WILL KABOOM! GO KAPUT?; FORMERLY POPULAR TEEN NIGHTCLUB DESERTED

What if you gave a party and nobody came?

That is the situation teen nightclub owner Donnie Harris finds himself in. His club, Kaboom!, has been deserted these summer evenings despite the longtime complaint that Cape Girardeau offers teen-agers nothing to do at night.

This isn't the way Kaboom! started out. After opening Feb. 1, Kaboom! was drawing 250-350 teen-agers some Friday and Saturday nights. "People were lined up to get in," Harris says.

Just Kids World in the Town Plaza Shopping Center was transformed into Kaboom, an under-20 nightclub with state-of-the-art lighting and sound systems. The club also offers pizza, ice cream and the biggest game room in Cape Girardeau.

Then the teen-agers mysteriously disappeared, beginning sometime in May.

Harris made changes after older teen-agers said they didn't want to party with their younger sisters and brothers and some parents expressed concern about the amount of cigarette smoking going on in the club. He scheduled no-smoking nights and Christian nights and nights for teens 16 and up. But the dance floor has remained empty.

"The kids told us they wanted to be segregated from younger kids. The parents told us they wanted no smoking," he said, shrugging in frustration at his empty club on a recent ladies night.

"Our employees outnumber the customers."

Says Kim Hogan, Kaboom!'s manager, "I don't know what happened."

Ashley Evans, a 15-year-old from Cape Girardeau, was the lone non-employee in Kaboom on a recent Friday night. "People don't want to come because they think it's going to be younger people," she said.

Three teen-agers were sitting on the bench outside Kaboom! that night. They had their own theories about why teens weren't coming to the nightclub in the summer.

"Summertime, I want to be on Broadway," said Josh Foeste, 18, of Cape Girardeau.

Amanda McHughs, 16, of McClure said her mother doesn't want her going to the club, but they weren't afraid of fights, just the emptiness.

"Everybody in there normally gets along," Foeste said. "We'd be in there if there were more people inside."

Brian Van Meter, 16, of Cape Girardeau said he saw 10 people get out of cars and go into the club earlier but they left when they learned the rules had been changed to 16 and up for that night.

Harris thinks his tough admission policy may be keeping some people away. Everyone is searched for weapons and drugs and alcohol, and in the beginning he did not allow hats because he was concerned that gang members may wear hats to identify themselves.

"Maybe I've been too strict," he said.

He also thinks an article in the April 28 issue of The Tiger, the Central High School newspaper, may have hurt his business. In a story headlined "Kaboom! or Kabust!?," reporters Lindsey Francis and Sarah Muench pointed out in a positive way that the club frisks everyone who enters and has no tolerance for fighting. Their story said the club primarily has been a hangout for Schultz and junior high-age students and that Harris was planning changes to attract older teens.

But the story was accompanied by three pie charts providing information not referred to in the text. The charts were based on an opinion survey distributed primarily to sophomores at Central High School. They were asked not to participate in the survey if they hadn't been to the club. About 270 of the 600 surveys were returned.

According to the findings of the survey, 62 percent of those who responded said they thought illegal drugs are present at Kaboom, 66 percent said Kaboom "totally bites," and 60 percent said fighting was the primary reason people get kicked out of the club.

The survey was based on teen-agers' opinions, not on actual instances of illegal drugs being found or fights breaking out, but that was difficult to discern from the charts.

Cpl. Rich Schmidt of the Cape Girardeau Police Department has done a number of walk-throughs at Kaboom! and spent one entire Saturday evening there.

"It's as safe as any other place that you put 300 young people in," he said, noting that Harris has a large staff of clearly identified employees stationed on the dance floor.

"I don't know what else a man can do."

He said he and Harris have a good working relationship.

When the police department suggested he have only one way in and out of the building to improve security, Harris complied, Schmidt said. Searching patrons down to make sure a weapon doesn't get inside is Harris' policy, not one suggested by the police.

The Saturday night Schmidt was there, Kaboom! employees found marijuana in one girl's purse. "I took it from there," he said.

In all, two people have been arrested for drug possession since the club opened. Most of the teens who have gotten into trouble at Kaboom! were collared for violating curfew after the club closed, Schmidt said.

Harris' rent on the building is $6,000 per month. Because of the poor turnout during weeknights, he has limited Kaboom! to being open on Friday and Saturday nights and says he will soon have to close it completely unless teen-agers return.

Harris, who has 5 and 7-year-old children, also owns Just Kids day care and Show-Me's restaurant. He is disappointed that Kaboom! may be going kaput. "I thought this would get kids off the street," he said.