Abstract

Virginia Tanno McMonagle, owner of Rickey C. Tanno Jewelers in the arcade of the 925 Euclid Building at 925 Euclid Avenue. Born in 1918, she recalls weekly trips downtown with her father to watch the 1923-24 construction of the building, which was originally built for Union Trust Bank and later anchored by Union Commerce Bank and then Huntington National Bank. She relates the story of the origin and evolution of the business that her future husband Rickey Tanno started in the nearby Swetland Building in 1929 and discusses memories of meeting him, arcade businesses, notable customers (including celebrities), V-J Day in 1945, the business’s move from the Swetland Building to the Union Commerce Building in 1949, changes that contributed to the decline of downtown retailing, and her hopes for the building's future.

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Interviewee

McMonagle, Virginia Tanno (interviewee)

Interviewer

Souther, J. Mark (interviewer)

Project

Project Team

Date

8-1-2016

Document Type

Oral History

Duration

59 minutes

Transcript

Mark Souther [00:00:04] Today is August 1, 2016. My name is Mark Souther from Cleveland State University, and I am here in the old Union Commerce building, also known in recent years as the Huntington Building and now known as 925 Euclid, with Mrs. Virginia Tanno. Mrs. Tanno, thank you very much for agreeing to be interviewed today.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:00:35] My name is McMonagle. Virginia McMonagle. Virginia Tanno McMonagle.

Mark Souther [00:00:41] I am so sorry. They told me wrong on this.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:00:45] Yeah. Virginia Tanno McMonagle.

Mark Souther [00:00:49] Okay, I’m just going to start. Today is August 1, 2016. My name is Mark Souther from Cleveland State University. I am at the 925 Euclid Building, which in recent years has been known as the Huntington Building, and before that, originally it was known as the Union Trust Building and then the Union Commerce Building. I’m with Virginia Tanno McMonagle, the owner of Rickey C. Tanno Jewelers in the arcade on the lower level of the building. Thank you very much for agreeing to be recorded this morning.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:01:34] Well, thank you for being here. I’m enjoying this.

Mark Souther [00:01:38] Thank you. Could you start by telling me when and where you were born?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:01:43] Yes, I was born in Cleveland. I can remember the address and the street. It was 2323 East 123rd Street in Kinsman. Kinsman. Kinsman neighborhood.

Mark Souther [00:02:06] Was this the Mount Pleasant, this was just east of Mount Pleasant?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:02:15] That’s right.

Mark Souther [00:02:19] What were your parents– Where were your parents from?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:02:22] Well, that’s very interesting. My father is of the Bohemian extract. His name was Yaroslav Dvorak. My mother was of German extract. Her name was Jeanette Dittenhaver. My dad was an insurance agent. And of course, in those days, my mom was a home mother.

Mark Souther [00:02:49] Did you have any siblings?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:02:51] I do have siblings, yes. I have one brother and two sisters.

Mark Souther [00:02:58] And do they– Are they still living?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:03:01] They are still living and very well.

Mark Souther [00:03:04] Are they in the Cleveland area as well?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:03:06] And in the Cleveland area? My brother is Jerry. He’s in the insurance business. My older sister is Laverne, who is retired, and my sister Betty, who is retired.

Mark Souther [00:03:21] Can you tell me a little bit about the neighborhood, Kinsman neighborhood, when you were growing up?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:03:26] Well, I wasn’t there too long. I was about five years old when my father bought a home in Cleveland Heights. So my memories of the Kinsman neighborhood are very slight.

Mark Souther [00:03:43] What school did you go to when you were in Cleveland? College?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:03:47] When we moved to Cleveland Heights, I went to Caledonia, which is an elementary school. Caledonia was a Scottish name for Hilltop, so the area was known as Hilltop.

Mark Souther [00:04:01] What street did you live on?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:04:02] I lived on Nelaview and the house number was 1035. And I went by recently and it’s still there. My father bought the home in 1923 when the street was just a gravel road. And that is where we all grew up.

Mark Souther [00:04:25] What can you describe the house it was?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:04:28] Yes. Interesting enough, it was a Dutch Colonial style with large pillars in the front. A very cozy type house.

Mark Souther [00:04:42] Did you go to Heights High?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:04:44] Beg pardon?

Mark Souther [00:04:44] Did you go to Cleveland Heights High School?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:04:46] No, I didn’t. Cleveland Heights was one of our rivals. I went to Shaw High School, the Cardinals of Shaw High School. And every year we played Heights High for the annual grudge football game.

Mark Souther [00:05:02] Who won?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:05:03] Several times we won. Just as many times we lost.

