Friday, May 25, 2012

Tiller's Treasures: Jeff & Flash Mugs

Three-color Jeff & Flash's Monoplies beer mugs

Just for fun, our buddy Jack Tiller emailed me these photos of some of his glass collection: two different versions of Jeff & Flash's Monoplies beer mugs. "Ah, yes... Jeff & Flash's. It was quite a place," he remembered. "I can still see the paddy wagon pull up and the people start flying into the back!"

The less-opulent two-color version
I'm sure most Lorain Baby Boomers remember Jeff & Flash's Monoplies at the old Westgate Shopping Center at W. 21st Street and Leavitt Road. The rock and roll club had its Grand Opening on May 1, 1981. (It replaced the old Stars Disco that had been there since Oct 9, 1978.)

WMMS Radio morning air personalities Jeff Kinzbach and Ed "Flash" Ferenc had played clubs in the area for about five years before deciding to open their own place in Lorain.

It was actually pretty impressive that two well-known, popular Cleveland radio personalities would think enough of the Lorain market to invest here. At the time, Kinzbach had explained in an interview that they appreciated the fact that the city of Lorain had been really receptive.

True to its name, Monoplies had a giant playing board with a Northern Ohio version of the classic board game centering around the dance floor. (Note the club's name is spelled slightly different than the board game – probably for legal reasons.) The logo even had Jeff & Flash's heads superimposed on the classic Monopoly"Go Directly to Jail" card.


Monoplies was fun while it lasted ( I remember going there a few times). It was succeeded at that location by Studio 93, a rock club which opened on January 14, 1983.

Westgate Shopping Center and former club location today
Thanks once again to Jack Tiller for sharing photos of his vast collection of memorabilia!



8 comments:

  1. I never went to any of the clubs at that site, once a W.T. Grant store, but I enjoyed seeing the old Buzzard logo again.

    BTW, does anyone know where to score a "Buzzard Nuclear Army" logo?

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  2. I hear ya, Alan--I was more likely to hang around Caponi's... maybe Surf Side 6 once in a while.

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  3. Alan & Dan,

    Do either of you remember when that W. T. Grant store sold baby chicks in the pet department around Easter in the 1960s? The chicks came in different colors; pink, purple, green, etc. I always assumed that colored dyes were injected into the chickens while still in embryo or other wise they were sprayed with some sort of dye after they were born. Either way the chicks only lived a few weeks, die, and we would just throw them away in the trash. I tell people this story 50 years later and no one has ever heard of such a thing. It all sounds terrible now that this was ever done!

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  4. I remember the baby chicks-yes, they were dyed, and my mother thought it was cruel, so she never bought them for us.

    I also remember when Grants sold golden finches, the same birds you could see flocks of along the Black River back then.

    The Grants at Lorain Plaza had an ocelot for sale....not too smart.

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  5. I remember this place being Confetti's, a "nightclub" for the 18 and younger crowd. If you were over the age of 18, you couldn't get in. That was in the mid-80s.

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  6. I remember there use to be a small record shop next door that specialized in R&B and Black artists. I forgot the name of the shop but I do miss it.
    He would sell LP for $6.99.
    There was also a grocery store on the other end at the time.

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  7. I went to Monoplies all the time..even on ladies night..male strippers!! I have 2 mugs ( 37 year old ). One is the yellow and one has No color just outlined blue.

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  8. It was originally a GREAT club called Stars Disco. I was a DJ there from shortly after it had opened until sold to the Monolopies group.

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