The Diamond Disco / Southern Gentlemans Adult Entertainment, 1995 Old Dunbar Road / Knockers Oasis, Inc., 115 Overland Drive / Tail Spin, 115 Overland Drive, boxing club (?) 115 Overland Drive / Windham Brothers Supper Club / Dixie Disco: 1993, 1999, Jan 2009 33 comments
Welcome to all the folks coming in from The State! Be sure to check out the Alphabetical Closings for a list of other places you might remember.
This defunct I-26 adult entertainment complex apparently occupies two lots in Cayce off of Old Dunbar Road. The front lot is 1995 Old Dunbar Road, and the back lot is off the adjacent side street at 115 Overland Drive.
I first became aware of the place(s) when Tail Spin (at 115 Overland Drive) was in business because the building was readily visible from I-26, and had a life-size model of an ultra-light airplane crashed into its side. It was actually rather clever since a) it was near the airport, b) a "tail spin" is a famous and often fatal failure mode for an airplane (apparently you need to turn in to the spin to recover..) and c) "Tail Spin" has obvious possibilities as a "stripper move".
Apparently though Tail Spin was not the first strip club in the 115 Overland Drive location. This SC Administrative Law Finding recounts a 1993 liquor license action against an earlier club, Knockers Oasis, Inc.. It actually makes pretty funny reading, and makes me think that when you're not looking for missing governors, being a SLED agent may not be all that bad:
(13) Agent Tanner paid a dancer named "Casey" sixty dollars ($60) for a bottle of champagne and for her to dance for him in the balcony area of the club.
(14) "Casey" was dressed in only a thong bottom and twice pulled the thong down to reveal her pubic area to Agent Tanner.
(15) "Casey" straddled Agent Tanner's leg and sat in his lap while holding his face between her bare breasts.
(16) On December 3, 1993, at approximately 11:45 p.m., Agent Tanner entered the licensed premises.
(17) Two dancers, named "Kimberly" and "Crystal", dressed in thong bottoms only, performed for Agent Tanner in the balcony area.
(18) "Kimberly" and "Crystal" straddled each of Agent Tanner's legs and massaged themselves in rhythm to music.
(19) The two dancers also performed a lesbian type act in front of Agent Tanner.
(20) Agent Tanner observed another dancer rub her groin area in a customer's face.
Tail Spin got into its own liquor license trouble in 1999, albeit in a less interesting manner.
I don't know when Knockers closed, obviously it must have been after 1993 and before 1999. I also don't know why. For Tail Spin, on the other hand, I'm pretty sure I remember reading that it burned down. Certainly the mailbox for 115 Overland Drive does not seem to be in front of any building big enough to have been a club.
The last club to have been on these lots was, I believe Southern Gentlemans Adult Entertainment. (Note that one sign uses an apostrophe and the others do not.) They used to advertise and do remotes quite a bit on Rock 93.5 and then I didn't hear about them anymore. From the Christmas tree in the parking lot, my surmise is that they probably shut down just after New Years, but I don't know that for sure. The location of the club is rather interesting in that it borders right on a family plot graveyard (which I didn't take any pictures of out of respect). I'm sure the family was not at all happy about that. I'm not sure what happened to the club, but I have to say that the whole place is very hard to find -- yes you can see it from the Interstate, but that's not the same thing as being able to get there. Also, the name was not very good. Even if you can agree on how to punctuate your name, for a club of this sort, it should probably emphasize the ladies, not the 'gentlemen'.
The door to the place was open so, well, I went in. I had done the same at Red Wing Rollerway, talking to the work crew there, but in this case it turned out there was nobody inside (I went by twice), and it started creeping me out. I think I could have wandered farther in, but I started thinking "this would be a great place for people who don't want to be found to hang out".
There is one or possibly two final mysteries to this complex. First, what is the red building at the edge? It has an 'A' restaurant sticker on the door, but no other signage that I could see, and looks decrepit enough to have been out of business for a decade or more.
Second, was there ever a boxing club here? There is a small white outbuilding at the 115 Overland Drive address. The roof and doors are now gone, so I took a look inside, and there seem to be molded plastic signs from a boxing ring, or at least the sign has a pair of boxing gloves on it. Unfortunately, the inside of the building looked very iffy (and stepping on one nail recently [non closings-related] is enough to make me wary), so I couldn't get a good look at it. I should also mention that there is a patch of very good blackberries around this white building.
Finally, I just thought this was a rather intersting view: looking out across I-26 (which is actually not visible) from a hill about a quarter of a mile away.
UPDATE 30 June 2009: Added "Windham Brothers Supper Club" & "Dixie Disco" to the post title in response to info from Woody WIndham relayed by KC.
