- [Jay Drennan] Dinah Shore brought her husband, George Montgomery.

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans brought their horse, Trigger.

And one year, Jimmy Stewart brought his brand new wife to spend part of their honeymoon in Akron.

Yes, every year, the stars came out for Akron's All-American Soap Box Derby.

And every year, thousands of us gather downtown to enjoy the pomp and parades of this annual celebration of American ingenuity.

World War II saw Akron's men going into the armed forces.

So our city's women headed into the factories, building everything from fighter planes to tank traps.

As young husbands picked up machine guns, young wives picked up riveting guns.

Boy, things sure looked different there for a few years.

Remember the first time you laid eyes on the gigantic Goodyear Airdock?

The massive structure was so large it actually had its own weather conditions.

Many of us remember being at the Airdock when it was so humid it felt like rain was falling.

Where else but Akron would you need an umbrella when you're inside?

These are just some of the stories that have helped give Akron its rich and unique character.

And there are dozens of others.

So sit back now, as we visit some of the places and events that have shaped our city and ourselves.

Join us now as we remember some of your favorite Akron memories.

(gentle music) - When I was a little girl, my mother and I used to get all dressed up to come downtown Akron.

And we would walk up and we'd get on the Brown Street bus.

And my mother always loved hats and she always loved white gloves.

And so, those were the things that we always made sure that we had with us.

We got on the Brown Street bus and we came downtown Akron, and we would go by the big silos.

And it was so exciting to see those big silos.

And my mother would say, that's where they make Quaker Puffed Rice and Quaker Puffed Wheat, because those were two of my favorite cereals.

And at the time, being a little girl, however old I was, as only a child could think, that they were making all of those for me.

And I was so thrilled to think that was just a special place that they were making my breakfast cereal.

And it was just wonderful to experience that and to see it.

- [Jay] The Quaker Oats factory and grain mills were a fixture in downtown Akron.

Who can forget that wonderful aroma of roasted grain drifting over the city?

- In fact, my most vivid memories of the Quaker Oats was the smell of oats.

And I enjoyed walking down the street smelling those oats.

And those tall structures, which were round, and I thought that was very, it really impressed me back in the day.

- Quaker Oats dominated the area.

It had the mill down off of Howard Street and it had the mill up on Mills Street.

And they had tunnels underground connecting the two, passing the grain.

And you'd hear the guns.

Puffed wheat and puffed rice were shot from guns.

What they were, were these machines that looked like a mechanism, but looked like a big cement mixer.

And they would actually go, boom!

And make puffed wheat and puffed rice.

And you could see it on Bowery Street.

When it was real hot, the workers would open these big doors and you could see the rows of machines, and the booming of the cereal in there.

And if you were lucky, there was another window, so that they'd open sometimes.

And you could actually see the assembly line where the boxes were put together, glued, and the cereal dumped in 'em.

So that was another good memory.

- One of the delights of my youth was to be taken on a tour of the Quaker Oats factories.

"Shot from cannon," that was the advertisement.

So of course, we kids wanted to see the cannons.

So they take us into this big room, and here is a long, long row of big closed metal hoppers.

And every now and then, a hopper would give kind of a burp.

Well, that was the cannon that the grain was being exploded and aerated by compressed air, you know?

Not by being literally fired out of cannons.

Major disappointment of my young life.

But what did impress me though was the army of sweepers they had pushing brooms all the time, cleaning up the grain dust, which is highly explosive.

- [Jay] Today, the Quaker Oats factory is gone, but the old grain elevators have been preserved and transformed into a shopping, dining, and hotel complex called Quaker Square.

- [Marilyn] When I got married, my husband and I spent our first night in the hotel that's there now.

So it was really memorable.

- [Jay] The old silos remain, but the Quaker Oats building was torn down years ago.

So was one of Akron's most remembered structures, The Flatiron Building.

This triangular-shaped building sat at the corner where Howard Street came into Main Street.

The building was patterned after the famous Flatiron Building in New York City.

The Flatiron was full of offices and shops.

And on the lower level was one of Akron's favorite restaurants, Kraker's Heidelberg.

Just across the street was The Hatterie, a men's hat shop that was as much an institution in Akron as the Flatiron Building itself.

- They had all kind of hats.

Any kind of hats you wanted, The Hatterie had.

And they would clean hats and all that.

In those days, we thought, we were kids, we thought we were hot shots.

Patent leather shoes I would buy.

Spats!

(chuckling) And I went in there to buy a hat and I was just shining shoes as kid at that time.

Didn't have much money, I waited a month before I could buy a nice decent hat.

- It was a time when everybody wore a hat.

Fine Irish lad, he was, President Kennedy.

But he's the one that killed the felt hat business.

'Cause he never wore a hat.

