Monday, March 9, 2020

Tudy’s Spot Drive-in – March 9, 1970

Here’s another one of those types of features highlighting a restaurant or company that the Journal used to run on a special advertising spread. These pieces more or less masqueraded as a regular news article, but they were a great idea and fun to read. (The Morning Journal should consider reviving this particular gimmick.)

These features are nice in retrospect, because they usually say something about the owner of the business, and sometimes include a photo.

This one for the well-remembered Tudy’s Restaurant on Route 254, which ran in the Journal on March 9, 1970 – 50 years ago today – had both. Manager Art “Tudy" Diaz is mentioned halfway through the article.

Although the photo accompanying the article is a little dark, it shows the great neon sign design, (which unfortunately is becoming a lost art).

Anyway, I’ve mentioned Tudy’s before on this blog. This post from 2016 includes some photos of the building, a later sign, an advertisement and a photo of the owner, Mr. Diaz.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 9, 2020 at 4:45 PM

    Hey Dan - When I worked at the Journal the "Special advertising" section you refer to was called the "B&I" pages (short for Business and Industry). The advertiser would sign a separate advertising contract that was for 20 weeks that included a business card size ad every week and 4-5 stories/photos over the contract period. If I remember correctly, these pages ran on Mondays. We has a fellow on our ad staff that would go out and interview the store owners and take the photos (probably explains the dark photo). You are correct... this section was very popular while I was employed there in the 80's and 90"s, however I'm not sure when it officially began or ended. I enjoy seeing the "then" and "now" location photos even though they are sad since most of the businesses I remember from those days are long gone. Todd.

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  2. Dan BradyMarch 10, 2020 at 5:48 AM

    Hi Todd! Thanks for the behind-the-scenes explanation of how the advertising feature worked. It really gave the client companies a nice bang for their buck. The Morning Journal really should revive it!

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  3. AnonymousMarch 10, 2020 at 6:43 AM

    I don't think the Morning Journal will revive anything that is beneficial to the consumer.Not when they want $25.00- $30.00 for a one week car ad....They aren't even a pillar in the community anymore,right?They don't even print their paper in the old Morning Journal complex.....It's outsourced from some other printer......Plus the Plain Dealer in Cleveland has announced another round of layoffs at their newspaper.....Times will only get worse for the Journal.....They will probably shrink it down to being printed a few times a week like the Plain Dealer does.

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  4. LisaMarch 10, 2020 at 9:22 PM

    On the subject of "Spot" in the names of restaurants or bars, there is a very weathered plastic sign at the corner of Abbe Rd. and Lake Rd. in Sheffield Lake that has the word, "Spot" in it, as in the "spot to be" or something similar. If I remember right, it also had the year "since 1946" or just "1946". I used to drive by it frequently, but now I can't recall completely. Do you know what that was?

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  5. Dan BradyMarch 11, 2020 at 9:53 AM

    Hi Lisa,

    I know which sign you mean. You can catch a glimpse of it in the background in a photo on this post:

    https://danielebrady.blogspot.com/2016/01/signs-of-change-in-sheffield-lake.html

    The sign was for an Internet cafe called "Spin Spot."

    https://danielebrady.blogspot.com/2012/02/sinclair-gas-stations-part-2.html

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