Mark Souther [00:05:10] So tell me about your first memory of going downtown.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:05:16] Well, I graduated from Shaw High School in 1936, which was a period just before the beginning of World War One. It was an unsettling era. Some people went off to college, some didn’t. Unfortunately, my family did not have the money to send me to college. And my dad said, you’ve graduated. Get a job. So I did. I went out and tried to get a job, which was not easy. Some of my classmates became elevator operators at Halle’s. They were making $6 a week. I got a job with an insurance company, typing, and I made $5 a week. And I worked five and a half days a week.

Mark Souther [00:06:19] Was this downtown?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:06:20] This was downtown. It was in the old Swetland Building at 1010 Euclid Avenue. And the company I worked for was the Columbus Mutual Life Insurance Company, located on the 8th floor of the old Swetland Building.

Mark Souther [00:06:38] Prior to this time, do you remember any trips downtown, such as perhaps with your mother to shop or any other trips?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:06:46] I remember very vaguely the period in 1923 when the building we are now situated in was being constructed. This building, incidentally, before it was constructed, is situated on the corner of 9th and Euclid, which was the home of the then Lennox Building, which was a five-story multipurpose building. Stores and apartments and various retails on the first floor. This building was built as far back as I could remember, people talking about it in around 1880, 1890, and it was demolished in 1921 or ’22 for the construction of the Union Trust Bank, which was going to occupy this site. This building at that time was destined to be a 21-story building, multipurpose, with offices, some very small amount of retail, but basically banking. At that time, it was destined to be the sixth largest office building in the United States, housing the largest bank lobby in the world. I remember my father piling us in his 1920 old Oakland car and bringing us downtown to watch the construction of this building. That was a treat. That was a weekly outing for us. If we behaved, we got to come down. So I watched the construction of this building from about 1923 on, never thinking that one day I was going to be looking out of the window over in the Swetland Building and seeing this beautiful edifice.

Mark Souther [00:09:08] You mentioned the Swetland Building. From what I’ve read, the store, your store, started in the Swetland Building. Can you tell me how that, take me back to the beginning, before the beginnings of that scene?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:09:19] Yes, this is interesting. I would come into work every morning about 8:00 get in the elevator, and about the same time a gentleman would come in, get on the elevator and get off on the third floor. And he was a very handsome gentleman. And I said to the elevator operator one day, who is the gentleman who gets off on the third floor? And he said, oh, that’s Mr. Tanno. He owns the jewelry store on the third floor. So I went up to my desk and I thought, and devious woman as I am, I took a stapler and I hit my watch and broke the crystal. And I took the elevator down to the third floor, walked in the jewelry store and I said, do you replace crystals? And he said, yes, we do. I left my crystal, my watch there for the crystal to be replaced. I went down and picked it up a day later, cost me $1. I went back. Then next morning, I came in at the elevator and of course, I knew this gentleman. We nodded and this went on for about two or three weeks. And I took the stapler machine and busted another crystal and came back down to the jewelry shop and asked to have the crystal replaced. And at that point he said, my, you are rough on crystals, aren’t you? And at this point it cost me $2 and I went back up and did my work. And about a month later, I decided I’d go back down. I went down the third time with a broken crystal, and it was about 10:00 in the morning, good time for coffee break. And the gentleman said to me, would you like to have a cup of coffee? And that was how that I met Rickey Tanno and we became friends and eventually I married him. [laughs]

Mark Souther [00:11:36] When did you get married?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:11:38] We were married in 1945. I knew him from about 1939 on, but in between we had a war and I, he was single and listed as a one and could be called into service any day. So that kind of prolonged our romance.

Mark Souther [00:12:05] But he was not.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:12:08] He was not. No, being a jeweler and a watchmaker, he worked at Thompson Products, repairing bombsights. He was a required necessity, so he did not go into service.

Mark Souther [00:12:25] I see. And what facility? Where was he stationed with the Thompson Products plant. Which one was this?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:12:34] It was Thompson Products. I believe that their original building was far out on the east side. I don’t really recall, like, around 200 Street, somewhere around there. And years later, they moved down to 55th and Euclid. 55th and Carnegie. Mm hmm.

Mark Souther [00:12:59] I see. So during the war, can you remember- Well, let me rephrase that. When the war ended, you were coming downtown a lot, of course. So what was the mood like? Do you remember the-?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:13:15] Yes. The day that the war ended, Rickey and I were at a theater, at the old Hippodrome Theater. And suddenly the lights came on, and a person jumped up on the stage. And he said, The war is over! And everybody stood up. And they shouted and they cheered and they cried and they hugged each other. And we went out on Euclid Avenue. The avenue was crowded. Streetcars were parked in the middle of the street. Some people were crawling on top of them. It was a joyous time. And, I will never forget and I hope never have to see it again.

