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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Late on the evening of Halloween 1971, as the children of Cleveland Heights slept with bellies full of candy, a blast shook the Coventry neighborhood. Police raced to Swan's Auto Service at the southwest corner of Mayfield and Coventry Roads (now the site of the Coventry Food Mart) to find 31 year-old Arthur Sneperger dead under a pile of debris. Michael Frato, owner of both Swan's and a garbage collection business, was the clear target; his Cadillac had been parked at Swan's, and a garbage truck in the backyard of his Cleveland Heights home was destroyed by an arsonist the very same evening. But the bomb went off too early, and Sneperger became the victim. Attention focused immediately on "The Irishman," Danny Greene.

Younger Clevelanders may be familiar with Danny Greene only after seeing the 2011 biopic "Kill the Irishman." But those who lived in the city during the 1970s surely remember him well. A mob war involving the Irish-American Greene and competing factions of the Italian Mafia led to more than 30 bombings in the city, most involving car bombs. The violence became so endemic that a local newspaper referred to Cleveland as "Bomb City, USA."

Frato and Greene had once been friends, but tension between the two rose after Frato pulled his garbage collection firm out of the profitable trash hauler's union that Greene ran. Frato started his own trade group, the Cuyahoga County Refuse Haulers Association, whose offices were located near Swan's Auto Service on Coventry Road. Frato was playing cards in these offices on the night that Sneperger was killed.

Arthur Sneperger had a history with both Greene and Frato. Sneperger and Frato grew up together in Cleveland near the intersection of Woodland Avenue and East 25th Street. Sneperger and Greene, meanwhile, had worked together at the city's docks, and Sneperger eventually became "muscle" for Greene's gang. The month before the bombing at Swan's, Sneperger backed out of an earlier plan of Greene's to bomb Frato's car, going as far as to inform Frato of Greene's intentions. Soon after, Sneperger starting talking to a Cleveland Police officer about Greene's criminal activities. After the Halloween bombing on Coventry, police speculated that Greene had found out about Sneperger's betrayals, and that Sneperger's death had not been unintentional. Greene may have remotely detonated the bomb early on purpose, knocking off a traitor and sending a powerful message to Frato at the same time.

Less than a month after the Swan's bombing, Danny Greene shot and killed Michael Frato at White City Park Beach on Cleveland's lakefront. Frato and an associate drove up to Greene as he walked his dogs at the park. When Frato fired a gun, Greene shot back, killing Frato with a single shot to head. Greene was later acquitted of the murder after claiming he acted in self-defense.

For several years in the 1970s, the Coventry neighborhood was also home to Shondor Birns, once known as "Cleveland's Public Enemy #1." A ruthless Jewish gangster who ran Cleveland's numbers and policy rackets, Birns first hired Danny Greene in the 1960s as an enforcer. As Greene's power grew, his ties to Birns deepened, but conflict over an unpaid debt soured their relationship. On Saturday evening, March 29, 1975, Birns was killed by a car bomb as he left Christy's Lounge, a strip bar located on Detroit Avenue on Cleveland's near west side.  Greene was suspected in the murder, but never charged.

Danny Greene died in a car bombing in suburban Lyndhurst in 1977 after becoming ensnared in a fight surrounding competing claims for leadership of Cleveland's Italian mafia.

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Daniel "Danny" John Patrick Greene (November 9, 1929 – October 6, 1977) son of John and Irene Greene, suffered from a difficult childhood. His mother passed away due to medical complications shortly after the boy's birth. His father, devastated by his loss, began to drink away his sorrows, placing his son in the care of Parmadale Children's Home until Danny found a permanent home with his paternal grandfather.

In his youth, Daniel dabbled in delinquency, dropped out of high school, and earned himself a reputation as an alley-fighter. As an adult, he seemed to mellow out. In 1956, he married a local waitress and the following year took employment as a stevedore on the banks of Lake Erie. Here he was quickly elected president of the Local 1317 International Longshoremen's Association.

