Issac Bailey: Myrtle Beach’s primary draw: risque fun
On the cover of the super popular “Sports Illustrated” annual swimsuit issue stands a smiling supermodel in an isty bitsy teeny weeny (not polka dot) bikini, seemingly in mid-undress, a picture so revealing it’s obvious she recently had a Brazilian wax job.
The business news website Marketwatch.com says the cover is the magazine’s “raciest yet.”
That was revealed a day after the trailer for the upcoming movie “Magic Mike XXL” hit the Web, creating traffic that outpaced everything else on MyrtleBeachOnline.com.
“Sports Illustrated” and “Magic Mike” have one thing in common: Myrtle Beach.
The magazine was founded at Pine Lakes decades ago. Portions of the movie were filmed last year along Ocean Boulevard, the boardwalk, around the SkyWheel and elsewhere, its plot centered on a road trip from Tampa to Myrtle Beach for a stripper convention.
A girl in a bikini slyly giving a strip tease on a magazine cover and a stripper convention. Tell me. What says Myrtle Beach more than that?
For those thinking the analogy doesn’t fit because Myrtle Beach doesn’t attract a ton of standard-size supermodels who date former New York Yankees great Derek Jeter, the magazine even included a plus-size model for the first time.
And for all the hand-wringing and debate about crime rankings and the Atlantic Beach Memorial Day Bikefest and a road system that doesn’t include an interstate that brings people directly here, despite Myrtle Beach being primarily a drive-in destination, the ability to participate in risque fun is the area’s primary draw, may be second only to the Atlantic Ocean itself.
That won’t change any time soon.
It won’t change no matter how many people complain about the traffic (and with good reason).
It won’t change even as people threaten to never return to the area during Memorial Day.
The presence of large billboards advertising the Grand Strand’s abundant supply of “gentlemen’s clubs” have not only not turned tourists away, they have made this area even more inviting in their eyes.
This is despite our being on the buckle of the Bible Belt.
As I’ve alluded to before, Myrtle Beach can only be considered a “family beach” if we acknowledge that family includes Uncle Tim making the rounds at Thee Doll House after playing 36 holes; cousin Jimmy partying and drinking all night on Ocean Boulevard; and sister Sue sporting a string bikini in Wal-Mart while purchasing a gaggle of coolers.
People come here to party and sometimes get out of hand, not the other way around.
As former Myrtle Beach City Manager Tom Leath told me when I first began reporting on Bikefest and tourism almost two decades ago, people come here to see and be seen.
That attitude has transformed Myrtle Beach into one of the top tourist destinations in the country.
Like it or not, the thought of risque behavior is as much the driver of tourism as the industry is our economic engine.
That’s what “Magic Mike XXL” and “Sports Illustrated” are putting out to the world on our behalf.
And it’s a delicate dance to corral the worst elements of that reality without squeezing the fun out of the place.
This story was originally published February 7, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Issac Bailey: Myrtle Beach’s primary draw: risque fun."