Mark Souther [00:13:56] Yes. A couple of other questions come to mind about the period of the 1920s and ’30s. You mentioned that. That you and Rickey Tanno were dating, I assume, from 1939 to ’45, when you got married.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:14:17] Yes.

Mark Souther [00:14:20] Were you aware from maybe conversations that you had with him about how his business did through the Great Depression? Because I read that it opened in 1929. It’s not the best time to open a business.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:14:34] Well, yes. Now, Rickey, we talked briefly about the Lennox Building that was on this. When Rickey was 14 years old, his father also told him to get a job, just like my father did. And Rickey came down and interviewed with a gentleman by the name of Freddy Pauley, who was a jeweler. And he was located on the third floor of the old Lennox Building. This is where Rickey started business. He started as an apprentice, sweeping floors. Well, sweeping floors in a jewelry shop is a little different than sweeping floors in your home or on the sidewalk, because jewelers sitting at the bench would drop their filings of gold and silver and sometimes stones on the floor. So every night you swept up the floor and went through the findings to see if there were any precious metals. If there were precious metals, they were put in a pot, and they were refined, recycled, as we would say today. But they were refined, and that is how that Rickey started. In 1929, he opened up his own little shop in the then Swetland Building on the third floor. And that’s where he began his business.

Mark Souther [00:16:04] Did he ever talk about how his business made it through the Great Depression?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:16:09] Yes. The first year he was in business was in 1929, the beginning of the Great Depression. And we always say that Rick sure was gutsy because he loved his business and he wanted to make a go of it. The first year, his annual sales amounted to $2,000, which isn’t a lot of money, but it was enough for him living at home to survive, to try and build his business. And from there on, it was all up.

Mark Souther [00:16:48] So the business grew through the Depression years?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:16:51] Yes, it did.

Mark Souther [00:16:54] By the time the move– Well, the move to this building was in 1949, I read. Can you tell me about that period maybe leading up to it, and what led to the decision to move?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:17:06] Well, as they said, Rickey and I were married in 1945, and that’s when I started to work for him, with him. We had one lovely little daughter. Her name was Kathleen. And so I didn’t come to work every day. I stayed at home. And gradually she had an employee who took my place. We were started to progress. We were getting bigger. And one day, one of his customers by the name of Heck Crawford, who was with Squire Sanders & Dempsey in this building, came in the store and he said, Rickey, I hear that the jeweler down in the arcade is going to lose his lease. Why didn’t you go on over and see what you could do? You really could do well in there. So Rickey hustled over and talked to the building management and leased the store that we are in now. The jeweler that occupied this business was Steve Hayes, and it was established business. So it was like moving from one address to another into an established business. In 1949 in October, we moved here, and we’re here today. Unfortunately, Rickey is not. We lost Rickey in 1973.

Mark Souther [00:19:01] In the early years that you were here, can you remember, I’m sure you can, a number of the businesses that were around you? Maybe describe some of the places there and the people.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:19:10] Oh, yes, yes, yes. We had, some of the largest businesses in Cleveland were here. The Cleveland Stock Exchange was here. Squire Sanders & Dempsey, Jones Day, Baker Hostetler, ever so many. Mather, Pickands Mather, Prescott Ball & Turben, the Greater Cleveland Growth Association. Just everybody who was somebody. In the arcade, the Canadian Pacific Railroad had their ticket office. We just had so many large corporations, a Diamond Shamrock, Cleveland Cliffs, all housed in this building.

Mark Souther [00:20:02] How about in the arcade itself? What was it like?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:20:05] In the arcade we had, of course, there was Rickey Tanno Jewelry. There was the Canadian Pacific Railway. There was the, I’m trying to think of the name. The Berwyn sisters had the eateries here. There was a beautiful dining room. There was a cocktail lounge. There was a snack shop. We had a ladies’ dress shop. We had for service, we had Shick Shaver repair service here. There was a. There was a substation of the post office. There was a smoke shop. There was the Burroughs office supplies. All of this was located in this arcade.

Mark Souther [00:20:58] How long was the arcade full of occupants?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:21:05] It started– I would say that about ten years ago it started going down, and one by one, the tenants in the building needed more space. Some built their own buildings and moved on. Some wanted to be closer to transportation, such as highways and airports. The progress of business kept getting larger and larger and the space becoming more empty. Through the tenants who were in this building, we acquired many corporate accounts, and that has been our biggest part of business.

