The Dick Clark Caravan of Stars comes to Lorain

Just as Tom McCartney – who was there at the concert – confirmed in a comment on yesterday's post, The Dick Clark Caravan of Stars came to the Lorain Arena on Wednesday, October 7, 1959.

On the day before the big concert, the ad above appeared in The Lorain Journal. What a classic ad with terrific typography! Check out the ticket prices: too $2.00, $2.50 and $3.00!

A short promotional article also was included elsewhere in the same paper, with a small photo of Paul Anka and listing all 13 recording stars.

I checked the newspaper editions from several days following the concert to see if there was any sort of review or photos, but there were none to be found. Too bad – looking back, it was a big day in Lorain pop culture history!

Lorain Arena Sold

I was happy to see this SOLD sign on the former Lorain Arena last week. It was way back in June 2010 (here) that realtor Bill Latrany gave me a tour of the place. Every time I've driven by it since then, I've looked to see if it had been sold yet.

I'm happy for Bill. He came oh-so-close to selling the property several times, but this one looks like the real deal at last. If you missed it, here is the link to the Morning Journal's story.

Speaking of that story, I was out of the town for the weekend and read the newspapers a few days late. I almost missed seeing my name in the article. (It sure is strange to see your name in the paper when you're not expecting it.)

Once again, congratulations to Bill Latrany for adding yet another Lorain icon to his list of 'sold' properties.

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Ironically, I was working on an Arena story late last week. I had found an article in a Lima newspaper (of all places) that said that The Dick Clark Caravan of Stars was coming to Lorain on October 7, 1959. Scheduled to appear was Annette Funicello, Paul Anka, Lloyd Price, Duane Eddy, Jimmy Clanton, LaVern Baker, The Coasters, The Drifters, The Skyliners, Bobby Rydell, Phil Phillips, The Jordan Brothers and Arnold Dover as master of ceremonies.

Here's probably what the program looked like for that lineup.

I'll hit the microfilm later this week to confirm that the concert took place that day.

Rusine's Part 2

Vintage postcard

Did you know that, in addition to the bookstore, the Rusine family also operated a motel?

As Robert Rusine explained, "Our motel was on Route 6 and 2. Motel Plaza, across the street from the Crystal Beach roller coaster. For ten years I mowed the lawn on our property, which was 11 acres.

1950s phone book ad

"The sounds of the roller coaster which faced our property were enticing. Slowly the chain would pull the roller coaster to the top, and then it would make the curve before its long descent with people screaming at the top of their lungs.

"But I was mowing the lawn, which took all day."

Robert obviously inherited his father's strong work ethic.

"Coming from an ethnic Russian background," he explained, "my dad was born poor, did not speak English when he started school, but worked tirelessly all his life, and when he died all his properties were fully paid as was our custom."

Motel Plaza is still there out on Route 6 in Vermilion. As Robert notes, "Still in business. Same name and same rooms after fifty years."

"My dad worked both of those businesses each day, every day of the year for almost his entire adult life," said Robert. "Never a vacation."

Michael Rusine passed away on June 20, 1989. He had owned and operated his bookstore for more than 6o years. He was also a former Lorain Jaycees Man of the Year, and was a state award winner for selling bonds during World War II.

Robert Rusine sums up his father simply and lovingly.

"My dad was a good guy."

Special thanks to Robert Rusine for sharing his memories.

Modern views of the motel 

Rusine's Part 1

Rusine's sign still above 822 Broadway

I've said it many times: the best part of doing this blog is getting emails from people who want to share some of their Lorain memories.

Robert Rusine recently emailed me with some great reminisces about his father, and the business that his father ran for many years that should be familiar to many Lorainites: Rusine's. 

"My father, Mike Rusine, operated our bookstore on Broadway," said Robert. "Our store sold cigarettes at the cheapest price in town, along with books, cards, Russell Stover's candy, Buxton wallets, and even Dunhill smoking accessories.

"We had the largest collection of books, tobacco pipes, comic books and candy bars of any store in the county. The Cleveland Press delivered their evening addition, the last edition, on the Cleveland Lorain Highway Coach."

Why was that edition so popular?

As Robert explained, "Customers would line up to buy it because it contained the numbers, the winning numbers for those who played the numbers."

The bookstore at 822 Broadway as it looks today

Robert also told me about a little game his father used to play with some of his customers. "He would have the customer roll the dice, double or nothing, to get the hardbound book for free or pay two times the cover price."

It was a colorful time in Lorain's past, and the customers at Rusine's would fit in perfectly in a Damon Runyon short story.

"We knew all the customers at our bookstore," explained Robert, "by their first names or nicknames. There was Carter Hall, Peachy John, Bull Durham, IBX, Burnt Toast and Speedy. Many of them were retired pensioners from United States Steel plant, or habitual gamblers. Others were pimps or prostitutes, and alcoholics who frequented the bars in the area."

There was also a particular clientele who favored the girlie-type magazine: the men who sailed the cargo ships on the Great Lakes who found themselves in Lorain.

"It was interesting for us, as the six kids of Mike, who waited on the customers in my dad's store as we grew up," noted Robert.

Christmas time was a good time to promote the store, and Robert and his siblings did their part, although some of their marketing tactics would be frowned upon today.

"Each year just before Christmas, my brother and I would distribute ads for candy and greeting cards from our store, by placing them in the mailboxes in the entire area," he recalled, "and also in the cars parked throughout downtown Lorain, by opening car doors and placing the ad on the front seat!

"One time we couldn't get the door of the car closed. It would not budge. So we took the advertisement off the seat of the car. Try doing some of these kinds of things today!"

