JOURNAL, things are hopping at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch now with the Mustang Ranch closing. "We're the heir apparent," Moonlite owner Dennis Hof told the Journal. "We're expanding. We're hiring some of the Mustang girls. In 90 days we'll be as big as the Mustang ever was."
Hof said he's got the Court TV program coming in for interviews and radio shock jock Howard Stern's producer setting up live TV broadcasts.
Hof's also entering a joint Internet venture with Hustler Magazine mogul Larry Flynt, and construction workers are putting in new sewer lines for an extra 25 rooms -- doubling the size of the bordello. He's also adding a 100,000-square-foot adult bookstore.
Of course a feud with ex-wrestler and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura hasn't hurt either. Hof recently named a room after Ventura who said in his book, "I Ain't Got Time to Bleed" that he patronized the Bunny Ranch in the 1970's while a Navy SEAL. However, Ventura's people, not amused, have since been in contact with Hof. Hof said at the time he was willing to compromise on the issue.
"We're going national," Hof said. "We expect a 30 to 40 percent increase in business because the Mustang is closing, but that's just the beginning. We'll be friendlier and classier and better-known than the Mustang."
The Mustang Ranch in its heyday made headlines all over the nation and the world. The publicity-savvy Joe Conforte, its owner, never turned down an opportunity to get his establishment on TV or in the news.
According to the Gazette-Journal, Phil Donahue and Geraldo Rivera made pilgrimages there to broadcast their national talk shows. The brothel made the cover of the Rolling Stone magazine in 1972 and has been mentioned in every major newspaper in the nation. Talk show hosts Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman and Larry King have mentioned the place.
"All publicity is good publicity," Conforte once told a reporter. "That's the only way brothels can advertise and (news stories are) advertising you can't buy."
Hof has taken measures making Conforte's efforts seem quaint.
"We'll be on Hustler.com with Nevada cathouse girls," he said. "We'll have three rooms where computer users can tune in 24-hours a day and see the girls running around naked and partying."
Sex won't be in the picture, he said, but a similar World Wide Web site showing women in a college dorm gets tens of thousands of computer "hits" a day.
"With the joint venture with Hustler, we could be making as much on the web as we now do with the brothel," Hof said. Hof said brothel income is now about $4 million a year.
Recently, the Moonlite's madam was busy interviewing 45 Mustang prostitutes looking for new jobs. Of those, Hof said, five were hired.
"Only the best," he said. "We're going to be classier than the Mustang ever was."
In another recent interview, Hof mentioned how John Wayne Bobbit had visited the brothel, his former place of employment, recently, after he had been sentenced to community service for his part in a clothing store robbery.
Hof: "He was all upset and crying. He said his life's a mess. He wants to be a comedian but he can't put three words in a sentence. It's hilarious. Howard Stern had him on his show, and Howard thought the joke was John was going to be a comedian. He can't do it. John's not a communicator. He's not quick enough to do that. He [Bobbit] said he blew it, that it was the best job he ever had.
"My guess is John, five years from today, will either be in prison or dead. He has no direction to go in. Mark my words. It's terrible. But that's the hard cold facts of it all. He couldn't get a job out here as a $7 an hour laborer. He's too high profile. They know his history. He's done this and that. They blame having his dick cut off on him, being hard on his wife. When I saw the trial, what I got from it was, he was having sex with her all the time, but she wasn't getting off. So she had no regard for his penis. He's going to have a rough go. He's got five years of probation. He's been in so much trouble in five years. He beat up a girl from Vegas, he ran from the police once or twice, he got drunk driving things. Now he's got to go straight for five years. That's a long time for a guy like John Wayne Bobbit not to get in trouble. When he gets in trouble, boom, they'll revoke his parole. Gone.
Hof said that Capri Cameron, heretofore reticent about her association with the Bunny Ranch, now wants to tell the world she's there. "That's all changed in the last month," said Hof. "She wants us to advertise. Now we're putting the word out to the world. Before she was very quiet about it. She comes up there and makes a lot of money.
"Janine was on Howard Stern recently," Hof said. Howard asked her about going to the Bunny Ranch. That was cute. I ran into her at Larry Flynt's. I said, Janine, we get calls all the time wondering when are you going to be there. She kind of hesitated and said, 'Tell 'em soon. I'll be talking to you in a few months.' Of course, that's not a commitment. Howard has been talking about us every day. When he thinks of sex-for-sale, he thinks of us. We were on his E! Channel show recently. We were on his first CBS show of the year. They sent a whole team out recently. They sent Robin [Quivers] out and did a whole bunch of filming. That's really good for out business.
He had Gavin Rothdale on, the lead singer from Bush, and, right in the middle of the interview, he said, 'Gavin, tell me about the Moonlite Bunny Ranch.' Gavin just went dead. He just busted this guy. He said, 'Well, they got a nice bar there. I was there to have a drink. You don't have to do anything.'
" 'Not unless you're getting your band laid,' Howard said."
