Sexually Oriented Businesses Get Cold Shoulder in Santa Clarita : Law: The historical society’s curator says the bedroom community has always fought such battles but ‘unofficially, it’s been going on since the dawn of time.’

SANTA CLARITA — There are no prostitutes walking the streets. Residents looking for X-rated movie theaters--or the Playboy Channel on cable TV, for that matter--are out of luck. But the sexual revolution is still full of skirmishes in this conservative bedroom community.

Consider the battle of Castaic Junction: A Gentleman’s Club.

All-nude dancers gyrated into the new club about a month ago and wowed the crowd--for one night. The war over the only such establishment in the area has been raging ever since.

The Newhall Land and Farming Co., a developer that owns the building, heard about the performance and got a court order forcing the dancers to cover up with bikinis. Newhall Land spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer said the club’s lease prohibits “lewd or offensive” entertainment.

“It is our property and that is not a use that we want for our property,” she said. “It is obvious that the community is not supportive of this type of venture.”

On Thursday, sheriff’s deputies shut the club down.

Dozens of residents had complained to Newhall Land and government officials since the club opened. County inspectors found the club was operating without the proper food and entertainment permits, issued warnings to the owner that went unheeded for a couple of weeks, then ordered the shutdown.

County and Newhall Land officials said club owner Stuart Cadwell brought much of the trouble on himself because he failed to tell them the establishment would offer exotic dancing.

But Cadwell isn’t conceding defeat. He’s applied for the necessary permits, noting that business has been good. “The place is just screaming for entertainment of this type,” he said.

The uproar over Castaic Junction isn’t surprising to many. Sexually oriented businesses have long been given the cold shoulder by local officials and many residents.

“Officially, they’ve pretty much always been like that,” said Jerry Reynolds, curator of the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society.

But, he noted, “Unofficially, it’s been going on since the dawn of time.”

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For example, a drive-through condom shop had its windows smashed and was defaced with paint hours before its scheduled opening in 1992. A city councilwoman suggested discouraging customers once the store did open by videotaping them.

A current lingerie shop billboard featuring a woman in her underwear has sparked a protest petition containing more than 1,500 signatures.

The Santa Clarita Valley that many officials and residents hope people see is the community that featured exclusively family oriented movies (nothing racier than PG-rated) at its first international film festival in March. It’s also a place where the Playboy Channel was discontinued on local cable in 1992 because of a lack of viewership.

Nevertheless, the valley’s few adult shops attract a steady stream of customers, and the community’s bizarre history matches anything that could be found on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

Santa Clarita is home, for example, to a self-proclaimed sex priestess who claims to have spiritually purified more than 2,500 men by having sex with them. The priestess, Mary Ellen Tracy, who with her husband, Will, was convicted in 1989 of running a house of prostitution, said she hopes to open a temple in Santa Clarita soon.

While the city’s moral politics are unquestionably on the conservative side, pinning down the attitudes of residents is a bit trickier. A 31-year-old married woman strongly condemned the dancers at Castaic Junction--as she headed with a female friend into Chili Peppers, a new establishment that features male exotic dancers.

“People are definitely more conservative here, but I think they’re more accepting of this than they are with female dancers,” she said. “Whenever you have females dancing you end up with hookers outside, where as with men you don’t.”

Chili Peppers also sponsors a bikini contest for women every other week.

Many locals said they are willing to tolerate sexually oriented businesses, to a point. Marilyn Wegner, 62, is a 15-year resident of Santa Clarita who works at the Lutheran High School Thrift Shop in a small, aging strip mall on the eastern outskirts of town--just a few doors down from an adult video and gift shop.

Wegner said she doesn’t mind the adult shop because of its remote location. But she said more centrally located or more sexually explicit businesses, such as X-rated theaters, are a bad idea.

“It’s a growing family community, with a lot of young families,” she said. “I think we don’t want our children to grow up with that influence of pornography and sexually explicit material.”

