Once upon a Sometime during the 1980’s somewhere in the windmills of my mind:
The gaming company I am a partner in is operating a legal floating casino which on weekends which departs from the west side piers of Manhattan on the SS Galileo, a one thousand passenger Chandris (now named Celebrity Cruises) Cruise ship, marketed as“Cruises to Nowhere “the vessel departs at 6 pm and returns at 6 am the following morning, having gone just as advertised nowhere, as the cruise itinerary had no port destination, but instead travels out three miles past the Verrazano bridge into basically law free international waters, where gambling is in sort of a gray area, no land based rules and laws apply in International waters, hence half an hour after departing from Manhattan, it’s lights, cameras, casino action. Not beside the point my partner’s operate an underground aka illegal high end gaming club in the Wall Street area district , it’s open day and night, their clients are mostly young hot shot and rich before their time Wall Street stars, so we decide to do a special gambling cruise just for them and for their money.
On one of those sultry Manhattan summer nights we charter a millionaires mega yacht, our casino business venture cruise ship the S.S. Galileo not the right venue for this particular evening or clientele, the vessel is docked at South Street Port near Battery Park and the ferry to Governor’s Island. We equip it with four Blackjack tables and a roulette wheel, at the helm of the games are the dealers from the Wall Street club, and we have invited all the young hot shot Wall Street dudes that are regulars at the underground high line Wall Street casino to a cruise around Manhattan departing 5pm. - Full open bar and live music.
But never mind the booze and the music, the real hook besides the gambling? All the best looking babes from the “Gentleman's Clubs” in Manhattan and Brooklyn, with whom I had spent many sleepless nights recruiting their services for this venture adventure, to be clear if you read the small print at the bottom of the flashing neon lights that replace carnival barkers at the entrance to these establishments, these Gentleman's clubs are lap and pole dance strip joints and you enter at your own risk, anyway the Fabulous Dancing Lappet's as I thought of them who usually work these joints are taking a night off from their regular gigs, none of those gigs are located anywhere near Radio City Music Hall I might add. A perfect love match set and match point as Wall Street dudes are well known for throwing money around, and the Gentleman's clubs gals are well known for pardon the pun snatching those dollars , hence the girls always made sure their stuff was more than up to snuff. One must be ready for those young sugar daddy's.
On a side note the slick as can be Wall Street whizzes are out of their office and league with these beautiful girls, the girls know a good stock tip-per when they see one, and once they are zoomed in on their target getting rid of them is like trying to cure your terminal cancer with an aspirin .
We send limos from our other Manhattan business venture Style Limousine NYC to bring the girls to the ship. The first to arrive are the gals or rather ladies from Manhattan, they wait as ladies do for the drivers to open the door for them, they all seem very elegant and chic, carrying authentic dainty evening designer hand bags to match their not so daintily designed knock off boobs, and are wearing long elegant black and demure colored evening gowns over their invisible for the moment G-strings, oh and they brought that Manhattan attitude with them. Most of them I am sure had never been that far downtown, or would never admit it if they had.
The Manhattan girls seemed to think they were actually the Fabulous dancing Rockettes and that they had traveled from Radio City Music Hall to London and were about to board the Queens yacht for a special Royal performance.
Anyway ten minutes later the gals from Brooklyn arrive in our limos, they pile out with most opening the doors without waiting for that guy in the funny hat driving the big car to open it for them, they are wearing sequined miniskirts, colors of bright red, orange, hot pink, and reddish purple or was that fuchsia?, they come on board swinging their knock off designer shoulder bags, which were most likely swag bags ( stolen without a gun) and for the most part, authentic boobs, laughing and giggling, bobbing and weaving and chewing gum.
The other difference between the Dancing Lapettes? The Manhattan girls even when not prompted said they danced only because they needed the money to help them pay their way through law school; none ever seemed to be paying their way through medical school. In reflection I see the wisdom of choosing a law career spin over a medicine spin, it was a way of saying ever so subtly I am here to take not to give.
The Brooklyn girls only when asked said they danced because they needed the money, though a few did mention that their moms were in the hospital at the moment, in their own sweet way they were promoting Momma Care a precursor to Obama Care. They are very social in their nature. Smart as well, verbal foreplay tugging at those heart strings with the purse in mind, unlike the Manhattan ladies who went for the jugular immediately, no verbal foreplay , but who would you rather help, someone paying for a law degree or someone paying for a sick mother’s care. Both fairy tales- but easier to justify paying for your addiction if easing pain is the goal rather than easing payments
One item was worn by both female crews, those six inch come do me stiletto heels. Finally common ground, six inches above.
