Surfers Paradise VIP bar host with the most Jimmy Ozturk retires at 69

THE Glitter Strip’s icon nightclub VIP host Jimmy Ozturk is retiring after 35 years — but says he’ll be taking the street’s “secrets” with him.

Glitter Strip bar and nightclub streetside VIP host of 35 years Jimmy Ozturk officially retires and enjoys his first day relaxing by his pool. Picture Glenn Hampson

THE Glitter Strip’s longest-serving nightclub promo boss Jimmy Ozturk has hung up his dapper suits after 35 years working doors of city bars.

The Turk who moved to the Gold Coast after marrying Rhonda — a local he met in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul — worked as a model then a VIP nightclub host.

Glitter Strip nightclub VIP host and street hustler of 30-plus years finally hangs up his self-styled Versace shirts and pinstripe suits to retire at 69. He posted this photo to Facebook beside his pool on his first day of retirement on the Gold Coast

He became a bar scene icon, and in more than three decades worked for most of the major players on the Gold Coast hospitality scene including former nightclub kings Billy Cross and Jamie Pickering.

In his element — Jimmy Ozturk at work at Hollywood Showgirls: “ ... mind your own business, that’s what I learned — you go to work, go home and take any secrets with you.” Picture: Glenn Hampson

Mr Ozturk fronted The Penthouse, Rose and Crown and Bourbon Bar plus existing venues Shooters, Cocktails, Central and Players.

Newly retired Hollywood Showgirls VIP host and street hustler without peer Jimmy Ozturk — here getting ready to pay tribute to the late Hugh Hefner with Showgirls staff — says he will miss the good people and friends he made in 35 years working Surfers Paradise bars — “but I need a rest”, he says. Picture Glenn Hampson

His final gig has been at Orchid Ave strip club and bar Hollywood Showgirls where since 2004 he has manned a street post five nights a week, 8pm to 3am.

At 69, he said it was time to spend more time with his three grandkids and do more travelling with Rhonda, an English lecturer at Griffth University who he cheekily refers to as “the professor”.

Jimmy Ozturk, back in 1987 when a finalist for the Supreme Hospitality Award by the Gold Coast Visitors and Convention Bureau.

“I’m going to miss all the good people and friends I made. But I need a rest brother,” he said yesterday while relaxing poolside at home.

He was famous for an impeccable dress sense and snappy suits, while those in the industry who know him say he was never one to back away if disrespected.

Hollywood Showgirls owner Craig Duffy once told the Bulletin it would be weird if you saw his VIP host Jimmy Ozturk dressed in anything other than a three-piece suit with a handkerchief coming out of his breast pocket.

Mr Ozturk said he had his share of scrapes but was never badly hurt: “You just try to be nice to people, be humble but stand up for yourself. When the people respect you, you respect them back.

“And mind your own business, that’s what I learned — you go to work, go home and take any secrets with you.”

Surfers Paradise Glitter Strip nightclub VIP host Jimmy Ozturk (second left) with Coolio (second from right) at Cocktails and Dreams nightclub, Gold Coast — he worked as a host with the most at venues including Players, Shooters, Rose and Crown, Bourbon Bar and many more. His final post was out the front of Hollywood Showgirls on Orchid Avenue where he worked five nights a week from 8pm to 3am.

Mr Ozturk said he had seen the city’s young bucks — including Mayor Tom Tate, his Hollywood boss Craig Duffy and Candyman Travers Beynon — go from young club-goers to adults.

DJ Craig Pesco told the Bulletin last year when his “street hustler” mate retired it would be the end of an era.

“He’s the last of an old-school street promo guy.”