The adult gift and movie shop, Funzie’s, is managed by Tina, a 23-year-old resident who didn’t want to give her last name because she said her boyfriend’s parents are devoutly religious and have no idea where she works. But she shook her head at the city’s conservative politics.

“Are you going to tell me none of the City Council members use motion lotion or whipped cream?” she asked. “They had to be young sometime.”

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Councilwoman Jo Anne Darcy laughingly asserted that she is no prude. But she said that allowing even a few high-profile, adult-oriented businesses would open the way for more.

“It puts a bad reputation to a city when you see those types of things proliferating,” she said.

If marquee signs aren’t turning heads, some of the council members’ past actions certainly have. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, Santa Clarita’s first mayor when the city incorporated in 1987 and now a Republican U.S. congressman, wrote a letter during his term to the only local movie theater at the time, stating that it should feature more G-rated movies.

In October, 1992, two men converted a kiosk along a busy street into a drive-through condom shop called the Safe Sex Shop. Councilwoman Jan Heidt suggested videotaping customers to discourage them after numerous complaints were voiced by residents.

“They told us what we were doing is evil,” co-owner Richard Kotler said. The shop closed due to a lack of business a few weeks after it opened.

The anti-adult business political tone is consistent with officials who have governed the Santa Clarita Valley since it was inhabited, the historical society’s Reynolds said.

“The town leaders, whoever they happened to be at the time, always frowned at this sort of goings-on and tried to maintain a very moral community,” he said.

But Reynolds said those living here shouldn’t delude themselves--the city lost its collective virginity a long time ago.

A club known as the Sandburg offered gambling and prostitution during the 1920s to clients willing to make the trip several miles north of town to Ridge Route Road, Reynolds said. One of the area’s most notorious prostitution outlets was operated in the 1930s and ‘40s by Ace Caine, a stunt man, rodeo rider and B-movie actor who lived in the upscale Sand Canyon area, Reynolds said.

“It was sort of his ranch, but he also had slot machines, brothels and ladies of the evening out there for his friends--and he had a lot of friends,” Reynolds said.

Perhaps the most famous modern-day episode involves Mary Ellen Tracy, 52, also known as Sabrina Aset, the self-proclaimed high priestess of the Church of the Most High Goddess, which required new followers to give a monetary donation and have sex with Tracy.

Go to Mary Ellen and Will Tracy’s nondescript Canyon Country home and they will probably deny who they are, unless a convincing explanation is provided for the visit. Will Tracy said the couple have to be cautious--even though few know where they live--because their property has been vandalized and residents occasionally taunt them in public.

“You never know what kind of wackos might show up,” he said.

The Tracys are trying to maintain a low profile while pursuing litigation that would allow them to reopen their church--perhaps near their home.

Many residents were outraged in November, 1992, when they learned that Mary Ellen Tracy had volunteered to lead children on educational hikes at the Placerita Nature Center. Placerita officials at first defended their decision, but told Tracy a month later not to return, claiming the publicity was hurting the center and that parents were worried about leaving their children with her.

Tracy, who has master’s degrees in chemistry and environmental science, said it upsets her that residents--and more often political officials--won’t let her lead a normal life.

“I’m really not the scum ball I’m portrayed to be,” she said. “People don’t know my background and education.”

Ron Anderson, a Saugus resident, said he moved to the area because of the low crime rate. But he said he would never dream of giving out the address of his business. He runs a nationwide “900” phone line with 80% of the calls specializing in “romantic talk.”

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He said he has already relocated his business once within the city because of hecklers and encounters a few more every time he advertises for “telephone actresses.”

“Every time we run this ad the same lady calls,” he said. “She calls up and says ‘You’re going to be out of business within 30 days.’ She’s been telling me this for a year and a half.”

Darcy said she doesn’t object to out-of-the way businesses like Anderson’s but understands why some people do. She said many residents moved here to escape the undesirable influences of more urbane areas and are adamant about keeping them away.

“I guess we do have an attitude, because we think this is a very good community, family oriented, and we’d like to keep it that way,” she said.