Across the United States there are over twelve thousand bowling alleys in operation. Of these twelve thousand, the Bowling Proprietors Association of America recognizes only twelve registered alleys which still use manual pin setters to reset their lanes, one of which is located in Cleveland, Ohio. Maple Lanes Bowling Alley and Tavern gives bowlers an experience unparalleled to those found in modern bowling facilities. Real maple wood lanes, manually operated pin setting machines and ball returns, and scorecards that still require one to put pen to paper harken back to an era unaccustomed to instant gratification.

In 1964, sisters Ann Abranovich and Josephine Reeves were both working mothers looking for a way to maintain their income and spend more time with their growing families. At the time, 6918 St. Clair Avenue in Cleveland had housed Maple Lanes Bowling Alley and Tavern since 1940 and was sporting a ‘for sale’ sign in its front window. The pair thought acquiring and operating the business could provide them with the lifestyle they hoped for and decided to mutually purchase the site.

Josephine lived on East 61st Street only a few blocks from the bowling alley and once the sale was finalized Ann moved herself and her family into the apartment upstairs. Since then, the family has been operating Maple Lanes and maintaining all the original features they inherited with the building in 1964.

As a right of passage, all members in the Abranovich family begin their careers as pin setters and ball returners. An art all its own, resetting the pins takes nearly as much skill as bowling a perfect three hundred game. Prior to the technological advances in bowling alley equipment that people are likely familiar with today, a pin setter was once considered the equivalent of a caddy in golfing. Much like a good caddy-golfer pair, bowlers and pin setters worked quietly, and patiently, in sync with one another through ten frames of play.

Because the alleys are real, aged wood, current co-owner of Maple Lanes, Barb Rogers recalls that her father often used to say that bowling at Maple Lanes required challenging the lanes, not other bowlers. Modern, laminate floors provide today’s bowlers with smooth, even surfaces. Maple Lanes, on the other hand, have alleys which possess divots and waves in the wood that require a bowler to understand how to maneuver the ball on the lane to knock down the pins. After over seven decades of play, no player is known to have scored the ever-elusive three hundred game on an alley at Maple Lanes.

In addition to the unique experience the bowling alley provides, the front tavern has an allure all its own. Seductively posed above the bar is the likeness of a woman that has been watching over Maple Lanes patrons for over half a century. Painted in 1954, the image is that of Lili St. Cyr, an erotic actress and burlesque dancer of the early twentieth century. Known for her high class, innovative performances, Lili St. Cyr was a pioneer in the striptease business.

In an effort to cultivate an individualized persona, St. Cyr would often devise unique stage tricks to thrill her audiences, one of her most famous being ‘the Flying G.’ During the act, St. Cyr would perform a burlesque dance under slowly dimming lights. Just before the room fell completely dark, St. Cyr’s g-string would be pulled away by a man offstage with a fishing pole, giving the illusion that the article of clothing vanished. The story holds that a regular patron of Maple Lanes saw Lili St. Cyr at her show in Las Vegas and became so enamored with the dancer that he painted the mural at Maple Lanes strictly from memory His compensation was a six pack of beer, although the brew is unknown. Just above St. Cyr’s legs in the painting reads the English proverb, “A woman is an angel at ten, a saint at fifteen, a devil at forty, and a witch at fourscore.”

From the enchanting image of Lili St. Cyr, to the solid, maple wood lanes, the leagues that bowl at Maple Lanes and the patrons who visit the bar live in the same reality as several generations before them. Much like many of the original businesses which have remained in the neighborhood, Maple Lanes Bowling Alley and Tavern provides an experience for patrons steeped in authenticity. The family’s dedication to the preservation of the facility makes Maple Lanes not only a treasure to the city of Cleveland, but as one of only twelve bowling alleys with manual pin setters, a treasure to bowling enthusiasts across the country.

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Even before the Colonial Theater opened in 1903, vaudeville had emerged in America as a professionalized and more respected version of minstrel and burlesque shows. By the time the first act hit the Colonial Theater's stage, variety shows had grown tremendously successful as they evolved into 'polite vaudeville.' Like other Cleveland playhouses, the Colonial Theater embraced this style of entertainment.

Entertainers who appeared on opening night at the Colonial included Ida Fuller, "the greatest woman illusionist in the world"; Alcide Capitaine, who demonstrated her strength through acrobatics and other feats; a singing comedian; a ventriloquist; and an acrobatic comedy given by the Lavine Cameron trio. Not long after opening night, trick-performing animals, including dogs, monkeys, and a pig named "Connie," also appeared at the theater.

Beginning in the 1890s, large theater business began to control theaters across the country. Like other Cleveland playhouses, the Colonial Theater changed hands a number of times to both local and national big business owners. In the case of the Colonial, the switch meant a substantial change in the theater's productions. In early 1904, the Drew & Campbell Theater Company was able to secure a lease over the Colonial. In order to get control of the theater, they were obligated to sign a contract stating that they would not allow vaudeville to continue there. Two days shy of the once independent theater's one-year anniversary, Drew & Campbell surrendered the Colonial's stage to the Vaughan Glaser Stock Company.

After five years under Vaughan Glaser, the Colonial was back in the hands of an independent manager who was neither part of the big-business theater trusts nor connected to any outside stock company. F. Ray Comstock leased the theater in 1909. A year later, however, Ray Comstock leased the theater to the Shuberts — major business owners who controlled theaters across the country and who had showed interest in the Colonial since the fall of 1903. In the fall of 1918, the Colonial Theater's success under Shubert led to a name change. From that point on it was advertised as the Shubert Colonial.

Performances continued at the theater until 1930. Although Clevelanders at the time were unaware of the fact, "Mysteries of Love" was the Colonial Theater's last show. The show featured artist models and was advertised as being "For Men Only." It turned out, however, to be nothing more than a lecture-show. Because the show did not fulfill the expectations for risqué entertainment, Police Inspector George J. Matowitz put a stop to it, saying that the theater was "obtaining money under false pretenses." After Matowitz kept the theater from reopening the show, no other performances were given at the Colonial. In 1932, the long-empty theater was torn down to make way for a parking lot.

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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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