June 14, 1962 - Young hoodlums who strong-arm bargirls and strip-teasers into prostitution have carved up Al Capone’s old Chicago rackets empire into islands of vice, Senate investigators were told today. Policemen from Chicago and its suburbs, backed by testimony from a blonde stripper, also told the Senate rackets committee there was “collusion” between local officials of the American Guild of Variety Artists and the new vice lords. The police testimony came after five Chicago nightclub operators had invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked whether they ever had tried to force dancers and B-girls into prostitution. They were preceded on the witness stand by Corrine Suzette Stein, a petite blond stripper, and Joan Gainsley (pictured), a former bargirl, who swore that some Chicago and Miami nightclub owners forced their female employees to become prostitutes. Joey Adams, president of the American Guild of Variety Artists, contends that his union does not have the power to enforce local laws against alleged improper nightclub practices. “Violations like those are up to local police authorities to enforce,” the comedian said in an interview.