- Bill was well-known.

Bill, The Hatterie, and all these hats were in there.

And it was a time when I was just too small but I could see myself wearing one of those big sophisticated feather hats that they had in there.

And it was so impressive to go in there and see that store.

- But The Hatterie was a place, they would come from all over.

From all over the state of Ohio.

In those days, you didn't travel much.

But they would come to The Hatterie and buy hats.

They had everything.

(gentle piano music) - One of the sparkling gems on Main Street was the old Mayflower Hotel.

Built in 1931, this stunning example of art deco architecture was seen by most Akronites as the finest, most luxurious hotel in the city - Mayflower.

When we graduated from high school, we had a dance, our graduating class.

And that was the first time I had ever been in the Mayflower.

It was a beautiful hotel, beautiful building.

- When I was in high school, we used to have our proms there.

And I just remember, as you entered the hotel and turned to the right, you would go and see a series of steps that just felt like you were entering one of the most exquisite ballrooms that you'd ever know in your life.

Of course, they had the revolving globe up in the ceiling, you know.

And then it sparkled for us, you know.

And we spent many hours dancing there.

And banquets, and things like that.

And it was a lovely hotel, it really was.

- That was my baby 'cause I spent 17 years there.

Now, Mayflower, I don't know how they opened a hotel like that at the height of Depression.

Of course you could eat there.

You could have your clothes dry cleaned, anything.

You didn't have to go outside, there were things what was right there.

And you could live in that hotel for weeks and weeks.

For a long time without leaving it.

- Oh, that was a special occasion.

That was probably the first time in my life I ever went to a hotel.

I was 19 years old.

So I don't remember ever staying in a hotel before.

Oh, that was to me, was absolute luxury to go there.

To be able to we went up of course, I keep saying elevators.

They were just such a, you have to use the stairs.

You're not at home (inaudible) up and down the steps.

So that was a big thing.

And it was just luxury.

Everything was matched.

You know, you had beautiful bedspreads and draperies.

Rooms had a phone near it so that you could have room service.

And just pick up that magic phone and get whatever you wanted.

It was wonderful.

- And in it, like in those days, all the hotels had a bar and a room for, they had an orchestra.

And dance floor and everything, all hotels did in those days.

And the Mayflower did too.

- And there were stage shows, nightclub shows with dancers and so on.

And there was also, it was called the Hawaiian Room at one time.

And it had its own rain and big storm.

And at one point during the evening or Sunday afternoon if you were dining there, a huge torrent of rain came down.

And there was thunder and lightning.

It was really exciting to be there.

- [Jay] The Mayflower Hotel holds a special place in the hearts of many local residents, but it also played a role in the founding of an important national organization.

It was here in this phone booth, in the hotel's lobby, that a man known only as Bill W. made a phone call that changed his life and the lives of countless others after him.

That phone call led to the creation of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1934.

A decade later, the Mayflower was in the national spotlight again.

When President Harry S. Truman stopped by while campaigning for reelection in October of 1948.

- President Truman came up the stairs and he would walk straight as a board.

And he was fast, boy, those stairs were high.

And we had young photographers, the men right after him getting stories and all that.

And they couldn't keep up with him.

I'm telling you, this guy was fast.

Boy, he was a hell of a man that Truman.

And they loved him.

I can't say how it was a beautiful, beautiful hotel.

And I keep saying the same thing.

I can't understand how they ever built the hotel at the height of the Depression.

Well, part of my life was in Mayflower Hotel.

(gentle music) - To me, when I was little, it couldn't have been any better than New York City.

Every store was occupied and every retailer was thriving.

I miss that.

I miss the variety that we had.

Just the excitement of being down here with a lot of people.

- On Saturday, you couldn't get on the sidewalk.

I mean it was so many people.

- We would have, what they call, window shopping.

And so that was recreation for a family.

They would take the kids down and go window shopping.

- [Frances] On your right, you're seeing the Polsky Building ahead.

And on the left, the O'Neil Building.

Akron's two biggest department stores that moved down from that area where Yeager's remained for many years.

You'll notice, on the Polsky Building particularly, the beautiful art deco effects there.

The decorations on that terra cotta are really marvelous.

And there's some of the same on the Mayflower Hotel.

The architecture of the Polsky Building was the same one as the architect for Sax Fifth Avenue in New York.

And we really felt we were right up there with New York when those buildings were built.

- Downtown Akron is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of excitement and pleasure.

You had O'Neill's and Polsky's.

And a department store that departed before them, called Yeager's.

You had five-and-tens, which were genuine five-and-tens then.

Neisner's, Scott's, Woolworth, Kresge's.

You had Federman's at the corner of Main and Mill.

- My mother always shopped at Federman's.

