Harry Freeman, 72, Owned Texas strip-clubs, 'loved the fast life'
Hoodoo
Friday, Jul. 23, 2010
By Nathaniel Jones
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/07/23/2357823/strip-club-owner-loved-the-fast.html
CEDAR HILL -- Harry Freeman "loved the fast life" and through it he
found a way to make enough money to have the "lavish lifestyle [he] so
enjoyed," his classified obituary in the Star-Telegram said this week.
Mr. Freeman was also a tenacious defender of the way he chose to live.
"You have the right not to like me, and I have the right to maintain my
business," he told the Star-Telegram in 2001. "But you can't pass an
ordinance just to put me out of business, and that's what they're trying
to do."
Mr. Freeman owned nightclubs and strip clubs including House of Babes
Cabaret in Fort Worth, Showtime in Kennedale, and Flashdancer and
Fantasy Ranch in Arlington.
And since at least 1992, he spent countless hours in city offices and
county courtrooms and countless dollars on lawyers to challenge
Arlington's attempts to regulate adult entertainment.
Mr. Freeman died July 14 at a Mansfield hospital after an illness. He
was 72.
Born Aug. 31, 1937, in Detroit, Harry Floyd Freeman served in the Navy
before moving to New York and then Chicago, where he opened his first
business, a bakery.
Later, he moved to Florida, where he "found himself in the nightclub
scene," his classified obituary said.
After moving to Arlington years later, Mr. Freeman and his wife, Kelli,
opened Fantasy Ranch, a Western-themed topless club on the edge of
Arlington's entertainment district, in June 1991.
In 1992, the Arlington City Council adopted an ordinance that prohibited
sexually oriented businesses from being within 1,000 feet of homes,
schools or other sexually oriented businesses.
Fantasy Ranch was closer than that to a similar business, but because it
opened before the ordinance was approved, the city had to allow it to
stay open.
But for years, city leaders found ways to make that difficult for Mr.
Freeman.
Arlington strengthened its ordinance at least three times, which
eventually forced Mr. Freeman to turn the club into a sports bar. But
his other adult clubs thrived.
"Personally, he was a kind man who had a wonderful heart who cared about
his employees and managers," said Arlington lawyer Kelly Jones, who
represented Mr. Freeman in some of his legal conflicts with the city and
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
Jones said Mr. Freeman wanted to avoid confrontation with the city and
responded only when he thought the city was trying to put him out of
business.
"The ordinance was in place to regulate all the adult entertainment
establishments," Arlington City Attorney Jay Doegy said. "He became the
face because he had the money to challenge the city's ordinance."
Mr. Freeman's service was Tuesday.
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Big Mongo
> This is my father I am wondering who this is so I know who this is writing about my father.
The link in the original post is 404, so you might have to visit the Wayback Machine @ https://archive.org/web/ to see the original obit the newspaper
published.