Lakewood Lore

Mahall's retains fame as a fun neighborhood center

Mahall's Twenty Lanes at 13200 Madison Avenue is a piece of Lakewood history that has evolved through the years as a favorite neighborhood center for fun, food and fellowship on a first-name basis.

One of the oldest family-owned businesses in our community, it was founded in 1924 by John K. Mahall, a Slovak by birth.

After migrating from the old country to Pittsburgh and later Wheeling, W.Va., he and his wife Theresa came to Lakewood in 1913, where they first opened a butcher shop and grocery on Quail Street in the city's old Carbon District.

The couple had five children, one of whom--Cornelius (Cornie)--is now board chairman of the bowling/restaurant enterprise.

Theresa died during the flu epidemic in 1918, and afterwards the elder Mahall took another wife, Vincentina. From that second union, there were five more offspring. One of them--Arthur Mahall-- and his wife Joan and their son Thomas, together with Cornie, are active in the business today. At one time or another, all 10 children of the founder helped in its operation.

John Mahall died at 63 in 1946, and wife Vincentina died at 66 in 1965.

When the business opened 66 years ago, its two-story brick building housed six bowling alleys, a poolroom, confectionery store, barbershop and a dance hall and party center upstairs. In 1929, four more lanes were added. Then, with the end of prohibition in the early '30s, a bar and restaurant became part of the complex.

"In 1933, with Mom cooking, a complete blue-plate lunch was only 25 cents," Arthur remembered.

Band leader Sammy Kaye of "Swing and Sway" fame played at Mahall's in 1936 and customers paid five cents a dance to enjoy his music.

"Sammy, a Lakewood native, came up to perform, fresh out of Ohio University, with his first band, known as "The Ohioans," said Cornie. "The dance hall was renamed the Sunset Ballroom for him. Before that, when a full evening of dancing cost only 30 cents, it was called the Roxy Ballroom."

The dance area was converted into 10 more bowling lanes in 1937, and a building next door was bought in 1958 in an expansion move to provide a new wing for more pool tables.

Among the restaurant's patrons are many teachers and administrators from Lakewood High School, as well as a cross-section of Lakewood's City Hall. Mayor Anthony Sinagra and former Mayor William Blackie Sr. frequent the dining room as did late Mayors Amos Kauffman and Frank Celeste. Ohio Governor Richard Celeste, when in town, is often a visitor.

One Lakewood luminary--Mitchell Darling, blind insurance underwriter--has reserved a daily luncheon table at Mahall's for the past 20 years. At it, politics and world problems are threshed out, and humor abounds. Some customers have been known to find seats within earshot of the table solely to eavesdrop for the latest jokes.

Among the regulars at the Darling table are dentist Dr. Thomas Jacobs; jeweler Peter Yeager; the Dzurec brothers, Richard and David, who operate Oberlizi Farms Dairymens, Inc.; accountant Thomas Long; Lakewood Kiwanis Secretary Robert Phinney; landscaper and Canadian transplant Lenard (Les) Wilson, a former goalie for the New York Rangers; and ex-Marine Ernest (Tex) Phillips, who swam nine miles in shark-infested water after heavy cruiser Northhampton took two torpedoes and sank off Guadalcanal one hellish night in 1942.

This article by Dan Chabek appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post April 26, 1990. Reprinted with permission.

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