It had the wooden floors, the bins that you shopped out of.

Very large wooden bins.

- And I remember having my very first perm at Federman's.

Sitting in this chair and I was sure I was being electrocuted.

Because it was a machine that they put all these wires on your head.

I sat there in the chair and I remember being petrified to looking out the window and watching the cars go up Howard Street.

Thinking, I hope I live to walk out of here.

That was when, of course, everybody had to look like Shirley Temple.

- Now, Yeager's was a nice store.

I loved the way they had their clothes displayed.

So neat and nice, you know.

No, Yeager's was a nice store.

- It was a family owned operation.

And had very elegant clothing and a very fine reputation for things such as its linens and household goods.

And very fancy clothing, very upper crest, best clothing.

But because it was in between Main street and Howard, it also had a basement store that was off of Howard street.

Where there were cheap hats and a lot of good bargains, it was nice.

So it was a nice mixed store and people did like it.

- And then, when you looked across North Howard Street, which was a through street at the time, you found Schumacher's.

And Schumacher's was very interesting to go in, especially for us kids.

Because they had tall vats of coffee beans.

And you used to draw off your coffee beans and then you'd ground it right there.

They also had fresh spices and pecans, and things like that.

- My fondest memories of Akron ar at Christmas time.

It would start on Thanksgiving day.

And on Thanksgiving day after dinner, we would come downtown to O'Neil's to see the windows.

And these windows were quite spectacular.

And they would attract hundreds of people Thanksgiving evening.

- [Marilyn] Oh, every Christmas my whole family would come down.

We had a lot of relatives that lived in Canton.

And they would all come into Akron right around Thanksgiving time, so that we could go down and be one of the first ones to see all the lights.

All the Christmas decorations at O'Neil's and Polsky's.

Like it would make any difference that we were the first ones to see it or the last ones.

Because it didn't change the window.

But it was just something that we all looked forward to so much.

You would press your nose right up against the window.

And just wanted to make an imprint in your brain about the delightful things that were singing and dancing and playing.

- Our tradition was to come down, see Santa Claus.

Then, since the Georgian Room was a little expensive, which was at O'Neil's, we would go across the street to Polsky's.

And eat at the Akron Room.

I always had a reuben.

And this is when I was... Oh, this was before I was 10 years old.

Of course, before you're 10, or even five or six, I believe you would ask your mom why there were so many Santa Claus's around town.

And my mom told me that, yes, there are a lot of Santa Claus's around town but the real one is it O'Neil's.

That solved that problem.

So we would go to O'Neil's to see the real Santa Claus and they had what they called a Winter Wonderland.

And it was just incredible.

A lot of animation, and beauty and color.

And then Santa Claus had a big throne that he sat on.

And, of course, elves would take the pictures.

And now everything pales in comparison to that.

In fact, last Christmas, my wife and I were in London and there was a department store there that is famous for its Christmas window displays.

And we went and looked at these and said to each other, uh big deal.

We were both thinking O'Neil's.

When we saw these, they were not as good.

And if that gives you some idea as to how spectacular this was.

(gentle music and background crowd noise) - O'Neil's, at that time, of course, you know technology has changed lots now of what was years ago.

But they had the tube system when we were there.

And everything was very personal And we would have to write our transactions.

Then after we would write the transactions we would have to put them in a tube and send it up on a cable.

It would go to the accounting department.

It would go to, for layaways.

If it was cash, it would go to the department that took care of the cash.

And that's how the transactions were made.

- Cashier would take your money or your charge card and put them in this little cylinder.

And stick it in the tube, and it would be sucked away!

And vanish.

And at sometime later it would, (sucking noise) appear again.

(laughing) - Remnant days were very memorable.

And I think everybody in Akron looked forward to coming downtown to Remnant days.

And I can't tell you what time of the year they were.

I can't tell you how big of sale it was.

But I just know, as a child, that it must've been a pretty big sale.

Because my mother would always say, "now, when we get in, you have to grab the things first."

"And then we'll think about them."

Because if you hesitated, you lost out.

You just had to hold onto the things, think about what you wanted, and then put back what you didn't want.

But we always bought the most wonderful things.

- Even if you didn't have a lot of money, you could wait for a sale at O'Neil's and find it at an affordable price.

And get service that you can't match anywhere today.

For instance, I needed a suit.

I must've been nine or 10 years old, I'm not sure.

But I was trying it on.

They called a tailor, a tailor!

And he came up, fitted the suit, made phone calls, fussed over me, like I was royalty.

And I was just from a middle income family here buying a suit that was on sale.

And I got service that was remarkable.

And you can't find that anywhere today.

And it was just the way they fussed over me.

It was just unbelievable.

- I remember when I used to go and look and long for the beautiful furniture.

Just wishful thinking and plotting and planning.