Mark Souther [00:22:01] So corporate accounts- [crosstalk]?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:22:02] Corporate accounts, yes, corporate accounts who were interested in awards, incentives, progress in their milestones in their own building, where they would give awards for certain things. That’s what was basically known as corporate.

Mark Souther [00:22:27] I want to come back to some of the more recent things a little bit later, but I don’t want to lose sight of some of the earlier questions that I had. And I want to go back before the building again, or before your time in the building, for just a bit to ask some questions about downtown Cleveland in the 1920s and ’30s. Do you remember going to any of the old hotels that were downtown? Can you describe-?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:22:54] Yes. Yes, there was. At the corner of 6th and Superior was the Hollenden Hotel, which was the hotel in the area. Yes, they had beautiful meeting rooms. They had a large restaurant. Some of the big-name bands played there. Kay Kaiser with his Band of Musical Knowledge, played there. Perry Como used to perform there. Russ Columbo sang there. Yes, there were many big names, and it was really something to go to the Hollenden Hotel and have dinner and dance.

Mark Souther [00:23:40] What was the– What was considered the pretty eminent hotel at the time? Was it the Hollenden or somewhere else?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:23:48] I really don’t know whether there was anyone else there or not. All I remember in my days was the Hollenden. There was also the Statler Hotel at the corner of Euclid and 12th Street, which was a very plush place to go. Sammy Watkins used to play there. Liberace performed there. It was just a nice place to go to be seen at.

Mark Souther [00:24:17] What was the most memorable visit to one of these hotels that you had, personally?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:24:21] I think one of the most memorable ones, one I will never forget, is, I was in my early twenties, and they used to have what, on Saturday afternoons, what they called tea dance, and the orchestra would play and people would go over there for cocktails and dance. And I remember going with some of my friends over to the Statler at the tea dance and ordering my first cocktail, which was called an Orange Blossom. And it was nothing more than ginger ale with orange in it. [laughs] It was fun. I think it cost 50 cents. And when I was making $5 a week, 50 cents was a big expenditure.

Mark Souther [00:25:20] No doubt. What were some of the restaurants that you remember? And you can tell me what time period, too. And you can tell me about some of the food, what the food was like, and what memorable meals you had over the years. What do you remember?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:25:35] Well, right next to this building was a Clark’s restaurant, and they were well-known for their cafeterias. There was a cafeteria on East 9th Street known as the Forum cafeteria, where you could go and get a nice lunch for 25 or 35 cents, which would include meat and a vegetable, a beverage, perhaps bread and butter, and you would leave five cents for a tip. There was the Mills Brothers cafeteria. And there was the Higbee department store, which was later built at the public square, had a beautiful restaurant called the Silver Grille on their top floor. And this was a real treat to go to the Silver Grille and have your lunch. There were several other nice restaurants, Stouffer’s. And then on Chester, there was a very wonderful fish house called Rohr’s, Fischer-Rohr’s. And that, of course, no longer exists. There’s a parking garage in that space now.

Mark Souther [00:27:05] The Lennox Building that preceded the Union Trust Building that you mentioned, is that same building that had, at one point in time, there was a cyclorama in there, a circular building where they had kind of like at Gettysburg? Was that circular part of the building still in the middle?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:27:29] Not to my knowledge. Not to my knowledge.

Mark Souther [00:27:33] Okay, they may have redone the interior.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:27:38] I’m sure. I’m sure. lot of things have been redone.

Mark Souther [00:27:42] I didn’t know if it had survived.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:27:43] Well, the circular building, the one that I know is the Cleveland Trust building that is directly across the street. Would that be the one you’re referring to?

Mark Souther [00:27:54] No. This is an interior space that was circular. The building was not a circle, but there was a circular space in the middle that may have been remodeled before.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:28:03] Uh huh. It could be. Directly across the street from the Union Trust Building was the Cleveland Trust, which is known as the Rotunda. And of course, it has gone through reconstruction. Today it is the home of Heinen Brothers food market.

Mark Souther [00:28:28] When the Union Commerce Building opened, some have talked about the plans to have a dirigible dock on top. Can you comment on that? Anything you know about that?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:28:37] Yes, yes, yes. There was– There was a port built at the top for the landing of a zeppelin. And they had seriously planned it. In fact, I think the port is still up at the top, on the top roof. But the current with wind currents from the lake were so strong that scientists decided this was not a good idea and it was abandoned. But yes, it was built with a zeppelin port.

Mark Souther [00:29:08] Do you know if it was ever tested with an actual dirigible?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:29:11] I don’t know. I don’t know. I think I was too young at that time to remember. But I do remember my dad talking about it and saying, Some fool thinks he’s going to land a zeppelin on that roof. [laughs] It never happened.

