Grand Opening of Ridgeview Drive-in – August 13, 1954

Before McDonald's, Burger King, Sandy's and the rest of the national chains came to Lorain County starting in the early 1960s, if you wanted a quick, casual meal then you probably visited a local drive-in. The 1950s were their heyday, before they were largely crowded out by the fast food giants.

One of them that I'd never heard of before held their grand opening this week, 70 years ago. Ridgeview Drive In was located on the corner of North Ridge Road and Clinton Avenue.

Above is the ad that ran in the Lorain Journal on August 13, 1954 on the eve of the opening.

A few weeks later, the drive-in was included in the New Telephone Numbers update that ran in the paper on August 27, 1954.

Ridgeview Drive-in wasn't around very long, as its success and good location apparently caught the attention of restaurant entrepreneur Richard Head. Within a few years, Ridgeview Drive-in became the second unit (and Southside location) in Head's Hoop Drive-in empire. Below is the ad announcing the change that ran in the Lorain Journal on June 29, 1957.

The Manners Restaurant organization eventually began buying up the Hoop Drive-ins, converting them to Manners outlets, and Richard Head joined the organization. The only Hoop Drive-in that did not become part of Manners was the one at N. Ridge and Clinton. Later in the 1960s, a brand new Manners opened down N. Ridge to the east near Route 57. 

The former drive-in building at Clinton and N. Ridge Rd. disappeared in vintage aerial views by the late 1960s

Today, the 2017 N. Ridge Road location is home to Urban Legends Tattoos & Piercings, with its N. Ridge Road neighbor to the west being the Lorain County Board of Elections.

The Hoop Introduces Tel-Autograph Ordering – Oct. 1956

Ordering food at a drive-in back in the 1950s usually meant sitting in your car and waiting for a carhop to come take your order.

By the 1960s, technology had evolved so that it was possible to sit in your car at the drive-in and place the order through a speaker system; then, when your food was ready, it was brought out to you. The A&W Drive-in in Vermilion had a system like that.

But during the time period in-between these two scenarios, there was a unique option for drive-in restaurant owners  – and that’s the subject of today’s ad. The ad for the Hoop Drive-in on Henderson Drive ran in the Lorain Journal on October 2, 1956 and announced the restaurant’s new Tel-Autograph system of ordering.

So what was the Tel-Autograph? Much as its name implies, it was a machine that electronically transmitted messages in the sender’s own handwriting. It was invented in the late 1870s, and was the precursor to the modern fax machine.

Tel-Autograph technology seemed to be perfect for the restaurant business.

So how did it work at the Hoop? As the Journal ad noted, the drive-in customer drove by several menu boards (much like today’s drive-through lanes) before placing their order at the Tel-Autograph booth, where the "courteous attendant” took the order and transmitted it to the kitchen.

It was all very high-tech and modern for 1956.

I’m not sure how long the Tel-Autograph lasted in the drive-in world. But it's fascinating to look back and see that competition for customers was just as fierce more than sixty years ago as it is today, forcing restaurant owners to try every gimmick they could to increase sales.

Four Winds Drive-in Grand Opening Ad – Oct. 1956

Many of us that grew up on the West Side of Lorain may remember that there used to be a Manners Big Boy down at the end of Oberlin Avenue where it meets Cooper Foster Park Road. The restaurant building was located on the northeast corner, where today there is a broad, sweeping turning lane for those heading north on Oberlin Avenue – with no evidence that anything was ever there.

Well, back in the mid-1950s, Four Winds Drive-in called that location home. The full-page ad (above) for the Grand Opening of the drive-in appeared in the Lorain Journal on Friday, October 19, 1956.

As you can see, the ad promotes the restaurant’s “authentic, old world recipe” pizza, “baked as it is in Sunny Italy... right before your eyes... not in pans, but on the tiles of our open hearth.”

The ad copy certainly wins me over. It notes, “In any language it means just plain delicious, for Neopolitan pizza is truly royal pastry. Though originated in the 17th Century, no one really knows when the pizza came to America, but all know it is the most popular of all Italian creations. Crisp, succulent, flavorful, aromatic, the pizza is either a snack or a meal.”

