Shoreway Shopping Center Ad – October 19, 1962

Many of the shopping centers in the area dating back to the 1950s and 60s have been having a rough time for decades. Lorain Plaza is still hanging on, with stores like Apples and Dollar Tree, and newer tenant Defender Self Storage. Roughly half of the old Westgate shopping center in Lorain has been leased by Auxilio, the company that handles bus transportation for Lorain City Schools. Vermilion is a little bit luckier, with both of its shopping centers (South Shore Shopping Center and Lakeside Shopping Center) on U. S. Route 6 doing pretty well, which isn't too surprising as it is a tourist town for much of the year.

Sheffield Lake's Shoreway Shopping Center, which was reconfigured a few years ago, also seems to be doing pretty well, with Apples as its anchor store. Sixty years ago, the well-promoted shopping center ran the ad below in the Journal on October 19, 1962.

"Come see the Shoreway Clown," the ad announces. "Everyone is eligible to try and give the clown a new name. Free suckers for the kiddies was also part of the promotion.

It's a quaint idea – from the vantage point of sixty years later – to think that all it took was a clown and some suckers to drum up some traffic for the shopping center. 

Today, an appearance by a clown at a shopping center would be more likely to send the kiddies fleeing in terror.

****

Hey, that clown is the same one that appeared in an 1962 ad for Meyer Goldberg (here). I guess the artist at the Journal that designed the shopping center ad had a limited supply of clip art.