The Ellody

By John Winnenberg

reprinted from the Community Life News , March 1993

There are times in the history of a small town when a certain business or the personalities of that business define the life of the town. Ask people about downtown Shawnee in the 1940's and 50's and they are likely to tell you about such a place and it's owner. The primary owner and operator: Eddie Baroody. The place: a swinging teen hangout called the Ellody.

Baroody was in Shawnee recently and shared his first hand version of the establishment's story. He met with me over the dining room table at the Harrop House which is just two doors up from his former Main Street canteen. His frank and charming manner made it easy to imagine why he was a successful business man. He looked across the street to Chester Thompson's restuarant site and grinned, "Never sold Walter (Harrop) one steak burger. He always liked Chester's cracker burgers better."

Baroody, at the age of 80, was guessed to be about 60 by a teenager who greeted Baroody when he arrrived downtown this day on a visit to his brother- in-law Frances Ellis. A youthful glee entered his eye as he described "dancing" to be the true highlight of the Ellody. "We had the only hardwood dance floor for miles around," said Baroody. Dunkle's (current site of the Pizza Place) in New Lexington was the only other one that competed.

The Ellody opened on March 8, 1940 offering 3.2 beer, ice cream and sandwiches--a joint venture of brother-in-law Tony Ellis "Ell-" and Baroody "-ody". This was a union that happened by chance as Shawnee girl Mary Catherine Ellis was visiting a sick relative in New Jersey when she met young Baroody in 1933. They were married and moved back to Shawnee seven years later where Ellis' father Louis Ellis had operated the successfull Shawnee and New Straitsville Ice and Ice Cream Company for years.

Mary Catherine's brother Tony and Eddie hit it off immediately. Tony was operating Ellis' Hardware at the future site of the Ellody. The two soon transformed it into a spot that would hold magical memories for the youth of that era from Shawnee and many surrounding towns.

"We had fourteen booths and seven stools at the bar," recalled Baroody who was 26 when the business opened. "We used to open at 8AM and close at Midnight or 1AM. Kids would come from Somerset, Corning, Logan. The walls would bulge after a big basketball game. We usually didn't have any trouble, but one night the kids from Corning did some damage after Shawnee beat them."

Tony only stayed involved with the new business for the first six months when it then became the soul operation of the Baroody's, except for a return by Tony from 1944-46 when Eddie served the armed forces in World War II. The Baroody's lived upstairs as did most business operators in that day, and those previous to it, did. Their children Tonya and Christina were born above the store with the help of Dr. Bob Miller. The youthful couple spent most of their days with the town's younger residents. "Our business was mostly kids. We had a good lunch business from the school. We'd go back upstairs after lunch and the kids would bang on the steps when they got home from school."

Used to urban New Jersey life Baroody recalls the adjustment to Shawnee where he said, "you could shoot a cannon down Main Street in the afternoons. John Fleming was the newspaper man, mayor and justice of peace all in one. He was a nice man." He remembers Cellestial Peyton's and Louie Sarvis' groceries, Hazel's Bar and Chet Thompson's restaurant as some of the more memorable businesses on Main Street while he lived here. "Decoration Day parades" were among his memories as events that were highlights of the town. He was perhaps most impressed by the sandlot baseball played on the picturesque ballfield not far from the back door of the Ellody. "Good teams came from all over to play ball here--Zanesville, Columbus. There were some good players--Butsko went on to play professional ball from here."

The Ellody would drop beer sales after several years. "We were just breaking even on it," recalls Baroody. They found more profitable the sale of their own roasted peanuts, pipes, smoking tobacco, ice cream sundaes, Pepsi and R. C. Cola. Their steakburges were all meat and sold for 20¢ as opposed to Chester's Crakerburger which retailed for 15¢. "Game machines, pinball and the juke box kept us in business," he said. The juke box attracted many to the wooden dance floor that was surrounded by "inlaid linoleum." Glenn Miller, Ricky Nelson and Patty Page were among the all time favorites in the business'17 year span which came to an end in 1957 when the Baroody's left Shawnee for Columbus where they still live.

The end of the Ellody was attributed to Shawnee's dying economy, the death of Mary Catherine's mother, and a "little boycott" from townspeople who weren't happy about the Baroody's sending their children to parochial high school in New Lexington, according to Baroody.

Baroody would hold several jobs in Columbus before contracting to run several soda fountains/lunch counters for drug stores for a number of years. He would end his working career as a meat inspector with the state of Ohio, a position he held for 10 years before he retired in 1979. Mary Catherine's has been ill for a number of years and now lives in a Columbus nursing home where her husband visits her regularly.

Today the Ellody building remains at the end of West Main Street's business block still sporting the fading Coca Cola signs on the window and the old neon sign still hanging from the overhanging porch. It is a place where the occasional tourist peers in the window and wonders what went on in there when it was a thriving business. Others who look in remember well what went on. If they are there on the right day they will get a humorous story from the last remaining family member. Inside or on the walk they will find Baroody's colorful brother-in-law Frances Ellis who has the "walls bulging" once again--this time with used refrigeration equipment from his regionally-known commercial refrigeration repair business.

One wonders if the walls will ever bulge with people again. Irregardless, if these walls could talk they would probably smile with contentment as they told the story of the industrious and colorful family who brought much life to this building and town over the years.