Joe Redner, Tampa 'Strip Club King,' Dies at 86 After Cancer Battle
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Oct 27
Joe Redner, Tampa 'Strip Club King,' Dies at 86 After Cancer Battle
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Oct 27
Summary
Joe Redner died Oct. 16 at his Tampa home at 86 after cancer that had spread from his lungs, his son Joey Redner said.
Over a 50-year career in adult entertainment, Redner built a strip-club empire around Tampa and became best known for Mons Venus, which opened in 1982.
Mons Venus drew fierce opposition from religious groups and city politicians, who used vigils, billboards, zoning rules and nuisance laws in repeated efforts to shut it down.
Redner cast those fights as free-speech battles, later broadening his activism to gay rights and reproductive freedom; he said he had been jailed 150 times.