When I had my own home, how I would like to arrange things.

- [Jay] And O'Neil's had a unique way of displaying its furniture.

At one time, the department store erected a two-story house inside its building.

Just to show off its home furnishings.

(gentle piano music) - [Steve] O'Neil's goes on and on.

There's just so much there that you can't find anywhere today.

- [Jay] Like Polsky's, the O'Neil Company closed its doors for good in the late 1970's.

Unable to compete with the lure of suburban shopping malls.

And in 1997, demolition began on the rear two thirds of the former O'Neil's building.

To make way for new offices and a parking deck.

The building remodeling is part of a new era of urban redevelopment in Akron.

But it has stirred mixed emotions in many people who have fond memories of the old Neil's department store.

Some people even came downtown and watched the demolition with tears in their eyes.

- I came down and stood on the street and cried.

I felt so, even thinking about it makes me want to cry.

Because that just meant so much to me.

And I don't think anybody would understand how you can get so emotional.

(chuckling) Your life was there, you know?

My grandmother went there.

My grandfather went down there.

You can't gather that feeling back again.

(upbeat music) - I remember when you came into Akron, it said, "Welcome to Akron, Rubber Capital of the World."

And those signs left, I wasn't too old when those signs were taken down.

But we were "Rubber Capital of the World".

The "Rubber City".

And I remember hearing that frequently.

- Well it was the "Rubber Capital of the World" then.

Like Goodrich, Goodyear, Firestone, in general, were all going full blast.

- Akron was a good place to come because people they'd come from all over the world.

Because if you had a good back and was willing to work, you could get a job.

- My father worked at Firestone.

My grandfather worked at Goodrich.

My grandfather came from Italy as an immigrant.

He was in New Jersey and came here because he heard there would be work here in the factories.

And he worked here his whole life.

- I can't think offhand of any other modest sized industrial city.

That was the headquarters, and the chief production area, and the research and development locus of four of the world's five largest companies.

Working in a particular area.

So, when one speaks about rubber and Akron, you really have to say, rubber was Akron and Akron was rubber to an extraordinary degree.

Old Akronites, of course, focus an enormous amount of affection upon the the heyday of the rubber industry.

The city was busy.

It was exciting in some ways.

It was also dirty and smelly beyond belief on occasion.

It was an overgrown mill town, really.

- It was a distinctive smell that came.

That was an Akron smell.

And we were all so glad when they said they were gonna do away with that smell.

And now, we wish it were back because we missed it after it was gone.

It was so much a part of your life.

- [Jay] The rubber industry permeated Akron social life in addition to its working life.

The rubber companies had recreation halls where they would hold special events for their employees.

Like dances and parties.

- There was a time when we would go there Christmas and they would give away Christmas presents too.

And we looked forward to it on Christmas.

About a week before Christmas, we'd go there and have a lot of fun.

And they would give candy and certain items out to the kids and to the Goodyear employees.

And then they had a Goodyear theater.

They even had a Goodyear basketball team at the time.

- [Jay] And outside the rubber plants, Akronites could enjoy a cold beer on a night out with friends at a bar called, The Rubber Room.

It was part of the old Portage Hotel.

And inside the bar, everything that could have been made out of rubber was made out of rubber.

From barstools to ashtrays, to rubberized drapes on the windows.

Even Akron's high society got in on the act.

In the years after World War II, an annual dance called, The Rubber Ball, attracted the city's social elite.

Including the rubber barons and their associates.

- And the idea was for those attending to a dress in costumes that were made of rubber or a rubberized fabrics.

And so, some very elaborate, but I'm sure some very hot and uncomfortable, God-awful (laughing) costumes existed.

- [Jay] But perhaps some of the fondest memories Akronites have of the rubber industry, center around the Goodyear Airdock.

Built in 1929, the Airdock was the largest building in the world without internal supports.

At almost 1,200 feet long, 325 feet wide, and 211 feet high, the Airdock was larger than 10 football fields.

In fact, it was so enormous it had its own weather conditions inside.

- [Marilyn] My husband was employed at Goodyear Aerospace and he worked in the dock at the time before the war.

And so, we got into the Airdock.

And of course it was so fascinating to think that it would rain inside the Airdock.

The humidity would create actual, you would think it was raining at certain times.

And then, of course, we saw the dirigible in there.

We saw it inside and we saw it pulled out.

Because that was an event that you always had to go see.

- Goodyear built the helium dirigibles for the United States Navy.

An airship called, the Akron, (crowds cheering) was completed in 1931.

And christened by Mrs. Herbert Hoover.

The Macon airship was launched two years later.

- I remember as a little kid, maybe eight years old, nine years old.

Being awakened along with my sisters by my parents.

