BEARZ Wrote:
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> Bleekers Bowl in Evergreen Park is very much
> open.
> My husband and I have owned the place since 97.
> Though the outside is pretty much the way it's
> looked since the 50's, we gutted the
> inside,brightened it up, added a beer garden and
> most recently a grill. If you are still in the
> area, stop in, mention this site and have lunch
> and a couple games on me!
> I'm 51 and I grew up in Back of the Yards. I
> bowled with my daddy at Miami and then again there
> with my sister where I was league secretary. Oh,
> how I miss keeping score with pencil and paper!
> When I was younger, my dad also bowled at Jay Bee
> on 51st and Damen and then it burned down. Lots of
> stuff tended to burn down in the old hood! I
> remember when he had to climb to the charred
> second floor to get his ball out of the locker.
> I also remember the day Gage Park Bowl burned. I
> lived on 53rd and Hermitage and still it was hard
> to see in my house the smoke was so bad.Yecch.
> Miami was my favorite. When we got Bleekers, I
> hoped we could maintain the beautiful wood lanes
> like that. You can keep our corporate competition,
> Brunswick Zone (the old Arena) and their synthetic
> lanes and their cosmic bowl nonsense.(And the fact
> they have to close at ten because of gangs is
> pretty scary, too.)
> My daddy's average hovered around 195. He bowled
> for 45 years.
> My average was in the high 150's. I would say it's
> the Pollack in us that made us somewhat decent
> bowlers.
> But my older sister's average was 89. haha
> Anyway, it was a nice surprise to see our
> livelihood mentioned here!Kathe
[b]Where did you live on 53rd & Hermitage? I knew everybody there and married a girl from that block.[/b]
Thanks for the reply Ted. We moved out of the neighborhood in 1970. Sometime in the 70's they turned it into a dance club or roller rink or something, and it was called the concrete jungle. Do you have any pic's or info from the Chicago & Pulaski area? Do you recall a tavern called Phil's Lounge?
I was in Dr. Jake's Bowling History blog and saw a lot of pictures of bowling alleys that closed along with bowlers themselves, but no G & L bowl Ron. I heard of it but that one of the houses that I didn't bowl in. I bowled mainly on the north side of Chicago.
Grew up in Forest Park and practally lived at the Bowler's Club.
50s and 60s.
Remember pinboys until 1957.
Also, my father bowled on TV at Ridge and Clark.
I believe the name of the place was Faetz Niesen Recreation.
On you tube you can find one or two filmed matches that were on TV
from there.
I personally bowled the final year at the Petersen Classic, in 1993
at 35th and archer.
You can post a note in Dr. Jakes Bowling History blog. Some one might know more about it. They also have a list with pictures of bowling alleys around Chicago as well. I can't recall one there but that was a little before my time.
According to the book --- Oldest Chicago by David Anthony Witter --- the oldest bowling alley is Southport Lanes at 3325 N. Southport Avenue. Opened in 1922, and is the only bowling alley to still employ pin boys.
Several photographs of Chicago bowlers and an interior view of Mussey's Bowling Alleys, located at 100-108 (now 67) West Madison, in 1902; and also, the interior view of J. R. Thompson Bowling Alleys, 1903; Aurora Turner Hall was located at North Milwaukee Avenue and West Huron Street, 1905; the Dexter Park Pavillion 1929.
Photographs from The Chicago Daily News --- 1902 to 1933
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/ichihtml/
Search: "bowling"
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2012 03:21PM by nordsider.
Believe it or not, the alleys in the basement of St. Mary of the Angels are still there. Not being used for bowling, just storage. This was about 10 years ago. I graduated from there in the late 60's. For bowling in a church, folllow this link:
Kchi Wrote:
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> Just like movie theaters, Chicago had at one time
> many small bowling alleys, most of which are now
> gone.
>
> I remember going in the 60s to:
>
> Humboldt Bowl
> Congress Bowl Milwaukee Ave
> Fireside Bowl Fullerton Ave
> Diversey River Bowl Diversey Ave
>
> Believe it or not, I found some newspaper articles
> of bicycle races at Humboldt bowl in the 1930s.
> How this worked, I don't know.
>
> In addition in the 20s and 30s, many Catholic
> parishes had several manual bowling lanes.
> Several years ago, there was a newspaper article
> that was about St. Mary of the Angels on Hermitage
> still having I believe four bowling lanes.
>
> Would appreciate postings identifying locations of
> these long gone bowling alleys or any memories
> people might have bowling at these old fashioned
> bowling alleys or even those with human
> pinsetters.