The famous (and infamous) Theatrical Grill was a mainstay on the equally famous (and infamous) “Short Vincent” Avenue off East 9th Street in downtown Cleveland. In fact, the histories of the restaurant and the street are largely comingled, particularly in the middle decades of the 20th Century. When former truck driver Morris “Mushy” Wexler and his brother-in-law Micky Miller purchased the 70-year-old former brewery in 1938, Vincent Avenue already was wall-to-wall cacophony. In addition to Micky’s Bar and Grill (the Theatrical’s original name) food could be had at Frolics, Kornman’s, Leo’s, Stouffer’s and the Tastee Barbeque. Wants of a baser nature were satisfied at the Roxy Theater/Burlesque and Jean’s Funny House, which also was known as Jean's Fun House, Jean's Novelty Shop and Jean's Novelty and Magic Shop. Cobblers, barber shops and dry cleaners kept Vincent Avenue denizens looking natty. Up and down the one-block street, gamblers, sports figures and racketeers mingled with celebrities, lawyers, newspapermen and tourists. The south side was seedier; the north side had a somewhat more reputable image. The road in between was affectionally known as the “Gaza Strip.” But north side or south side, Short Vincent was an A-list destination for many of the 900,000 people who lived in Cleveland before the war, as well as those from nearby suburbs like Cleveland Heights and Lakewood. And the Theatrical was Short Vincent’s crown jewel.

A sense of living and playing on the margins enhanced that allure. Even reputable businesses on Short Vincent were regularly patronized by underworld figures, mob bosses and gamblers. Alex "Shondor" Birns – for a while, the Theatrical’s silent partner since convicted felons could not hold a liquor license – held court at his personal table. Birns’ nemesis, Danny Greene, often shared the premises, although the restaurant, frequently referred to as “Switzerland,” was strictly neutral territory. Jack Licovoli, boss of the Cleveland Mob hung out there but never drank. Even Mushy Wexler ran Empire News Service which, using Western Union telegraph technology, apprised bookies of changes in the line for horse racing and football. Wexler was frequently at odds with the taxman, the Liquor Control Board, and even the Kefauver organized crime Committee. Banned for a time from racing horses, Wexler also owned one of the world’s largest horse stables in the country in Lexington, Kentucky. One of the horses that Wexler raised finished second in the Kentucky Derby and, the same year, won the Preakness.

Yet celebrities outnumbered gangsters. Frank Sinatra sang there for free. Marilyn Monroe paraded through with husband Arthur Miller. Georgie Jessel, Tony Bennett, Lauren Bacall, Edward G. Robinson and Judy Garland basked in their own glory. Joe Lewis, Pancho Gonzalez, Woody Hayes, and the entire New York Yankees baseball team swung by. Cab Calloway, Gene Krupa, Oscar Peterson and Dizzy Gillespie jazzed the place up.

A grease fire on September 14, 1960, completely destroyed the Theatrical. But Wexler rented a corner bar in the nearby Hollenden Hotel while his restaurant was being rebuilt, and he thus held on to most of his customers. A glamorous new Theatrical opened in October 1961 with a 750-customer capacity, a second-floor “Commerce Club,” oodles of Italian statuary, and an integrated undular bar and stage. “The end of expenditures on this pleasure palace is not yet in sight,” crowed Mushy Wexler in a July 1961 interview.

But while the end may not have been in sight, it nonetheless was coming. The Theatrical continued its reign well into the 1960s, but Cleveland’s decline had set in motion a slow downtrend for Short Vincent and the Theatrical. This was the era of Wexler son-in-law Irving "Buddy" Spitz, who assumed day-to-day control of the still-flourishing restaurant after Wexler suffered a heart attack in 1965. Shondor Birns objected to the transfer of power and his not-so-private partnership with Wexler was dissolved. Wexler eventually retired to his 27-acre farm in Solon, which supplied vegetables to the restaurant.

