The Journal Entertainment Pages – Jan. 30, 1976

Well, the weekend is finally here! Time to relax; maybe go out for dinner or stop for a drink (or snort if you prefer).

Fifty years ago today – on January 30, 1976 – you would have had an incredible amount of entertainment choices: restaurants, nightclubs, hotel lounges, delis, private social clubs, you name it. And they're all there on the two entertainment pages from the Journal that day.

There are plenty of old favorites, as you can see. I've written about many of them over the last 15+ years. Note the Big Dick's ad; this is one that reader and contributor Raleigh did the artwork for, as he explained back on this post. (I know he did the ad because he signed it.)

We also see ads for Huron's Showboat; Elberta Inn; Tropicana Restaurant; The Mark; Holiday Inn; Emerald Valley; Oberlin Inn; Dewey Road Inn; The Note; Presti's; and many others.

There are a few that I'm not familiar with: dj's country roads; Casino Lounge; Silver Dollar Restaurant & Lounge (previously known as Roman Villa)

I was only 17 at that time, so I wasn't hitting the nightclubs yet. But I recognize several places that I played at around that time as a member of The Four Links, such as Emerald Valley and Chef Henri's (although most of our gigs were for private functions, including parties for groups such as Parents Without Partners).

Perhaps you'll recognize one of your favorite nightclubs or bars. If so, be sure to leave a comment! 

The "New" Showboat Debuts – Jan. 27, 1955

Huron had its beloved Showboat nightclub; Lorain had one with the same name at 766 Broadway. Both are long gone but continue to churn the muddy waters of our memories.

I've written about Lorain's Showboat many times, with a three-part history of the place beginning here. And seventy-one years ago this week, the nightclub unveiled its brand new remodeled decor. Above is the ad that ran in the Lorain Journal back on January 26, 1955. Here's the full page (below) so you can see the ad in context (and poke around the rest of the page).

On January 27, 1955 the ad below appeared in the paper on the day of the grand re-opening.

Alas, as noted in previous posts, a pair of fires in the same year that gutted the nightclub convinced owner Gus Atthanasoff to cut bait and run. He would start a brand new business – with a new name, Colony Bar – at the corner of Colorado and Kansas Avenues.

Fortunately, although the Showboat name was abandoned, its pizza (some of the earliest pizza in Lorain) was not. It made the move over to the new location.

Sept. 18, 1958 ad

 

Blizzard of 1924

The extreme winter weather is supposed to remain much the same for the next few weeks, which is somewhat depressing to those of us who are still gainfully employed and commuting to work. Fortunately, I've already managed to take a tumble on the ice and put some dents in my car (on the same day) so there's really nothing for me to dread at this point.

One hundred and two years ago, Lorain and the country were experiencing a bad winter, as shown on the front page of the January 26, 1924 Lorain Journal (above). "Lorain awoke this morning to find herself in the grip of a blizzard that caused her to shut off the alarm clock and crawl back into bed for another snooze," the lead story noted.

"At 8 o'clock, when office folks with muffled faces were slipping along to work on icy walks and pavements the thermometer registered 2 below, the coldest hour of all. From that time on the mercury rose slowly, but not fast enough to warm pedestrians, and at noon it registered 6 above at the U. S. coast guard station.

"Blinded by whirling snow, James Sugg, 26, 2007 E. 30th-st, an employe of the National Tube Co., stepped into the path of a west-bound Lorain Street Railway car at Vine-av and 28th-st, while on his way to work at 6:30 a. m. today.

"Prompt action by W. Woodcock, motorman, saved the man's life. Sugg was struck by the car and hurled against a trolley wire pole. He was picked up by Patrolman C. C. Smith, and sent to St. Joseph's hospital in the same car that hit him."

The story goes on to describe an unhappy occurrence involving some pigs being shipped to market.

"Fifty porkers enroute to the east on a Nickel Plate railroad stock train have made their last squall.

"When the train stopped at Lorain this morning, it was found that the hogs had been frozen to death.

"The shipment was consigned to Cleveland, where the carcasses were taken for disposal."

The article goes on to describe the blizzards in Michigan and New York.

It sure was a strange time for newspapers. The somewhat light tone of the report of the frozen pigs, however, is nothing compared to the short item entitled, "Today's Best Story" at the top of the page, which recounts the death of a 65-year-old Cleveland man who apparently suffered some sort of heart attack while watching a burlesque show. Chuckle chuckle.

And how about the the discovery of two heads imbedded in a concrete block in Aurora, Illinois? The murderer was a distant relation of President Abraham Lincoln. Pretty gruesome.