Mark Souther [00:29:30] In World War Two – this is something I read, and I wonder if you can comment on it – I’ve read that the Union Commerce Building during World War Two had a lot of federal offices. Do you recall that?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:29:43] Yes, we did. We had many of the federal offices here. There was– The Navy had an office here. The Army had a recruitment spot here. They had several. Yes. Yes, they did. Later on, and this is not a lot of people’s liking, but Internal Revenue had an office here.

Mark Souther [00:30:07] So after the war, if we can move to the middle years of the 20th century, of course, your business has just made the move, and during that time period, I know that there was beginning to be some interest in building a subway downtown, and I wonder if you remember any discussion of that subway plan.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:30:31] I do. Herbert Strawbridge, who was president of the Higbee Company, chaired that particular committee. There were several people, the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, several of the large ones, and it was supposed to bring a lot of people downtown, but it obviously never took off. We had many financial crises that the building suffered in the meantime, and it just never took off. We also had somebody who wanted to build and extend the Burkefront [Burke Lakefront] Airport out into the lake, and that just never happened.

Mark Souther [00:31:19] I think that was later that we’re talking about now. But in the 1950s, one, there was a subway plan, another one I wanted to ask about was the Hilton Hotel on the Mall. Do you remember any discussion of the Hilton hotel they were going to build, actually on the Mall in 1959?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:31:37] Yes, there were many discussions that came up about people wanting to expand and build on the Mall, but there again, that just never happened. Things that were more important were buildings like the Justice Center and the convention centers. Those things seem to be more important, I think.

Mark Souther [00:32:07] How much of your business in, say, the 1950s and 1960s, was from individuals who maybe worked downtown and wanted to buy jewelry as opposed to the corporate accounts that you mentioned?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:32:21] Well, much of our business, I would say the greater percent, was people who did work downtown. This building was fully occupied. We did a lot of business with the individuals and the corporations that occupied this building. Rickey Tanno was very active with the Knights of Columbus, and he did a lot of fraternal business with both the Columbus, Knights of Columbus, and the Masons. We did business with generations as a first generation, second generation. I am now working on third generations. So, yes, we did– We had a lot of individuals.

Mark Souther [00:33:11] Do you remember particularly famous people coming to town and coming to this building, perhaps even coming into your store?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:33:18] Yes. Bob Hope. We sold Bob Hope in an engagement ring. We sold Joe DiMaggio a wedding band for his first fiancée was, her name was Dorothy hall. She was a starlet. Major Bowes, at his original Amateur Hour, performed here. And we made a gold tooth for one of his performers. We had many people who had been here for years.

Mark Souther [00:33:58] Did you meet Bob Hope personally?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:34:01] Yes, I did. I met Bob Hope. In fact, his brother lived in Cleveland. His niece was married to a young man that we sold them their engagement and wedding bands. Yes, we’ve had many people.

Mark Souther [00:34:22] And do you remember Joe DiMaggio?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:34:26] Who?

Mark Souther [00:34:26] Joe DiMaggio?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:34:27] Oh, I don’t remember Joe DiMaggio. There is a picture back on the wall of Joe DiMaggio and Rickey Tanno when the New York Yankees played their first game with the Cleveland Indians in the then-new Cleveland Stadium. It was designated as an Italian Day. And Frankie Crosetti and Joe DiMaggio represented the New York Yankees. And Rickey Tanno presented them with watches. And I think the picture is still in the back there.

Mark Souther [00:35:09] We’ll have to look after we’re done. What was maybe the most memorable, maybe one of these that you’ve mentioned is the most memorable, do you have a most memorable sale or most memorable item that your store made for someone or sold to someone? What would that be?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:35:36] Well, the one that I remember so much is a gentleman, one of our customers, who had an office in this building, and he had just decided to open up his own business. He was with Squire Sanders, and he was going to break away and open up his own legal office. His name was Donald Hornbeck. I remember one night my phone rang and it was about 2:00 in the morning, and I said, Hello? And the person on the other said, Hello, this is Donald Hornbeck. Have you got a pencil handy? I said, sure. 2:00 in the morning, I always do. What’s up, Don? He said, I want twelve Omega watches engraved and at my office at noon. I said, yes, sir. Wait a minute, I’ll get a pencil. So I got a pencil, and he rattled off the names of twelve of his employees. I said, I don’t have twelve watches, all alike. He said, they don’t have to be alike. I just want them engraved and gift wrapped in my office. He hung up, and I woke up, Rickey. And I said, Rickey, we gotta go to work. And we did. We came downtown. We came to work. We pulled out twelve watches. We engraved them. I gift wrapped them and had them upstairs in his office at noon. [laughs] That is my most memorable.