Throughout the 1960s businesses left the street and demolitions chipped away at the aging structures. By the end of the decade most of the north side of the street had been cleared to make way for the Central National Bank Building. Ten years later, south side establishments had been cleared to make way for National City Center. By 1978 the Theatrical was the only non-parking business left on Short Vincent. Wexler died in 1979.

In 1990, Buddy Spitz sold out to restaurateur Jim Swingos, the owner/proprietor of another legendary Cleveland eatery, the Keg & Quarter on East 18th Street and Euclid Avenue. Swingos later sold the restaurant to business people who unsuccessfully sought to make the place a comedy club, followed by a sports bar and (the final indignity) a “gentleman’s club” complete with pole dancing. The Theatrical closed for good in 1999 and – perhaps reflecting the longstanding practice of blowing up mobsters in parking lots – the building was demolished for a parking garage. For decades, in fact, that may have been Cleveland’s most galling custom: creating places to park by demolishing places to go.

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Vincent Avenue, known in its heyday as "Short Vincent," spans only a single city block between East 6th and East 9th streets, but it was a hub of Cleveland nightlife in the early to mid-twentieth century. Located behind the lavish Hollenden Hotel near the city's center, Short Vincent, with its wild reputation, attracted both tourists and city residents, who flocked to its restaurants, bars, and music clubs. In comparison, East 4th Street could be argued as a modern day equivalent to Short Vincent due to the lure of entertainment packed into a short stretch of road. However, unlike the deliberate planning dedicated to the development East 4th, Short Vincent naturally evolved into a bustling entertainment center in downtown Cleveland.

Establishments sprang up on Short Vincent that catered to many forms of entertainment: drinking, delicious food, and dancing women. The south side of the street became known for its burlesque shows, specifically the performances at the internationally known Roxy Theater. After a show, patrons could stop and pick up a couple of hot dogs or the 39-cent house special of fried eggs, toast and jelly, and coffee at Coney Island right next door. Even the more respectable businesses on Short Vincent were known to attract underworld figures, mob bosses, and gamblers of all types. The Theatrical Grill, opened in 1937, not only hosted the day's top musical stars such as Judy Garland and Dean Martin, but was also the place to score the latest gambling lines and odds on sporting events, thanks to its notorious owner Morris "Mushy" Wexler. The Theatrical Grill also served as a headquarters for the famous Cleveland mobster, Alex "Shondor" Birns.

Bond Clothing, located around the corner from Short Vincent, complemented the "Mad Men" atmosphere that existed between East 9th and East 6th thanks to the male clientele that frequented the varied forms of entertainment that Short Vincent had to offer. Designer Charles Bond and his two business partners, Mortimer Slater and Lester Cohen, founded Bond Clothing in 1914 in Cleveland. In 1920, the trio opened their first men's department store in the old Hickox Building, located near the corner of Euclid and East 9th Street until the structure was torn town in 1946. In that same year, Bond Clothing relocated exactly on the corner of Euclid and East 9th. Bond Clothing's new store location sported a sleek Art Moderne design, and its interior solarium made the building feel like one large room with three floors. As customers walked up the floating staircase with aluminum and glass railings and would pass a mural dedicated to the "Goddess of Fabric." Also, the lighting of the building was carefully choreographed to bend the pastel shades that decorated the interior.

Bond's became nationally known for selling the fifteen-dollar two-piece suit. By the mid 1950s, Bond Clothing boasted over 100 stores nationwide, along with 50 catalogue stores in smaller cities. Bond's, however, did not remain a department store solely for men, and began to create women's clothing as well. Models used to show off the women's clothing line in the large bay window on the third floor. Supposedly, men used to walk by the window on their lunch breaks and gawk at the beautiful ladies wearing the latest fashions. Patrons could also look down from the upper floors of the Bond Clothing building and view burlesque dancers sunbathing on the roof of the Roxy.

Activity on the Short Vincent peaked in the 1930s and 1940s, steadily waning after World War II as suburbanization lessened the vitality of downtown Cleveland. Most of the fun on Short Vincent had ended by the late 1970s, as increasing portions of it were demolished to make way for new office buildings due to city urban renewal plans that did not advocate for restoring existing structures. Also, the Bond Clothing building, along with other Short Vincent establishments, was demolished in 1978 to accommodate the expansion of National City Bank that accompanied its move from a regional operation to a national enterprise.

