Thanks to my friend Ellen George I have in my possession a stash of old copies of the Lake Placid News from the 1970s when she was editor.

Here is a sample of the big news on page one dated Nov. 24, 1970:

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Budget up $5 million in decade

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“The Essex County budget in ten years has risen from a figure just under $3 million. Where have the increases come from? How is money being spent? What are we getting for this increase?

[Sorry folks I can’t answer those questions right now, because…]

“Some of those questions might be answered at the Essex County public hearing at Elizabethtown tomorrow, Wednesday, at 11 a.m. Some of the subject matter, however, is apparent only when the budgets of ten years are compared.”

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County roads part of the problem

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“The Essex County highway budget of $1,376.320 for 1971 represents an appropriation that has doubled in ten years.

“It is, according to county highway superintendent Edward Currier, not an altogether unreasonable increase. They had asked for even more.”

The page one stories go on and on about the economy — “Per Capita Tax High in State” — “Cost Benefit Study Aimed at Program” — “Building Construction Planned for the Town of North Elba and the Village of Lake Placid is expected to exceed the $1 million mark this year.”

Naturally, I have saved the big page one story for last:

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Topless go-go’s … gone, gone

Board outlaws bare bosoms

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My, my, what an outcry — almost as big as the rejection of the John Birch doctrine by the school board.

There were five bars in Ray Brook in the 1970s, all located, of course, in the town of North Elba.

The Brown Bear, Fitzgerald’s, Yoffe’s Bar and Restaurant, The Evergreen Tea Room (Tail O’ the Pup) and The Birches.

However, the Birches was the culprit in this story and very popular, even before the Go-Go dancers descended from Montreal.

The Birches hosted great jazz bands, served good food and there tourist cabins located at the rear of the restaurant.

The editor of the Enterprise (oh, that would have been me) sent me and my fellow newsman, Bill McLaughlin, to cover the story of this awful, disgusting new entertainment phenomenon.

However, it was so crowded opening night we could barely get through the door.

We went out to The Birches several times later (always very crowded) to cover this sensational story but never seemed to come up with the correct prose. It was a story beyond our grasp that really needed the correct poetry.

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The government ended it all

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“Will ‘topless’ entertainment come to an end in North Elba? It may, if the town board’s proposed ordinance is approved by the town attorney and survives a public hearing.

“The North Elba Town Board has approved a local law which would prevent ‘exposure of a female’s breasts in public places’ or ‘promotion’ of ‘exposure.’

“The ordinance was proposed by Justice of the Peace Jack Shea [town justices were then members of the town board] and is aimed at the one ‘topless’ establishment in the area, The Birches on the Sara-Placid road.

“Shea indicated it was the advertising and promotion of the entertainment that was particularly distasteful. He objected to the passing out of handbills in Lake Placid at convention time.

“The new ordinance is made possible by an amendment to the state law concerning exposure of a female. Until this year it was virtually impossible to enforce closing of an establishment promoting topless entertainment, because exposure was illegal except in a ‘play, exhibition, show or entertainment.’

“According to this, one could be arrested at the beach for wearing a bottom only costume, but not for singing in a nightclub.

“The local ordinance, if finally adopted, reads that ‘a female is guilty of exposure when in a public place she appears clothed or costumed at any time in such a manner that the portion of her breast below the top of the areola is not covered with a fully opaque covering whether or not such a female is entertaining, performing in a play, exhibition or entertainment.’

“Promoting the exposure of a female would also be a violation.” [A speeding ticket it is a violation.]

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Book available

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Please contact me as listed above for Volume II of my book or it can be purchased at the Art Center on Main Street in Tupper Lake; in Saranac Lake at the Village Mercantile on Main Street, the Adirondack Trading Company and Riley’s Rock Shop on Broadway and in Lake Placid; the Adirondack Store at 2024 Saranac Ave. and the Bookstore Plus at 2491 Main St.