Becoming a night club manager was still no picnic. One of the nicer clubs I worked for did not have a bouncer, they had an off duty cop or sheriff on duty, but it always seemed that I was usually the first one on the scene of any kind of altercation or situation, old habits die hard, and the situations were sometimes unbelievable.

One of the clubs I worked for in Florida opened at 8:00 pm, and by 9:00pm one night I heard the whistling and shouting that's usually associated with too much liquor, but it's far too early for that. I trace the sound to the auxiliary dance floor in the back of the club.

 There is a very stunning couple on the floor, and as they gyrate to the Smokey beat the male is rubbing her breasts, butt and body while grinding his groin to hers, much to the delight of the young men at the back bar.

"Come on folks, it's a little too early for that." They exit the floor without saying a word. About a half an hour later I heard the cheering and whistling again, sure enough my "loving couple" were back at it. This time while they were doing the groin grind he had lifted her mini-skirt, exposing her panty covered butt to the bar, and was in the process of sliding them down.
 
"OK," I said, "you're out of here, take it down the road" As they were leaving the female stopped and said "You're ruining our anniversary".

Club DJ's are another subject to be reckoned with. For every one pro you meet there are a dozen prima-donnas. The one we employed was named Rudy, he was the ultimate total prima-donna. He would rush in one minute before his start time, ignoring the be on the job about 15 minutes prior rule. His excuse was he needed this rush to get him through the first hours.

Rudy hated to announce the in house promotions, which was in his job description, he just wanted to show off his mixer skills, which were mediocre at best, and he really hated to play requests. At that time the late Michael Jackson was hot, people could not hear enough of his music. I had to order him to play what the people requested, he glared at me, but complied.

One night one of the " big shots" came up to check out the new manager, me. He questioned me about the lack of in-house publicity. I said that I had tired to get Rudy to talk them up, but he just wouldn't listen, and I didn't have the power to fire him. He asked me for an introduction, we entered the booth and introduced him to Rudy, and left him there, they had a long talk.

As the big-shot was leaving I asked what happened. He said Rudy told him his throat was sore, and I told him to buy some [censored] throat lozenges. After a no show one night where I had to fill in, they finally fired his prima-donna butt and hired a real pro.

This newly hired DJ had finished second in a Battle of the South Florida DJ's. I was told that the DJ that took first place tried to give him the first place prize as he was that good. He needed quite a few trips with a two wheel cart to bring all his music in. Remember there were no Cd's back then ,it was strictly vinyl. The booth storage bins were filled to capacity and the rest of the albums were in about a half a dozen milk crates on top of the back counter of the storage bins.

Now once a month this hotel would have what was called the Managers Cocktail Party. It started at about 3:00 pm and ran till about 7:00 pm, anyone on the property was invited to attend. There was free food, discounts drink prices and free prizes.

This particular party happened to fall on the Thursday, the day before before the new DJ was to start. We were filled to capacity, and the people wanted to dance to live music, so after numerous requests and complaints I made my way to the DJ booth turned off the tape player and started spinning records.

So now in addition to making sure there was enough liquor, ice and clean glasses, assisting the bar backs and waitresses with cleaning tables, calling the kitchen for more food and filling requests from the bartenders for more singles and change I had to DJ, so I was not in a real good mood.

I was so busy with the music I failed to see anyone enter the booth. When I reached out to grab my smokes there was this newly hired DJ standing there staring at me. "Those are my records," was his comment. "Yes, but they are in my club and I have a roomful of people that want to dance, so unless you want to start playing right now I suggest you leave me alone," I growled. He departed.

Friday night arrived and the new DJ showed up along with this Cuban hulk. The hulk stared at me when I entered the booth to formally introduce myself. "So, I hear that you think you're some kind DJ?" the hulk asked.

"I'm not bad".

"So what do your know about music?", the new DJ asked.

"I don't know shit about music," was my answer. At that point this monster sized Cuban guy showed a monster sized smile, picked me up in a bear hug as kissed me on both of my cheeks.

The new DJ was also showing a big friendly smiling, "Man we have never worked for an employer that would make a statement like that, most of them believed they knew everything about everything."

"Not me, I know what people want to hear and I play it."

He later admitted that he had been watching me that night he came in and caught me playing his records and he said I handled his stuff like a pro. It was one of the highest compliments I was ever payed.