To go outside and watch these huge ships, the Akron and the Macon, go over at night.

They had twin rows of lights along their underbody.

And various other things were up there flashing away and so forth.

And you could just see these great silver ships of the sky lighted up.

And could hear a sort of a soft "thrum thrum thrum" of the engines.

So that's very, very exciting for a kid.

- [Jay] But dirigibles weren't the only aircraft built at the Goodyear Airdock.

When the winds of World War II began to blow, Goodyear transformed its operation to turn out aircraft the American troops needed to win the war.

(lively music) - On Sundays, my sister and I would do the dishes and we were given a dollar.

And we could come downtown and go to the movies.

And have a snack.

And on December 7th, we were at Loews Theater.

And we came out and downtown Akron was in utter chaos when we came out.

People were crying and the streets were just jammed with people.

And my sister and I were frightened, we had to wait for the bus.

And, of course, there was such a jam there were no buses.

And it was just frightening.

Because we didn't know, people were saying, "war."

And we didn't know what war was.

We'd heard of of World War I, but you know, it didn't impact on us .

And, when we got home (bombs crashing) my mother basically had to sit down and explain to us what had happened.

And, of course, Hawaii was some place that we'd never heard of before.

It was a startling day in our life.

- [Jay] when World War II broke out, the Akron industrial complex geared up to produce the tools of warfare.

In addition to tires, workers now turned out treads for tanks.

Self-sealing fuel tanks and any aircraft guns.

Perhaps the most dramatic course of action was taken by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.

- They started from scratch, just from this little unit of the Zeppelin Company, what was called, Goodyear Aircraft.

And within 18 months they had 33,000 people building aircraft in Akron.

Most of these people had to, of course, be recruited.

They had to be trained.

And the results were pretty spectacular.

(cheerful music) - [Goodyear Film Announcer] The new buildings were quickly filled with machinery and equipment.

This one to make lanes and tail surfaces for the big Martin bombers.

The steel workers had no more than moved out when crowds of new employees began to gather at the gate.

Restaurants and hospitals, parking lots and cigarette machines, went in.

And in no time, there were thousands of people working.

Akron quickly got used to the novelty of girls in industry.

- I was Rosie the Riveter.

And at that time, all the young men were sent off to war.

And so that left women to take over the factory work.

And so, out of Goodyear Aircraft, they contracted to build Corsairs, the fighter plane.

So they hired women to be Rosie the Riveters.

And we had to climb scaffolds in order to get to the different parts of the airplane.

I worked on the trailing edge.

Which was part of the wing in the airplane.

So you had to crawl up there and get through a lot of places.

It was scary now, since I think of it, but I did it.

- [Goodyear Film Narrator] Now here is a 19 year old girl running a band saw expertly.

As if she's been doing it all her life.

The metal she is cutting is now part of a fighting airplane.

The adaptability of American women is one of the most striking things that came out of this war.

- I remember that the most frightening prospect for this male-oriented society was women bus drivers.

They were just sure all heck was going to break loose when women started driving those buses.

Well, the buses were big and awkward in those days.

They didn't have power steering.

And they just had to be woman-handheld around sharp curves.

But, as you would guess, of course, the ladies did very well indeed.

- We had a mixed emotion type of a thing.

We felt as though we should do that because we were needed.

And it was our duty to do it.

At the same time, we were scared to death.

I was.

But we felt as though that we were doing something for the war.

(gentle piano music) - These are the Glendale Steps that you see above me here.

They were built by the WPA in about 1937.

And there's some beautiful, beautiful stonework here.

They go up the hill to Walnut Street.

But otherwise, I guess they have no reason for being.

A group called, Progress Through Preservation, has been working to fix up the steps.

Clear them of weeds and trees.

And do some of the planting.

And what you're seeing is lemon lilies here.

- [Jay] About 300 yards to the north of Akron's stairway to nowhere, is the city's most famous hill.

The Bates Street Hill.

- Bates Street has an odd history in Akron.

It certainly shouldn't be famous, but it's known as Cadillac Hill.

It ran behind the old Cadillac agency.

And everybody used that steep, steep hill, with almost a 25% grade, to try out their cars in the old days.

To see if they could get up it in second.

And of course, later, they'd even see if maybe they could do it in first.

You can see how steep it is going down this (lively music) long hill at such a terrific angle.

And then you can also probably see the raised bricks there.

That are intended to slow traffic.

But I guess if anybody got a good start, they wouldn't be much good for them.

- My best friend in high school, who was a car nut, could do remarkable things with cars.

Loaded up his old, I think it was a Ford Model A, and tried to take this load of guys up the hill.

He couldn't make it in high gear, or second gear, or low gear.

So he turned around and backed up the hill.

I don't remember whether Paul ever came back down or not.

