I was driving to work one morning when I noticed a huge billboard as I came across the Susquehanna River on the Clarks Ferry Bridge.
Just as I came off the bridge and prepared to turn left to cross the Juniata River to get to Duncannon, it smacked me right in the face. Huge letters proclaimed “lust drags you down to Hell.” Below was the phone number you could call to seek salvation.
Maybe it is a sign from God, but I doubt it will dissuade many folks from stopping at one of the three strip clubs or two adult toy emporiums that populate that half-mile stretch of U.S. Route 322.
The parking lot at the Athena Spa, a massage parlor that shares that piece of highway, was empty. But that was hardly due to the billboard. It was early in the day. I am told most of the spa’s customers are truckers who walk over from the nearby truck stop where they park for the night.
I was reminded of the story I did for The Patriot-News back in 2006, when I spent several months working on a project with a working title of “Porn Alley,” which examined the proliferation of the adult trade on the roughly 40-mile stretch of highway between Clarks Ferry and Selinsgrove.
Couldn’t find a copy of it in my files, and it is no longer accessible on the free portion of the paper’s web site. So I bought a copy of it from their archives to see how it had held up after more than 10 years.
It’s still pretty accurate. The one strip club mentioned has since closed. But the three near Clarks Ferry have joined the area’s erotica menu since that story was written. One of the two “toy stores” in Clarks Ferry is also new. And you still never have to drive more than 15 miles to reach an adult industry business if you are traveling that stretch of highway.
True story: the paper actually let me use a company credit card to join a swingers web site to try to make contact with folks who might talk about the swingers club located along that stretch. I can only imagine the look on the auditor’s face when they saw that receipt.
The full story is below the photo.
A new billboard greets visitors to the adult industry strip of U.S. Route 322 in Clarks Ferry
Patriot-News, The (Harrisburg, PA)
February 19, 2006
THE GIRLS NEXT DOOR
Author: CHRIS A. COUROGEN; Of the Patriot-News Edition: FINAL
Section: A Section
Page: A01
Article Text:
No malls or shopping centers interrupt traffic along the stretch of highway that winds along the Susquehanna River from Clarks Ferry in northern Dauphin County to Selinsgrove.
The road doesn’t lack commerce, though.
Truckstops, bars and diners line the route, along with convenience stores and gas stations; ice cream joints; antique shops; vineyards; Amish families selling produce, baked goods and quilts; and bikers selling leather gear.
And places that sell sex. Lots of them.
Along the 32 miles of highway — from the massage parlor near the Clarks Ferry bridge to the adult bookstore off the Selinsgrove exit of Routes 11/15 — are five adult bookstores, a strip club, a private club that caters to swingers and a massage parlor.
Those businesses might seem out of place in conservative Perry, Juniata and Snyder counties. Yet just as the Amish buggies share the road with 18-wheelers, they appear to have achieved a sort of peaceful co-existence with their rural neighbors.
The locals on their way to church might not like driving by signs advertising Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee DVDs, but no one protests or pickets. One community tried to fight — and failed. No zoning in Perry County’s Watts Twp. made the municipality’s recent battle against an adult video and bookstore impossible. A lack of zoning is an easy ticket into a community.
“Those guys have more money than all of us put together. They will find a way to get around it if you don’t have zoning,” says Frank Poust, a Watts Twp. supervisor.
“Rural townships hate zoning. They resist it until it is a problem and it is forced upon them,” says Dorn Checkley of the Pittsburgh Coalition Against Pornography.
It took passage of an ordinance prohibiting “live sex act business” to recently shut down several swingers clubs in Phoenix.
Cities or busy thoroughfares — such as the route along the Susquehanna River — lure businesses such as the new Adult Videos & Gifts Outlet in Perry County because they funnel customers by their doors.
“They are no different than any other retail business. They look for high volumes of traffic,” Checkley says.
Despite all the business, police and law enforcement officials say they seldom receive complaints, and undercover investigations have failed to turn up illicit activity.
Middle-of-nowhere money
“Free beer,” the sign outside Wild J’s Gentlemen’s Club says. The offer is for real. Lacking a license to sell beer, Snyder County’s only strip club gives it away. A plastic cup of cheap draft is about the extent of Jim Mowery’s generosity, though.
“The beer is free. It costs 20 bucks to look at the ladies,” the strip club owner says as he collects cover charges inside the front door on a Friday night.
His club sits on Routes 11/15 near Port Trevorton. It’s not the beer that has men lining up at the door. They come to Wild J’s for the entertainment.