Anyway, feel free to peruse the rest of the page, which contains several tragic stories as well as a few funny ones, including the story of Mrs. Maggie Welgelfsky, who unsuccessfully hid a gallon of illegal liquor in her baby's cradle.

All that and an odd 'Abe Martin' cartoon!

Kroger Ad with Toppie – January 27, 1965

Here's a great full-page Kroger ad that ran in the Journal back on January 27, 1965 – 61 years ago today. As you can see, it features our favorite plaid pachyderm, Toppie, promoting Top Value Stamps.

It's a shame that not many companies utilize mascots to be the friendly, familiar face of their advertising. Newer ones, such as Mr. Mucus (yecch) for Mucinex are largely unappealing and contribute no emotional connection to the brand.  

Mascots that have survived for decades, such as Kellogg's cereal menagerie, have been arbitrarily redesigned so poorly (such as Toucan Sam and Tony the Tiger) that any goodwill or equity that did exist has been extinguished.

Anyway, I look at the 1965 ad above and am still amazed that Kroger – the largest supermarket chain in the country – abandoned our market back in the 1980s. 

Kroger had four locations listed in the 1965 ad: three in Lorain and one in Vermilion (in the South Shore Shopping Center). By 1980, Kroger ads in the Journal listed locations as Lorain, Elyria, Sheffield Lake and Vermilion.

A few years later in April 1983, Vermilion (my current town) was getting ready for its brand new Kroger store.

But only two years later, Kroger scrammed out of the Northeast Ohio market, as shown in this Journal 'Top Stories of the Year" blurb from December 29, 1985.

Today, Toppie is only a pleasant memory for Baby Boomers, and the Kroger Vermilion location is home to Giant Eagle. You can still go Krogering (if you're so inclined) out in Sandusky.

Late January Winter Storm – 1936

The big news lately has been the weather of course, with the icy temperatures and Snowmageddon this weekend. We haven’t had a real bad winter for a while, so it’s been kind of tough this month. 

Ninety years ago, it was a bad one too. January 26, 1936 was a Sunday so I couldn’t grab the Lorain Journal front page from that day, but here are the headlines from January 25 and 27th.

The Saturday, Jan. 25th edition (above) mentions that there had been a blizzard on Wednesday night and there was concern about a “renewal of the sub-zero wave over the weekend.” The article notes, “The entire middlewest and eastern seabord continued today in the grip of the cold wave which has paralyzed most of the nation for the last four days.

“Ohio’s toll of deaths attributed either directly or indirectly to the cold stood today at 30.

“Snow blocked highways and sub-zero cold threatened New York city, Buffalo and dozens of smaller communities with a critical shortage of milk, according to United Press dispatch.

"Elsewhere on the front page: the story of Philip Gifford, 83, of Lorain who had "five teeth pulled the other day, got up from the dentist’s chair, lit a cigar and walked home in the intense cold; the saga of an Oberlin man who found out that he was actually his wife’s fourth husband, not the second as he originally thought – and promptly sued her for divorce; and assorted stories of tragedy including the mid-air collision of two Army bombers. 

Two days later, the death toll due to the sub-zero weather had increased. 

The front page of the Monday, Jan. 27th edition (above) noted, "A toll of 225 lives has been taken by the sub-zero wave which has held the middle-west and eastern part of the United States in its grip since last Wednesday.

"Of the 225 deaths attributed to the cold, 44 occurred in Ohio, one of which was in Elyria, the survey showed.

"The devastating cold wave renewed its grip on the state today as temperatures plunged to paralyzing low levels after a brief respite over the weekend.

"The temperature as low as 16 degrees below zero were reported in some districts of the state, a low of four below was registered at the Lorain Coast Guard station from 2 a. m. to 8 a. m. today after the mercury had climbed as high as 16 above at noon Saturday.

"For the third successive day Niagara Falls was frozen solid with the flow of water stopped by ice jams in the river."

As usual, some of the smaller items on the front page overshadow the headlines: a 15-year-old Loran high school student "woke up in the frosty stillness last night at her home on Leavitt-rd, rubbed her eyes, and figured she must be "seeing things." 

"Sitting erect and motionless on the floor, after the manner of the species, and apparently slumbering peacefully, was an owl. A regular hoot owl, the kind you read about in story books."

Also on the front page: two "EL" cars in Chicago jumped the rails and dangled over the street below; the eve of the funeral of King George V of Great Britain; packed beaches at Miami, Florida where the temperature was 76 degrees; and the story of a 91-year-old retired Elyria minister who was embarking on a new career as a missionary.