Mark Souther [00:37:27] Do you remember about when that was?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:37:31] That would have been in, I think, 19, around 1965, 1966, something in that era.

Mark Souther [00:37:44] What was your sense of downtown in the 1960s? Did you see it as the same as it had been, or did you see any differences?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:38:00] Oh, I love downtown. It’ll never be what it was. I hope it will be, but I don’t think it will. It was vibrant. The stores were jammed. People were happy. There wasn’t any animosity. It was just a wonderful place to be and a wonderful place to work. A wonderful place to grow in.

Mark Souther [00:38:28] One reason I asked about the 1960s is I’ve read that there was a growing concern in the second half of the 1960s with crime downtown. Does that resonate with you?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:38:40] Well, I don’t think it was at a peak. There’s always crime. There’s always some type of crime. I don’t really think it was beyond reason. We’ve always had a good police department. We’ve always had very able police chiefs. Our mayors have always been on top of things. I think crime goes with growth, perhaps, and maybe lack of education, but it hasn’t been, it hasn’t been a major force.

Mark Souther [00:39:25] Was there concern about, from people coming from the Heights for example, do you recall concerns about going downtown after either the Hough riots or the Glenville shootout?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:39:38] Did that have any impact on business? Yes, there were– People did not feel comfortable, that is, women did not feel comfortable coming downtown alone. Business downtown was still operating, but we did not have as many shoppers coming downtown. At about this time, shopping centers were beginning to be built, and it was much easier for women to drive to a store and not have to pay for parking and not have to worry about a purse snatcher. And I think that perhaps that may have had something to do with the demise of downtown business.

Mark Souther [00:40:28] Do you remember people– I’m trying to picture with the- Parking obviously costs something whether you were at a meter or you were in a garage or a lot. Did you ever hear of people just driving around while someone else got out and shopped and got back in their car? Was there much of that sort of thing?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:40:50] No. No, I think that would probably have been an individual experience. When we first started driving, we lived in Cleveland Heights, and we would drive downtown. We used to park in a parking lot at the corner of East 13th and Euclid, and it was fifty cents a day, and it gradually started to get more and more and more. And in the 1950s, this garage over here was started to build, and you could park there monthly. But I can see where it was convenient for women to not come downtown and easier to run to a shopping center, hop into the store and get what you want and leave and not have to pay for parking.

Mark Souther [00:41:42] Did that shape your business to any great degree?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:41:45] No, no, not too much, because we did, most of our business was with a professional person, and if it was with the lady of the family, she would come down with her husband. No, it did not, to answer your question.

Mark Souther [00:42:04] I see. Yeah, makes a lot of sense. A couple of the questions I wanted to ask, too, about the 1960s were about memories, not so much about the store, although maybe you were downtown on those days, but the assassination of John F. Kennedy, for example. Where were you that day?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:42:26] Yeah. Yes, I remember that day. My husband and I were in the store waiting on a customer when the girl who cashiered over in the little restaurant across the hall ran in and said, They shot the president! And everybody just stood there and looked, and we couldn’t believe. And then at that point, everyone ran out, and there was pandemonium outside, and that was my memory of it.

Mark Souther [00:43:00] What did you do?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:43:02] We closed the store and went home.

Mark Souther [00:43:09] And I guess a lot of people probably wanted to get to a TV.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:43:13] Yes.

Mark Souther [00:43:16] What about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:43:21] Well, I don’t remember that too well, other than somebody coming in to tell us about it. And of course, we were all shocked that something like this would happen, but it did.

Mark Souther [00:43:43] Do you remember – in the 19, this would have been in the probably the ’50s, into the early ’60s, actually, probably early ’60s – discussions about what to do in the event of nuclear attack downtown?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:43:57] If we were what?

Mark Souther [00:43:58] A nuclear attack, discussions about fallout shelters, that sort of thing?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:44:03] Well, almost everybody had meetings. Almost all businesses in buildings would have security meetings and talked about where the exits would be and where you would get in your car and where you would drive to go, what highway you would use, where you would go. All I was interested in is going home and being with my kids. [laughs]

Mark Souther [00:44:34] Was there a fallout shelter in this building?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:44:38] Not that I recall. Not that I recall.

Mark Souther [00:44:47] Are there any other stories that you could tell me about the business from the time it moved here, say, the first twenty years or so, that we don’t want to leave behind, that I may not have asked?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:45:00] Well, the first twenty years, of course, business was struggling. We struggled to build it. With the help of good banks, we were able to keep going. We carried good lines. We carried large lines. We had Rolex, we had Omega, we had diamond lines, we had Waterford crystal. You know, big lines that were known. And that all helped.

