
It all started with “Pink,” Fletcher’s true story script about the Sacramento 1969 battle of over nude dancing at Orangevale’s Pink Pussy Kat club. The recent death of key figures prompted the Perpetual F team to accelerate plans to tell the real story through the documentary.
“When the 48 came along we already had plenty on our plate,” said Hayes, who performed under the name DQ Hayes during his career as a musician. “But the idea was so good we decided to do it anyway.”
‘Grand Forks’ explores a chapter of Sacramento-born exotic dancer Susanne Haines life that isn’t covered by ‘Pink.’ When the club manager wants to cut her appearance fee, exotic dancer Susanne Haines cooks up a scandalous plan to scare up a full house.
“I kept telling people in the local film community we weren't doing a 48, but the theme for the slate of 48-hour films ‘scandal’ was almost too good to pass up,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher said his mind was also influenced by actress Bunny Stewart, who offered her services before seeing a script. Stewart plays Haines in the film.

Documentary 'Do the Dance' hits fundraising goal

The crowdfunding campaign in support of Sacramento-based documentary ‘Do the Dance,” on Thursday reached its goal of raising $10,000 in 30 days -- just hours ahead of it’s deadline.

The project, led by veteran newspaper reporter Ed Fletcher, explores a racy Sacramento 1969 court case to take a broader look at the limits of free expression.

The indiegogo campaign received 92 contributions totaling $10,479 as of this publication. The campaign went into the final 16 hours needing an additional $716 to reach the goal.

“I’m excited to have met our goal. Now we can get back to focusing on making this film,” said Fletcher.

Director Damen Quincy Hayes said the campaign provided more drama than needed, but was glad to get there.

“I just want to get out there and make this film now,” Hayes said.

While the money generated through the crowdfunding campaign gets them a long way down the road, as Fletcher explains, they will need additional capital, likely from equity investors.  

The colorful trial over “bottomless” dancing at Orangevale’s Pink Pussy Kat will help to tell a broader story about the limits of free expression then and now, filmmakers say. The impactful Sacramento trial went national when Judge Earl Warren Jr. decided to take the jury to the club see the dancers “do the dance.” The case helped write the rules for exotic dance in California.

Fletcher, who grew up in Orangevale, learned about the Pink Pussy Kat trial from an older editor and soon found himself buried in old news clippings.

Do the Dance explores these issues:

• Self-promotion vs Free expression
• Female empowerment vs  Sexual exploitation

Historic photos, audio and background materials: dothedance.net

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Drive to do 'Big Things' prompted crowdfund campaign

I've always believed I could do big things.
In high school, I built the "ram shack" student store.
In college, I took the school weekly newspaper daily during the Bayou Classic.
As a newspaper professional, it's been more of a challenge. Big ideas die because of cost, time involved or they don't fit the company plan.
Several years ago, I stumbled across the Pink Pussy Kat trial and believed I could make something interesting creatively with the story. Over the years, there were ample opportunities to decide the road was too hard and put it down. For years, I kept waiting for a big money backer to emerge or someone in Hollywood to call.
My last visit Burning Man (2016), I was in a funk. A year had passed and I was no closer to my goal. This year, I vowed to move it forward come hell or high-water. Rather than wait, I decided to make my own magic. This crowdfunding campaign forced us kick our project into high gear. We developed some amazing digital assets (poster, trailer). We also began the long process of telling people about this project with radio, television and print interviews.
Despite some obstacles, which I won't detail, we're within striking distance of our goal: raising $10,000 in 30 days.
At present, we have 16 hours to raise the final $714. Thank you for helping me do big things.
- Ed Fletcher, Ed is a Sacramento-based journalist and filmmaker.

Click here to visit campaign page

Cable show: Where are you at with film project?

I recently sat down with Elisia Gonzales and Rafael Siegel, the hosts of the community cable show Sactown Underground, to talk about the exciting updates on my documentary film project "Do The Dance." Do The Dance explores the 1969 Sacramento's strip club indecency trail that wrote the rules in California for exotic dance. The conversation also hits on how to setup the feature film screenplay "Pink."

Progress, setback in search for crusading stripper

Exotic dancer Susanne Haines (edited)

