After more than a decade of sexual harassment, coerced encounters, and psychological abuse by San Diego vice police, Kata Pierce-Morgan and her fellow Les Girls dancers realized that fighting back through proper channels wasn't working.

Neither polite society nor the legal system were helping the dancers end the abuse, so they took matters into their own hands.

If no one was willing to believe a bunch of strippers, then Kata would install video cameras to prove their claims. If the rat pack cops thought they could terrorize dancers into silence, then they would find their voice and speak up. And if police internal affairs refused to take their complaints seriously, then Kata would have to do her own undercover work.

Prepare for "Chapter 5: Fighting Back, or the Rise of Stripper Energy."

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© Kori Suzuki 2024In this chapter:

Kata Pierce-Morgan, poet, activist, former dancer, current owner of Les Girls Theater

John Barriage, lawyer who represented James Morgan and Les Girls in 1980s

Kate Yavenditti, lawyer and co-founder of the County's Task Force on Domestic Violence, also involved with WomenOccupySan Diego and the National Lawyers Guild.

J.W. August, current KPBS freelance journalist

Pepper, former dancer and cashier at Les Girls Theater

Mel, current manager of Les Girls Theater

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© Kori Suzuki 2024

Credits:

Beth Accomando, Producer/Host/Video Editor

Christopher Maue, Videographer/Lighting Designer

Kurt Kohnen, Sound Designer

Phil Nenna, Designer/Animator

Sanns Dixon, Videographer

Amy Fan and Gaby Moreno, Assistants

David Washburn, Editor

The history of Les Girls Theater continues with the police harassment of dancers that started in the 1970s continuing into the 1980s. It begins to extend outside of the venue of Les Girls Theater and into public places, and even into dancer's homes.

Decades ago, Kata Pierce-Morgan, a former dancer and the current owner of Les Girls, was labeled an "N.H.I." (No Humans Involved) and "fringe woman" by the police. She and her fellow dancers faced an onslaught of police raids, nude interrogations and coerced encounters.

But despite such harassment and intimidation, Kata did not stay silent and compliant. She and her late husband, James Morgan, fought back — specifically by speaking up against police abuse to a county grand jury.

But while the 1970 grand jury report called out San Diego Police Department vice officers, nothing really happened. Meanwhile the vice squad's so-called "rat pack," took their harassment to new levels.

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In this chapter:

Kata Pierce-Morgan, poet, activist, former dancer, current owner of Les Girls Theater

John Barriage, lawyer who represented James Morgan and Les Girls in 1980s

Kate Yavenditti, lawyer and co-founder of the County's Task Force on Domestic Violence, also involved with WomenOccupySan Diego and the National Lawyers Guild.

J.W. August, KPBS freelance journalist

Pepper, former dancer and cashier at Les Girls Theater

Mel, current manager of Les Girls Theater

Credits:

Beth Accomando, Producer/Host

Christopher Maue, Videographer/Lighting Designer

Kurt Kohnen, Sound Designer

Phil Nenna, Designer/Animator

Sanns Dixon, Videographer

Amy Fan and Gaby Moreno, Assistants

David Washburn, Editor

Explicit content.

Kata Pierce-Morgan’s archives take us down a dark path for "Stripper Energy Chapter 3: Climate of Fear or What Happens When You Poke the Bear?"

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© Kori Suzuki 2024

The history of Les Girls Theater, which Kata now owns, is a tangled web that plays out like a film noir. The adult entertainment industry operates on the fringes of society and under the weight of a whole set of negative stereotypes.

But Kata and her late husband James Morgan fought back against efforts by police, polite society and city power brokers to deny dancers their freedom and make them feel less than human. Jim and Kata celebrated nudity and advertised it in hot pink neon to poke the bear at every turn … which, of course, had consequences.

Kata is now the archivist for both Jim and Les Girls Theater. As she lays out the history, you can start connecting the dots that take Jim from a young sailor to the flamboyant owner of a small adult entertainment empire.

It was clear from the start that the Baptist from Texas wasn’t afraid of a fight. As a small land developer in the late 1950s, Jim was told paying bribes were part of the cost of doing business in San Diego.

He not only refused to pay the bribes, but ran for mayor in 1959 on an anticorruption platform. He lost that race but opened a new business and soon had a run in with the Port Authority over party boats. Then opened a nightclub that got raided … his years of poking the bear came to a climax in 1969 when he took on the city’s censorship laws by staging the all-nude “Let it All Hang Out” show at his Les Girls strip club.

Jim won that battle when a court said the show could go on. But it ignited a larger war with the San Diego Police vice squad that would last for decades … with Kata and her fellow dancers as collateral damage.

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In this chapter:

Kata Pierce-Morgan, poet, activist, former dancer, current owner of Les Girls Theater

Bobbi Rogers, former dancer at The Left Bank and Les Girls

Sid Kassouf, former employee at Show Place

James Morgan, original owner of Les Girls Theater, late husband of Kata

John Barriage, lawyer who represented James Morgan and Les Girls in 1980s

Kate Yavenditti, lawyer and co-founder of the County's Task Force on Domestic Violence, and member of WomenOccupySan Diego and the National Lawyers Guild

J.W. August, KPBS freelance journalist

Credits:

Beth Accomando, Producer/Host

Christopher Maue, Videographer/Lighting Designer

Kurt Kohnen, Sound Designer

Phil Nenna, Designer/Animator

Sanns Dixon, Videographer

Amy Fan and Gaby Moreno, Assistants

David Washburn, Editor

Explicit content.