The $20 cover gets you inside, where you can join the crowd surrounding the stage or wait your turn at a pool table, where the scantily clad dancers mingle with the shooters between shows. On an average weekend night, about 15 dancers perform.
Another $20 buys a one-girl, one-song private dance. An hour in the Champagne Room will set you back $200 and comes with a bottle of champagne. The average dancer makes $1,500 to $2,000 a week, much of that in tips.
The club has a monthly payroll of $6,000 to $8,000, paid out of the $320,000 in revenue it generated in 2004, Mowery says. He expected to gross more than $400,000 in 2005.
None of the other adult businesses on Routes 11/15 would share financial information. Several tried to conceal the identities of their owners, hiding their state sales tax licenses.
“It is hard to get an exact handle on it, but the adult industry obviously makes a lot of money,” Checkley says. “Why else would you have all those businesses out there in the middle of nowhere in rural Pennsylvania?”
There are no studies breaking down the adult industry’s sales numbers for Pennsylvania. Economic studies lump their sales into wider categories such as “retail sales,” and state sales tax reports are not public records.
A 1997 U.S. News & World Report study found that Americans spent more than $8 billion on adult entertainment. More recent estimates range from $12 billion to $20 billion, Checkley says.
‘It’s a lifestyle’
At first glance, TJ’s could be just another Perry County roadhouse. That’s what it was when it served as the Friendly Tavern.
It’s not another roadhouse, though. The first clue is the sign: TJ’s, a private club. The second clue is a guardhouse near the parking lot, which is full of cars on a Saturday evening, many of them sporting out-of-state license plates.
The club has more than 3,000 members who come from as far as Canada and Virginia, according to a guy who calls himself Larry and says he’s one of the owners.
Larry turned down a request for an off-hours tour. TJ’s is private that way. Perry County officials say the club has even refused entry to the tax assessor.
The club’s Web site and a member who asked that his name not be published offer a glimpse inside.
Couples order dinner — included in the price of admission — from a menu of steaks, seafood and pasta. Afterward, they make their way to the dance floor, where the women are dressed like models at a Frederick’s of Hollywood fashion show.
“It is like any fun dance club, except the people are much more outgoing and forward,” the TJ’s member from Maryland explains via an Internet chat room.
By outgoing and forward he means they often like to leave the dance floor and move to the “playrooms.” Playrooms include orgy rooms, “toy rooms” and rooms with “love swings,” some with glass walls so the folks in the hall can see just how outgoing and forward the people in the room are. Inside is an 80-person Roman-style hot tub. In the back, surrounded by a privacy wall, is a swimming pool with a patio.
TJ’s members, and its Web site, refer to the place as a “lifestyle” club. Lifestyle, in this usage, is synonymous with swingers. Larry contends that TJ’s has little in common with the bookstores, strip clubs and massage parlors.
“We’re more upscale. It is not all about sex. It’s a lifestyle. It’s an open friendship,” he says.
A lot of merchandise
Georgia sits on her perch at the Adult Gift Shoppe in Clarks Ferry like a queen on her throne, surveying her domain from a platform behind the store’s front counter. Behind her, a television shows a porn film.
It’s the middle of a weekday afternoon, and despite a half-dozen cars in the parking lot, the store looks almost empty. No one is browsing the dimly lit, 30-by-30-foot retail space. Two-thirds of the room is filled with racks holding X-rated DVDs; the remainder hold lingerie, lotions, sex toys, inflatable dolls and novelties.
The door opens and in walk two women, who look to be in their early 20s. There was a time when women were shy and secretive about the types of merchandise Georgia peddles. Nowadays, almost half of Georgia’s customers are women, she says.
The magazines, from which adult bookstores got their name, are just part of the business these days. Today’s profit centers are videos and toys.
“The merchandise is much better. There are a lot more toys. The girls in the films are a lot more professional looking. The films are made more professionally, too,” Georgia says.
Georgia also owns the Adult Boutique near Selinsgrove. She purchased it a few years ago, giving her bookends on the strip.
“It is a big business anymore,” she says.
The spa next door
Life next door to a massage parlor can seem like a sitcom at times.
Tammy and her kids live in one of the two houses that separate the Clarks Ferry Truck Stop from the Athena Spa. There is a driveway between the two houses and a giant arr ow on the spa’s sign. The arrow points directly at the converted two-story house with peeling gray paint that houses the spa.
Despite the arrow, truck drivers still knock on Tammy’s door late at night, mistaking her home for the business next door.
