Akron

Cotton Club Bottling and Canning was founded in 1902 as Miller and Becker Bottlers on Cleveland's east side. It was an iconic soft drink maker and bottler for generations. In addition to making popular verities such as Swiss Creme Soda, Cotton Club was also...

It was the jingle you couldn't escape if you watched TV in Cleveland in the early '80s. Channel 43 went on the air in 1968, eight months after the debut of WKBF, Channel 61. Both were independent stations, but only one survived the '70s....

Standard Oil of Ohio, better known as Sohio, was an American oil company, and the earliest component of the original Standard Oil company founded by John D. Rockefeller. Its gas stations dotted the state for generations. In neighboring states it was known as

Founded in 1967 in Columbus, Gold Circle??was a discount department store chain??that grew to 76 locations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Western New York State. The chain was dissolved in 1988.

One of Cleveland's all-time most beloved sports franchises, and indeed one of America's most popular soccer teams ever, was the Force. They were a charter member of the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) in 1978 and played 10 seasons before folding in 1988. READ...

Sandy's was a hamburger chain founded in Peoria, Illinois in 1956 by four businessmen who originally planned to open a McDonald's franchise. After a disagreement with McDonald's head Ray Kroc, the four men struck out on their own, naming their burger joint Sandy's. The...

Remember kids, Electricity is your friend, but he can kill you. Check out the sticker!

Did you survive the Blizzard of '78? Known throughout the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes region as the Great Blizzard of 1978 and the White Hurricane, the storm blasted the area from Wednesday, January 25 through Friday, January 27, 1978. The cities of Milwaukee,...

Penny for your thoughts! Buy 12 CDs or tapes (or LPs), for a penny and buy just four more at "regular club prices." Not many did that last bit.

In the 1980s, it was the battle cry of the British Phonograph Industry (BPI), later championed by similar organizations around the world. Little did they know that a much scarier beast was lurking on the horizon.

What could be more convenient? Drive up to the little booth, drop off your film, come back the next day and see your pictures. Mail them to friends and family! Established in the early 1960s in Southern California, Fotomat grew to over 4,000 locations...

Hills was a discount retail department store that was founded in Youngstown, Ohio in 1957. It started as full-fledged department store before moving into the discount arena some years after its founding. In the late '80s it bought a number of stores out of...

Tape World was a mall-based chain of music stores owned by Trans World Entertainment, operators of Record Town, Coconuts, and FYE among others. While the name suggested emphasis on the one format, it did offer CDs, briefly, before being retired by Trans World.

Zayre and was a chain of discount department stores that operated throughout the U.S. from the 1960s through the 1980s. After selling the Zayre locations to competitor Ames, the company focused on its TJ Maxx storeds as well as sibling retailers Marshalls, Home Goods,...

Rink's was founded in Hamilton, Ohio, between Cincinnati and Dayton, in 1951 by Hyman Ullner. It was later acquired by Gray Drug and later Cook United, owners of Uncle Bill's. The last Rink's store closed in 1987.

Media Play was an attempt by The Musicland Group to compete with so-called big box retailers such as electronics stores Best Buy and Circuit City, who sold CDs at near cost to lure customers in. In addition to music, Media Play also carried books,...

Bring your bounty back to the Buckeye State.

In the early 1950s, between 20,000-60,000 people a year were becoming afflicted with polio. Jonas Salk and his team at the University of Pittsburgh developed a polio vaccine in 1952. By 1955 a campaign to vaccinate children in the U.S. was launched. ALbert Sabin...

"If there's something strange, in the Buckeye State. Who you gonna call?"

It's your move! Look great in this chess and Ohio-inspired design from Old School Shirts!