Sid King
I visited Sid King’s once around 1982 for a bachelor party. The best man was committed to showing the groom and groomsmen an exciting time. This included a death-defying, high speed drive over streets and curbs to Sid’s. According to the article, Sid was a “benevolent showman.” My recollection is a bit raunchier, with Sid directing the dancers on stage and describing their personal attributes to the audience. It wasn’t until I saw his obituary that I learned that Sid had transitioned from showman to shoeman. I immediately clipped this article out, partly for personal nostalgia and partly to remember this historic Denver locale and Sid.
- Matt Holman
Sid King Obituary, 8/27/2000
Sid Kings, Marion and Colfax, Denver. Photo by Donna Altieri.
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:09 pm
My best experience at Sid Kings was taking my fiancee’s friend from England to Sid’s place – “I’ve come all this way, to Denver, Colorado, and I’ve heard about Sid King and want to see what the ladies do there,” the cockney said to me.
So I obliged – had been to Sids – illegally – when I was underage (another story) – and the Brit got his full worth, especially watching
the one lovely lady who could do things with candles that I will not detail in this article. And yes, Sids running commentary was legendary.
The Brit’s only complaint: “yank, the beer is overpriced and cold!”
Indeed it was! But the experience was well worth it.
March 6th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
In the mid 70’s (e.g. 1974-75) I would occasionally drop into Sid King’s Crazy Horse bar for a beer and some laughs.
It was more like, as noted previously, a burlesque / comedy place than a ’strip joint.’
Almost a *satire* of a strip joint, if you will.
Sid would sit in the back of the inner showroom with a microphone and keep a running gag commentary going –
“Here she is folks, Laborus Clitoris, the galloping greek from cherry creek …. wet your lips, honey … show ‘em the titskas, etc etc”
Occasionally a comedian would get up on stage to give the girls a break. While he was trying to tell lousy dirty jokes, it was open season on him, and everyone in the crowd would boo, shout, tell him to get off & go to hell, etc. – while he would throw insults back, cornball stuff like “why don’t you two put your heads together and make a perfect ass?”
A lot of the ‘girls’ were in my memory older, some not even all that attractive,
but they and all the waitresses were nice to us, even when we were to broke to buy more than one beer (there was to my knowledge, no cover, at least on week nights.
Sid’s was a really friendly informal place, a Denver milestone and a tradition. We all miss Sid and the Crazy Horse.