Four Winds Drive-in was an early player in Lorain’s pizza wars. Although Yala’s had opened in 1954, there were only four pizza places listed in the Lorain phone book in 1956 in that category: Four Winds Drive-in, Lusca’s, The Pizza House (located where Rosie’s Pizza is now) and Motto’s Pizza & Spaghetti House. (By the time of the 1957 book, the listings also included Giovanni’s, Fior’s Lake Road Spaghetti House and DeLuca Bakery.)

Here’s the 1956 phone book ad for Four Winds Drive-in.

By 1958, the Four Winds Drive-in had become the fourth location of Richard Head’s burgeoning empire of Hoop Restaurants. But as you can see from the ad below from the 1958 phone book, the Hoop still featured the popular Four Winds Pizza.

By 1961, the Hoop was still promoting its pizza in phone book ads, but without the 4 Winds tie-in.

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Just as the Four Winds Drive-in was getting started on Lorain's west side in October 1956, the Hoop over on Henderson Drive was introducing a high-tech gadget. What was it? Stop back here tomorrow to find out!

Vintage Father’s Day Ads

Father’s Day is this Sunday, so here are a few vintage ads with that theme from the pages of the Lorain Journal. They’re all amusing in the way that they portray a typical Dad.

First up – appropriately enough in view of last week’s blog series – is one for The Hoop. The ad featuring a cigar-smoking “Pop” ran in the paper on June 14, 1958.

Ten years later, Harry’s Men’s Wear ran this ad in the Journal on June 6, 1968. The ad features a photo of Harry himself, as well as another smoking Papa (only this time he's puffing on a pipe).

Gee, were fathers always depicted as slaves to nicotine in these types of ads?

Not in this illustration (below) that ran at the top of an ad for Muir’s Self Serve Drug Store, which ran in the Journal on June 12, 1958. This Dad is king for a day and tobacco-free.

So what gifts did the Muir Scotsman help the little tykes pick out? 

Well, the ad included special prices for a variety of gift items, including leather wallets, Paper-Mate Capri Pens, Pocket Watches, Old Spice, Kodak Brownie Movie Cameras, and – you guessed it – cigarette lighters, cartons of popular cigarettes (Camel, Chesterfield, or Old Gold) and Famous Falcon Goo-les Pipes.

So here’s an early Happy Father’s Day greeting to all you Dads out there, including my two brothers (who I think would agree that they had a good role model).

The Hoop on West Erie – Then & Now

Photo courtesy of Richard C. Head

To close out my weeklong look back at the restaurants owned and managed by Richard W. Head, I thought I’d give the only former Hoop Drive-in still standing the “Then & Now” treatment. It’s located down at the southwest corner of West Erie Avenue and Leavitt Road.

Above you see it in its heyday. The distinctive angled roof really gave it a modern appearance.

I remember the restaurant from its Manners days. It's where we brought our straight-A report cards to receive a free Big Boy, when that promotion was running in the late 1960s.

As I noted back on this post, Manners abandoned this location in the early 1970s. A variety of restaurants then followed, including Tudy’s Coffee Shop; Bonnie’s Place; Antigoni’s; The Fish Shanty; Pete’s Family Restaurant.

Today the former Hoop Drive-in is still the home of the popular Beachcliff Diner. The parking lot is really jammed on Sunday mornings.

The restaurant should consider removing the faux mansard roof and window inserts. It would really create a nice retro vibe for the place.

The Restaurants of Richard W. Head – Part 4

The Hoop Drive-in on West Erie
(Photo courtesy of Richard C. Head)

As I noted in a past series on the Hoop Drive-in, the popularity and success of Richard W. Head’s homegrown restaurant chain attracted the attention of the Manners organization in Cleveland.

(It probably didn’t hurt that the “Sooper Hooper” double-decker burger was similar to the classic Big Boy sandwich.)

By 1961, Manners had purchased the original Hoop Drive-in on Henderson Drive.

1962 Lorain phone book ad

Three out of the four remaining locations (including an Elyria outlet on Bridge Street) followed, leaving one Hoop restaurant on North Ridge near Clinton Avenue. Richard W. Head consequently joined the Manners organization as an associate.

But that’s not the end of the story. Even before the Manners chain eventually disappeared entirely in the late 1970s, Richard W. Head was back at work at the restaurants he built. The 1975 city directory listed him as the manager of Poor Richard’s Pub at the original Hoop Drive-in location. And the former West Erie Avenue Hoop that had become a Manners Big Boy briefly became a Hoop again in 1975.

