Thursday, December 16, 2021

Manners Big Boy Hires Security Guards – Dec. 1971

Fifty years ago, in a reflection of those turbulent times, Manners Big Boy (located at the corner of Leavitt Road and West Erie Avenue) had to resort to hiring private security guards to maintain a safe and family-friendly atmosphere at the restaurant.

The story above appeared in the Journal back on Dec. 30, 1971.

As the article notes, “Manner’s has been plagued by groups of teenagers loitering in the restaurant for hours without buying anything other than a soft drink."

The real problem is that apparently there had been “heavy drug traffic” with eighteen syringes found one night in the men’s room.

Unfortunately, as a result many teenagers ended up being denied entrance to the restaurant and felt discriminated against. A dress code barring Jeans and t-shirts also was being enforced.

But as the article notes, the head of the security company pointed out that “though Manner’s is open to the public it is private property.

”The owners have a right to discriminate as to who goes into the restaurant.”

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Although it’s been quite a while, it’s kind of nice seeing the photo of the familiar Manners Big Boy sign. Looking at the repurposed Beachcliff Diner sign, I can see now that the sign has been shortened, with the former ‘Manners’ portion of it removed.

I wrote about the various restaurants located on this corner several times, including this post as part of my history of Manners, as well as this post about when it was a Hoop restaurant operated by Richard Head.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like that sign was installed all those years ago intentionally leaning to the parking lot, hah!

Anonymous said...

That's how it used to be back when businesses had their own sense of style.Now every type of signage used for roadside restaurants and businesses are as politically correct as ever.They can only be so many feet tall.They can only be so many feet wide.They have to be so many feet from the road.Blah...blah...blah.They can't offend anybody.Example:A couple of years ago the former Pat O'Brien Chevrolet dealership in Lakewood,Ohio wanted to fly an American flag at the dealership.A flag of all things mind you.Well the city said it was too big to fly and some other anti-American garbage.I think there was even a lawsuit involved.But Pat O'Brien prevailed and the American stars and bars flew as it should.But back when America had pride and was proud of itself,every business had cool and modern signage to promote their services.