But it was kind of a hairy experience to go down that road.

Especially in the cars which we had in the 30's and 40's.

They weren't quite as secure-feeling, perhaps, as those you're driving today.

(laughing) (dramatic lively music) - [Jay] Once upon a time, before the days of VCRs and cable television, we got dressed up, took the bus downtown and escaped into the magic of the movies.

Instead of being crammed into a mall multiplex, we were greeted by marble staircases, dazzling architecture and a friendly usher in a red uniform who showed us to our seats.

The old Akron movie palaces were glittering temples to Hollywood.

And no theater was more grand than Loews.

Now known as the Civic Theater.

- As a child, I was in awe of this theater.

I mean, the staircase.

It was like you were princess going in there.

It was just everything was so big and so beautiful.

- [Frances] You really can't get much of an idea of the Civic Theater, the old Loews, from just a street shot of that narrow opening.

You have to imagine that just beyond it is a long corridor and then an immense hall that's trapped out in medieval armor and armaments, flags.

And it's simply gorgeous.

All of that is kind of an arcade over the canal back to the theater, which is way at the back.

And it was a great theater, too.

And still is.

It has stars that twinkle in the sky.

And vapor clouds up there in the dark sky.

And Moorish castles all over the walls.

- And one of the most outstanding features was Wild Oscar.

It was a sing-along.

And he would go into the organ pit and would play songs.

And they would put the words on the screen.

And everybody would sing along with Wild Oscar at the organ.

And that was one feature that was really, really outstanding.

It was attractive, you know, and people would really go to the Loews theater.

Now that was missed.

That was missed.

- My fondest memory (nostalgic music) was around Christmas time.

The Civic Theater, which was Loews at the time, always had a Christmas party.

And we would go to bed early and get up at three o'clock in the morning.

Get downtown.

Stand in line from about 4:30 until eight.

In freezing weather, sometimes below zero.

Waiting to get in to see the free show they had from about eight o'clock until maybe ten.

Comedies and Little Rascals, Our Gang Comedy.

Things like that.

And everyone received a bag of candy.

We had hard candies and maybe an apple and an orange.

And that was one thing that we looked forward to every year.

That was my fondest memory of downtown Akron, as a child.

- [Marilyn] It holds a lot of memories.

And I think living in Akron and knowing that Akron treasures that theater.

And they're doing everything that they can to preserve it and keep it, makes me feel very proud of our community.

- [Jay] Loews has received a new lease on life as the Civic Theater.

But the other great downtown movie palaces are now just memories.

This is the site of the old Colonial Theater.

That began as a a vaudeville house and later showed movies.

The Colonial boasted opera boxes, Gothic columns, and a set of narrow steep balconies.

The Orpheum once sat here at the corner of Main and Market Streets.

It was one of Akron's oldest movie theaters.

The Orpheum featured an arcade with little shops and even a dancing studio.

Yes, the old downtown theaters were home to more than just movies.

- [Frances] Right here in this spot used to be the Palace Theater entrance.

The theater itself was up on High Street.

And then the little Boizum building dating back to 1903 was next door.

They just went down fairly recently.

The Palace was great.

That's where we got all the big bands.

That's where I heard Tommy Dorsey with his new singer, Frank Sinatra.

And, of course, I was a bobby-soxer then and we were supposed to scream, so we all screamed.

- My sister and I found out that Frank Sinatra was coming.

So we wanted to be the first ones there, so we could sit right in front of the microphone.

So we were the first one in line.

I think we were there at eight o'clock in the morning.

Waiting for when they opened at probably eleven.

I took a little sack lunch and sat there.

And watched every performance and other movies all day long.

Until that night, when they closed.

And we probably saw him, I don't know, whether it was two or three performances.

- When you see Tommy Dorsey with Frank Sinatra sitting in a chair in front of him, and getting up and singing, it was just fantastic.

- And it's, like I said, it's the good old days.

Those were the days, my friends.

A lot of it's gone, but I have the memories.

(lively upbeat music) - [Mary] Oh, that was the biggest thing that happened in Akron was the Soap Box Derby.

That was a frenzy.

- [Floyd] The Soap Box Derby was really top-notch.

It was known nationwide, of course.

- [Derby Film Announcer] What the epic Olympic games were to ancient Greece.

What the glamorous Circus Maximus was to traditional Rome.

What the jousting tournament was to medieval Europe.

The annual All-American Soap Box Derby is to the youth of America.

(triumphant music) - They took over the town.

They had banners all over all the roads.

If somebody would come in from Cleveland, Youngstown, they would furnish him a car.

You know, for each champion.

It was just a great thing.

- As the cars would come bring the participants in from the airport, they always had a siren police patrol to bring them in.

- [Derby Film Announcer] The place, Akron, Ohio.