In September 1975, Richard W. Head purchased Tudy’s Restaurant on 254. He also developed a small chain of Tudy’s Restaurants, using the former Hoop/Manners location on West Erie and the Manners at 2173 N. Ridge Road.

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Looking back, Richard W. Head successfully owned and operated restaurants in the Lorain area over three decades. It’s an achievement that we’ll probably not see again soon, especially during a time in which consumers tend to favor national chains, making it a challenge for locally owned restaurants to survive.

In an email, Richard C. Head explained how his father’s restaurants played an important role in his life.

"All of my family worked in those restaurants in our teen years and they were the foundation of our family’s financial well being, as well as a training ground for all of us regarding how to work hard in this life."

As for his father, Richard noted, "He was a unique man who taught us all how to conduct our lives for the greater good. 

"Thanks for keeping his legacy alive!”

The Restaurants of Richard W. Head – Part 3

Hula hooping behind the Hoop Drive-in on Henderson Drive
(Photo courtesy of Richard C. Head)

Richard W. Head believed in the power of advertising when it came to his restaurants. Above is a photo of a hula hoop promotion that took place in the parking lot of the Hoop Drive-in on Henderson Drive.

But there was an even more ambitious promotion that took place at that location in 1956 during the summer of a steel strike in Lorain. This promotion involved a flagpole sitter.

Here’s a photo (courtesy of Richard C. Head) of the installation of the flagpole.

Putting up a flag pole on the Hoop on Henderson Drive
 (Courtesy Richard C. Head)

So what was the story behind the flagpole sitter? An ad designed to resemble a newspaper article told the whole story (below) in the July 23, 1956 edition of the Lorain Journal.

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FLAGPOLE SITTER DRAWS 
BUSINESS TO RESTAURANT

A flagpole sitter has joined our midst. You’ll find him perched 40 feet in the air over the Hoop Drive-in restaurant.

Doing the sitting is Joseph Rhodes, nicknamed Dusty, of course. Dusty is 47 and a former carnival roustabout who once before sat on top of a flagpole.

“That was during the depression,” he reported through his sponsor, Richard Head, owner of the restaurant. “Dusty had nothing else to do, so he sat on a pole for 38 days.”

This latest sitting was inspired by the steel strike.

Dusty has nothing to do with the steel industry. But Head’s business began dropping off because of the strike, so he induced Dusty to sit on the pole in hopes of attracting a little business.

“It’s worked, too,” said Head. “Business has been improving since Dusty got up there.” That was last Monday night.

****

A short bulletin at the bottom of the ad reported that “Dusty Rhodes, flagpole sitter at The Hoop Drive-in, came down from his perch this morning due to illness.” He had been up there about a week.

Curiously, the Lorain Journal covered the story of the sick flagpole sitter without mentioning the Hoop. This article (below) ran on the front page of the Journal on July 23, 1956.

The steel strike was officially over on July 28, 1956, so it doesn’t appear that Dusty Rhodes had recovered in time to resume his perch atop the flagpole.

Next: Manners

The Restaurants of Richard W. Head – Part 2

The Hoop Drive-in on Henderson Drive
(Courtesy Richard C. Head)

After the Lorain Diner, Richard W. Head’s next big endeavor was the Hoop Drive-in. He started out with the single restaurant on Henderson Drive.

A full-page ad for the Hoop appeared in the June 21, 1955 edition of the Lorain Journal. The ad included a menu touting the “Super Hooper” (2 patties of fresh ground choice beef, a slice of tomato, lettuce – served with a special sauce on toasted bun), the “Peanut Hooper” (2 patties of fresh ground choice beef plus a generous portion of delicious peanut butter – served on toasted bun), and the “Sausage Hooper” (2 patties of fresh ground corn fed pork – just enough seasoning to give it that country style flavor – served on toasted bun).

The ad also included a biography of the man behind the restaurant.

Here are a few Hoop Drive-in ads from the early days.

1955 Lorain phone book ad

1956 Lorain phone book ad

A second Hoop location opened in June 1957.

Lorain Journal ad from June 29, 1957

By the time of the 1957 phone book, the chain had expanded to three outlets.

Next: Promotions

The Restaurants of Richard W. Head – Part 1

The original Hoop Drive-in on Henderson Drive

Since I started writing this nostalgia blog back in 2009, I’ve written about Lorain’s iconic Hoop Drive-in Restaurants many times.

