AD FOR DANCERS DISASTROUS

Bobbi Woodard wasn't looking for female dancers, but she fielded about 25 calls from people responding to an advertisement for them in The Capaha Arrow. The callers asked to speak with Jerry Philpott.

Trouble is, Woodard didn't place the ad in the Arrow, Southeast Missouri State University's student newspaper. She never heard of Philpott until several women, and one man, called asking for him.

The ad first ran in the Jan. 18 issue with a daytime number at Coad Chevrolet and an evening number, which was misprinted as Woodard's.

"I'm a little concerned about it," she said Thursday. "They call asking for Jerry Philpott, and when I tell them they have the wrong number, they just thank me and hang up. I thought it might be some kind of joke."

It wasn't. Philpott manages The Alibi Club, 351 Christine, which has a number similar to Woodard's home phone. He said he placed the ad in an effort to save the failing Alibi Club, not to compete with Regina's House of Dolls, a topless bar slated to open in Cape Girardeau Feb. 3.

Placing the ad had disastrous consequences for Philpott. He said the Arrow's advertising staff was told the daytime number at Coad Chevrolet was only a number at which he could be contacted and was not to be published. When a member of the advertising staff called Philpott to proof the ad, he mentioned the daytime number, but Philpott said he had no idea the Coad number would be printed in the ad.

He said his last name wasn't to be published either.

It was. On Wednesday, Philpott was fired from his job at Coad.

"Officially, the reason is that he misused the telephone," Mike Coad, co-owner of the dealership, said. "We restrict all personal calls. A couple of customers brought the ad to our attention."

Philpott said the Arrow staff's adviser, Dr. Roy Keller, called Coad management and apologized for the error, but it wasn't enough.

"They have really done a job on me," Philpott said.

The same advertisement also ran in Wednesday's Arrow, but without the Coad Chevrolet number. The wrong number for The Alibi Club ran again.

Phone calls to Keller's home and office went unreturned Thursday night.