Mark Souther [00:45:39] Who were the biggest competitors that you had, or do you consider-?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:45:43] I don’t consider other jewelers as competitors. I consider them as contemporaries, that we don’t cut each other’s throats, that we work together to try and keep this business on an up scale. One of my very closest friends was Ralph Beattie at Beattie’s. We’ve always been good friends. You’re familiar, of course, with Little John Rinaldi. Little John is out in Solon, and there isn’t a time that he’s downtown that he doesn’t stop in to say hello. No, they are not competitors. They are contemporaries.

Mark Souther [00:46:32] I was going to ask about Beattie’s. One of our early interviews with this project was with Ralph Beattie.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:46:38] Uh huh. He’s charming.

Mark Souther [00:46:40] Eleven or twelve years ago.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:46:42] Isn’t he a wonderful person? Yes.

Mark Souther [00:46:45] And I didn’t do the interview. This was a student who did this interview, so I never got a chance to meet him. Oh, and the business closed soon after.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:46:53] Uh huh.

Mark Souther [00:46:53] I think 20, it was during the Euclid Corridor project.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:46:56] Yes. Yes. Well, for a while, he would have still come downtown to have his hair cut. And every time he came downtown, he’d stop in. He once said to me, and it was near the holiday, he said, oh, I miss the holiday time downtown. I said, Ralph, do you know how to tie bows? I need a gift wrapper. [laughs] So.

Mark Souther [00:47:21] What other businesses? You’ve mentioned some, the names of places here. And you mentioned, for example, the Berwyn sisters. Can you tell me more about them?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:47:32] Well, the Berwyn sisters were obviously two maiden ladies who operated the restaurant here and the coffee shop across the hall. But they were very proper ladies. The tables always had a white tablecloths. They always wore a white apron when they waited on you. And they had that beautiful talent of remembering names and also people’s favorites, so that if you came, they would greet you by your given name and seat you in perhaps a favorite spot and tell you about your favorite dish that was on a special. They were just wonderful people. As the years progressed, their health failed and they were forced to retire. And a gentleman by the name of Eddie Aftoora came in and continued the business. He renamed it the Guv’Nor’s Pub. And he was here until a few years ago when the decline in the building forced him to retire.

Mark Souther [00:48:51] You mentioned also the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. That one surprised me a little bit.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:48:57] Yes. Yes.

Mark Souther [00:48:59] I would have thought a railway company, perhaps, but I wouldn’t have thought of that one.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:49:02] Yes, the Canadian Pacific Railway occupied the space down the arcade, and it was a ticket office, and their regular offices. As the travel in trains declined, they closed and their space was occupied by Fraser Mortgage, who was there for years. Years. Until they retired.

Mark Souther [00:49:32] Do you remember, speaking of the Canadian Pacific Railway, a bit later, perhaps, how long– Let me back up. How long was Canadian Pacific there?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:49:46] They were here in the building when we moved over, which was in 1949, and they may have been here another five or six years when they closed out and Fraser Mortgage came in.

Mark Souther [00:50:03] I see. That timeline doesn’t surprise me, knowing that rail travel really declined in the ’50s.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:50:09] Oh, yes,

Mark Souther [00:50:10] Passenger travel.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:50:11] Uh huh.

Mark Souther [00:50:12] What about air travel? I know that maybe not necessarily in this building, but I’ve seen that along Euclid Avenue up toward Playhouse Square, suddenly it seems like a lot of ticket offices opened. Do you remember anything about that?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:50:25] Yes, we had American Airlines in this business, building. They had occupied an office in the front of the building on the Euclid Avenue entrance, and they were here for years.

Mark Souther [00:50:40] Any other businesses to speak of in the building that we haven’t mentioned?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:50:46] Well, of course, the building was full of businesses.

Mark Souther [00:50:49] I mean in the arcade.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:50:50] Oh, in the arcade. Yes. We used to have a shop here called Ina’s. That’s spelled I-N-A-apostrophe-S. Ina’s shop for ladies, where they sold silk stockings, satin slips, lace handkerchiefs, scarves, gloves, all those nice necessities that ladies like. They were here for years. There was a– In the corner of suite was Miss Belkin’s hat shop. Miss Belkin used to make beautiful hats for ladies when hats were worn. And she was here for years until she retired and we took over her space for our workshop. But Miss Belkin was a fixture in this building for years. We had a beauty shop down the hall, beauty and barber shop. We had Noble’s Flowers down at the end. We had a substation of the U.S. Post Office, and we had smoke shops.

