Good,
clean
fun at
'Players'
Saturday night on the downtown mall,
queuing up to penetrate the walls of Player’s
Cabaret, two sporty boys, 17 and cleanly dap
per, eye a tough knot gathered around a-boom
box.
“Are they break-dancing over there, or are
they fighting?” the first asks.
"It’s all a bunch of crap,” the second says.
These words of suburban wisdom clatter
over the cement. A cop car slides down the
throat of the broad sidewalk — routine
surveillance. Crop-haired bouncers shoot
glances at the crowd and perch a leg across the
doorway. Two by three by four the young adults
enter the club, some having just finished a
clandestine wine cooler or beer.
Good, clean fun is what the owners have in
mind at Player’s Cabaret nightclub. Forget
cruising the gut, or bottle-busting parties atop
Skinner’s Butte. Parents can breathe easy again
if their offspring choose after-hours dancing for
a night out. Tucked away from tawdry street life
this black-walled ballroom, the strobe-lit beat
bawls on until four in the morning. And the
kids are out of trouble.
“No work clothes allowed” blazes across
the marquee, just to emphasize the club ethics
of non-gritty fashion. Inside Player’s Cabaret,
social pursuits are much more apparent than
drug-swapping or seedy activities. A nudging,
noisy tour through the two-tiered club reveals
smiling dancers, gum-gnawing pool sharps,
browsing boys and girls slick with make-up.
Tonight, the video screen rolls silent black
and white movie clips and an enthusiastic
documentary about Oregon industry. On the
perimeter, cushioned insets offer stills of prom
couples smoking and necking.
They belly up to this bar for soda pop, not
gin. The snack counter cashes in on candy,
jerky, almonds, ginger beer, fake wine; even
hats and satin baseball jackets bearing the
Player’s logo — a ribboned ballet slipper toeing
a piano keyboard.
Though it doesn’t offer a bar’s array of
drinks. Player’s serves up a similar pick-up
scene. Two young jocks saunter toward the
door, slapping hands and appraising the
“chickens.” The mixing of ages, schools and
colors creates a true social farm, especially after
midnight when the admission price is dropped
from $3.50 to $2.50 and those under 18 are ask
ed to leave. The 300-odd patrons include many
University students and even a few full-fledged
adults.
Club owners Neal Lynn Jacobson and Jeff
Cole, who both hold master’s degrees in public
administration from the University, don’t plan
any changes in the discotheque format. They
have patterned the business after clubs Jacobson
has been to in Salem and Cole in Roseburg.
They are working on promotion and video pro
jects, including a May lip-sync competition,
“Puttin’ on the Hits.”
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Line 'em up and move ’em out. . .a roundup of
the crowd at Player’s Cabaret on Saturday
night.
The other comparable nightclub in Eugene,
the Met, captures a younger crowd, and Jacob
son doesn’t consider them competition. Two
Willamette High School girls commented that
they used to go to the Met and KZEL-sponsored
dances before Player’s Cabaret opened in
December. They expressed displeasure with the
“sucky new wave music at the Met.”
Mainstream but loud, the music at Player’s
is composed of danceable top 40 tunes with
some funk and slow tempos thrown in. One of
the disc jockeys lamented the musical slowness
of the Eugene area in general. “If I played those
last 10 songs in other places, I’d be out of a job.
They’re obsolete.”
Requests from the audience regulate much
of the playlist, and Prince is top dog, growling
frequently out of the speaker banks.
Tonight, a girl approaches the cubicle of
turntables and sound equipment. She shouts in
to the disc jockey’s ear, cutting through the
thick fog of music. “Could you play something
by Duran Duran? My friend’s little sister refuses
to leave until she hears something by Duran
Duran.” The disc jockey glares back with
resolve. “She’s going to be here all night then,”
he replies. The girl shrugs at the spot of
rebellion and sifts back into the crowd.
Story by Ami Pate
Photos by Hank Trotter
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Greek Peasant Food,
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675 East 13th • Eugene, Oregon • 343-0846
Closed Tuesdays
Tables outside
Catalyst Films proudly presents
I
i;
THE
GOOD FIGHT
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade
in the Spanish Civil War
with special guest speaker
Bill Baily
“One of the year's ten best. ”
-WNEW-TV, N Y.
“Inspiring. ”
-Vincent Canby, N.Y. Times
“THE GOOD FIGHT makes history- dance! It
stirs pride at what citizens who take American
values seriously have done and still might do. ’’
-The Boston Globe
Lincoln Brigade veteran Bill Bailey is the central figure
in THE GOOD FIGHT, and was also featured in
SEEING RED. He has been fighting for what he
believes since the 1930’s — and continues to today.
DON’T MISS IT!
TONIGHT 8:00PM (one show only)
EMU BALLROOM • $2.00