LEGIT OR NOT? THAT’S THE RUB by Keith L. Thomas

LEGIT OR NOT? THAT’S THE RUB
Miami Herald, The (FL) - October 2, 1983
Author: KEITH L. THOMAS Herald Staff Writer

If you travel down NW Seventh Avenue, it’s hard to ignore the health spas and men’s clubs that have sprouted up since the early 1970s. One passerby, left, steals a glance inside the door of A Touch of Class as she heads home. Outside the Gentleman’s Paradise, below, Wanda McCormack and her dog Goldie look at the spa while her roommate, Josephine Cecilio, complains about the spa’s patrons. Managers at The Doll House, right, and other spas refused to give their names, but insisted that everything’s legal behind the closed doors.

Flashy signs beckon:

GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS.

FOR MEN ONLY.

Welcome to NW Seventh Avenue just outside North Miami, where intimacy is bought and sold at health spas and men’s
clubs.

"I call them glitter down the street," said Ed Beinkowski, a city resident and member of the Westside Property Owners Association. He drives past the spas and their garish signs every night on his way home from work.

Located in unincorporated Dade County, the spas have concerned the Westside property and business owners since they began sprouting up in the early 1970s, said Ford Pollard, president of the group.

Although the association never has taken any action against the spas, "We’ve always been concerned with the kind of people they bring into our neighborhood," Pollard said.

"None of them is in the city so we can’t really do anything about them," said Diane Brannen, a North Miami City Council member and former president of the association.

A city ordinance, which regulates adult book stores, massage parlors and X-rated movie theaters inside city limits, has kept the spas out of North Miami -- but barely.

Three spas, one only a block away from North Miami’s northern boundary at NW 135th Street, lie north of the city. Seven are south of NW 119th Street, North Miami’s southern boundary.

Police call the spas "a pain."

Detective Jonas Sears of Metro-Dade’s Organized Crime Bureau said the spas are the focus of an investigation to determine whether they are providing more than just body rubs to customers.

The spa employes and managers who consented to interviews insist they’re only selling massages.

The spas under investigation by the Organized Crime Bureau include:

* A Play House, 14625 NW Seventh Avenue

* Cloud Nine, 13806 NW Seventh Ave.

* Public Relations, 13740 NW Seventh Ave.

* Gentleman’s Paradise, 660 NW 119th St.

* Eva’s Health Club, 1284 NW 119th St.

* The 7th Heaven Men’s Club, 11754 NW Seventh Ave.

* The Doll House Health Spa, 11628 NW 119th St.

* The Gazebo, 11440 NW Seventh Ave.

* A Touch of Class, 10798 NW Seventh Ave.

* Most Beautiful Girls, 9526 NW Seventh Ave.

"...Legitimate

health clubs> won’t even talk to you if you start asking for a certain type of girl or hinting about sexual favors," Sears said. "Some of these places will."

"Prostitution is a word game," Sears said. "We have to prove knowledge and intent. A lot of these places know this."

Sears said many of the spas require that the employes sign a contract in which they promise not to participate in any sexual activity on the job.

"This way, if we bust a girl the manager of the spa can say she signed a contract and he didn’t know what she was doing," Sears said. "There is a state statute against providing a space for prostitution."

He said the offense is a third-degree felony punishable with a fine of up to $5,000 and five years in jail.

The Organized Crime Bureau has made prostitution arrests at seven of the 10 spas in the past year and half, Sears said. The cases still are pending. The arrests were at: A Play House, Gentleman’s Paradise, Eva’s Health Club, The Doll House Health Spa, The Gazebo, A Touch of Class, Most Beautiful Girls.

The most recent arrest occurred on Aug. 17. A 24-year-old woman working at The Doll House was arrested on a previously issued warrant for prostitution elsewhere, Sears said. She was convicted on that charge, he said.

Sears said the Organized Crime Bureau wants to close the spas, but can’t without proving they are a public nusiance and then getting a court order.

The managers at four of the 10 spas allowed interviews. They said that everything that’s done inside the spas is legal, but none of the four would give his name. The managers of the other six spas failed to return repeated telephone calls.

"We’ve had no problems with the police," said the manager of The Gazebo.

"We run a very nice health spa. We have a membership here," he said.

Elias Legra, who owns the building that houses Most Beautiful Girls, would only comment briefly on his tenants.

"I’ve had no problems with them," Legra said.

Andrew Alexander, a spokesman for A Touch of Class, said the spas don’t deserve bad reputations.

"The spa is for hot-oil body rubs," Alexander said. "That’s it."

"This is a place a man can come and relax," said one woman, who asked that her name and the spa’s name not be used.

"We run a nice place just like any other business on Seventh Avenue," she said. "We just specialize in body rubs."

Most of the spas have been converted from small houses and stores that used to line the avenue. Customer parking is in the rear. The buildings have few windows and two-way mirrors allowing customers to be screened before they enter.

Once inside, customers usually have a choice of a hot-oil or alcohol rub at a cost ranging from $35 to $55 for a half-hour. Some of the spas accept Visa and Mastercard. Most are open all night.

At most of the spas, customers are greeted by a smiling woman and led into a dimly lit, sparsely furnished lobby. In some, cheesecake posters hang on the walls.

An employe at one spa, A Play House gave a tour to a Herald reporter, leading him down a narrow hallway to a small, private room where massages are given.

To open a spa in Dade County, operators must get an occupational license from the county’s Tax Collection Division. The cost of the license depends on the size of the building. The 10 spas on NW Seventh Avenue pay between $44 and $450 a year for their occupational licenses, according to figures from the county’s license section.

"The women working in them don’t need a license or degree to give a body rub," Sears said.

Once the licenses are granted they change hands frequently, Sears said.

"Most of these places aren’t that new," he said. "They are just in new locations. What they do is change locations when they get tired of a certain spot."

For example, he said, The Gazebo used to be where A Touch of Class is now. A spa called the Happy Time Health Studio used to be at the Gazebo’s present location.

All of these changes took place in less than three years, Sears said.

"We don’t hurt anybody," said one of the women. "If people want to come in they come in. We don’t ask them to.

"Regardless of who talks to you or what they say it makes our businesses look bad."