I featured a 1956 St. Patrick’s Day ad here; a 1957 ad announcing the opening of the second Hoop Drive-in here; a 1959 Easter Dinner ad here; a 1960 ad announcing the addition of Sloppy Joes to the Hoop menu here; and a look at the various restaurants that succeeded the Hoop at its Henderson Drive location here.

I also did a two-part series on how three of the four area Hoop Drive-in Restaurants eventually became part of the Manners Big Boy chain.

Well, as a fitting follow-up to all this Hoop-la, I received a nice email back in April from Richard C. Head, the son of the Hoop’s founder. He wrote, "I found your Blog on Lorain County. Thanks for all the hard work.

"As additional information on the Hoop Restaurants and the Town Crier restaurant, the founder of all those restaurants was my father, Richard W. Head."

In a subsequent email, Richard noted that there were other restaurants besides the Town Crier Inn that his father was involved with, before he founded the Hoop Drive-in.

"The Butterfry Restaurant (to my knowledge) was my dad’s first restaurant in Lorain,” he explained.

Sure enough, the 1952 Lorain city directory listing for the restaurant with the not-too-healthy-sounding moniker included his father’s name as the man in charge.

One of Richard W. Head’s next endeavors was the Lorain Diner. I’ve written about it a few times, including this three-part series. The Lorain Diner was located a few doors east of the Pueblo on the same side of U. S. Route 6.

Feb. 29, 1952 Grand Opening Ad

1954 Lorain County Rural Directory listing

Richard C. Head provided me with this photo of him and his father, hard at work building the Lorain Diner. They’re actually in the rear of it.

This recent photo of the former Lorain Diner (now the home of West Side Tractor & Marine) shows part of the rear of the building where Richard and his father were photographed.

Next: The Hoop Drive-in

Sloppy Joes at the Hoop Drive-in – June 14, 1960

Here's an ad for the Hoop Drive-in Restaurant chain, which has been featured on this blog many times. It ran in the Lorain Journal on June 14, 1960.

I thought it was kind of interesting that the Hoop served Sloppy Joes. What restaurants serve Sloppy Joes these days?

I Googled this intriguing question, and the answer was: Maid-Rite. Guess it’s time for a road trip! (Or, I suppose I could buy a can of Manwich, or a jar of my favorite: Not So Sloppy Joe Sloppy Joe Sauce.)

While cleaning this ad up in Photoshop, I almost mistook the wavy line representing a delicious aroma under the chef’s nose for one of the ubiquitous pieces of fuzz that manage to make it onto the microfilm glass (and consequently my image).

The best thing about this ad is that it reminded me to put Sloppy Joes back on the Brady menu.

St. Patrick's Day at the Hoop – 1956

If you were looking for a place in Lorain to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in 1956 – 60 years ago today – then one option would have been to head for the Hoop on Henderson Drive.

As the half-page ad above shows, which ran in the Lorain Journal on the eve of the big day, there were a lot of tasty things going on at the Hoop, with your choice of either Irish Stew or Corned Beef & Cabbage for 80 cents.

The ad copy also mentions Irish Milk Shakes, predating McDonald's Shamrock Shakes by about 14 years. (According to this Huffington Post article, McDonald's Irish-themed shakes have been around since 1970.)

Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Second Hoop Drive-in Opens – June 1957

I'm too young to remember the Hoop Drive-in, but the more I think about it, the more impressed I am. It's a great story of a single restaurant on Henderson Drive becoming so popular that it expanded into multiple locations around Lorain and Elyria.

The second restaurant in the chain was the one on North Ridge Road just west of Route 57. The ad shown above announced its opening, and appeared in the Lorain Journal on June 29, 1957 – 58 years ago this Monday.

Eventually the success of the Hoop Drive-ins attracted the attention of the Manners restaurant chain, who ended up buying them, and hiring Richard Head, the man who operated them. (Mr. Head also operated the Lorain Diner.)

I did a two-part blog series on the history of the Hoops/Manners restaurants (here and here) as well as a post on the former Hoop/Manners location on the east side where a Denny's Diner was later built (here).

I like the modern, abstract graphics in the Hoop ad. It certainly gave it a unique, space-age feeling. It's nice that it plugged other local businesses, including the O'Neil Shopping Center, Lorain Creamery and Gelman Commission Co. (Gel-Pak).

