Cleveland

Family Video was in founded in 1978 in Springfield, Illinois as the Video Movie Club. The idea came about when??Midstates Appliance and Supply Company, owned by Charles Hoogland, found itself stuck with an excess of video movies as a result of being a distributor...

Somethings never change.

In 1976, America's largest fast food chain introduced the character of Phil A. O'Fish to help sell their fish sandwiches. In recent years it has become the opposite of an urban legend with many asserting Phil A. O'Fish never existed. He did, but he...

It's one of the world's most famous ice cream bars.

Municipal Light, better known as Muny Light, was founded 1907. A small utility, it eventually became a supplemental supplier of electricity for the city of Cleveland. In the late '70s, it became the center of a legal battle when then mayor??Mayor??Dennis Kucinich??refused to sell...

WRQC was arguably Cleveland's first modern rock radio station. It changed its call letters from WLYT in the spring of 1983 and began playing new wave and alternative rock, exclusively. The big rock station in town played some of this music, but for 92...

The 216 stand up and represent!

Cleveland City Stars played in the United Soccer League (USL) from 2007 through 2009. Their home field was Bedford High School's football stadium.

Forest City Beer and Ale brewed beers at their plant on the corner of Union Avenue and E. 69th Street from 1904 until 1948. The brewery was known for producing??a whole slew of pre and post prohibition brews including Select Pilsner Beer, Waldorf, and...

The Arena Football League was founded in 1986 by Jim Foster, who had gotten the idea from watching a Major Indoor Soccer League game earlier in the decade. After two test games in 1986, the league kicked off in 1987 with four teams travelling...

The juiced ball is gone. Welcome back dead ball era!

Burger Chef was a fast-food hamburger chain that started in Indianapolis in 1958. At its peak in the mid 1970s, it was second only to McDonald's in the number of nationwide locations. In the late '70s, animated spokespersons Burger Chef and Jeff were introduced....

Royal Castle Hamburgers??was founded in 1938 by William Singer in Miami. The chain grew to over 175 locations in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Ohio, and Michigan.??

Steve Crane was an actor turned restaurateur. After opening the highly successful Luau restaurant in Beverly Hills in the late 1940s, he started the Kon Tiki chain in 1958. Most of these were located inside Sheraton hotels.

Charter members of the American Professional Football Association (APFA) in 1920, the Akron Pros were also that circuits first champions. Two years later the APFA became the National Football League. The Pros changed their name to the Indians in 1926 and folded at the...

Woodsy Owl first appeared in 1971 and asked Americans to take better care of the environment by disposing of trash properly. This updated version debuted in the early 1990s and helped inspire a new generation to give a hoot.

The Prize Movie??was a fixture on Cleveland TV for close to two decades. Hosted by popular radio personality John Lanigan, it ran weekday afternoons on Channel 43. During breaks in the afternoon movie, Lanigan would draw a name to find a contestant whom he...

The Euclid Tavern is one of Cleveland's most important and legendary live music venues. Opened in 1909, the "Euc" became a storied venue on the Cleveland music scene. Early in their career, Green Day performed there and got paid $100. Scenes for the 1987...

The Cleveland Stokers played in the United Soccer Association (USA) in 1967 and the North American Soccer League (formed when the USA merged with the National Professional Soccer League) in 1968. They played their home games at Cleveland Stadium. The biggest highlight of their...

The Cleveland Stars joined the American Soccer League in 1972. In 1974, they became the Cleveland Cobras. The team folded after the 1981 season.

The Cleveland Nets were charter members of World Team Tennis in 1974. Their home court was the Richfield Coliseum.??In 1977, they split home matches between Cleveland and Pittsburgh (where the Triangles had just folded) before moving in 1978 to New Orleans where they became...

Remember chowing down on seafood at Captain Frank's Seafood House This memorable eatery sat at the end of the old East 9th Street pier and served up fish, lobster, salads, shellfish baskets, and more from the 1950s through the 1980s.

Beef Corral was a chain of fast food restaurants founded by former Cleveland Browns players and brothers Ed and Dick Modzelewski in the late 1960s. It grew to over a dozen locations in Northeast Ohio in the '70s but went out of business in...

League Park was a baseball stadium built in 1891, and rebuilt in 1910, at the corner of East 66th and Lexington in the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland. Besides the Indians, it was home to the Cleveland Spiders, as well as the Negro American League...

The Front Row Theater opened in July of 1974 on Mayfield Road in Highland Heights, just off I-271. A theater in the round, it featured a rotating stage and seating for 3,200. It closed in 1993.

Sealtest was a regional dairy producer serving the Northeast and Midwest for over 50 years and was noted for it's tasty ice cream. It was acquired by Kraft in 1993.

"Hey Man, is that Freedom Rock?" "Yeah, Man." "Well, turn it up, Man!!!"

Ames Department Stores Inc. was a chain of discount stores??founded in 1958??in Rocky Hill, Connecticut and at its peak operated 700 stores in 20 states. Despite some success in its later years, Ames was plagued by debt and a slow decline in sales and...

Hot Sam Pretzels was a fast food??franchise that first opened in Detroit's Livonia Mall in 1966. With franchised locations also found mostly in shopping malls, it was bought by Mrs. Fields, off of cookies, in 1995 and merged with Pretzel Time. Hot Sam is...

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...