The time, the morning of August 16th.

The excitement, the 1936 All-American and International Soap Box Derby.

Today, Akron is a city filled 'till overflowing.

- Parades went on every day.

Every day somebody come in.

You could hear quite a distance out of the city.

You could hear the sirens going and the whistles and everything, you know.

Because of the cops leading them in.

- And they would stop at the Mayflower Hotel.

And the high school bands would be there playing.

And majorettes kissing them.

The boys would come in with sirens from the police cruisers going.

- [George] I used to go down.

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of Akronites just to watch.

It was fun to watch them come in.

- [Doris] I remember mostly the parade.

And the youngsters coming in from all over the world.

I thought that was great.

- [Jay] In 1946, Delores Rice marched in the parade on the hill at Derby Downs with a Bath High School band.

- In that hill, you only got to practice once.

We marched down the hill that the racers go down.

That's very, very hard.

(chuckling) Strut down that and hill.

It was much steeper than what we had thought.

But we did well and nobody fell.

And we were very proud.

I think everybody from Bath went to the Soapbox Derby that year to see the band play.

And we had long sleeve, very heavy uniforms.

And of course, all band uniforms in those years were a hundred percent wool.

All bands wore a hundred percent wool.

And the kids just about died that year, that was hot.

- And it was big.

The top stars in the country came.

Chevrolet was the sponsor of it in the early 30's, and late 30's and 40's.

You know, everybody, there was Dinah Shore.

Everybody came every year for that event.

- [Jay] Dinah shore, George Montgomery, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, even Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.

Once a year, Akronites welcome Hollywood's biggest stars to the Soapbox Derby.

- Of course, Rock Hudson was here for the Soapbox Derby.

And we tried to get an autograph of him.

That was another thing that was a big thing to do at that time was to get autographs.

And we just raced down the back alley to try to get to Rock Hudson.

But he never came out.

- I remember one year, Patty Duke was here.

Well, to me, you couldn't have topped Patty Duke.

I thought she was the greatest star in the world.

Even though she really wasn't, but I thought she was.

- [Jay] Patty Duke may not have been one of Hollywood's top stars but James Stewart certainly was.

And he came to Akron for the Soapbox Derby six times.

Even Richard Nixon got swept up in Derby fever.

He came to Akron in 1959 when he was vice-president.

He shared the celebrity spotlight that year with Art Carney and Jimmy Dean.

- I remember once it was even mentioned on Bewitched, do you remember that?

There was a whole episode about the Soapbox Derby in Akron.

And we were very proud of it.

Very proud of it.

- [Jay] The Soapbox Derby episode of Bewitched aired in 1966.

That same year, the show stars worked their magic in Akron.

Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Agnes Moorehead wowed the Derby crowds.

(lively jazz music) (twinkling sound) (bell ringing) (upbeat music) - I enjoyed watching it.

And it was a big event because they'd bring show business people in or sports people in as celebrities.

And they'd have, what they called, the Oil Can Race.

And they'd have three cars that were junked up and made to look funny and hokey.

And the three celebrities would get in them and go down.

And you could tell they were having fun.

Because it wasn't a time when they had to have any affectation or pretend to be on stage or anything.

They were just having fun.

So it was a good time for all.

- [Derby Film Announcer] Maybe you'd like a ride down the track.

All right, let's go!

(busy crowd background noise) - [Marilyn] And it was just great to sit up there and watch those kids in the competition.

Such good, healthy times for them to build all these.

And their ideas were just so fantastic.

- [Derby Film Announcer] Hey, looks like we got off that one just in time.

Guess we'd better stick to the sidelines.

- [Mariyn] Something that Akron's very proud of because we engineered something like this for the children to have so much good fun and so many good times.

- [Derby Film Announcer] The public spirited men and women in every community may well be proud of their contributions to this spirit of youthful genius.

That truly represents the real, All-American.

(lively music) - [Jay] Back in the old days, summer fun at Akron meant a visit to Summit Beach Park.

- [Frances] Summit Beach Park was the place for the summer, let me tell you.

You didn't go there once.

You went there at least 10 times.

- [Jay] Summit Beach Park was Coney Island, Akron style.

The wonderful smells of popcorn and cotton candy perfumed the air.

As we screamed with delight on the wooden rollercoaster, marveled at animal trainer, Clyde Beatty's, lions and elephants.

Or splashed about in the magnificent crystal pool.

- And then they had a dance hall.

That was another thing that you really enjoyed.

It was super that that was where that was a real night out to go to the dance hall down there.

And then the windows would open into just a terrace type thing.

Open onto Summit Lake and the water.

And you stood there and just enjoyed the breeze coming off of the water.

Well, it just so happened sometimes when you didn't have the money to go dancing.