UPDATE 29 March 2011 -- Someone has been working with (fooling with?) the little storage building outside the club, and the mysterious sign in there is now more clearly visible:
I'll rotate it upside down here:
It seems to say "Karate And Kardio Fitness", but I still don't know which building (if either of these) it was originally on. Also as of March 2011, someone has boarded up the door to the Southern Gentlemans.
UPDATE 18 August 2012: Finally add "The Diamond Disco" to the post title.
UPDATE 19 March 2013: Work for the Heartbreakers move has started:
Not all the locals are upset about the new neighbors:
UPDATE 20 January 2014 -- It appears that the Platinum Plus folks (who own Heartbreakers) have decided that this site is far enough away from Platinum Plus that they instead of moving Heartbreakers here, they will retire that name and brand this location as Platinum West:
33 Responses to 'The Diamond Disco / Southern Gentlemans Adult Entertainment, 1995 Old Dunbar Road / Knockers Oasis, Inc., 115 Overland Drive / Tail Spin, 115 Overland Drive, boxing club (?) 115 Overland Drive / Windham Brothers Supper Club / Dixie Disco: 1993, 1999, Jan 2009'
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Tom
25 Jun 09 at 5:37 am
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Out of all the closing on this site, this is the saddest.,,,,
boi-dan
25 Jun 09 at 8:38 am
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Yep. It was actually open until '82. Then it was an Amvets location until the early '90s, when Merlin's moved into it. Merlin might have still owned the property thru the numerous "dance club" incarnations that followed, but I don't know if he had any personal involvement with the clubs.
I don't know what was at the Overland location, but it's been closed since the early '90s.
badger
25 Jun 09 at 8:54 am
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Was Merlin's a kind of a rednecky dance club back sometime in the mid to late 90's? If so, I have a vague recollection of going somewhere in this general area with a buddy of mine that said he planned to "meet someone there" only to find out it was an AOL (i.e. American Online) meet-up place and he was meeting someone there from online.
Making the evening even stranger was the fact that there was some kind of Pro Wrestling promotional event going on as well and a bunch of entry-level wrestlers got up on stage and started trash talking. They even acknowledged the AOlers at one point, referring to them as "all you computer people."
What a night.
Brian
25 Jun 09 at 12:59 pm
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Probably. I went to Merlin's only once, and that was when it was located in the same general area, if not the same building, as Platinum Plus. That was pretty much my recollection. Seemed like a meat market, although that might just be wishful thinking.
badger
25 Jun 09 at 8:12 pm
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I always thought the little cemetary on the property was super weird.
Dennis
26 Jun 09 at 1:58 pm
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I got the following note from Woody Windham --
"It still has the Diamond Disc floor we put in. The Red building was the Windham Brothers Supper Club [country] and later the Dixie Disco Both were a big flop." .
THanks to Woody for the note -- Kc
Kc
30 Jun 09 at 3:17 pm
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Thanks, KC. I've added those to the post title.
And you can tell Woody he's welcome here any time..
ted
30 Jun 09 at 4:54 pm
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I remember Knockers Oasis having great radio commercials in the early to mid 90s.
MR BILL
7 Jul 09 at 12:28 pm
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The name and concept would seem to offer a lot of possibilities..
ted
7 Jul 09 at 12:52 pm
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The building was called "Checkers'" and it was a country club back in the 90's...although I don't remember the deejay playing much country music, sometimes there were live bands on stage. And yes it was run by a man who went by the name Merlin...he eventually changed the clubs name to 'Merlin's" before it became a nudie club later, I never visited it after the name was changed, though.
Leslie
28 Mar 11 at 8:20 am
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I frequented "Checkers" in the mid 90s. At the time it was owned by Merlin Jones. Merlin's son, Lee was one of the bartenders. The Dj was a guy they called Cotton. He played all sorts of music but from time to time they had local live country bands playing.I really enjoyed going there. They seemed to have a huge crowd everytime i went so i don't know why they closed or changed names. I do remember the smaller building towards the back as a club named Jak's. I recall my mom going to a all male review there in the 70's or early 80's. After Jak's i can't remember anything else there except "Tail Spins" I heard that the man that owned "tail Spina" passed away and his niece was trying to hold the place together but it flopped. I'm not sure if anything else opened in the building after "Tail Spins".
DD
25 Jan 13 at 3:13 am
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There were 2 strip clubs next to each other up there. I think it was Tail Spins that burned down. It was the white building. Ironically, I was there the night it burned down...(well I had left before it did). I think there might of been a country bar up there too. Not sure tho.
Vinny
9 Feb 13 at 8:29 am
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According to The State, looks like this will be the new site of Bush River Road's Heartbreakers.
ted
9 Feb 13 at 5:24 pm
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Looks like a good place for it. After all it just needs vacuuming and a little touch up paint....lol!!!!
