Sophie's Mentertainment® is the best source for information on Strip Clubs in the NorthEast.
Hello Sophie Dear,
Although I never met you, I feel I know you. I've been reading Mentertainment since you started, I think.
I used to work at the Tattle-Tale Lounge in Irvington, NJ. Through the years I was there, I was manager, bouncer, bartender, lot attendant, plumbing & heating fixer, air conditioning fixer and a lot more. I recently read the article about the Tale. It says the 'original owner' ran it into the ground. I know that's not right!
I started there in 1975. I was 17 at the time. A man named Hubie and his wife Janis were the owners. They were, I think the first ones to call it Tattle-Tale. Before they owned it, a woman owned it, and it was called the Union Hill Tavern. No go-go then. Hubie started the go-go. It really wasn't that busy. The crowd was kind of rough. The girls were okay.
Then about 1981, Hubie got bored with the place. He sold it to John, Mae and Mary-Lou D'Elia. Hubie bought some construction equipment and started a business. He also became the owner of Apples (non-gogo) in Hillside.
When John started running the bar, things went wild! He was a generous man, always bought the bar a round whenever he was there, no matter how many people were there. He allowed his barmaids to give drinks to anyone they thought deserved it. (Try that today!!) The dancers got better because of the competition. We used to use only Sally & Jerry (Action Talent Agency, 
Hillside, gone now), but John and I would go from go-go bar to go-go bar and hire the girls we liked, and another agency had recently started in the area. Another thing was John's prices on alcohol were cheaper than any go-go bar I was ever in. The prices were about the same as a non-gogo bar. 
Shots were an average 75 cents cheaper than any other go-go bar. Mae, (who was John's mom) was the cook, man was her food great! The customers used to call her burgers, manhole covers, because they were so big! The bar was packed all the time! We opened at 11:30 am and closed at 1:30 am Monday thru Friday. He was never open on Saturdy or Sunday. When asked by customers why he doesn't open on Saturday he would reply "We do enough during the week so I can take the day off".
There were lines of guys waiting to get in at 11:15 am when I'd get there to start! The crowd there was like family. All the dancers knew they were safe when they came there. We were nuts! Anyone caught bothering a dancer was beat up! Not only by us, but by the customers!! Our crowd loved it there!
Then came trouble in paradise. We were closed for 'lewdness' & 'serving a minor'. The bar was fined and closed for almost a year. The bartenders had to work, so they went somewhere else. The customers, naturally, went to other bars. And while the Tale was closed, John sold it. It was 1988 and Mel Shaffer & Sal Terranova were now the owners. They tried to get back all the old bartenders and customers. I was working at the Cheeque's on Wednesday nights during the time John owned the Tale and when it closed I started working there Fridays and Saturdays, too. 
I also managed a bar called Short Shorts on 1 & 9 (was My Wife's Place 2, then Short Short's, then Toy Boxx) at the time. Now it's a stone yard for grave markers! I went back when they re-opened. Things weren't good. None of the 'Good' girls wanted to work there. John always booked in advance and he called them and told them the bookings they had would be honored by Mel & Sal. I saw a lot of them in other bars and they told me "it's not like it was", customers were all different and it didn't seem friendly any more. Then the drink prices went up. That stopped the regulars from going there. They felt if they had to pay that much for a drink they could go to Shooters, which had just opened on 22, and be in a nicer bar with a lot more happening. Can you blame them? Mel & Sal split up and Mel became sole owner. Things started going downhill from there. Nobody liked Mel. The customers complained about never getting a buyback. They said they had dropped at least fifty bucks and never got a drink back! None of the girls were really that good. I've been using good, that means - pretty, shapely and has some idea how to dance! 
Not some toll collector or girl that moves to whatever she hears in her head. Girls that tease customers into staying for more, you know the type. So when you say 'original owner', you should say 'last owner'. I still have pictures of the old inside, with girls and customers, when the stage was on the chains. I could scan them and send them if you like.
Frank-------------
To: fm-home@worldnet.att.net
Wow, what a moving testimonial. Thank you. I am so glad you wrote! Yes, I meant Mel, I didn't even know there was anyone before him, I am sorry I assumed that he was the original owner.
May I publish your letter? I think a lot of people have a lot to learn from it. Please!?
Thank you. Stay in touch. I'll post on the website too, probably together with the review. The review is at http://www.mentertainment.com/mag/804.htm. I'll put the review up as soon as tonight. Now I have to go and see a friend who just gave birth yesterday.
Again, great that you wrote. God bless.
Sophie
Mentertainment
PS: Yes, scan the old pictures for me. please. thank you.
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Sure you can post my letter, but please fix any mis-spellings. I scanned some of the pictures I have from the Tale. I'm going to send them separately
because a friend of mine has AOL and whenever I send him more than one
picture there always seems to be problems, hope you don't mind. The first is
Sondra laying in the middle of the 4X8 stage, being tipped by a friend of
mine named Charlie. The next is Janis. (Hubie's wife) she stayed on and
worked days only. This picture was taken at about 2:30 in the afternoon. As
you can see, pretty crowded. The next one is of Jimmy Martini. His brother
Ray used to run the French Maid in Elizabeth. Jimmy filled in whenever
Barbra couldn't make it. Again at least two deep at the bar. Barbra and
Rick, who were husband and wife, were there most of the time. Barbra
bartended every night Monday thru Friday. 
Rick was John's cousin. He was a
Newark Police Detective. Here's another picture of Barbra laughing at Jimmy,
who is just out of the picture. Also in this shot you can see how small the
bar itself actually was. It was a horseshoe shaped design. The next is of
John D'Elia, the owner then, with another friend Richie in the kitchen. The
next is Mae D'Elia, John's mom and our cook. Next is MaryLou. John's sister.
She ran the bar during the day. Next is a dancer named Maria B. Very young
back then. She turned out to be one of the most asked for dancers around.
The next two were taken outside. One is of me and my Harley and the other
shows how the bar used to get so packed the people had to park in the street
up and down Union Ave. The next two are of a dance named Trudy. She was very
tall, so tall that when she stood straight up on the stage her head would
hit the ceiling. Alot of guys really liked her. I think that back then she
was modeling in NY city. The next one is of our softball team, which went
undefeated most of the time. They won the trophy five years in a row. The
next shot is of two dancers, Rusty and Angel. They were also very popular.
The next is one of me in the kitchen with a dancer named Ruthie. And the
last is one of Me, Mel, Tanya & Sal in 1988. Sal had told me that he knew
you. This picture was taken in December after they had just opened. They
threw a big party for my birthday hoping that most of the regular customers
would come back. They did, but only for that night. Well I hope you like
these. I also have shots of the bar after it was redone to look like the way it
does now.
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