My future husband and I, at that time he was my future husband, owned a canoe.

So we used to get onto Summit Lake.

Portage through and get down there behind the dance hall.

And sit there and listen to the music.

And believe me, that was a great evening spent too.

Really relaxing.

- Akron, at one time, per capita, probably had the finest restaurants in the country.

And people just flocked to this town to eat.

Garden Grill was just one of those places you'd go to eat.

It was a great restaurant.

It was right across the Loews Theater, which is Civic today.

Yeah, that was a very good restaurant.

- It was the place to go.

The restaurants weren't on the outskirts of town as much as they are today.

And that was the restaurant that everybody wanted to go to, because it was just something that was so elegant.

Really, was the word for it.

That's all, 'cause you felt like when you went there, you knew you were paying for service and you were getting it.

And getting very excellent food too.

- I made the waffles.

And we had to keep everything so clean.

And I scrubbed the waffle iron 'till it just shone.

Well, if you scrub it that well, you take the oil out of it.

And every time I made a waffle, it would stick.

So as soon I'd get an order for a waffle I'd almost faint.

And I put in a waffle and it would stick.

And then I'd be scrubbing again.

And Al, a fella at the soda fountain, would come over and say, "Did it stick, Polly?"

"Did your waffle stick?"

(laughing) So that was the harassment I used to get.

- [Jay] Right down the street from O'Neil's, was Stone's Grill.

Famous for its huge corn beef sandwiches.

- And that was a big bar.

Just big, long bar.

And they had some booths.

In fact, when I was working there, at O'Neil's, they would give you a 50 cent coupon if you stayed and worked the night over six o'clock.

They would give you a little dinner check for 50 cents.

You could have a couple hamburgers, a milkshake, pie.

Maybe just go in and have a Coke or something.

Just to get some of that money back.

- [Jay] O'Neil's itself had a beautifully ornate restaurant right in the store.

Many Akronites fondly recall the Georgian Room.

With its huge column in the center of the restaurant and statues built inside the wall.

Polsky's Tea Room was also popular with downtown shoppers.

A nice place to take a break from the sales or to meet friends for lunch.

Then there was Kaase's.

- My favorite was Kaase's that was on Mill Street.

They'd have a waitress who went around with a basket of hot rolls.

I'll never forget that.

Because, you know, you don't get that today.

All-you-can-eat hot rolls.

- And that was a delightful place to eat.

We often would go in there and have their cream chicken in a basket.

I can still almost taste that.

That's how memorable that was.

It was really a delightful treat.

- We had a street where all the Black activities were on, Howard Street.

- They had clubs.

They had restaurants.

And they had barbershops.

And different things which would help them in the community.

And then there was the Green Turtle Restaurant.

It was so delicious food.

It was on the corner of Federal and Howard.

And then there was Hodo's.

Mr. Hodo had a restaurant, which was a very nice restaurant.

- [Jay] As automobiles became more affordable for families.

Akronites were quick to embrace the new restaurant sensation, called the drive-in.

- Well, I think Akron could fairly claim to be one of the, if not originators of drive-in restaurants, certainly one of the communities that took them to its heart in a big way early on.

- You had a '50 Chevy.

People remember those cars back when.

We had the bubble skirts and the portables.

And the door would fly open.

We had a stick shift.

People remember that, of course, it was back when.

And we'd pick up girls.

And we go out and have a hamburger.

- [Jay] Folks would jump in their cars and gather at the Western, Skyway, and of course, Swensons.

- I always loved the place for their hamburgers.

I consider myself quite a specialist in hamburgers.

Very knowledgeable.

And I still think Swensons are perhaps the best hamburgers I ever tasted.

They still make excellent ones.

Although it's under different management.

One of the things that always appealed to me about Swensons was that their courier boys hustle.

They'd run.

And I just love to see people work at what they're working at.

It really gets me when I see someone dragging around and moping around on a job.

So even to this day, I'm just pleased as punch to go to a Swensons, because these guys run up before you get stopped and take your order.

And they run the order in, they run it back.

It's wonderful.

(chuckling) (joyful orchestral music) - [Jay] If fond memories of growing up in Akron were pure gold, we'd all be millionaires.

You know it's been said that part of defining who we are is remembering where we've been.

Glimpses of yesterday's Akron, remind us of what is most important to us even today.

Our families.

Working together with our neighbors.

The sense of pride we feel in ourselves and in our community.

There is an awful lot to celebrate about today's Akron.

But there will always be a special place in our hearts for the days gone by and for our Akron memories.

- I can say that out of all the places that I've ever been.

And I've been many places since I retired 24 years ago.

I've traveled almost all over the world.

There's no place, like Akron, Ohio.

(swelling orchestral music) (upbeat music)