Business & Tech

Jumpin' Jupiter's Sidewalk Advertising Offends, Owner Jim Callahan Responds

The Maplewood nightclub lost its performers from the past year, and on Saturday, the new crew raised eyebrows out on the sidewalk.

, the cabaret-style nightclub in Maplewood, is a small business going through a transition, and it hasn't been easy.

The nightclub lost Van Ella Productions, its producer, along with the performers from the past year, being .

Saturday night, the first night of the new production company, performers were on the sidewalk, as in the past, trying to pull in customers. The costumes were different on Saturday, and it was noticed. For one thing, they wore T-shirts instead of corsets.

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A similarly-dressed woman danced in the storefront window.

Several commenters on Patch didn't like what they saw Saturday night

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Rebecca K said she was "shocked by the half-naked women on the sidewalk early evening on Saturday night and, most shocking, the woman dancing extremely suggestively at the picture window on the corner on Manchester."

She said she'd think twice about taking her young kids to if they had to walk by the Jumpin' Jupiter ladies on the sidewalk.

Liza said she walked with her family to Saturday evening, and that she was "appalled," and had to explain to her 6-year-old daughter that what she saw was not appropriate.

"I love Maplewood and am all for openness and creativity, but not when it walks the line of trashy strippers," she said.

William McDonald wondered if the city council approved this as a business model for Maplewood.

Jumpin' Jupiter owner Jim Callahan responds

Callahan said he didn't know people were unhappy with the ladies on the sidewalk.

"It’s the outfits. When they had corsets they liked them, if they have T-shirts they don’t like them," he said.

Callahan said he hasn't made a decision about what they'll wear next Saturday night, but said he doesn't want to offend people. He said he likes to have someone on the sidewalk "flagging down" customers.

He also said the dancer in the window is "cool" and "edgy." He plans on having musicians in the window in the future.

"Do I want to (upset) random neighbors? No, I don’t. I want to be a good neighbor, and I want people to be happy," he said.

He said if he’s offended someone he didn’t mean to.

“I invite anybody who's getting upset not to yell at me, but to say, 'I find this offensive,' and we'll change it,” he said “and for God's sake come to a show and tell me at a table. Support the 'hood, you know?"

He said he's realized he needs to cater to the neighborhood as well as customers who come from outside Maplewood.

"We really didn’t think of ourselves as a neighborhood bar," he said. "We thought of ourselves as a St. Louis bar, but we noticed that people in Maplewood don’t think of themselves as being from St. Louis, they think of themselves as being from Maplewood.

"They don’t understand they’re in one of the largest cities in America," Callahan said. "They’re independent, and I think it’s cool and I like being here. It’s young. It’s hip. It’s artistic, just like me."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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