Diksha Sundriyal
Hulu’s ‘Summer of 69’ follows the story of Abby Flores, who finds a unique tutor for herself. With the final days of school nearing, she wants to focus on seducing her long-time crush, Max Warren. When she discovers that he likes to 69, she decides to find out all about it and do it with him. However, she doesn’t know anything about the sexual position, or even sex, and it’s not like she can walk up to anyone and ask them for help. This leads her to a strip club named Diamond Dolls, where she meets an exotic dancer, Santa Monica, whom she offers a lot of money in return for the treasure of her knowledge. While Santa Monica is a fictional dancer, fans of the film will be excited to know that her place of employment is pretty real. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Diamond Dolls in Summer of 69 is a Real Strip Club
‘Summer of 69’ and its characters are entirely made-up to serve the plot of the coming-of-age comedy. However, for filming, the crew used real locations to give a realistic look to the movie. Because a lot of scenes take place inside the strip club, which is an important part of Santa Monica’s storyline, they decided to film those scenes in a real place instead of creating fake sets to resemble a real strip club. For this, they found Diamond Dolls Gentleman’s Club, a real place in Syracuse, located at 6720 Townline Road.
The club offers a variety of adult entertainment, in addition to great food, drinks, and music. The filmmakers used the interiors and exteriors of the place to film all the scenes featuring Santa Monica and her friends, especially the last scene, where Abby decides to perform a dance to save the place. Filming in a real location added to the depth of the narrative, while also giving the actors a chance to completely immerse themselves in the place and enhance their performances. While Sam Morelos, who plays Abby, didn’t have to get any special training for her dance at the end of the film, Chloe Fineman, who plays Santa Monica, trained in the art of pole dancing before arriving on set. She commended the real-life dancers, talking about the upper-body strength required to perform a dance like that.
While the strip club is real, the entire plot surrounding it remains completely fictional. Santa Monica, her friends, and their struggle to keep the club from going under, or worse, falling into the hands of a total creep, are made up to give Monica a proper motive to team up with Abby. The part of the deal is that she will get $20k in return for teaching young Abby her ways and showing her how to seduce Max and 69 him so that he will fall for her and they can be together. By the end, things turn out pretty differently than expected, but all through this, Diamond Dolls remains an integral plot device that sets the direction and tone of the story.
Read More: Where Was Summer of 69 Filmed? Shooting Locations of the Hulu Movie
