Benji and the Stripper

In 1981, 20 year-old Ellen James moved from her small town in the Midlands to London. Following a couple of organizational trips down South, she had set herself up with a small single bed-sit in West Norwood with shared bathroom, near the Station. She had also found herself a typist's job in Victoria, and office and home were both connected by the number 2 bus route. What could be better - she didn't like the underground much, especially in Central London where it was so deep.

For about 6 months, the job worked out fine. She turned 21 and got a small pay rise. She had made a few friends, all girls, including a couple of girls who had bed-sits in the same house as her. As a young woman, she loved ballroom dancing in Streatham, and being quite tall for a girl, slim but with full breasts, a narrow waist and very shapely legs running down from her hips below some pretty short skirts, she was always being asked to dance. But not long after her birthday, her boss let two girls in the office go, and one was Ellen. She was quite stunned and not sure what to do next, A recession was starting to bite in England and the Job Ads were pretty slim.

Leaving her office for the last time, just before lunch, she went into the small café where she often ate, for a cup of tea and to say good-bye to her favorite waitress. As she sat there, a good-looking young woman about 4 years older than her asked if she could sit with Ellen. Ellen nodded.

"Look, love," the young woman said, "None of my business I know, but you look like you lost a pound and found a sixpence!" "That's about it, " answered Ellen. "Last week I got a pay rise, and today I'm laid off! And there don't seem to be many typing jobs around." "Well, I can get you a job with your body, no problem. Hundred fifty pounds a week plus same or more in tips. I do it myself, I'm a stripper!" "Pardon?" asked Ellen.

"What I said, Hundred fifty per week as wages, less taxes and what have you, and tips of the same or more each week, tax free." "As a stripper?" "You got the body for it love. Especially them knockers and the legs!"

"It seems quite a lot of money..."

"With the way the economy is going, its damn good," said the woman, who introduced herself as Heather. "Look, come with me. It's the pub just round the corner. Watch for a while then if you're interested, I'll introduce you to the Landlord. You're there from noon until 7:30 Monday through Friday, so no weekends or late nights. It's lunchtime and late afternoon trade, drinks after work, you know, mainly. Five dancers on a two and a half hour rotation, so if you dance first at noon then its 2:30 and 5 and finished by 5;30. If you dance at 2, then it's 4:30 and 7 for your other two. You start in each slot in turn on the different days, so that regulars coming in at the same time see different girls every day."

"I've done ballroom dancing but I'm not a trained dancer."

"Don't need to be, love, you just shake what the good lord gave you, remove your clothes slowly, show'em your birthday suit and then pick up your tips while they admire your bum. We've got a girl leaving this week, so you could step into her spot as of Monday. I'm free this weekend so I could teach you a couple of routines."

Ellen agreed to go and watch at the pub for a while. Why not? That particular day was a Friday, and Heather was dancing at 1, 3:30 and 6. "Them's good slots on a Friday for tips, they are." They went round the corner to the pub, and Heather introduced Ellen to the landlord, George. She explained that Ellen was new to the scene, but she would teach her some routines over the weekend and help her with a couple of outfits. George said ok, and he would give her a full first week, starting with the 2 o'clock spot on Monday, and they would chat as the week went by about staying, if she was any good. Ellen figured this would at least give her a week's wages and the mornings to look for a new proper job.

Ellen was surprised by how many people were there at lunch time, and not all were men. Some of the local office girls were cheering the dancers on more than the men were, and trying to get the dancers to flirt and tease guys from their office, to embarrass them. All in all, it actually seemed in good spirit. It occurred to Ellen that the routines followed a pattern. Four records. For the first, the dancer strutted around and didn't take anything off until near the very end of the record, and then it was just a jacket or a skirt. During the second record, shoes came off, if they were coming off, and anything else except bra and pants. Removing stockings could look quite sexy. For the third dance, the bra came off pretty quick and was spun around and pulled between legs or dangled in front of some nerdy-looking guy and then thrown to the side, The fourth record saw the pants come off quickly, and the dancer writhed on the floor or spun around on the pole naked, did the splits or a high kick, and then full flashed the audience as the record finished. Then they would grab a robe and dash around to pick up their tips, although Heather and one other girl did that last part stark naked, which got a final flourish of tips.

