No nudes would be good news for Mt. Ephraim

Dollar bills have been tossed at naked women in the Fantasy Showbar for more than 30 years, and officials in Mount Ephraim, Camden County, spent a few bills themselves trying shut the strip club down.

The all-nude Showbar fought the borough all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981 and won. Officials in town have been wincing at the large signs that advertise "2 girl shower shows," "couch dancing," and "42 Exotic Showgirls" ever since.

One sign the borough always fantasized about, a For Sale sign, isn't posted on the Black Horse Pike property, but it's official: 1.3 million dollar bills and it's yours.

"All the girls know," said John Sandone, the broker listing the property. "All the top girls have moved on to other places."

The Showbar and the enormous advertisements that festoon its facade have become an uncomfortable landmark for the small, blue-collar town since it first opened in 1976 as an adult bookstore.

Folks use the Showbar, also known as "710" because of its address, as a reference point when giving directions. More than a few thousand people have left Philadelphia Eagles games with free passes to the Showbar stuffed into their pockets.

"It's certainly been a conversation piece," said Mayor Joseph Wolk, a borough resident for over 50 years.

"Obviously, we didn't want it there. We got beat though, and it cost people in this town a lot of money."

The borough took its gloves off in the late '70s when Showbar owner James Schad, who died in 2007 at age 80, decided to take the clothes off. The borough cited an ordinance banning live entertainment and the case danced through municipal and state courts before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the borough had violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

John Philip Maroccia was a 31-year-old municipal solicitor for Mount Ephraim when he made the unlikely trip to Washington.

"I still remember walking up the steps for the last day of oral arguments. It was a stirring moment," he said. "I think with the makeup of the court today, we would have won."

Maroccia, now an adjunct law professor at Rutgers University in Camden, said the case is in just about every law book in the country.

"I just taught it a few weeks ago."

Schad rarely spoke to the media, despite being mentioned in it often. His former strip club, the Showgirls Palace in Pennsauken, was bought by the state when then-Governor Christine Whitman wanted to spruce up Admiral Wilson Boulevard prior to the 2000 Republican Convention.

Also in 2000, Schad agreed to forfeit $400,000 as part of a plea agreement that dismissed prostitution charges against workers at both clubs and another he owned in Pennsauken.

A year earlier, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld a ruling by Pennsauken, forcing Schad to cover up the nine-foot-tall pictures of scantily-clad women that decorated the Showgirls Palace.

Sandone, who knew Schad personally, said the former Cinnaminson, Burlington County, resident was a fighter who battled the government for decades, and cancer for the last couple years of his life.

"He was somebody who believed in his right to open a business. His product was not embraced by many people and families, but that's the path he took," Sandone said.

The Showbar remains open, Sandone said, but Schad's children are not involved in the business at all and the executrix of his estate has no plans to run the club.

"His little empire is all but gone," Sandone said.

A woman who answered the phone at the Showbar yesterday was sentimental about the club's passing but ultimately declined to comment.

While hopes are pinned to restaurants, furniture stores, or even the Showbar's neighbor, Mount Ephraim Dodge, purchasing the 1.38-acre parcel, no one knows for sure who will bite in a troubled economy.

Sandone says "710" could even continue to solicit lap dances as a turnkey operation.

"If someone wants to run it as a showbar, it's all right there," Sandone said.

Wolk would much rather see a venue where customers leave with fresh bills in their pockets than a place where they leave crumpled ones on a dimly-lit stage.

"I'll tell you, I'd love to see TD Bank come in," he said. "Another strip club is the one thing we don't want to see there." *