Hot Spots: Peoria 1940's

                                  HOT  SPOTS:  Peoria 1940’S

 

                                   Norm   Kelly

 

I THINK IT WOULD HAVE BEEN TRULY REMARKABLE TO HAVE LIVED IN Peoria during the time when the Peoria Opera House was the center of all society here in Peoria.   1882-1909    

 

Next:  Peoria Illinois during Prohibition:   1920-1933…it was wild, there was gambling, great music  Soft Drink Parlors and Flappers.  Also booze was as plentiful as water.

 

However…the time I know about even though I was a youth was the ‘War Years’   1941-1945…It was a time when kids like me began to visit downtown and of course that was the center of our world until many of us went off as a draftee or a enlisted man during the Korean Conflict starting in 1950.

 

The four years during WW11 were truly the most exciting in Peoria’s history.  The crowds downtown, the taverns, the entertainment, live of course, the theaters, and the war itself was an incredible time here. 

 

Here are a few of the songs that were everyone’s favorites.  Most of these were 1944…but throughout the war sentimental songs kept this country going.

1944:  Don’t Fence Me in            Acc-cent-uate the positive   I should care

Irresistible You   Long ago and far away.    Put the blame on Maim

Spring will be a little late this year      Tico Tico  

What a lovely way to spend an evening

 

I couldn’t sleep a wink last night   And a book…A tree grows in Brooklyn.

 

We had 242 taverns at the peak of the war…72 restaurants  eleven movie theaters  night clubs strip joints bars taverns saloon dives dumps and a few that were just holes in the wall.  Most of them stayed open 22 hours a day.  The factories worked three shifts and this was a wild, bawdy town.  We had tons of  G.I.s  from Camp Ellis, local soldiers and of course Rosie The Riveter…she was mainly a housewife that now had a job.  Her man was overseas and when she broke lose she was a force to reckon with…I can tell you that for sure.

 

Here are some of the ‘Hot Spots,’ some older folks might be able to tell you a story about.

 

Anchor Club  Bamboo Inn   Pasquels  Faust Club  Orchid Club  Century Club   Tony’s Subway  Big 500  Big 700  Blue Shadow  Cat n’ Fiddle  Toonerville Trolley  Bris Collin’s Place  Horseshoe Club  Donald Duck  1&2  Elite Club  Famous Door   Two-Door  Faust First St    Glee Club  Happy Hour  Kett Watson Club   Bridge Villa  IT Club  Jig Saw   Liberty Club  Merchant’s Club   Mike and Mike   Palace Club  *  Parkway Inn*  Red Onion*   Penn’s Tavern   Peoria Tap Room  Rainbow Grill  Saint Elmo’s  Sazarac  Sheridan Inn   Sportsman on Fulton  The Spot  Talk O Th

Town    Turf   Western Tap White Swan Tavern  Ye Olde Tavern 

Empire Room  Elbo Room  Crystal tap…AND   a hundred or so more…

 

On September 3, 1946 Mayor Triebel ordered ALL gambling stopped in the city of Peoria…and it WAS!  Of course the slots stuck around but hell…that was never ‘gambling’ not Like we had it in Peoria.  Among all those taverns we had 9 flat out casinos  and  the busiest Downtown in America.

 

Norm Kelly is a local Historian, author and lecturer .