March 31, 2015| Main Story by Sebastian Elliott
In this, the final part of the four-part series, Sebastian tells us the story of taking over at Scores in New York City! RS
Although the position at Scores had already been filled, joining Big John at Headquarters was a no brainer. The club’s success was already creating a buzz throughout the city, and John was prone to treating his employees well, and regularly calling me ‘the voice of God’ every time he saw me. I picked up a shift or two there, started working at the long-standing downtown V.I.P. club on Saturdays, and returned to Sin City for one more shift a week. Eventually, working at V.I.P.’s proved to be way too depressing to stay at, working at Sin City way too hip-hop heavy to stay at, and Headquarters, way too enjoyable to leave from. Dropping everything else but my shifts at HQ, I received a call from Jonny Von, the managing partner at the new Times Square venue, Cheetah. Jon Von was a recent import into the adult nightclub game, and Cheetah was hurting for business and badly needed a shot in the arm to survive. Jon was a real character, and I took a liking to him immediately. Furthermore, Jon looked upon me as kind of a younger brother and made my happiness one of his top priorities, even going so far as to stock the d.j. booth nightly with bottles of Patron, Jagermeister, and Corona before my arrival. Needless to say, we hit it off immediately, and my time at Cheetah – although damaging to my liver and kidneys – was one of the most pleasurable I have ever experienced in the business.
After a year of working at both HQ & Cheetah, rumors had spread through the city that the Las Vegas mega club Sapphire was bringing its name and reputation to New York. What’s more – word was that the legendary east side of Scores was closing, and that Sapphire would be taking over the location. Not only did this indeed turn out to be the case, but Sapphire would also be opening a west side location in Chelsea, complete with a second floor steakhouse and an adjoining hotel. It was this new location that promised to revolutionize the entire west side of Manhattan – already home to the Hustler club, the Penthouse Executive Club, and the recently shuttered west side location of Scores. Between the massive ideology and the fact that my close friend and host Scotty Blue would be working there, leaving both John and Jon at both HQ and Cheetah, although difficult and unpleasant, was again, the logical move. Unfortunately, although the east side location of Sapphire was thriving due to the previous decades of success of Scores, no competition on the upper east side, and the fact that it was smack-dab in the wealthiest zip code in the nation – the west side was plummeting. Quickly. Not only was ownership unable to clear the pre-existing hotel of its current occupants in order to renovate, the club was apparently operating under an expired liquor license, and the community board strongly rallied against its presence in a mainly gay neighborhood under the rising star of politician Christine Quinn. Although we all saw the writing on the wall – at the very end, having absolutely zero girls working per night – management regularly assured us that all was well, and I arrived to work one evening to find the club doors padlocked, 500 dollars of uncashed funny money still in my pocket, and several phone calls left unreturned to this day.