First you have to know about the Chili's restaurant in Austin on the corner of Lamar Boulevard and 45th Street. The Reddit pranksters have made it into a sacred spot. It's a meme among memes.
What they don't know is the location has a topless past. Lil Abner's opened in April of 1975. It soon was a haven for bikers and "experienced" dancers who were no longer teens and likely sported a few bruises on their legs and heavy makeup on their smiling faces.
The bar was the first of three topless joints to pay homage to the comic strip. Daisy Mae's opened in North Austin in the former Kicker Jim's Country Disco in 1981. The next year Mammy Yokum's opened in South Austin. The tittie bar trifecta didn't last long.
In December 1984, Lil Abner's burned down. It first they thought it was faulty wiring.
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| Austin American-Statesman Mon, Dec 03, 1984 ·Page 11 |
Then Daisy Mae's was torched two months later, and both fires were deemed arson. Daisy Mae's manager Patrick Ellington spoke of threats from unnamed patrons. Some opine bikers get pissed off. Some say it was an inside job. Forty years later there are no clear answers, but plenty of stories to be told.
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| Austin American-Statesman Wed, Feb 06, 1985 ·Page 19 |
Mammy Yokum's apparently didn't last as long as the other clubs. The last mention to be found of it in the Austin American-Statesman is in 1983, less than a year from its opening.
Mystery, anyone?
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