If you were looking for gambling action in Northeast Ohio in the years leading up to World War II, you had no shortage of opportunities.
The most well-known was the Harvard Club, on the street of the same name in Newburgh Heights. Not even a raid by new Cleveland Public Safety Director Eliot Ness could keep the place out of business. Lake County had the Mounds Club, Geauga County had the Pettibone Club and Trumbull County had the Jungle Inn.
On Jan. 22, 1938, that number was one less, as Cleveland police raided the Monticello Club on Euclid Avenue. The club consisted of three rooms on the second floor of what was then the Lake Theater, including an “ultra-modern cocktail bar,” as The Plain Dealer described it. Police ended up confiscating nine slot machines, for 5-, 10- and 25-cent plays, and an indeterminate amount of gambling tables.
The Monticello Club’s lifespan was a short one, opening in 1937.
In 1939, agents were served after hours in violation of state liquor laws. In testimony at a subsequent hearing, agent J. Cornelius Sullivan was asked if the club provided “amusement.” His response: “Plenty! Men were dancing together and kissing one another!” The club was ordered closed.
The theater became the Esquire in 1948 and was initially a home for WXEL (later WJW) television studios. After WJW’s departure for its current studios on South Marginal Road, the theater fell into disrepair, finally being demolished in 1985. The Lumen apartment building stands on the site today.
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