An emerging trend toward sanitizing downtown entertainment also contributed to the demise of Short Vincent. One example of this these efforts was the closing of Mickey's Lounge Bar. Mickey's, owned by bookie and gambler Charles "Fuzzy" Lakis, closed in 1964 when the location was deemed a common nuisance by the fire marshal - an indirect route taken by the state liquor control board to finally close Mickey's down. Police officers no longer turned a blind eye to the goings on along Vincent Avenue, now enforcing parking bans that were routinely ignored in years past, and escalating their harassment of the bookies that seemed to run Short Vincent. Even though the majority of the establishments that lined Short Vincent no longer exist and the familiar faces that used to run the row have long gone, as a 1967 article of the Cleveland Press states, "If you look hard enough you will conjure them up – sitting on a sidewalk bench, puffing inevitable cigars, with a phone booth nearby because they're always outta business with a phone booth."

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Founded in 1912, the City Club has long been known as "Cleveland's Citadel of Free Speech." The City Club was the brainchild of Mayo Fesler, a young reformer from St. Louis who came to Cleveland to direct the reorganization of the Municipal Association. Fesler convinced local business and civic leaders that Cleveland needed a City Club like those that existed in several other cities at the time.

The City Club moved several times, always in downtown, in its 110+ year history. It originated in Weber's Restaurant on Superior Avenue. After four years it moved to the Hollenden Hotel, where it remained for the next thirteen years. Its most enduring location was on Short Vincent across from the Theatrical Grill, where it stayed from 1929 to 1971. Following twelve years in the Women's Federal Savings Building (very near its original location), it moved in 1983 to the Citizens Building at 850 Euclid Avenue. It stayed there exactly forty years before relocating to a former storefront at 1317 Euclid Avenue, a location with far more visibility from passersby in Playhouse Square.

As the oldest continuous free speech forum in the United States, the City Club has always encouraged a nonpartisan, open exchange of ideas relating to the key issues of the day. The weekly Friday Forum – the club's trademark event – has proven to be highly successful, drawing locally, nationally, and internationally distinguished speakers to Cleveland. It was broadcast on radio station WHK starting in 1928 and is now heard live on WKSU (Ideastream) and is rebroadcast on more than 200 radio stations nationwide. Each Forum includes a mandatory question and answer session at the end of the week's speech or debate, allowing for genuine audience participation. The only time the rule was not applied was when Bobby Kennedy gave the eulogy to Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan balked but ultimately acceded to the club's rule requiring speakers to field open, unfiltered questions from the audience.

The City Club was also highly active beyond the Forum. One tradition, the Anvil Revue, a satirical musical staged by a cast of club members to poke fun at politicians or institutions, was staged live annually from 1914 until 1976 and has since been enacted primarily on the club's radio broadcast. In an era when downtown Cleveland was by far the largest weekday hub of businessmen and professionals, the City Club was one of a number of favored lunch meeting places, and it was common for club members to enjoy pinochle and other card games. Members gravitated to various tables that sometimes assumed reflective nicknames, most notably the Soviet Table, which attracted left-leaning members. 

For its first sixty years, the City Club was ostensibly open regardless of race or creed, but apart from its Forum, it was emphatically a men's-only organization. A separate Women's City Club formed in 1916. Unlike the City Club, whose main purpose was to foster the free exchange of ideas, by the 1920s the women's counterpart also took up a range of civic causes. When the City Club moved into the Women's Federal Savings Building in 1971, the Women's City Club opted to share that space. A year later, the City Club began admitting women as members. In more recent years, the City Club has extended its programming well beyond the traditional Friday Forum to encompass forums in neighborhood venues throughout the city. Ever with an eye to the future, the oldest free speech forum has subsidized the participation of area students, perhaps in the process cultivating the next generation of City Club members.

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