{"id":339,"date":"2013-06-14T00:24:13","date_gmt":"2013-06-14T00:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesupperclubbook.com\/?page_id=339"},"modified":"2013-07-10T19:29:10","modified_gmt":"2013-07-10T19:29:10","slug":"food-memories","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thesupperclubbook.com\/?page_id=339","title":{"rendered":"Food Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"g12c000a1a401f545db914b32601fdfee1f7b173e28903f\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Dave,<\/p>\n

I just bought your book on Midwest supper clubs and it brought something to mind.<\/p>\n

Did you go to the Wagon Wheel Lodge in Rockton when you were a\u00a0 kid?<\/p>\n

It was an absolutely amazing sprawling place up in Rockton Illinois built entirely in the log cabin style and stuffed full of antiques.\u00a0 It had every amenity you could ask for and then some.<\/p>\n

It was owned by a kind friendly guy named Walt Williamson and managed by a stern but fair lady named Miss Manners.\u00a0 As a boy, that was all I knew.\u00a0 There was a lot more to their relationship, but as a kid that didn\u2019t register.\u00a0 All I knew was that I just loved the place.<\/p>\n

On a road trip in the early 90s I went back to show the place off to my girlfriend.\u00a0 It was still interesting, but it was pretty run down.\u00a0 More than that, something was wrong, something was missing.\u00a0 I was told that Mr. Williamson had died in 1976 and his competitor at the Pheasant Run Lodge bought the place and was just running it into the ground.<\/p>\n

Years later I heard that one day they closed the place, stripped it of anything worthwhile, antiques, photos of famous people, etc., and dumped it.\u00a0 It changed hands, had mysterious fires (Odd for a place that stood next to the city water tower and had a sprinkler system in every room.) and by 1995 every stick and stone of the place was gone, torn down.\u00a0 It just did not make any sense to me.<\/p>\n

One weekend when I was back in the city I went to the reunion of the old folks that use to work there at the Rockton Historic Society.\u00a0 The resulting back stories are too numerous to even list.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s like an epic riotous fun book or movie that was never made.<\/p>\n

Williamson was a classic rags (literally) to riches story, some say a sinner (He and Miss Manners were a thing and everybody knew it.), some say a saint (Very big into quiet philanthropy, The Boy Scouts, etc.\u00a0 One guy told me he paid for the burial of almost everyone in town.), but everybody loved the guy.\u00a0 He was an operator.\u00a0 The growth of the place was fast and strange.\u00a0 Even its demise has that classic wink and a nod, \u201cYea we know it was burned for the insurance money but who cares?\u201d attitude.<\/p>\n

The place had been immensely popular.\u00a0 314 acres, 280 rooms, 4 furnished apartments, 4 dining rooms, 4 cocktail lounges, 2 indoor swimming pools, a sauna, a bowling alley, a shooting gallery, a pool hall, a dinner theater, a convention hall, a Playhouse, a church, a pioneer log cabin, an ice cream shop, a candy store, a bakery, a gift shop, a his and hers beauty salon, a game room, a ski lift, a full size indoor ice skating arena, an indoor curling rink, indoor tennis courts, riding stables, an 18 hole executive golf course, and a miniature train to pick you up at their private airport.<\/p>\n

The old folks told me that the whole place was built of reclaimed materials, mostly an old wooden iron ore pier Williams bought on Lake Superior and all kinds of things he would pick up over time.\u00a0 All the antiques he and Miss Manners acquired at auctions from failing mansions on the east coast.\u00a0 The Palace Ice Skating Rink was built out of two aircraft hangers he bought for next to nothing downstate, the ice making machinery from a defunct ice cream plant, and all the seating from the old Palace Theater in Rockford when it was torn down, thus the name,\u00a0 it was on the back of every seat!\u00a0 The design of the place was done in his head as he acquired the material.\u00a0 His crew and lead carpenter built the place without a blueprint.<\/p>\n

Additionally I’m told that the place was a Mecca for Jazz and Dixieland music, some recordings were even made there.\u00a0\u00a0 Janet Lynn the Olympic skater trained there.\u00a0 When her folks couldn\u2019t afford the lessons Williamson picked up the tab.\u00a0\u00a0 Celebrity guests arrived by plane to either entertain, or secretly be entertained and just to enjoy themselves.\u00a0\u00a0 The joint even had a talking myna bird in the lobby.<\/p>\n

There are so many stories related to this place it is amazing.\u00a0 Five years ago there was almost nothing about it on the internet.\u00a0 Now as people are getting older they telling their tales and sharing a lot of pictures of their time there.<\/p>\n

So, do you have time to write another book before all these stories are gone?<\/p>\n

Let me know,<\/p>\n

Bill Van Someren<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shuler’s Restaurant, Marshall, Michigan<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear Dave,<\/p>\n

I thoroughly enjoyed you \u201cSupper Club\u201d book.\u00a0 Having grown up in Detroit, I certainly remember Cliff Bells.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad to see their web site is back up and running.\u00a0 I have another question.\u00a0 One of the enduring Michigan traditions is a stop in Marshall. MI on the road between Detroit and Chicago.\u00a0 The inviting warmth and charm of Shuler\u2019s restaurant there is hard to pass up.\u00a0 I wondered if it might qualify as a \u201cSupper Club\u201d by your definition.\u00a0 My observations;<\/p>\n

When the dorms closed on Sunday afternoons, students from the nearby colleges (Albion, Olivet, etc.) would flock to Shulers where, with the purchase of a drink (including lemonade), you could purchase a three tier relish tray for 75 cents.\u00a0 It included the famous Bar Scheeze and HOT meat balls.<\/p>\n

Win Shuler (3rd. generation Shuler) was a constant presence in the dining room, greeting regular customers often by name.<\/p>\n

The star of the menu was prime rib and there was always fresh catch from the great lakes surrounding Michigan.<\/p>\n

Long waits often meant going across the street to the Stage Coach tavern.\u00a0 A loudspeaker on the front of the building was audible there when your party was called.<\/p>\n

It really was a unique Michigan experience!<\/p>\n

John Clark
\nSurprise, AZ<\/p>\n

THANK YOU John,<\/p>\n

I have been to Surprise during spring training. Great stuff. Can anyone out in SupperClubLand help John?<\/p>\n

Dave<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Dave, I just bought your book on Midwest supper clubs and it brought something to mind. Did you go to the Wagon Wheel Lodge in Rockton when you were a\u00a0 kid? It was an absolutely amazing sprawling place up in Rockton Illinois built entirely in the log cabin style and stuffed full of antiques.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":66,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-339","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesupperclubbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesupperclubbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesupperclubbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesupperclubbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesupperclubbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/thesupperclubbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":704,"href":"https:\/\/thesupperclubbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/339\/revisions\/704"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesupperclubbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/66"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesupperclubbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}