Homer
9 Feb 13 at 11:16 pm
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Tailspins....belonged to my father Johnny B Dugan, who also owned Johnny B's further down the road. He passed away in January 24, 1998. He was a great man and the name Tailspins comes from the comic Tailspins, which his Fiance, Missy Kelly, helped him choose as a name. I still have the copy of the one she purchased for him. He is sxurvived by myself, Katherine Dugan, his daughter Angie Dugan, and my brother Johnny B Dugan Jr. His neice Kerry Ann Did in fact try to run and failed. It later burned down. The reasons still remined to be proven....kaddoodle@yahoo.com
Katherine Dugan
14 Feb 13 at 3:20 pm
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I was taking I-77 back to I-26 last week to visit my dad at Lexington Hospital and just happened to glance to my left after I got on 26 and saw the sign. I never realized how close it was to the interstate! I went to Merlin's a few times with a buddy of mine (he drove) but I was never one to frequent the area, in any way. I'll have to do a Google maps to even remember where Old Dunbar Rd. is!!
Homer
22 Feb 13 at 2:31 am
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Before Diamond Disco the building was the Galaxy club.
A fatal shooting at the front door ended the Galaxy Club.Dale
18 Mar 14 at 11:22 pm
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I remember the red building being a biker bar called The Villa. Owed by Joe and Wendi Kosack( spelling might be wrong) and the. Building in front was an old recording studio. Long before it was ever strip club.
Ruth Collins
3 Oct 18 at 9:46 pm
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"The most prestigious bookmaker in Vietnam"
Spam WordPress sites much?
Mitch
30 Jul 21 at 2:58 am
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Yes, Ruth is correct. That building was a recording studio mid to late 1970s.
Johnny
6 May 22 at 6:23 am
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The name Strawberry Fields Recording Studio just occurred to me. Any varifiers?
Joe Shlabotnik
10 May 22 at 4:38 am
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@Joe - you're thinking of Strawberry Skys. It's owned by a guy I went to school with, Gary Bolton. They are located on Platt Springs Rd. now.
Homer
10 May 22 at 8:35 pm
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Good catch there, Homer. Strawberry Skys it was.
Joe Shlabotnik
10 May 22 at 10:26 pm
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The recording studio off the highway was actually called United Music World. If I remember correctly, the building was owned by Jack Jenkins. It was then turned into a strip club. In the early 80's, Bob and Mary Curlee opened Strawberry Jam in there house in the Three Fountains neighborhood. It was an amazing place to make music. I had opened a studio on Platt Springs Rd called Higher Skys. The Curless's and I became friends and combined forces and names to create Stawberry Skys which is still going strong today at 1706 Platt Spings Rd. Bob passed away several years ago but always kept an eye on us
Gary Bolton
11 May 22 at 7:31 am
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Well, guess I'm confused too. Must be getting old....:^)
Homer
11 May 22 at 10:09 am
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Homer, did you go to Irmo High? What year did you graduate? I remember Gary for sure. I try to forget all about Irmo High School as much as I can, but since that was 45 years ago I went there, I don't remember a lot of names or faces now.
Del
24 May 22 at 3:44 pm
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So after reading through Gary Bolton's post above I managed to find Bob Curlee's obituary... (he passed in 2017)
Andrew
24 May 22 at 10:31 pm
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@Del, Yeah - I went to Irmo, class of 1976. Haven' been to a reunion since 30'th. See a couple of people from my class around Irmo once in a while (usually at a bar). Probably wouldn't recognize many as well.
Homer
28 May 22 at 1:12 pm
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The last IHS reunion I went to was back in 2013. It'll be the last one I ever go to. Some people I still run into from the 70's classes such as the Lawhead brothers and a few more every so often. I was an original Heathwood Hall kid of the 60's, and was put into the Irmo school system. Being a teachers kid though didnt make it any easier for me, so I don't miss those days at all.
Del
30 May 22 at 12:13 pm
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@Del, The only Del I remember from Irmo Is Del Bazemore. Was your dad the band director or something of that sort?
Homer
31 May 22 at 9:17 am
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The psychic who has been located beside the old Handy Hut at Garners Ferry & Trotter is apparently moving a little farther down the road to the Horrell Hill area.
badger
31 May 22 at 4:51 pm
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Homer: Yeah, that would be me..Del Bazemore. Lavonne Bazemore is my Dad. He doesn't play the trumpet anymore though. My Dad started teaching out at Chapin, Irmo and Seven Oaks originally also. Being an original Heathwood Hall kid for 7 years and then being placed into a strange Public School system, I never got used to it. I rarely see or speak to anyone from the class of '77. Been to a couple of IHS reunions, but I'm past the HS days. and haven't been to one since 2013. Do you remember David Bellamy? or Ben Bodie? or Marty Bridges? and of course All 4 Lawhead Brothers. I see Tommy and Doug every so often, but that's about it.
Db
4 Jun 22 at 3:03 pm
Wasn't this originally the Diamond Disco owned by local DJs Woodyt and Leo Windham in the late 1970s?