Yesterday was one of those "good news, bad news" days in my on-again search for Susanne Haines -- the dancer at the center of Sacramento's landmark 1969 strip club indecency case.
The case made national headlines when Judge Earl Warren Jr. decided the jury needed to see the dance to decide whether it violated community standards. It also featured a performance from San Franciso dancer Carol Doda. It remains relevant because the case helped set the rules for exotic dance in California.
The bad news: new clues lead to yet another dead end (for now).
Good news: I found her sister Evangeline Fullmer AND she agreed to be interviewed on camera.
Finding Susanne has been no so simple get.
She was Susanne Haines
But first she was Susanne Tropper
then she was Susanne Register
and now Susanne Medina
Suddenly after months of no progress, I had actionable intelligence (i.e.  a phone number and address).
But alas it appears Susanne sold her central Florida residence and moved again. (Confirmed by a neighbor and realtor.com) If she not running sometimes it appears that way.
In the great news category, I've tracked down both her siblings Carlton Tropper and Evangeline (Tropper) Fullmer.
I spoke with Evangeline for about an hour.
The conversation started awkwardly, as one might suspect. I call out of the blue and her I am asking about things that happened nearly 50 years ago. But once we started talking, I think she enjoyed the trip down memory lane. At 73, she's sharp and thoughtful.
As a teen herself, Evangeline became the de facto mother to her younger sister Susanne and brother Carlton after their mother died and their father slid into alcoholism.
Susanne emerged as a free-thinking firebrand, unafraid to do her own thing.
"Susanne was different. She beat to her own drummer," Fullmer said. "Knowing Susanne I wasn't surprised," she said of her sister's path into stripping.
Susanne's sister won't be much help finding her. She didn't know Susanne had moved and isn't in regular contact with her once newsworthy sister.

Naked celebrity selfies suggests time right for free expression documentary

The Pink Pussy Kat in Orangevale went to court over the right to dance fully nude.

In many ways, a documentary was the logical step.
From the moment I pulled the fading stack of newspaper clips on Sacramento's Pink Pussy Kat trial I knew I wanted to tell the story somehow.
I'd brushed aside earlier consideration of doing a documentary, preferring to keep my eye on the prize: a major release feature film.
I'm not saying my initial mission was wrong, but it's time to pivot. This is a story that's ripe for the telling. Big stars like Miley Cyrus, Kim Kardashian West and Emily Ratajkowski are making news by sharing their naked bodies in the name of free expression.
Hey, Emily, Kim and Miley here is a more meaningful way to address the issue of free expression.
Here are some of the questions our documentary will tackle:
Was the push to go full nude at strip clubs in the late 1960' about free expression or exploitation?
How have our social more changed since the flower power movement?
How is it that Sacramento has all but eradicated strip clubs, yet they're all over Portland?
With our the acquisition of KCRA's coverage of the trial, for the first time we're able to see and hear the players first hand. It's 20 minutes of some pretty amazing footage: including some of Carol Doda dancing during the trial.

The question before my cohorts is whether to go after a modest prize of a 20-minute documentary or to develop the plan for an hour-long version that could land on HBO or Showtime?
Secondary question: How do we get Emily, Kim or Miley involved?

Don't miss future developments sign up for the Perpetual F mailing list . See out other project at Perpetualf.com 

Orangevale's Pink Pussy Kat left legacy

Orangevale's Pink Pussy Kat a Go-Go may have been short-lived and lacking in grandeur, but it left its mark on American culture through its challenge of perceived and later instituted indecency standards. Having found no recorded account of the club or the trial, I wrote one based on news stories obtained through The Sacramento Bee and an autobiography written by former exotic performer Susanne Haines Register. Please help me improve on this article. -- Ed Fletcher

Tavern owner Leonard Glancy
 is flanked by dancers
Susanne Haines (left) and Shiela Brendenson  Sacramento Bee August 27, 1969

Orangevale strip club impact outlasts club

The Pink Pussy Kat was a beer bar and strip club noted for its legal wranglings with county and state authorities over indecency standards in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was located in Orangevale, CA, about 25 miles northeast of Sacramento. 

The bar, which featured beer, food, pool tables and topless (and sometimes bottomless) barmaids is believed to have closed on or around the March 1976 death of owner Leonard Glancy. It was located at 9346 Greenback Lane, in a drab Orangevale shopping plaza.

Sacramento County Sheriff "Big" John Misterly actively sought to reign in the 1960s counterculture movement and tasked detectives with making regular check at the region's adult-themed bars.

On July 27, 1969, dancers Susanne Marie Haines, 22, and Sheila Brandenson,  were arrested after performing fully nude. Owner Leonard Glancy was taken in as well. Topless had been the acceptable practice. Presiding over the trial was Sacramento Superior Court Judge Earl Warren, Jr., who happens to be the son of former California Governor and Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. Warren still resides in the Sacramento area.

The trial made national headlines after Warren agreed to a defense motion to temporarily move the proceeding to the club and allow the jury to see the offending performance. On Sept. 17, Haines attempted to replicate the dance for which was was arrested. She danced to "Suzy Q," and songs by the Byrds and Jimi Hendrix under dim lights with psychedelic art projected on the walls. On Sept. 22, noted San Francisco topless performer Carol Doda also performed for the jury.

The dancers and Glancy were acquitted Oct. 2, 1969, by the 10-man, two-woman jury, but that was far from the end of the legal fight over nude dancing.

