The view from upstairs

In your article on Mitzi Shore of the Comedy Store, you refer to Ms. Shore as “having affairs with [the comedians]” (“Echo of Laughter,” by Paul Brownfield, June 22). A byproduct of this situation precluded female comics from any kind of progress equal to the men’s advancement.

As female comics would undoubtedly be competition for Shore’s personal life, let’s emphasize how instrumental she has been in thwarting careers. She will refer to it as “nurturing.” But how nurturing is it to give female comics “a room of their own” -- upstairs in the back, known as the “Belly Room”?

Quite often during a woman’s set, the bouncer would come up the stairs bellowing out, “Peterson party of four, your table is ready!” One comic, in order to escape the Siberian atmosphere of this room, intimated to Mitzi that she (the comic) was a lesbian (she wasn’t), in order to possibly squeeze a spot in the Main Room, where there was an audience.

What, Mitzi, you don’t remember me? I was a solo performer who quite often worked with an uninvited partner ... “Peterson party of four, your table is ready!”

K. Fleming

Beverly Hills