I sat down at a table with the more or less unofficial madam/bunny mother, and choreographer of the Brooklyn dancing crew, a good looking woman of about forty or so named Lucy, we are chatting and she is speaking in Brooklynese which I have no trouble understanding having gone to grammar school in the Bronx, she casually yet proudly mentions during our conversation that she has twin daughters who are gainfully employed at the various clubs in Brooklyn and are on board working this evening , I thought how sweet is that?, when all of a sudden totally out of context with our dialogue she asked me if I chewed gum, I was a bit taken back , I said No , she seemed wounded by my sort of are you kidding me response to her question, so to assuage her wounded feelings, I tell her though a non-chewer now I had been an avid gum chewer in my youth in the Bronx, which I made clear to her rivals Brooklyn for gum chewing capital of the world, she then asked me what kind of gum I chewed back then (these are real questions from a real person, and real answers by the way) I told her Juicy Fruit was my favorite, and with that she opens up her hopefully full of money soon knock off swag bag , while proudly telling me that the bag could accommodate all of her essentials and about two to three grand in small bills or fifty grand in hundreds depending on whether they were new or old bills, the denomination dependent on whether the club she was head bunny master at was a high line mob family affiliated or low level Teamsters union affiliated, anyway I can see deep inside the purse about four different kinds of gum, luckily for me one of the packs was my old time favorite Juicy Fruit, she without hesitation gave me not a piece of it, but the entire pack! Love those Brooklyn Babes.
The difference between the Manhattan and Brooklyn girls was striking, a bridge between and worlds apart.
Though Lucy seemed to be from was from to me that other planet in the heavens next to Manhattan, the one on the other side of the Brooklyn bridge, the best hours of my night and of many nights was spent with Lucy in the Sky with the fake Diamonds, from Brooklyn.
The cruise departs around 4:30 in the afternoon, it motors past the tip of Manhattan and eventually we are scheduled to pass directly in front of the Statue of Liberty, it was just before sundown and all miscreants on board, about one hundred and twenty total, including the band who had to have special permission from their parole officer’s to be allowed to leave Terra fir-ma, we are all are given an honor usually reserved for only the first class cabin passengers, we all have been graciously invited to the Captains Table—Dance, (albeit somewhat less prestigious than dinner at the Captains table), being held on the bow of the boat where a special stage has been constructed for the artful dancers and seating supplied for those wall street dance aficionados where to inaugurate the party evening a mock lesbian show is scheduled, (mock because the real thing was too expensive as in those days lesbians were not so in Vogue, hence it cost big money to get them out of that without clothes closet), and it’s about to begin, when Lucy who is at my side points to the two girls that are about to start their lesbian act and say’s there they are, I say they?, she proudly says yes those are my daughter’s, again I thought how sweet, I could not help but ask Lucy if the girls rehearsed at home, she feigned insult then laughed and winked at me and said she was almost sure they did not. Love those Brooklyn Girls!
Anyway the girl’s do their thing or two, truthfully even if they hadn’t been twins is was difficult to know what was what and who was who , everything was turned upside down so to speak, and you know the saying don’t you? It was difficult to tell who was port and who was starboard, fortunately for me Lucy was giving me a play by play analysis moment to movement, and the audience seemed pleased albeit confused, and just after the show ended all of we kindred soul miscreants began singing along with Frank Sinatra (who else) the song “I love New York “as it blasted over the ships loudspeakers, the passing ferries and boats filled with Staten Island commuters seemed to have formed a convoy alongside our ship gawking in amazement at the scene, and many passengers on those vessels started singing along also, some of the smaller boats were so close that we were fearful of them trying to board, I can’t swear to it as the sun was shining directly on Lady Liberty’s cheek as we passed her, but I think she blushed, as if her fellow libertarians took that term home of the free a bit by the bridge too far for her taste.
The Captain of the vessel said that so far this was the best day of his nautical career. High Hopes had he.
A wild night to say the very least, the real stars of the evening were the babes from Brooklyn of course. Sometimes life is fair.
PS- I have been told this voyage has become part of Wall Street lore. Apparently the girls had the stuff that legends are made of.
Written by: Jeffrey Geez Glavick-2015