On Oct. 21, Sacramento County enacted an ordinance prohibiting topless and bottomless dancing, and topless waitresses.

Glancy and Haines challenged the constitutionality of the ordinance.

During the legal fight, Glancy turned to various other means to keep his business going, including offering patrons a closed-circuit broadcast of on-site strip performances and putting dancers in see-through panties.

The result of the case, which was combined with other challenges from similar laws, is California’s current practice of not allowing alcohol at fully-nude strip clubs based health code rules.

On May 12, 1970, Glancy was arrested in the shooting of a patron in the parking lot. Glancy claimed it was in defense.

Shortly after her indecency acquittal, Haines left the Pink Pussy Kat. To further her career as striptease performer and capitalize on her notoriety, she began touring gentlemen's clubs across the country as a featured performer. In 1971, she won the title of Miss Nude Cosmos, often known by its more legally dubious name, Miss Nude Universe. During her time on the road, doing a week or more stints at strip clubs, she was arrested more than a dozen times for performing bottomless. By her account, these dances -- and her arrests -- were part publicity stunt, part legitimate act of free expression.

Death records indicate Glancy died in March of 1976.

It’s unclear when the club closed.  

In 1978, Haines, under her married name Susanne Haines Register wrote, “Take It All Off,” an autobiography that followed her path from Mormon schoolgirl to “dope-smoking” dancer and on to her eventual self-described “salvation.”

Screenwriter revisits hometown 'Pow Wow' roots, reconnects with past

Orangevale Pow Wow Days stage area 2015

Orangevale is one of those "where" places.
Any mention of it -- to most anyone -- must quickly be followed by "where" it's near.
"Between Folsom and Roseville," is where I tell people.
In northeast Sacramento County, it's where the sidewalks end.
It's my hometown and the setting of the feature film script, I'm working to turn into a major motion picture.
The arrest and trial of the dancers at the "Pink Pussy Kat a Go-Go" became a national story and helped set the rules for exotic dance.
Few people know about this. I'm trying to change that. It would be/will be an amazing gift from my home community.
You can only really be from one place (military brats excepted).
I'm from Orangevale.
I left after high school and while I live in Sacramento now, my interaction with the community is

little beyond visiting my parents.
Being one of a handful of black kids in a community I affectionately call the Idaho of California, was at times a challenge. The late 1990s were certainly better racially than ever, but the late 1990s in Orangevale was not the same as the 1990s in more diverse communities.
I made the most of it. I was student body president (CRHS 1993) so some would say I thrived. But I wouldn't say I fit in. By the time I attended high school at Casa Roble the spittoons were gone, but vail of homogeneous isolation permeated. I often felt treated as the exception to a generally accepted rule about black people.
When faced with the sheer amount of bad country music produced in the 1990s one can either give in and say you like it or fight it.  Hating country was my buttress, protecting my few black points.
Committed to the fight against country, as soon as I had a choice in the matter, I avoided "Pow Wow Days," the longstanding community parade and carnival.
Orangevale doesn't have much. It's an unincorporated spec of Sacramento County that's hard to get to by highway thus maintaining some level of rural charm, but it doesn't have that gold rush era downtown of Folsom or the size, organization and ambition of
Roseville.
Since 1963, the community has been experiencing some level of Pow Wow. As a child, I marched in it was a Boy Scout.
As adult man, sans child, who has experienced Mardi Gras (several times), it's real easy to go curmudgeon on regular old small town parades. They don't throw beads, alcohol must be smuggled and there is little chance of boobie exposure, but there is something that is uniquely community socializing and unifying about parades.
So that extent, there is something unique and great about Orangevale's "Pow Wow Days."
I made a return visit Friday night and Saturday afternoon to tell people about "Pink" and the "Pink Pussy Kat a Go-Go."
From a visitors perspective, the event seemed healthy. It's 32 acres, snuggled between other parks and schools, is an ideal venue for an outdoor concert. There were kids galore on the carnival rides, plenty of vendors, a radio station sponsor, and a healthy beer garden. (Though they could step it up with more food variety and serving local beers.)
Loosely based an actual incident, some of the ladies from the Pink Pussy Kat cause a stir at Pow Wow Days in my script. So the visit could also be considered field research.
Another bonus: Saturday I ran into my childhood friend Billy Blackburn. That night, his band Blackburn Bullet bested seven competitors to win the "battle of the bands" hosted by radio station 101.9 the wolf. Billy's already talking about writing a song for the movie.
I was buoyed by the feedback I got from people young and old towards the Pink Pussy Kat story.
Young people were excited to hear about the historic trial. With old people, you could see the sparkle in their eye as they accessed those dusty files. I didn't find the motherload treasure trove of Pink Pussy Kat photos, but I'll keep looking.
 I see a few Rotary Club breakfasts and VFW Hall visits in my future as I continue my search.
Orangevale, here I come again.

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