On a recent visit to the Bridgeville Area Historical Society, I found the volunteers deep in a discussion with a gentleman who was introduced to me as Eric Chabassol. He had just delivered a package of memorabilia from the Bridgeville High School Class of 1953 that became available following the recent death of his mother. Before she was married, I knew her as Laura Pruner, a precocious eighth-grader the year I graduated. Many years later she was a very popular hairdresser; someone whom my mother liked very much. I suspect that old-fashioned hairdressers were as effective therapists for women as old-fashioned barbers were for men.
The package included a 1953 BHS Yearbook, a scrapbook of vintage photographs, and the object of most interest when I arrived, a menu from Pat McBride’s Casino. Its 1953 prices attracted the most attention. Dinners ranged from $1.65 (Fish) to $4.00 (T-Bone steak) and came with “vegetable, French fried potatoes, bread, butter, coffee, and dessert”. Roast turkey was $2.00; filet mignon, $3.00; and Lobster tails, $3.50. For folks on a tight budget, you could settle for sandwiches (thirty-five cents for cheese, seventy-five for turkey). For an extra nickel the bread would be toasted. Ten cents for coffee, fifteen for pie, twenty for ice cream, and a quarter for a coke. After 9:00 pm there was a minimum charge per person of $1.00 on weekdays, $1.50 on weekends. Adult drinks – cocktails (ranging from fifty cents for a Manhattan to $1.50 for a Zombie), wine (thirty cents, choice of nine varietals), beer (Rolling Rock for a quarter, local beers thirty cents, and thirty-five cents for “premiums”), and bonded whiskies (sixty cents).
While I perused the menu and made the appropriate comments, I noticed some neat writing in the upper right-hand corner. “Laura and Denny, Ruthie and Russell, Judy and Nab, Graduation, May 29, 1953”. Class of 1953 – that must be Russell Kovach! And sure enough it was. Russ confirmed that, in addition to
“Laura” being Laura Pruner, “Denny” was Denny Neuman, “Ruthie” was Ruth Maioli, “Judy” was Judy Oelschlager, and “Nab” was Jim Nebrasky – all folks whom I knew. The occasion was the celebration of their graduation, and this group of late teenagers had driven into the North Hills to a prominent roadhouse to get a preview of what adult life had in store for them.
This was indeed a popular thing for high school kids to do in the late ‘40s and “50s, especially after formal dances. It was great fun to pop in to a “roadhouse” late at night and splurge ($1.50 minimum!) on a cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke, pretending we were adults. If we were lucky, the house band was still playing and we could take a few turns on the dance floor. And then hurry home so our overly concerned parents could go to bed.
Pat McBride’s was in Ross Township, at the intersection of Babcock Boulevard and Thompson Run Road. My brother (two years younger than the 53ers) remembers going there late one night after a Junior Prom. I don’t recall McBride’s from my era, but I know my wife and I went there with another couple one St. Patrick’s Day in the late ‘60s to see a remarkable one-man show based on the life of Irish playwright (and heavy drinker) Brendan Behan. During the evening the actor portraying Behan consumed four steins of (make-believe) Guinness stout and appeared to get progressively more inebriated till the end of the show.
Pat McBride opened his new restaurant/night club/roadhouse early in 1938 in a building previously occupied by the Villa Royale and operated it successfully until 1978. The century-old building sat over Thompson Run and was the site of a tragedy in 1973 when a flash flood hit the kitchen and drowned an employee. According to Google Maps the site is currently occupied by Monte Cello’s Pizza Restaurant. “Sic transit gloria”!
I remember a trip to the Balconnades after a Prom; it was located on Route 51, “beyond the cloverleaf”. An ad in the Post-Gazette for the Balconnades that year features “Violet and Daisy, the Siamese Twins” – I don’t believe they were there the night we visited. The “cloverleaf” was the intersection of 51 (Clairton Boulevard) and Curry Hollow Road in Pleasant Hills, also known as Bill Green’s Corner in honor of the well-known night club there. Bill Green’s was famous for its Terraced Gardens dance floor which regularly attracted big name dance orchestras like Buddy Morrow and Ray Anthony. The Mona Lisa Restaurant was also on 51, a couple of miles north at Brownsville Road; my brother remembers a post-Prom visit there in the 1950s. Two miles south of Bill Green’s on 51 was another popular night spot, the Ankara. The Twin Coaches were much farther out on 51.
Shortly after the Greater Pittsburgh Airport went into operation, the Horizon Room opened, high above its main terminal. The combination of the magnificent views in all directions through its glass walls and the booking of nationally known performers made it an instant hit. One of my favorite memories is of seeing Earl Garner there. In 1953 John Bertrera sold his interests in another successful night club, the Vogue Terrace in McKeesport, and opened the Holiday House in Monroeville, which quickly became the most popular night spot in the Pittsburgh area, also featuring the nation’s biggest stars.
It certainly gives me a warm feeling to imagine a pair of couples from my era playing grownup at a fancy nightclub well after midnight. The boys are resplendent in their dinner jackets, complete with boutonnieres. The girls are beautiful in their off-the-shoulder gowns, sporting gardenias that will be carefully refrigerated once they get home, in an effort to preserve them. I don’t remember orchids for formal dresses in those days – Godwin’s probably didn’t stock them. Those were certainly simpler times, and we were simpler people.