Whenever one of my out-of-state siblings visits me here in Vermilion, there's always one thing they'd like to experience during their visit: a
Yala's Pizza.
Yeah, I know. It's now called Fran's Pizza. But despite the name change, it pretty much tastes the same as it always did to my siblings and me. We should know – we had it every Friday for years during the 1970s.
Anyway, it's fun to look back at the early days of the pizzeria and how it was advertised.
Above you see what is probably one of the very first ads for Yala's that ran in the Lorain Journal. It appeared on December 29, 1956. Note that it mentions, "Watch for Our Grand Opening."
Then, in January this tiny teaser ad (about an inch or two wide) ran several times.
Finally, the 'Grand Opening' ad ran on January 23, 1957.
A week later, this ad ran on January 30, 1957. It's interesting because it lists the names of the people behind the pizza:
Mrs. Yala Armelie and
Marian Fuervando.
Then about a week later on Feb. 6, 1957, this ad ran – adding the name of
Jay Telloni to the list of 'food experts.'
And as a reminder that Yala's served more than just pizza, this ad ran on Feb. 22, 1957.
One aspect of early Yala's advertising that has always interested me is the mention in its ads of "wonder dough." It's front and center in this ad from March 28, 1957.
Promoting 'Wonder Dough" must have worked, as it was still being mentioned in ads two years later. Here's an ad that ran in the
Journal on July 18, 1959.
It's interesting that the ad boasts "Lorain's Most Popular Pizza – 1954-1959." There really weren't too many pizza places in Lorain in 1954. A look at online Journals from that year reveals that with the exception of Lusca's and Capy's, pizza was mainly a novelty item offered at established restaurants like Vian's Barbecue and the Showboat.
Anyway, one factor that contributed to Yala's early success was its regular ads in the Journal. They were often very small, like the trio of ads below that ran in the fall of 1960, but they seemed to run almost every day.
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| Sept. 27, 1960 |
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| Nov. 1, 1960 |
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| Nov. 24, 1960 |
At some point around early 1961, however, Yala's must have determined that it was popular enough that it didn't need to run so many ads. Its sponsorship of various sports teams kept its name in the paper regularly. Here's one of the last ads for the pizzeria that I could find from the 1960s.