Ellen watched from the back corner just off the stage and Heather stood with her part of the time. "That big guy over there just stands there and barely touches his pint, and he doesn't even watch the dancers."

"That, my dear, is Hugo. Don't ever say much, unless a customer goes too far with a girl, then he says 'Out!' and the problem is solved. He's your new best friend, after me, of course."

"I see, seems all safe enough then."

"It is. George runs a tight ship."

Ellen stayed through all three of Heather's dances and when she was finished, they decided to go down the road to another pub for some supper together. Heather had picked up just over 60 pounds in tips. Ellen took the #2 home to West Norwood wondering what would come from this weird day. First she loses her job, then meets a new friend and finally lands a job she never expected to even consider, let alone accept. Heather stayed in the pub to talk to someone.

Ellen got up early the next morning so as to grab the shared bathroom and have a shower. She figured she needed to be clean if Heather was going to be seeing her naked all day. She also trimmed her pubic hair so it was shorter and shaped nicer. Heather lived near Vauxhall Bridge and Ellen's favorite #2 would take her close enough to walk the last bit. She popped into a small café after she got off the bus and had a tea and a bacon sandwich. When she arrived at Heather's, her new friend and mentor had already dug out some costumes from her own collection that Ellen could try. One was a sequined bright yellow T-shirt and matching shorts, with a blue bolero-style jacket with the word "Queen" in sequins on the back. With it went a pair of leggings and a wrap-round skirt. Underneath all this was a very skimpy white bra and a white g-string. "I wore this outfit when I first started - gives you some variations in how fast or slow you get your gear off."

Ellen tried it all on, and was surprised that it fitted quite well, "Remember, you're not wearing it to impress people while you're wearing it, you're wearing it to impress them when you're not! They ain't paying to see your outfits. They're paying to see you, and just you." said Heather, sagely. "Next, you needs music. This tape I used to use with this outfit until a couple of months ago. Into some different routines now, so use it till you get some of your own. You got one of those radios with two tape cassettes? Start recording the chart countdown on Sundays, then use the second deck to build your particular routines. So invest as soon as you can in a stack of blank tapes. You also need some Alice Bands or kids dress-up tiaras. They help with longish hair like yours - stops it getting caught in sequins and zips, also glams up the outfits a bit."

Ellen looked at the label on the tape, naming the music: Abba: Dancing Queen; Abba: Super Trouper; Sheena Easton: Modern Girl; Striesand: Woman in Love

Heather's next tip was, "Only one routine per tape, saves the idiot in the sound booth playing the wrong one. Give him it as you go on and make sure you pick it up as you get off, or someone will half-inch it. If you're not careful, tapes are always going missing. I keep a complete second library at home and if I lose a tape I can just copy it again easy. We've got a cassette player in the dressing room so you can use that to make sure you always rewind the tape if the sound guy doesn't. Nothing worse than standing on the stage with no music cause the tape needs to be rewound."

They worked on a routine for about two hours, experimenting with removing the clothes at different points or in a different order. Shirt before shorts or shorts before shirt. Leggings off, or leaving the leggings on all the way through - they were only knee length and wouldn't detract from being otherwise naked at the end of the show. Keeping the leggings on made it easier on the knees when crawling around the stage.

Heather asked Ellen if she was on birth control, and she said she wasn't as she had an ovary syndrome and didn't get periods at all. So that was one less thing to plan to manage.

So once they got the first routine down, they put another outfit together from Heather's collection and made a suitable tape. "This will get you through the first week, so George will hire you regular, then we can do a couple more tapes till you start building your own. Ask the other girls if they have old outfits they can lend as that will help also. Most of us have stuff we'll never use again."

Ellen went back to her bed-sit feeling quite confident about Monday. It felt funny taking the #2 to Victoria just before lunch rather than during the morning commute. Easier to get a seat, more room, and the run was even a bit quicker. Ellen actually treated herself to lunch in her favorite café, but early, so as not to be performing on a full tummy. She watched Heather closely, as she was on directly before Ellen, and then went on for her first ever strip. She managed to avoid any catastrophes such as stuck zippers or hair caught in zips or on buttons, and got good applause from the not that big crowd. But when she went to pick up her tips not wearing a robe, like Heather, a number of extra tips came in. Back in the dressing room, she counted 18 pounds for her first ever dance. "That's good," said Heather - "I got three for my first ever."

