You know things are bad when live, naked women can’t compete…

Seattle- from www.techflash.com – The Lusty Lady, the downtown Seattle strip club which has entertained men and women for more than three decades at its 1st Avenue location, will close in the next two months. Staffers were informed of the news earlier today, with a manager of the club telling The Slog that the economic recession and free Internet alternatives just proved to be too much.

“The fact that you can get massive amounts of fairly high-quality pornography for free has had a definite effect,” general manager Darrell Davis tells The Slog.

The Lusty Lady’s marquee is a Seattle institution, ranking alongside other landmarks such as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer globe and The Space Needle. The classic double entendre phrases which have graced the Lusty Lady’s ever-changing marquee over the years have brought laughs to everyone from tourists to bankers to art lovers.

“Always open, never clothed,” read one sign.

“Happy nude year,” read another.

The demise of the Lusty Lady signals a continuing transformation of Seattle’s downtown core, once dominated by peep shows, tattoo parlors and sex shops. A luxurious Four Seasons hotel opened next to the Lusty Lady in 2008, and the recently remodeled Seattle Art Museum sits across the street.

Former Mayor Paul Schell, an investor in the Four Seasons project, once described The Lusty Lady as “uniquely Seattle” even though he attempted to close it down on several occasions.

The debate over The Lusty Lady has even found its way into the highest echelons of Seattle society. Bill Gates’ stepmom, Mimi, the former executive director of the Seattle Art Museum, said in 2006 interview that the marquee is a “Seattle landmark.”

HistoryLink.org has a detailed history of the Lusty Lady, noting that the club is a “remnant of Seattle’s bawdy past.” Now, it appears, that the club will become a part of that past for good.