One day over breakfast SGS Kinsman Correspondent Rebel Roger suggested that we seek out and profile one of Cleveland’s longest running entertainment guides. Step-Out Magazine has been in publication since 1973 and is run by Ronald Hall.

For those who think the golden days of late 70s and early 80s Call & Post party advertising has died out, think again. Step-Out profiles everything from the classy 30 & over crowd at La Robb’s Night Club to Taste the Rainbow Tuesday’s at the Chateau Mansion.

Never one to shy away from the blue arts, Hall’s publication is the essential guide to Go-Go Cleveland. Each ad is designed in a loving style that lets readers know what is going down and who is making it happen. Ronald Hall’s Step-Out Magazine is Cleveland at its best … telling it the way it is, not the way it was.

Click here to view a survey of the August 2009 issue of Step-Out Magazine.

SGS is always interested in checking out Independent Cleveland film productions.  We found this ad in a September 27, 1968 Cleveland Jewish News edition. Although there is not much written about this film–we did find this synopsis,

” Filmed independently in Cleveland, Double Stop is a clumsily staged but effective plea for racial tolerance. Uptight concert musician Jeremiah Sullivan discovers that his son is attending public school with (gasp!) black children. He swiftly bundles the kid off to a private school, much to the disgust of his liberal-minded wife (Mimi Torchin). Sullivan has a change of heart when he learns that his best friend received an excellent education at that selfsame multiracial public school. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide”.

If anyone has a copy of this rare film or knows where we can purchase it please let us know.

SGS is always excited to cruise Cleveland in search of wonderful hand painted signage.  Yet with a city as large as ours and equipped with only a few brave souls in our merry aggregation–it is hard to cover every single quadrant.

The sign above is a perfect example of that wonderful moment when you drive or walk down the unfrequented street and are awestruck by a piece of art that has no earthly reason for being there. SGS stumbled across this gem in January, 2007 on Meech Ave. John’s Exterminating Supply is located in the Union-Miles Park area.

Usually when the Cleveland Browns have a Monday night home game there is a certain energy downtown.  This is the first time that I can remember where true die hard football fans have no energy to even fake it. This newly formed franchise which is going on its second decade still has yet to give Clevelanders any team, hell any player to cheer for.

SGS found this scan and thought that since Lebron and the gang seem to have the city’s attention that the Browns should take notice of our scan and try their hand at Basketball. This ad for a charity game with Cleveland legends; Groza, Lavelli, and Motley was found in a March, 1947 Call in Post edition.

This is a advertisement for a 1938 Cleveland School Levy campaign.  The ad was found in the Cleveland Gazette.  The Gazette ran in Cleveland from 1883-1945. The paper was run by local African Americans, and earned the nickname the “Old Reliable”.

Visual samplings from Ray’s Sausage & Pig’s 1965 and 1975 trademark renewal forms.

SGS snapped this pic of Ray’s Sausage in April, 2007.  SGS hopes that Ray’s is able to survive the rough press they have received about the smell of their shop in the wake of the horrifying Anthony Sowell saga.