Lorain Journal TV Page Featuring "Maverick" – Jan. 1958

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows I'm a big fan of Westerns. Rare is the night that my TV isn't tuned in to either GRIT or OUTLAW cable channels. And my DVD collection is almost all Westerns as well, including some of my favorite television ones including Tales of Wells Fargo, Wanted Dead or Alive and Maverick.

It's all I can do to keep from wearing my cowboy hat around the house and eating beans for dinner every night.

Anyway, when I saw the Lorain Journal's TV page of January 20, 1958, I just had to post it here. As you can see (below), it features a photo of Bret (James Garner) and Bart (Jack Kelly) Maverick.

The way the photo has been scanned and digitized along with the rest of the page leaves something to be desired. Here's a similar photo from the same shoot.

Maverick had premiered in September 1957, with Bret as the only Maverick in town. Production problems (the shows couldn't be shot and edited fast enough to make airtime) necessitated adding a brother (Bart) and a second production unit.

Jack Kelly's first show as brother Bart aired in November 1957, so he really hadn't been around that long in January 1958 when the Journal ran the photo. I'm guessing all of these promotional photos were intended to help introduce him to the public. It looks like originally, he was supposed to dress differently than Bret for contrast. But it didn't work out like that; his eventual outfit was similar to Bret's but with a tan hat and a different tie.

Although the show ran until April 1962 (the last two seasons without Garner), I don't remember watching it until the reruns appeared on WUAB Channel 43 on Sunday nights at 5:00 in the 1970s. (Remember the rest of the lineup? After Maverick, there was The Wild Wild West at 6:00, followed by Star Trek at 7:00.)

Elsewhere on that Lorain Journal TV page, there's lots of fun things to look at, including the program grids and the little synopses of the episodes.

A Penny for Your Thoughts About the 1951 Penny Shortage

I still save these 'wheaties' although I don't know why!

With the U. S. Mint no longer producing pennies, there's been a shortage of the often looked-down-upon coin. We've all seen the signs at various stores (such as Drug Mart and Marc's) reminding us of the problem, and asking us to try and pay using exact change.

Did you know there was also a shortage of pennies back in 1951?

It seems that there were a variety of reasons for the shortage. The government was minting less, apparently because of a raw material shortage due to the Korean War; there were more coin-operated machines and parking meters than ever; and some people just hoarded them.

Locally, this was causing a problem for the Cigarette Sales Company. The Lorain firm needed pennies to place inside cigarette packages sold in vending machines. 

For example, the price of a pack of cigarettes might be 23 cents. Thus if you inserted a quarter in the machine, your two cents change came out along with your smokes (probably looking something like these vending machine packs that somehow survived over the decades).

Anyway, the Cigarette Sales Company came up with an idea to generate some pennies: offering $102.50 in exchange for a hundred dollars in pennies. Here's the article that ran in the Lorain Journal on October 24, 1951.

Apparently it was such a novel idea that it made the national news, according to this "Log of Lorain" column from October 31, 1951.

It seems that pennies were in the news a lot that year. It was announced that the penny postcard was coming to an end; the price to mail a postcard would double as of January 1, 1952. Here's the Nov. 15, 1951 article with the story.

Then there were the small news items, like this story of a Lorain baby swallowing a penny. It sounds like the doctors were able to extract it. I wonder if the docs returned the penny to the parents as a keepsake?

May 14, 1951

Speaking of doctors and pennies, this blurb tells of a Deadwood, South Dakota grocer who paid the hospital bill for his daughter's birth using 9,070 pennies. His new daughter's name? Penny - what else?

Nov. 3, 1951

****

I still pick up pennies when I see them on the pavement. You know the old saying: See a penny, pick it up and all the day you'll have good luck. See a penny, let it lay, bad luck will haunt you all the day. Yikes!

As I noted above at the top of this post, I still collect Wheat pennies. It's an odd habit, I know. I hardly ever get one as change when I pay in cash. So when I do, I have to save it. Why? Who knows!

The most incredible penny I ever received as change was an Indian Head Penny dated 1883. I had stopped at a former 7-Eleven on Madison in Cleveland to buy a bag of Cheese Doodles, and there it was in my change. I could hardly believe it.

I had a math teacher at Admiral King named Elvis Dollar. He was a great teacher, very military in the way he conducted himself (not surprising since he was an Army veteran) and guess what his daughter's name was? Penny – what else? Mr. Dollar even came to the 20th reunion of my Class of 1977. A really great guy.