Some of my older readers might remember when there was a Manners Big Boy at the southern end of Oberlin Avenue where it meets North Ridge Road. Before it became part of the Manners chain in Northern Ohio, it was one of successful restaurant entrepreneur Richard Head's empire of restaurants that were all called The Hoop.
But before it became The Hoop, the location was home to a very successful eatery called 4 Winds Drive-in. As I noted in this post, (which provided a detailed history and timeline of the restaurant), the operators were pretty savvy in identifying new trends in the food industry. 4 Winds Drive-in was one of only a handful of places serving pizza when it was first introduced in Lorain.
And here's another 'new' food item that 4 Winds quite possibly introduced to Lorain: the Hot Dog on a Stick. This Lorain Journal ad from July 20, 1956 tells the story.
The ad points out that the hot dogs were "California Style," which makes me think it was referring to a chain called
Hot Dog on a Stick that was founded in 1946. The product it served was a corn dog. It's unclear whether the 4 Winds menu item was also a corn dog, or something else.
I've been a big fan of corn dogs for a long time and occasionally even keep a box of the frozen State Fair variety in the freezer. I also ate a lot of them when patronizing John Brady's mobile Brady's Good Food trailer when he had it set up at various locations around Lorain over the years.
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Here are a few 4 Winds ads to supplement the ones featured in
my 2019 post. The first one is the oldest that I've ever found, from its inaugural year. I've also posted the full-page Grand Opening ad.
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| Feb. 4, 1956 |
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| Feb. 11, 1956 |
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| Sept. 29, 1956 |
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| October 19, 1956 |
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| Oct. 26, 1956 |
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| Dec. 7, 1956 |
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| Sept. 26, 1957 |
The pizza that 4 Winds served sounded pretty authentic. I guess that's why "4 Winds Pizza" was still available when the restaurant became The Hoop in 1958.
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| 1958 Lorain Phone Book Ad |
Another new one for me! I remember the Hoop at that location, but not the 4 Winds. That makes seven drive -in restaurants in Lorain so far; I wonder if there were others?
ReplyDeleteThank you, Dan!
While looking up the businesses on Lake Ave in the old rural directories I spotted The Two Chicks Drive In just north of the turnpike on the east side. Closer to Elyria then Lorain, though.
DeleteNever was a fan of "on a stick" foods. Even, like, fudgesicles and the like. I don't think I've ever consumed a corn dog. Though, it's funny how they started in California. I was out there in the early 90s and first ran into "artisan pizza" with weird-a$$ toppings like chicken and BBQ sauce.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out the first time I et pizza over in the backwoods of Pennsyltucky... Sometime in the early 60s, perhaps. I do remember Mum baking up some truly horrible "fresh pizza" from the local grocery. You know it was bad when the best you could get was from the Hut!
I’m too young to remember that drive-in - but am now craving a corn dog! Love ‘em, as well as other foods on a stick, ka-bobs, ice cream and little appetizers too - a fun dinner party theme, but Don won’t want to attend…
ReplyDeleteWendy, you should come here to Texas, where everything gets put on a stick, and deep -fried.
DeleteAlan: So we're clear on this.... I have no gripe against deep-fried, just the stick!
DeleteWhat? You don't savor the tangy, unmistakable flavor of chewed-on wood, Don?
DeleteDan: When I was little, I refused to eat the ice cream treats that came with those little wooden spoons and was even known to turn up my nose at a Popsicle (unless it was root beer or banana). And don't even get me started on chopsticks and tongue depressors!
DeleteI have a question right up your alley, Dan. Back then were all those drawings of people in the ads clip art or did they get sketched by the paper's graphic artist?
ReplyDeleteHi Dennis! A great question. By the mid-1950s, companies like Harry Volk Art Studios were regularly publishing and making available collections of clip art centered on dozens of topics, like Food, Women, Animals, etc. This art was created by professional studio artists/illustrators and any business could use it in their ads, royalty-free. So it's very likely that newspapers like the Journal just used the artwork in their clip art books to create ads and save money (and that's why at Christmas you see the same cartoons and illustrations used over and over. The full-page Grand Opening ad for 4 Winds has a lot of clip art in it, notably the chubby chef. Same thing with the Hot Dog on a Stick ad – the car hop/waiter guy is stylized and likely clip art. But I do think that occasionally an original illustration would be created based on what the advertiser wanted, or perhaps they even supplied their own art. I suspect that the fat chef holding the pizza in the Hoop ad is not clip art but an original illustration done by a talented local artist who knew what Zip-a-Tone was and used it to create those screened areas. It's pretty good but not up to the very high standards of a true professional artist working in a NY art studio. But that's just my opinion.
DeleteWe ate at the Dinner Bell today and the owner's son gave me some history of the drive in. He is going to look for any old photos. Looking at the ODOT maps from the 1950s I can see the building was there in 1958. Before that was Ringle's Nursery, listed in 1948 and 1954 rural directories.
ReplyDelete