In early 2014, a website appeared on the internet. It was called “George Gellis is Sorry.” It was written in the first person, as George Gellis, apologizing to all of the employees he managed at Chicago’s VIP’s strip club. It contained hilarious details about George’s failed personal life, history, and information most people weren’t privy to. It stayed up for maybe a month or so, along with a facebook profile pretending to be a very sorry George Gellis. During that month, VIP’s staff and management went berserk. The site got over one thousand hits within a very short period of time. A bartender was blamed and suspected of being behind it, or other members of the bartender’s large political family.

The George Gellis accounts were taken down from the internet against the author’s wishes. I know, because I was the author. Nobody ever confessed to being the author of “George Gellis is Sorry,” until now. I, Brandi Campbell, am the sole author and creator of the “George Gellis is Sorry” accounts. VIP’s in Chicago was extremely financially exploitative, and George Gellis was a bully manager who fired me. I had already been meeting with IWW-affiliated people and SWOP for several months before I was fired, to try to figure out how to hold VIP’s accountable. At that time in my life, I didn’t know how to go about suing VIP’s, or much about my labor rights. Someone from the IWW suggested that I make a site in the first person, a sorry person who is my manager, and advertise it for publicity purposes. He said it had been done against some corporation of the past and was a big hit. So, that’s what I did.

A dancer named Michelle Cron said to a bartender, while working at VIPs, that she briefly thought I might be responsible for the site, but that she didn’t think I was smart enough to do something like that, and that because the site was so well written, she didn’t think I was the author. The bartender who casually told me all the information about George Gellis’s background thought that I must have secretly audio recorded him, because I memorized every detail about George and published it. I never recorded that bartender talking to me, just memorized everything.

A sexual predator who was also manager of VIP’s, named Joseph Mankiewicz, eventually got fired by Vrydoliak, after my site empowered dancers to report him to upper management. It was awesome. However brief, the site was all very awesome and hilarious, sending ricochets for years to come. I consider it a proto StripperLaborRights.com

VIP’s was eventually bought by RCI and turned into a Rick’s, but still got sued by people who are not me. My time statute of limitations to sue them expired, but I was happy to hear about that lawsuit.

Previously, I was worried about getting sued for making “George Gellis is Sorry,” so I never admitted to being the author before. I was happy to hear everybody blamed the Raines family. But now, with StripperLaborRights.com and all of the stuff that I’ve put on here, I could care less if someone tries to sue me, because I know they’d never succeed in getting anything from me besides laughter. I wish I would’ve saved my entries from “George Gellis is Sorry,” but I didn’t. I can only remember one poem I wrote, and will share it now:

Georgie Porgie, Pumpkin Pie

Managed all the girls and made them cry

Greasy hair, in a tail

George’s love life will always fail