Sometime during this period Greene began to travel a path of illegal activity. On November 13, 1964, Greene was indicted by the federal grand jury on charges of embezzlement and falsifying records. Accused of stealing $11,542.38 in union funds, Daniel Greene stood trial in spring 1966 alongside the union's vice president Leon J. Ponikvar. It only took the twelve jurors five and a half hours to deliberate Greene's fate. With proof that he had deposited 19 grain boat checks into his personal account at the Rockefeller branch of Central National Bank, Greene was found guilty. The ruling however, was overturned in August 1968 because "the Government's cross-examination of Greene about his high living on his union expense account was prejudicial."

In the years following his indictment, Daniel Greene, forbidden to participate in union activity, formed the Cleveland Trade Solid Waste Guild. Chartered by the state in June 1969, the guild was intended to unify the commercial rubbish business in the city of Cleveland. Membership was solely voluntary, but many collectors reported that they joined for fear of being put out of business. In a membership meeting held on June 25th of the same year Danny is quoted as saying "If others don't join we will follow their trucks and take away their 'stops', offer to pick up for less and take away their business at the cheapest price- and knock them out of the box." In July 1971, Greene once again found himself in a legal hotspot, as police noted a connection between organized crime and the violence amongst private rubbish haulers.

Greene's connections with organized crime went beyond the world of waste. In the early 1970s there was a reported 35 homicides linked to explosives, many of which could be linked to Greene or one of his associates. Over the next few years multiple attempts were made on Danny Greene's life until he met his end in a car blast outside of his dentist's office on October 6, 1977.

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The story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer read like a script from one of Bruce Willis's Die Hard movies. In the early morning hours of September 29, 1947, a dozen masked commandos armed with submachine guns and referring to each other by numbers attacked the Mounds Club, one of the Cleveland area's most glamorous night clubs. They penetrated the electrified fence surrounding the Club, overwhelmed the Club's security forces and then robbed 300 club patrons of an estimated $450,000 in jewelry and cash. While both the local Mayfield Mob and the infamous Purple Gang from Detroit were suspected of the armed robbery, no one was ever charged and the crime remains unsolved to this day.

The Mounds Club was built in 1930 by Thomas "Black Jack" McGinty, a second generation Irish-American who was then known as Cleveland's biggest sports and gambling promoter. He was also known to be an associate of the Cleveland Gang, an organized crime group that controlled gambling and other illegal enterprises in Cleveland in the decades of the1930s and 1940s. Several members of the Cleveland Gang, including Moe Dalitz and Morris Kleinman, were reputed to be silent owners of the Mounds Club.

Located on Chardon Road in Willoughby Hills, just across the Lake County line at the site of present day La-Vera Party Center, the Mounds Club was conveniently placed just out of the reach of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County law enforcement officials. The Mounds Club did indeed offer its patrons opportunities to gamble and drink illegal liquor. It also, however, featured some of the best entertainment in the Cleveland area in that era. Well-known singers like Sophie Tucker, Helen Morgan and Lena Horne, and comedians like Joe E. Lewis, performed there. When the Club was attacked by masked robbers in 1947, comedian Peter Lind Hayes and his wife, singer Mary Healy, were actually on stage performing. The careers of a number of Hollywood singers and actresses began with stints at the Mounds Club.

In the years 1930-1948, the Mounds Club had been the target of a number of raids by Lake County and State of Ohio law enforcement officials. The Club nevertheless had always managed to stay in business and one step ahead of the law until Frank Lausche was elected to his second term as Ohio's Governor in 1948. In early 1949, Governor Lausche vowed to close the Mounds Club which he claimed had for too long flouted Ohio's gambling and liquor laws.

In July 1949, Governor Lausche's state liquor law enforcement officials did just that, obtaining a court order to close down and padlock the Mounds Club. While owner Thomas "Black Jack" McGinty appealed the order closing his club, he clearly saw the writing on the wall. He and his Cleveland Gang associates sold their interests in the Mounds Club in 1950, taking their money out of Ohio and investing it in a new and what they believed would be safer and even more lucrative enterprise—the new Desert Inn in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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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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