At some point in the early 1980s....I was assigned to Ramstein Air Base. At this point in time, they'd approved slot machines, and the local NCO club was making a ton of profit. They were ploughing the profit into live bands and shows....which led to more profit. It's safe to say that cash flow was at a all-time record.
One evening I walked in (probably a Friday), and I walked into the ballroom area. I walked up to the bar and ordered a whiskey sour (my preferred cocktail).
I turned and they were preparing the stage for some show....so I lingered.
The room was big enough for 250 people, and I'd say there were a max of fifty people there. I questioned the low number.
About ten minutes would pass, and the show opened up. It was a lady impersonator/drag queen episode. Two German guys.
I sat at the bar and for a full-hour....I watched the act. It was nothing strip tease relatable or sexual.....just two guys impersonating women. It was about 50-percent comedy and 50-percent singing (badly for guys).
Someone came up to the bar where I was sitting and asked how the base approved the act, and the response was....it was the club manager, and it was a last-minute fill-in situation (no advertising).
Act ended....I ordered a second whiskey sour, and the two guys in drag exited to a minor bit of applause. The one obvious thing you noticed....out of the fifty-odd people at tables....forty of them were women.
The funny thing is that no one on base brought up the topic (1984), and frankly....on entertainment value (1-to-10), I'd rate the two guy show as a '3' at best.
In the decade after the 'cash-years'....a number of folks forced the Ramstein club to shuffle it's profits around.....live-bands came to be a rare thing, and the 'cash-cow' eventually dried-up.
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