According to Robert, his father was a real visionary. "My dad foresaw that people did not like to pay at the meters on Broadway. He had an architect design a plan for downtown renewal. It contained a parking garage for free parking, and anchor stores such as the Hudson store which was popular at the time. It would have been built, of course, before the Midway Mall and preserved downtown as an ongoing business district. However, no one took notice even though he placed the architect's design in our store window."

It sounds like Mike Rusine's idea was ahead of its time.

Next: Rusine's other business

Garfield Annex

Walking around the former Admiral King High School with my camera on Sunday reminded me that I was photographing soon-to-be-demolished schools way before I started this nostalgia blog.

Here's a few that I shot with a regular 35mm camera (remember those things?) of Garfield Elementary back in March 2003 According to the book The History of Lorain City Schools recently published by Titan Enterprise, the building shown below is actually the Garfield Annex; it opened in 1910.

I like that fallout shelter sign. I wonder if it was salvaged?

Here's another view shot the same day.

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And here's a vintage photo showing the annex along with the original building; it appeared in the aforementioned The History of Lorain City Schools.

It's a nice little book with capsule histories of Lorain school buildings and notable graduates. Here's the information about how to order it.

Penny Morgan's Place on Elyria Avenue

I find the whole Penny Morgan story – about her brothels outside the Lorain city limits on Oberlin Avenue (the current Mutt & Jeff location) and on Elyria Avenue during 1937 and 1938 – very interesting, in a old-time, wild-west sort of way. It's a tragic story too; for a series of $50 bribes that she made to Lorain County Sheriff William F. Grall to look the other way, he was sent to prison and she ended up taking it on the lam to avoid prosecution. I don't think the authorities ever found her.

I don't mean to judge her, or ignore her crimes either here on the blog. She may still be alive for all I know. I simply find this affair to be a fascinating chapter in Lorain County history.

Anyway, last week fellow blogger Alan Hopewell made a comment on my post, asking if I knew where the Elyria Avenue brothel had been located. So I decided to do a little research and see if I could find out.

The same 1939 city directory that listed 3700 Oberlin Avenue as being the location of Penny Morgan's tourist rooms also had a listing (at left) for Penny Morgan's real name: Maxine Barbour. ("Penny Morgan" was just her alias.) There she was, listed as being on the east side of Elyria Avenue, between Harriet and N. Ridge Road.

Unfortunately, since that area was outside Lorain city limits, there were no addresses listed. So where along that stretch of Elyria Avenue was Penny's place?

I cross-referenced the list of east side residents against a newer book (1960) that included numerical addresses for the same area. I found a few residents that were still on Elyria Avenue since 1939, including one that was a few doors south of Penny.

So now I had a few actual addresses to work with.

According to the newspaper accounts of the Sheriff's trial, many of Penny's neighbors were called to testify, including the resident whose exact address I had. That resident is indicated on the map below with the blue dot (in the lower right hand corner).

So it looks like Penny had to live close enough to that blue dot to be a 'neighbor' – meaning she must have lived somewhere nearby, likely somewhere between the House of Praise church and the blue dot. A location farther away would hardly qualify her as a 'neighbor' to the blue dot house.

According to the Lorain County Auditor website, there are a lot of homes along that stretch of Elyria Avenue that were built before 1900, and a few from the 1920s. So it kind of makes sense.

Anyway, it really doesn't matter where the brothel was; it might have been torn down by now anyway. But as anyone who reads this blog knows, I love a good mystery.

Perhaps Penny is still alive out there – somewhere – and can help me fill in the blanks in her story.

Admiral King High School Open House

It was a strange experience walking around the former Admiral King High School on Sunday afternoon after being away for thirty-five years.

Some of it seemed very familiar, other parts of the tour were kind of foreign.

While I could overhear other alumni dragging their unfortunate families around and saying things like "Here's where I had Spanish class, here's my old locker, etc.," I could barely locate my old homeroom. But I did (below).

I also found the row of lockers that contained mine, but I couldn't tell you my old locker number if my life depended upon it. On the other hand, I still remember my combination: 12-44-6!

I walked all around the school, surprised that I had forgotten how big it was. There were wings of the school offering views that I barely remember at all.

I know I don't remember pic-a-nic tables – I mean – picnic tables out in this courtyard. Going out there used to be strictly verboten.

The cafeteria was as I remembered it, though, although a little more colorful now perhaps.

Being in the cafeteria reminded me that I probably brought peanut butter sandwiches every day for four years. And strangely enough, I still eat peanut butter for lunch at work almost every day.

And I certainly remembered the auditorium – the scene of so many concerts in which I participated  – as well as that memorable musty smell.

I roamed around the building for about an hour, snapping away for no particular reason.

I guess I'd been gone so long that little of the tour had much of an emotional impact on me.

It was only when I made a beeline to the place where I had the most fun in high school – the band room – that a wave of nostalgia washed over me.

Walking down that familiar narrow hall...

Past the practice rooms...

Finally arriving at the band room.

I took my familiar seat in the trombone section and surveyed the view (below).

I also had to check out the view outside the band room. Standing in front of this door probably had more emotional impact on me than anything I saw all afternoon. This was the door I remember going in more than any other, especially if it was Friday night and the band was getting ready to march over to George Daniel Stadium.

I was tempted to bang on the door for entry like in the good old days, but I was afraid I might open some sort of Twilight Zone-like portal and find myself face-to-face with my younger self in 1976. 

Anyway, it was a satisfying visit to the old Alma Mater.