That is the only thing that bothers Tammy about being a neighbor to the spa, which advertises itself as selling sensual massages. The girls keep to themselves as they come and go. They dress discreetly. The customers, aside from the stray truck drivers, come and go quickly and quietly.
Tammy’s 16-year-old son knows what goes on, she says. Her 6-year-old’s grasp of reality is still being formed.
“I came home from work one day and mentioned that my back hurt. My 6-year-old said, ‘Mommy, why don’t you just go next door for a massage?'” she says with a laugh.
“I really have no problem with them,” Tammy says. “Whatever they do, they do.”
Opposition to the adult industry along Routes 11/15 is muted at best. There are no petition drives, no organized protests. There is little public outcry.
“When we first opened, we heard rumors we were going to be picketed, but we were not. That is too bad. It would have been good publicity,” Mowery says.
You’ll even find some Amish horse-and-buggies tied to a tree behind the club from time to time.
Some businesses claim to profit from the traffic generated by these adult establishments. The Stardust Motel nearby offers TJ’s club members a discount. Manager George Zeigler reports renting an average of 10 extra rooms on TJ’s event nights.
“That is 10 rooms I wouldn’t rent unless it is fishing season or something like that. We’re happy to have that business,” Zeigler says.
Tom Gamble owns Dr. Tom’s Leather, specializing in motorcycle gear a few miles south of TJ’s. He says 15 percent of his business comes from the club’s members, many of whom ride Harleys. A portion of those sales coincide with the two biker-themed parties that TJ’s holds each year.
“They will come in and buy a couple hundred dollars of stuff each just to look authentic for that party,” Gamble says. “Twice a year it really pays off.”
‘Not a whole lot we can do’
There have been a few arrests for soliciting prostitution at the Clarks Ferry truck stop in recent years, says Sgt. Charles Ringer of the Pennsylvania State Police Newport barracks, but the sex industry businesses in his jurisdiction have not been a law enforcement problem.
State police Cpl. Cary Latsha, a criminal investigator, says he recalls no problems with the adult bookstore near Selinsgrove and only minor parking lot incidents at Wild J’s, the strip club near Port Trevorton.
The bottom line, Perry County District Attorney Charles F. Chenot says: “The general public might not care to have them there, but they are not violating any ordinances. There is not a whole lot we can do.”
INFOBOX: ADULT BUSINESSES ON ROUTES 11/15 Along 32 miles of highway through conservative northern Dauphin and Perry, Juniata and Snyder counties are five adult bookstores, a strip club, a private club that caters to swingers and a massage parlor. 1) “Adult Boutique”
Where: At state Route 35 and old 11-15, across from the Selinsgrove Speedway in Snyder County
Owner: River Edge Retail Inc. Philadelphia
2) “Wild J’s”
Where: West side of 11-15, near Port Trevorton
Owner: Building owned by: Dhiroza Irani, Selinsgrove, Pa. Business owned by: Jim and Michelle Mowery
3) “Adult Depot”
Where: West side of 11/15 in Liverpool Twp., Perry County.
Owner: uncertain
4) “Adult World”
Where: East side of 11/15 in Buffalo Twp., Perry County.
Owner: Building: James W. Mumper, New Cumberland. Business: Liverpool News, Inc., Harveys Lake.
5) “TJ’s”
Where: West side of 11/15 in Buffalo Twp., Perry County.
Owner: TJ’s Inc., Robert Filson, President, Camp Hill.
6) “Adult Video & Gift Outlet”
Where: West side of 11/15 in Watts Twp., Perry County.
Owner: Hass-Gorman Inc., Bartonsville.
7) “Adult Gift Shoppe”
Where: 46 Benvue Road, Reed Twp., Dauphin County, on Route 322 in Clarks Ferry.
Owner: River Edge Retail Inc., Philadelphia.
8) “Athena Spa”
Where: 12 Benvue Road, Reed Twp., Dauphin County, on Route 322 in Clarks Ferry.
Owner: Athena Spa LLC, Duncannon.
ABOUT THIS PROJECT Staff writer Chris Courogen, who works out of our West Shore Bureau, originally hails from the Sunbury-Northumberland area. He became intrigued by the number of sex-trade shops that have emerged on the stretch of highway from northern Dauphin County to Selinsgrove on his frequent visits home.
He became particularly interested in them when the Friendly Tavern, a longtime highway landmark, suddenly shut down and was replaced by TJ’s, a “private club” with a guard house.
Courogen and staff photographer John Whitehead worked on this story for several months, often encountering unfriendly and uncooperative proprietors and customers.
