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SHOP ALL BRANCHES TODAY 12 TO 6 P.M. WE GIVE AND REDEEM EAGLE STAMPS.
TRAXX CONTINUED
Promoting the club hasn't been difficult, says Berger, unlike his experiences at other clubs. When it opened, about 750 invitations were sent to the "right" gay and straight persons.
Running a gay bar is different than operating one with mass appeal, he says, since there is no need to drum up any hype to bring in customers. There is enough word-of-mouth advertising that Berger has followed a low-key approach. "You don't just let anyone in," he says. "When you say 'C'mon in, straight people', you don't have a gay bar anymore."
Berger says he decided to open a gay club since there are "less hassles" than at those bars that appeal to the masses; he claims those clubs involve too many fights between patrons and jealousy among management. But he readily admits that when he wanted his own club there was a "wide-open market" in the gays.
"Let's fact it," said Terry McCormick, co-editor of Cleveland's gay publication, High Gear, "gay people have a lot of disposable income. Many of them don't have families and don't have to spend money on insurance policies and second cars; they spend a lot of money on clothes and vacations. Even beer companies have started to advertise in gay publications. Berger's a smart businessman."
Berger says he was initially concerned that homosexuals might not accept the club since he isn't one of them. The problem hasn't materialized, but some feel he is becoming too business oriented.
Tony Scafero, an occasional visitor to Traxx, thinks Berger is taking advantage of the gay community by imposing a $2 cover charge on weekends and cramming people inside like cattle. "On any Friday or Saturday after midnight, see how convenient it is to talk. You can't even have a conversation with the person you came with," Scafero says.
Berger feels he has not turned his back on gays just to make a buck. All but one of his 17 employes are homosexuals, and he has held numerous benefits for the Gay Community Center to help the group pay rent and utilities, a gesture that even some gay bar owners haven't made. He also buys ads in High Gear, though the club probably doesn't need the publicity.
McCormick, who also is on the board of directors of the GEAR Foundation (Gay Awareness and Educational Resources), thinks Berger's contributions outweigh any criticism. "The foundation's relationship with him couldn't be better. He has advanced gay consciousness through his advertising and the club," McCormick said.
Berger will soon open a 65-foot bar in the club's basement and also hopes to to construct a roof garden by mid-May that will seat 250 persons.
He believes most clubs stay popular only three to five years, and hopes to have a small empire flourishing if this one ever runs out of gas. He plans to open another Traxx in Miami in a few months and is also considering a disco club (for straight people) to compete with the Dixie Electric Company. If these plans work out, he'll open another Traxx in Chicago.
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Scott Scredon is a free-lance writer. This is his first contribution to Sunday Magazine.