jak378 Wrote:
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> Richard Stachowski Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I remember when they televised bowling. That
> was
> > a very popular passtime in the 50's. There
> were
> > bowling allies all over. Anybody know about
> the
> > one on 4801 s. Honore above the tavern. I think
> it
> > had two lanes.
The building was actually for sale about 7-10 years ago. I was going to check it out, but the neighborhood is too rough to even consider going there. Heavy gang activity. As of 5 years ago, the building was still standing.
>
>
> I don't know the name of the alley at that
> location, but I do remember "Whispering Joe
> Wilson" commenting on the televised bowling
> competitions.
>
> We used to bowl at Gage Park Lanes, in the early
> 50's, at 57th and Western. The building is still
> there and for years has been the office for
> succesive cable companies, currently Comcast.
Bleeker's Bowl is very much closed as of about 6 months ago. The owner auctioned off all of the fixtures and the machines. Not sure if the building is still standing, but they are positively history.
Gage Park Bowl? No. The building is no longer standing, as of 1979. It collapsed during (or shortly after) the big blizzard that January. The cable office was built partly on that site, and if I remember right, the other part is on the site of the big car dealership that used to be there.
Turner Bowl---gone---Warren sold the property for condos about 10 years ago.....Sim's Bowl-----bankrupt---bank bought the property...buiding demolished...still vacant property as of 9-14
Habetler----going strong----big remodel 10 years ago...looks great
Belmont/Kimabll house was Bel Bowl torn down maybe 15 years ago
Marina City---now an AMF house with disco lights, big tv's, etc
The original design for the Marina City bowling alley was for 54 lanes. They built it with 38 lanes when they opened Marina City in 1964. They also had an ice rink as well back then.
I remember a bowling alley on the north side of Lincoln Avenue, located somewhere between Belden and Webster, called "Monte Carlo" - if my memory is correct - on the second floor. My father bowled there in the 40s
i remember in the 60s before our picknik my dad would take us on Western ave in a old factory areal. He would pull up to a dock. Nobody was there but a coin machine that took 75 cents/ When my dad put the money in , then you herd a bang and out of the shoot cam a solid block of ice about 3x2...any one remember this?
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I hope you don't mind me posting my childhood bowling alley that no one else mentioned. Hi-Spot Lanes at 6310 W. Grand Avenue, on the Northwest side. Building is still there, but it's a Mexican night club, I believe. I used to bowl here a lot in the 1980s with neighborhood friends, and then play the APB and Gauntlet video games they used to have here towards the back of the alley. Then we used to get pizza at the old Abruzzi next door. You can see both in this photo.
[url=http://bowlinghistory.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/hi-spot-lanes-chicago-bowling-alley/]Hi-Spot Lanes, Chicago, IL Photo[/url]
Interesting about the Abruzzi Restaurant. There was an Abruzzi Restaurant in Rosemont, in the strip mall in the 9500 block of Higgins. They had a prime rib special on Fridays, and we used to go there for lunch quite often. It closed a few years ago, but the owner took over the old Mama Luna's on Lawrence Avenue near 25th in Schiller Park, and calls it Richie's Place now. Wonder if there is any relation between the old Abruzzi and the one in Rosemont.
I'm not sure about the relation of the Abruzzi in Rosemont, but I will say that about 10 years ago or so, the same family owned a hot dog style restaurant that once was at the corner of Bronx & Dempster in Skokie. I walked in there just to try something different, and there were the same guys from the Grand Ave. restaurant behind the counter. I thought it was great because they even remembered me from the old neighborhood.
Somewhat off-topic (well, entirely off-topic I guess), I remember when Johnny Carson would make jokes with not-so-vague references to organized crime, he would often cite a fictional place called "Vinnie Abruzzi's [i]Little Touch of Newark[/i]".