Mark Souther [00:52:08] With whom did you spend the most time in terms of maybe going to lunch with other business people here?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:52:17] Yes. The 21st floor of this building was the Midday Club, which was a very elegant restaurant for members. And many of the businesses that were in this building would hold their board meetings there or their luncheon meetings or their social affairs there. It afforded a beautiful view of the lake right on the top of the building. Just had excellent food.

Mark Souther [00:52:48] Did you go there? Very much in the days that you were working here?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:52:53] Yes. Whenever the occasion presented itself, we would take a guest, a customer, perhaps a supplier, go to lunch there. The Cleveland Executives Association would meet there every Friday for lunch. I was a member of the Cleveland Executives Association, and we were there, oh, until I would say about the late 1990s, when the organization moved to another spot.

Mark Souther [00:53:38] Did you get to know some of the people, like the owners that you’ve mentioned? Very well, like Mrs. Belkin, for example. Were you friends?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:53:47] We were always friends. Everybody was on a friendly basis here. Miss Belkin, when she retired here, her health failed and she passed away. Eddie Aftoor, I still see him, and whenever he comes downtown, he stops in to say hello. Of course, the Berwyns are gone. Many of the people at Fraser Mortgage have passed away. It’s just a passing of time.

Mark Souther [00:54:22] How long have your sons been in the business with you?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:54:25] Well, Rickey Jr. started when he was 16 years old. He started working with his father, and his father taught him the business. Rickey is 68 years old now. My son Terry has been with me for over 30 years, and Terry is responsible for the advertising, for the books, for corporate affairs. Rickey is the designer and the manufacturer.

Mark Souther [00:54:59] What plans do you have for the business going ahead?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:55:02] Well, I’m 98 years old. I don’t know what plans are in store for me. I would like to see this building restored. I would like to see this arcade vibrant with business again. I hope I’m not asking too much, but I would like to see that.

Mark Souther [00:55:31] Are there any other things that we have not covered? I’m looking at my list, too, but are there stories that perhaps I have not known to ask, that you’d like to tell?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:55:45] Well, in my personal life, in 1973, I lost Rickey Tanno. He had cancer, and he passed away. Rickey had many, many wonderful friends. One of his closest friends was Judge George McMonagle. Rickey and I and George and his wife Hazel had been friends for years. Unfortunately, in 1973, George lost Hazel, and the two of us were very lonely, and we became friends. And in 1975, George McMonagle and I got married again, and we had a very, very beautiful life together for 27 years. And I lost George in 2002, and I’m still here. [laughs] Who knows for how long? I don’t look back too much. I look forward to my children, my grandchildren, my great grandchildren. Their lives are interesting to me. I have one granddaughter who is a makeup artist for Lady Gaga and has been traveling the world over. I have a grandson who is with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, which is a brainchild of George McMonagle’s. And all of my children have given me nothing but happiness and pleasure. That’s what I look forward to.

Mark Souther [00:57:54] Oh, one thing I wanted to ask. I thought about the Beattie’s Jewelers and also Tanno. I assume. Now this is the oldest surviving jewelry store downtown, unless there’s one that I don’t know about.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:58:11] There is another jewelry store in town. It’s Rivchun’s. I don’t know if they are older than we are, not because I’ve never delved into their past. But they are in the City Club Building and they are, I think, the only other ones downtown.

Mark Souther [00:58:38] And Beattie’s was the third. I guess they were the three. Were there others that survived? [crosstalk]

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:58:42] Yes. Yes. Most of them are– Most of them have gone. Most of them left with the shopping centers. Most of them became suburban stores. Many of those are gone today.

Mark Souther [00:59:00] Was there ever any talk of moving this store to the suburbs?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:59:06] Yes, there was. Yes, there was always talk. But Rickey Tanno said, No. Downtown is what we can handle, and we should handle that well and stay there.

Mark Souther [00:59:20] Where did the talk come from?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:59:22] Oh, sometimes customers.

Mark Souther [00:59:25] Things like wish you’d come out closer?

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:59:27] Yes. Uh huh. Yeah. I wish you didn’t have to come downtown. I wish you didn’t have to pay for parking. But they did. They came down and they paid parking.

Mark Souther [00:59:39] I’m sure you made it worth their while, I’m sure.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:59:40] Sure.

Mark Souther [00:59:44] Those are all of my questions. Again, I’m thrilled to be here and thank you for your time this morning.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [00:59:52] I have enjoyed every minute of it and I hope you’ll keep in touch with me. I’d like to know what you do.

Mark Souther [00:59:59] Okay, that would be great. Thank you very much.

Virginia Tanno McMonagle [01:00:04] You’re very welcome.

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