Jim Gradishar, NorShor Experience strip club owner, commits suicide

Photo: Clairity/Flickr

His business partner Eric Ringsred, who wanted locals to think of the theater as a classy Las Vegas club rather than a scummy dive, told the Duluth News Tribune that media coverage of their enterprise and hassles from the city attorneys' office and police department are to blame for Gradishar's death.

"It was a lynching by proxy," Ringsred said. "He was a perfectly healthy guy for two [expletive] years. Then he started slowly going down hill."

Ringsred and Gradishar battled the city of Duluth and angered preservationists for years over the fate of the building -- and Ringsred blogged about it.

Minnesota Public Radio covered the controversy in 2006 when Gradishar announced plans for the strip club.

He says the art deco building is perfect for his plans. The glass entry doors are etched with graceful swirls. He leads a quick tour past a wide staircase, which sweeps past a carved wooden mural representing the area's history.

"The entryway here is going to be like a nostalgic area somewhat, with some antiques, like the big projector," Gradishar says. "We're going to have a player piano. This place is like a museum, and I want to keep the feeling, the old feeling, the retro feeling of this building."