Gay Tony: Difference between revisions

'''Anthony Prince''', otherwise known as '''Gay Tony''', is a nightclub entrepreneur in the [[GTA IV Era]], and the owner of both [[Maisonette 9]] and [[Hercules]]. Tony plays a major role in the DLC pack [[The Ballad of Gay Tony]], as its name suggests.

Tony Prince was born either in (1958 or 1963) in Dukes to Jewish parents. According to the Maisonette 9 website, "as a young boy he wandered to the [[Humboldt River]] and dreamed of living on the other side [in [[Algonquin]]] so he would no longer be considered [[East Borough Bridge|bridge]] and tunnel". He also likely would have struggled with his sexuality in his teen years, especially growing up in a somewhat dangerous neighborhood. He also says of growing up in the 1970s, "In my day, gay guys used to be lonely, needy, and lost. Now, they're all in relationships!".

According to the Maisonette 9 website, his next club (and first gay club) was ''Thunder'' in 1986 which was later renamed ''2 Backed Beas'''t''''' and eventually shut down by the city. At the height of his career, he also proprieted clubs called ''[[Peacock]]'', ''[[Platonic Fury]]'' and ''[[Cox]]'' <ref name="Libertytree1"/> (Tony "returned to the gay scene" in 1999, which would suggest that none of those three clubs were gay-oriented). In 1996, he was arrested for possession of cocaine. After the failure of ''2 Backed Beast'', he opened ''Hercules'' in 1999. That same year, he got in police trouble for "public lewdness". Sometime between 1999 and 2003, the counterpart straight club in Tony's portfolio was called ''Death By Machines'', until it burned down and Tony was briefly banned from opening new venues.

====Maisonette 9 ownership and personal struggles====

In 2003 his hiatus ended and he was allowed to open ''Maisonette 9'', but still came under heavier scrutiny for his club's policies on safety, age-checking and drug use. <ref name="Libertytree2">"Club Owner Appeals for Vice" by [[Mary Williamson]], Liberty Tree ([[libertytreeonline.com|www.libertytreeonline.com/news.html]]) (In game website.)</ref> Sometime after opening the club, he met [[Gracie Ancelotti]], a [[Ancelotti Family|mob]] daughter who once failed to get inside ''Maisonette 9'' but was granted a membership after befriending Gay Tony (as Gracie tells [[Niko Bellic]] in "[[I'll Take Her]]"). Gay Tony would later be heavily in debt to [[Giovanni Ancelotti|her father]].

In 2005, Gay Tony hired [[Luis Fernando Lopez|Luis Lopez]] as a doorman and bouncer for ''Hercules''. They quickly form a father-son-like relationship (Luis having been abandoned by his father, and Tony being unlikely to ever have children due to his age and orientation), although Tony [[Departure Time|later]] admits to Luis "I only hired you because I thought you were dumb". Gay Tony had been dating a yoga instructor long-term before meeting his boyfriend [[Evan Moss]]. Gracie and Evan first got him hooked on painkillers and cocaine, according to Luis, and by 2008 Tony had been to rehab 5 times<ref name="Libertytree1"/>. He also gained world-famous heiress [[Cloe Parker]] as a best customer and casual friend. Like Gracie, Cloe uses a lot of cocaine and influences Tony down a similar path. Tony once confides in Luis during [[I Luv LC|I Luv LC]] "Oh my god, 45 years old and I get my kicks doing blow with 17 year old kids whose only claim to fame is that people know better what their vagina looks like than their face. I should be sent to prison, shouldn't I?".

{{quote|Tony Prince, the legendary "Gay Tony", grew up in [[Dukes]], as a young boy he wandered to the [[Humboldt River]] and dreamed of living on the other side so he would no longer be considered bridge and tunnel and as soon as he went to college, his dream came true. Ignoring school, he spent the middle part of the 1980s working the cloakroom and then the door at the legendary Elephant, until that closed down following a fire. Tony's next venture was the classic rave venue PUDDLE, based famously in a converted mortuary. Unfortunately, the tax man decided Tony was having too much of a good a time and the club was closed and Tony narrowly avoided jail. Next he opened his first gay club, Thunder, which itself evolved into 2 Backed Beast. After this was shut down by the city, he returned to the gay scene with Hercules, which has now been open for ten years.