She put her street clothes on and went and sat at the bar. George came over smiling. "I can tell already you're gonna make it," he said, "so fill in this new employee form for me and we can set up paying you." The 2:00 first slot always got the three slow shows of the day - tips wise - which is why she got them as a newbie, but she still cleared 50 pounds by the end of the day. Heather stayed around to watch Ellen close down the performances for the day. "George is really proud of you," said Heather, "So you're settled for a while. As you get known here, people will want to chat with you, but it's not a good idea to date any of the punters, they always expect a naked you by the end of the date, and more." "Actually," said Ellen, "I've never had a serious boyfriend. I go dancing in Streatham at the Locarno sometimes, or maybe the Empire, but not with anyone in particular. There's some guys I have seen more than once in the ballroom to dance with but not to date."

To thank Heather for all her help and input, Ellen used her tips to buy the pair of them fish and chips down the road, before they both took the #2 and Heather got off in Vauxhall. It was about 10 by the time Ellen got back to her bed-sit, and she was glad she didn't have to be in the office by 8:30.

With the help of Heather and the other girls, she finished the week with four outfits and five tapes, so she spent the week-end rehearsing the new outfits and looking at mixing and matching the items to see if she could make a couple more combinations. A full week was fifteen dances; she would try and get to that by the end of her first month, each with it's own tape. She bought a suitcase on wheels to move her costumes around in, as she had to bring them home to launder. She started a notebook on what tapes went with each outfit and the exact pieces that made up each outfit. She also, at the back of the book, started a list of records she heard that might work for a routine, so she had some ideas in mind when the top of the charts countdown show came on on BBC1 on a Sunday afternoon.

Ellen had been dancing for about four weeks when one Monday Heather came in looking completely down. Ellen eventually got Heather to open up. Heather was a lesbian, and her girlfriend, Margaret, worked in Birmingham, and came back to London most weekends to see Heather. This past weekend, she had simply phoned Heather to inform her that she now had a boyfriend she had moved in with, and wouldn't be coming back to London. She and Heather were through. Heather was demolished, and Ellen hugged her to make her feel better. She even thought about kissing Heather, but in view of losing Margaret, Ellen didn't want to raise any false hopes in Heather. She was a complete virgin herself and had no idea if she was inclined towards girls. She had never felt anything like that. She had girl friends, like the ones she went to dances with, but never a romantic girlfriend. Never a romantic boyfriend, either.

Later that week, Heather invited Ellen to perform with her at a private lesbian party. "I want to do a duo act where we undress each other and cuddle and things like that," she explained to Ellen. "Well, I'll help, because I owe you so much and I am your friend, but I can't be your girlfriend. As long as that is understood." And so Ellen did her first duo act - one which George would never have allowed in the pub - but it was in private.

The following week, a newcomer started to turn up at the pub. Known as Benny the Wheelie, he was a paraplegic, balding man in a wheelchair who looked to be approaching 60, and had a scraggly beard. Rumor had it that "back in the day" he had been a driver for the Kray Twins, London's biggest crime family in the 50s and 60s. His driving days ended when he took a bullet to the spine. No-one was a hundred percent certain if that was Benny's true story, but he now held a job with another family rumored to have various criminal interests and it was clear he 'had connections'. No-one smart-mouthed him. Benny himself seemed quite a nice guy. Ellen sat and chatted with him a few times, and was quite taken by his soft Irish brogue. The week after Ellen and Heather did their duo, Benny told Ellen that he worked for a guy called Reggie, but 'not that Reggie', meaning not Reggie Kray, and the Reggie he worked for had a basement high-end Strip Club that was also a late night drink and gambling joint. Reggie was always on the look-out for new dancers to appear at his club, especially Friday and Saturday nights. Benny explained "It's quite a sweet deal, two hundred pounds a night cash, to be at the club from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. with at least two strips, maybe three max if the club is busy, four girls in rotation. Each booking was for 12 weeks, so two nights a week for 12 weeks, 4800 pounds cash. And a taxi home after every shift, so you won't need to risk the all night buses." Heather thought about it, but felt she wasn't really into it. She had never worked weekends because of Margaret but even though Margaret was no longer on the scene, was still inclined to keep weekends off. Ellen thought that getting that much in such a short time would allow her to get a car second hand, and be more flexible when she decided to return to mainstream work in a few months. She was still aiming to build up some savings and then 'live normal', hopefully by the end of the year. And so Ellen found herself booked at The Dungeon Club.

