Zanzibar Neons - Toronto, Ontario
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Metro2
N 43° 39.491 W 079° 22.908
17T E 630481 N 4835181
The Zanzibar is an "adult" nightclub in Toronto.
Waymark Code: WMEV83
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 07/08/2012
Views: 8
Located at 359 Yonge Street in Toronto's core district, this nightclub is hard to miss with it's garish neon signs.
The signs display "ZANZIBAR" in giant letters in both a vertical display and a horizontal sign. Multi-colored and variously sized stars dot the facade of the 3-story building. Another sign near the top depicts a scantily clad woman holding a top hat and cane and apparently dancing. See the signs lit up at (
visit link)
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"The Zanzibar Tavern in Toronto, Ontario is an adult entertainment nightclub and local landmark found on Toronto's infamous Yonge Street strip. It is one of Toronto's oldest nightclubs, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2010. The bar originally opened as live music venue, one of several on Yonge Street between Gerrard and King in the 1950s and 1960s. The Zanzibar featured jazz and blues in the early 1960s. In the second half of the decade it became the multi-media "Zanzibar Circus" dance club featuring rock and roll and go-go dancers and then topless female dancers. In the 1970s the tavern became a fully fledged strip club, reflecting the transformation of the Yonge Street strip from a live music centre in the 1960s to a centre for the sex industry in the 1970s.
Zanzibar has featured such diverse acts as rock musicians The Guess Who in the 1970s and burlesque goddess Annie Ample in the 1980s.
The establishment suffered serious damage to its facade in June 2010, during the G20 summit when Black Bloc anarchists vandalized Yonge Street during the 2010 G-20 Toronto summit protests.
In December 2010, the club garnered attention again when a librarian from nearby Ryerson University took clandestine photographs of dancers and wait staff on breaks on the bar's rooftop.
The Zanzibar has appeared in numerous Hollywood films such as The Incredible Hulk and Exit Wounds.
It has also featured in unusual lawsuits including a man who sued his wife, a former Zanzibar stripper for knowingly infecting him with HIV."
See the bar's own website at (
visit link)