Thursday, April 29, 2010

A Dog 'n Suds Mystery


It seems to be 'mystery week' at my blog.

Here's an ad that ran in the Lorain Journal on July 1, 1966. It's for a Grand Opening promotion for the Dog 'n Suds on North Ridge Road.

The Grand Opening theme of the 1966 ad is kind of a mystery.  A few years ago, there were several newspaper and online articles that said this particular Dog 'n Suds restaurant opened in 1957 (such as in this Chronicle-Telegram article). Other articles just mentioned that the drive in had been under the current ownership since 1961 or 1962 (such as in this Plain Dealer article).

I did a little research in the Lorain Public Library, and was unable to find any telephone book listing of the Dog 'n Suds on North Ridge Road until 1967, when it appeared in the Elyria phone book for the first time. That seems to coincide with the 1966 Grand Opening ad.

The listing disappeared from the Elyria phone book in the 1971 edition, and then reappeared later. That seems to coincide with one of the two articles that mentioned that the drive-in had gone belly-up under the original owners a few years after it opened, and reopened when Ilene Hampton bought it.

The dates in the articles seem to be ten years off.

It really doesn't matter, I suppose. I'm just glad it's still there. And I plan to visit it as often as I can, (although chili dogs really don't fit in with my new fitness regimen)!

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