The Dungeon Club was a private club, deep in the cellar of a building in Soho, north of Leicester Square and Shaftsbury Avenue. The building had offices on the upper floors, not all leased, a Travel Agent's office at street level, and the Dungeon down below. Entrance to the members and their guests was thorough a nondescript door with a big guy standing outside it. Ellen and the other workers accessed the club via a goods elevator at the back of the building. From her first night performing there, Benny had taken a shine to Ellen. On her first night, when she had earlier had the last dance at the pub, she mentioned to Benny, after her first dance, that she had had no supper, and Benny went out and came back with an egg sandwich and a paper-cup of hot sweet tea from a nearby all-night café. It became a regular thing for him to sit in his wheelchair by the rear corner of the stage every time she danced, and so she started to give him her robe to hold as she danced. Every time he spoke to her, he called her Miss Ellen, quite formally. It sounded quite romantic in his brogue.

The Dungeon wasn't like the pub at all. First, there were no tips. The high stage was surrounded by a wrought iron railing that stopped the patrons getting too close, except for a VIP area, where the railings formed a square behind the seats, of which there were about 10 around two tables Only those patrons were really close to the stage. Secondly, with the gambling and the hostesses, the dancers had competition for attention. But it was 400 pounds on top of what she was pulling in at the pub, cash in hand, so Ellen figured for 12 weeks she could handle it. The absence of the banter and heckling that was always present when she danced at the pub felt a bit strange, but she could soon screen out the crowd noise, and after a while found herself dancing just for Benny, who she took to calling Benji. When she danced for him, he never took his eyes off his 'Miss Ellen'.

Benji noticed how often she was dancing for him, and made it a principle always to be there by the back corner of the stage. Then, if necessary, he would pop out to get Ellen some supper. On her third weekend, on the Saturday, Benji asked her if she had ever seen the movie 'Singing in the Rain'. "Oh yes," said Ellen, "It was one of my mom's favorites". "There's a small cinema around the corner that shows old films on Sundays. I like to go sometimes, 'cos they have a space for wheelchairs. They're showing Singing in the Rain tomorrow. Would you like to go?" Ellen said yes, so the next afternoon saw her waiting for Benji outside the cinema. He wheeled up and paid for them to get in. At the back was an area where a few seats had been removed so that Ellen could sit in a regular seat and Benji could park right next to her. Benji even bought them each an ice cream from the ice-cream vendor just before the movie started, after the trailers and newsreel were finished. When the movie got to the famous Gene Kelley dance sequence, Ellen sat transfixed. She hadn't actually seen the movie since she was little, and it really captivated her. When the music struck up, she reached out to Benji and held his hand. When the movie ended, Benji kissed the back of her hand before letting go. "If I ever get my legs back, I'll dance you all the way into the bedroom" he laughed. Ellen looked at him, leaned over and kissed his cheek, and said, "If you get your legs back, I'll hold you to it."

The cinema showed these old movies every Sunday, and so for the next three weeks, they went together each Sunday afternoon to the movies. They saw The Jazz Singer, Casablanca, and Citizen Kane, and the next weekend were going to see Planet of the Apes. Each movie saw them holding hands, and Ellen giving Benji a kiss at the end.

However, on the Friday of the planned Planet of the Apes weekend, Reggie asked Ellen if she could stay to dance on the Saturday until 3 a.m. or so as a special - paid for - favor. He was needing entertainment for a group of business acquaintances. She said yes, and warned Benji that they should plan to go to the second showing Sunday evening rather than their usual afternoon one as she would be extra late home on Saturday. Benji agreed.