I wonder what those free plastic banana boats mentioned in the ad looked like? I'll bet they looked like these (below) which are on Ebay right now, and are described as disposable, plastic banana boats.

Easter Parade of Vintage Ads

Easter is this Sunday, so here's a few vintage Easter-themed ads from the pages of the Lorain Journal.

First up is a big ad (above) from March 27, 1947 for a chain drugstore that I'd never heard of before: Peoples Service Drug Store. Although it sounds like something that should be located on Red Square in Moscow, it was located at 430 Broadway from around 1930 to the late 1940s.

Peoples Service Drug Store was part of the Peoples Drug chain. It was a very old chain, dating back to 1905. It eventually became part of CVS. You can read about the history of Peoples Drug here.

Looking at the Peoples Service Drug Store ad, I think a few of the plush dolls look like genetic experiments that went awry.

Next are a couple of ads for iconic local restaurants promoting their 1959 Easter Dinners.

The Hoop Drive-in on Henderson Drive offered a full course dinner for $1.50. You had your choice of fried chicken, broiled steak or baked ham.

And lastly, the Saddle Inn in Avon Lake was advertising its own delicious full course dinner, although the menu was not revealed.

I don't think I've ever eaten Easter Dinner out (I'm not counting Easter Brunches), although it crossed my mind this year. But in the end, the HoneyBaked Ham won out. Plus, you can make soup out of the bone.

The Hoop/Manners Story Part 2

1966 Phone Book ad

Manners had an immediate presence in Lorain County with the purchase and conversion of three Hoop Drive-ins, and the construction of a brand new outlet at 2173 N. Ridge Road near the intersection of State Route 254 and State Route 57. (Meanwhile, the lone Hoop Drive-in also continued on for a bit at 2017 N. Ridge Road, which is where Clinton Avenue meets N. Ridge Road.)

Manners really believed in promotion, and the company ran large ads in the Lorain telephone book (like the one shown above) touting their signature Big Boy double decker burger. The company also ran big regular ads in the Lorain Journal.

November 18, 1968 newspaper ad

It was hard not to be aware of Manners if you were a kid growing up in Lorain, with two restaurants on the west side. I've mentioned before how Manners used to give away free Big Boys for good report cards.

Since the Big Boy name was franchised, different restaurant chains bought the right to use it in certain territories. While Manners had the rights for a while in Northern Ohio, they must have lost them or decided to drop them at some point because by 1970, the ads no longer featured the Big Boy name or its iconic slingshot-carrying mascot.

1970 phone book ad; note the generic double decker burger

The Manners restaurants began to disappear in the early 1970's. The lone exception was the one at 2173 North Ridge Road. It was the only Manners left in town by 1975. (The Henderson Drive location, discussed in a separate post last week, had become Poor Richard's Pub.)

Strangely enough, the Hoop Drive-in made at curtain call at 2405 W. Lake Road for a few years starting in 1975. But by 1980, it was Tudy's Coffee Shop, followed by Bonnie's Place (in 1982). Sadly, by 1985 it was storage for Jeancola's Market. It would later spring back to life as Antigoni's, and later, the Fish Shanty and others. The restaurant sign has said Pete's Family Restaurant for quite a while, but I think the current business occupying the building is called the Beachcliff Diner.

Former Manners at intersection of Leavitt Road and US Route 6 in Lorain

The Manners at 2173 N. Ridge Road near Route 57 (which opened on July 12, 1967) was still in the phone book in 1977. Then, in 1978 it returned to its roots as it was very briefly Bob's Big Boy. By 1980, it was also a Tudy's and by 1983 it was listed as vacant. It was also Twigs Family Restaurant around 1986 before becoming Imperial Gardens Chinese Restaurant in the late 1980's. Today, the North Ridge Park office park is at the location and there is no evidence that there ever was a restaurant there.

Former Manners Big Boy location on North Ridge Road near State Route 57

The Manners building at the southern end of Oberlin Avenue is gone as well. The property has been used for years to display a variety of small sheds and other buildings for sale by Storage Buildings Unlimited.

Looking east across Oberlin Ave. at former Manners location

To read a nice story about the Manners restaurants by noted Plain Dealer reporter Tom Feran, click here.