Kata Pierce-Morgan’s archives take us down a dark path for "Stripper Energy Chapter 3: Climate of Fear or What Happens When You Poke the Bear?"

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© Kori Suzuki 2024

The history of Les Girls Theater, which Kata now owns, is a tangled web that plays out like a film noir. The adult entertainment industry operates on the fringes of society and under the weight of a whole set of negative stereotypes.

But Kata and her late husband James Morgan fought back against efforts by police, polite society and city power brokers to deny dancers their freedom and make them feel less than human. Jim and Kata celebrated nudity and advertised it in hot pink neon to poke the bear at every turn … which, of course, had consequences.

Kata is now the archivist for both Jim and Les Girls Theater. As she lays out the history, you can start connecting the dots that take Jim from a young sailor to the flamboyant owner of a small adult entertainment empire.

It was clear from the start that the Baptist from Texas wasn’t afraid of a fight. As a small land developer in the late 1950s, Jim was told paying bribes were part of the cost of doing business in San Diego.

He not only refused to pay the bribes, but ran for mayor in 1959 on an anticorruption platform. He lost that race but opened a new business and soon had a run in with the Port Authority over party boats. Then opened a nightclub that got raided … his years of poking the bear came to a climax in 1969 when he took on the city’s censorship laws by staging the all-nude “Let it All Hang Out” show at his Les Girls strip club.

Jim won that battle when a court said the show could go on. But it ignited a larger war with the San Diego Police vice squad that would last for decades … with Kata and her fellow dancers as collateral damage.

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In this chapter:

Kata Pierce-Morgan, poet, activist, former dancer, current owner of Les Girls Theater

Bobbi Rogers, former dancer at The Left Bank and Les Girls

Sid Kassouf, former employee at Show Place

James Morgan, original owner of Les Girls Theater, late husband of Kata

John Barriage, lawyer who represented James Morgan and Les Girls in 1980s

Kate Yavenditti, lawyer and co-founder of the County's Task Force on Domestic Violence, and member of WomenOccupySan Diego and the National Lawyers Guild

J.W. August, KPBS freelance journalist

Credits:

Beth Accomando, Producer/Host

Christopher Maue, Videographer/Lighting Designer

Kurt Kohnen, Sound Designer

Phil Nenna, Designer/Animator

Sanns Dixon, Videographer

Amy Fan and Gaby Moreno, Assistants

David Washburn, Editor

Explicit content.