‘I trafficked women at a famous Hong Kong nightclub’
A former mamasan at Tsim Sha Tsui’s notorious Club Bboss recalls its hedonistic heyday – and how a ‘miracle’ put her on the path to salvation
Mary Zardilla looked like she had it all. It was 1986, the heyday of Hong Kong hedonism and she had spent the past decade climbing the greasy pole of the entertainment business to its gaudy, gold-plated zenith – the self-appointed greatest night club of them all, Club Bboss.
Like many others, Mary had risked much to be here, lured by the promise of rubbing shoulders with the movers and shakers of the day. The club’s clientele was a veritable “who’s who” of 1980s Hong Kong. Celebrities, politicians, famous businessmen... all were common sights at this Tsim Sha Tsui landmark, a 70,000 sq ft nightclub-cum-amusement park for men that boasted bright lights, lavish floor shows and more than 1,000 perfectly coiffed hostesses.
As one of the city’s last Japanese super clubs, Club Bboss – formerly Club Volvo – was about nothing if not conspicuous consumption. The rich and famous would arrive at the curbside in their Rolls-Royces, only to be ferried to their booths in gold-plated golf carts designed to look like the vehicles they had just left.
And once inside they might meet one of those many perfectly coiffed hostesses – but not before first encountering someone like Mary.
Mary was one of the club’s foremost mamasans. Her job was to match up the club’s male clientele with one of the 100 or so escorts under her control – and it was a job Mary, who learned Japanese for the role, was particularly good at, having acquired an uncanny knack for reading men’s minds when it came to their tastes in women.
