Business Suits

I^{AMCERTAINTHATthe Board of}
TNT!MEN is one of the few boards

anywhere in the world that meets in

the nude. I have been on boards with

whores, jocks, ex-cons, social workers,

corporate types, and so on, but they have

all been clothed to the hilt and probably

wouldn't strip down at a board meeting if

it would save their lives. The only business

place I have ever been where clothing was

not de rigeurwas when I did a brief stint in

burlesque some years ago. No, not as a

stripper, but as production manager and

writer of bad one-liners for the show girls.

The star of the show was a woman of

advanced years named Georgia Southern.

Georgia didn't need to bare all, she just

wanted to. She and her lawyer husband

owned a number of office towers and

high-rise apartment buildings in New
York. That's how rich they were. They

This was not the case with the men.

There were no male strippers or show

boys in the burlesque of early '60s. Only

specialty acts -- comics and "straight"

men, mostly, and people with a gimmick.

This was the last throes of vaudeville.

Nuns and show girls

In 1962, Manhattan's Lower East Side was

largely Jewish, but with a strong Catholic
presence. The loading door of the theatre

looked out on the yard of a convent. The

nuns, sporting the garb now worn only by

the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, could
often be seen tending the flowers or,

occasionally, just relaxing.

It was an extraordinary juxtaposition

of woman images, looking across the

stage, past the strippers and show girls in
various states of undress, and into the con-

vent yard at the nuns in the clothes of their

trade. (I wonder if they looked back.)

Many of the nuns were roughly the same

age as the performers. (Georgia was older

by Walter Cavalieri <walterc@surfen.net>

bankrolled the show. Georgia loved to

entertain -- whether it was on stage, at her

home, or in her dressing room. She was
gracious to a fault, funny, racy and dear.

Sipping a Pepsi starkers

Once during rehearsals, I knocked at the

door of her dressing room. "Come in," she

called out. I opened the door and there she

was, reclining in her starkers sipping a

Pepsi. She assured me I wasn'tinterr u p t i n g

anything, and invited me to sit down and

join her in a drink while we transacted our

business. No problem.

Georgia knew who she was; she'd

charge for a peek, but also give it away for

free if she felt like it. This was generally

the attitude of all the women connected to
the show, strippers and show girls espe-
cially. Really laid back about nudity.

than any of them, I am sur

e.)

Baring it all

Off stage, Georgia looked her 60+ years.

But onstage, with her gaudy red wig, her

props and her special pink lighting, she

looked terrific. And boy, was she ever full
of sex and energy! Of course she never bar e d

all an stage. It wasn't allowed, nor was it
p r o p e r. She peeled to the smallest of pasties

and the briefestofg-strings. Virtually nude,

butneverall the way. That's the way it was.

Birthday Suits for Business

Now what does this have to do with the

TNT!MEN board meetings? Very little,
really. We haven't yet turned up in pasties

and G-strings. Nipple jewellery and cock

rings, perhaps, but no cover-ups. There is

a principle to uphold here: as nudists we

simply meet in the nude -- it is what we

do. Skinis our business suit. It doesn't

make our meetings any different from

those of other boards. No better. No worse.

Just more attractive. We do what we come

together to do: to try to make TNT!MEN

the most enjoyable, varied and interesting

gay nudist group we can. We do our work.

We plan. Weshare a few snacks. Wesocialize.
We dish. We enjoy. We embrace. We leave.

Come join us. Help us reach our goal.
We meet on the second Tuesday of each

month, from 7:30 to 10 pm. Phone Bert at
(416) 340-8754 for information about where

the meeting will be. We promise to feed
you cookies. We ask only for a very valu-
able contribution: your participation.O