At the same time, he catered to the heterosexual crowd with the now legendary DEATH BY MACHINES. After DEATH BY MACHINES burned down, Tony was briefly banned from opening any new venues, before he opened Maisonette 9 in 2003. As Tony says, in his inimicable style, "I do it for the love, that and the easy money, access to drugs and ability to suck up to famous people" }}

Tony sees a last chance to pay off his debts in buying and selling some [[Diamonds|$2 million diamonds]] for a small profit. When Luis, Tony and his boyfriend [[Evan Moss|Evan]] [[Frosting On The Cake|go to buy]] the diamonds from [[The Cook|a cook]] at the [[Platypus]], they are all ambushed by the [[The Lost Brotherhood|Lost biker gang]], resulting in the death of Evan (who Tony instructed to go a separate way and stash the diamonds at his club). Before this Gracie and Evan had put him back on the drugs. Luis thankfully recovers them after he ambushes a [[Not So Fast|deal]] between [[Johnny Klebitz|Johnny]] (who ambushed them), [[Niko Bellic|Niko]] and [[Isaac Roth]]. He met Ray Bulgarin after this event, who later claimed that Luis and Tony conspired against him by buying the diamonds - by chance, the cook had stolen them from him. [[Gracie Ancelotti]] was kidnapped, and the kidnappers (the selling party from the diamond deal) demanded the diamonds back from [[Giovanni Ancelotti]] in exchange. Luis and Tony safely exchanged the diamonds for Gracie, which resulted in Tony still losing out on $2 million but supposedly remaining at peace with the Ancelotti family. Bulgarin successfully persuades Ancelotti to have Tony killed, who ironically choose Luis as the one to shoot Tony in exchange for his own life. Luis briefly considers shooting Tony before turning the gun on Rocco (shooting [[Uncle Vince|his uncle]], allowing Rocco to flee because of his connections). Within minutes, Bulgarin's men ambush Maisonette 9 in hopes of killing Luis and Tony, which they fail to do after a violent shootout. Finally, Luis successfully kills Bulgarin, blowing up his private jet before it leaves the country. Afterwards, Luis and Tony were apparently free of debts and loose ends.

After The Ballad of Gay Tony is complete, Tony cannot be contacted further. He often spoke of his intentions to move to an extremely secluded getaway spa town, saying his life in Liberty was too stressful (though he says this at the very height of his financial problems, and could have reconsidered). It was believed that he did in fact move away while [[Yusuf Amir]] owned the clubs. Tony could have moved to Vice City as the [[Liberty Tree]] website suggests.

Gay Tony's influence over the Liberty City nightclub scene is mostly reminiscent of [[wp:Peter Gatien|Peter Gatien]], owner of the Limelight and other clubs. Like Prince, Gatien faced drug (1996) and tax evasion (1999) charges, and owned several nightclubs geared towards different crowds as investments. Unlike Prince, Gatien is a happily married heterosexual, and having been born in Canada, he was deported there after his drug charges and currently lives in Toronto.

Many elements also seem to have been taken from [[wp:Steve Rubell|Steve Rubell], owner of the legendary [[wp:Studio 54|Studio 54]]. Both were born in New York City (Liberty being a parody), and faced club raids and tax evasion charges since their early years of success. Their business models were also very similar, including a strict, trendy dress code (which Rubell would sometimes enforce personally). Both were homosexuals and habitual drug users, although Rubell kept it a secret, got diagnosed with AIDS in 1985 and died of hepatitis in 1989.

He also bears some similarities to Miami club owner [[wp:Chris Paciello|Chris Paciello]] who, like Tony had connections to New York Mafia families and had one of his famous clubs burn down only to open another club later the same year.

Maisonette 9 bears an uncanny resemblance to New York nightclub Bungalow 8 (see Maisonette 9 article for details).

* Tony is the only homosexual character in the game who helps protagonist in fights, and isn't afraid to shoot and can handle a gun. Despite the fact that [[Bernie Crane]] was a soldier and Evan Moss was a bodybuilder, they were always afraid of shooting and fighting. Tony also wanted to help Luis in his last fight with Bulgarin's men, because he always made a share in their fire fights, and called himself "seasoned veteran by anyone's standards".

* It is unknown if Tony was born in Dukes or the Midwest as the LCPD database says he was born in the Midwest, although it is implied many times in TBOGT he is from Dukes but nothing is said about him being born there. Many people conclude that he was born in the Midwest, lived there for a short time that he would be too young to remember, and was raised in Dukes or that the [[LCPD in GTA IV Era|LCPD]] had misinformation which is stated a few times in the game.

LuisFernandoLopez&GayTony-TLAD.jpg|Gay Tony alongside Luis Fernando Lopez during "[[Diamonds in the Rough]]" in The Lost and Damned, reusing the same character model design from GTA IV but lacking his glasses.