Moment in Time (December 15, 2022)
The Gloria is shown in this photograph, with the restaurant at the left and the club section at the right. This WWII era inset photo shows Sam Delewese with his signature cigar and six of the Gloria personnel standing in front of the door from the restaurant to the night club. The photos above the door are Gloria employees, and Delewese and DeVictor sons who were in the service. Many of the waitresses were also family members. Shown here are Helen, Flora, unknown, Sam, Dori, Mary and Jildie.
The Gloria Club, or Gloria Night Club, was located on Riverside Drive, near the corner of Trabue Road. Originally called the Gloria Barbecue, it was started in 1924 by two brothers, Sam and Rocco Delewese, and their sister Donata’s husband Guy DeVictor. The building was enlarged in 1926 to hold about 100 people and the name was changed to the Gloria Night Club. A year later, a dance hall was added, and the building continued to be enlarged and remodeled until the late 1950s. Sam Delewese died in 1955, and Rocco’s sons Frank and Aldo Delewese took over the club, and it remained a family effort for many more years.
Frank’s daughter Lucia described the club in a CityScene magazine article. She reported that the building sat on the northwest corner of Trabue and Riverside Drive, and extended to where El Vaquero and the Bob Evans restaurant are located. Parking was located both in front of and behind the building. The left half of the building had a large horseshoe-shaped bar with booths and tables for more casual drinking and dining. A more formal dining area was to the right and behind the booths. Doors in this area led into a large back room. It was set up with a huge floor, part of which came out of the ground for floor shows. Behind the floor was a tiered red velvet bandstand, and to the sides of the floor were tiered areas with tables. The back room could accommodate about 500 people, and was used for dances, entertainment, banquets and weddings.
For many years the night club was a destination for famous acts, such as The Four Freshmen, Dean Martin and many big bands and jazz bands. In the 1960s, the Gloria became known for hosting teen dances and college night concerts with local bands, such as the Dantes, the Electras, the Ravens and the Majestics.
Fire destroyed the Gloria in about 1969, and the property on which it was located was divided into three lots. The restaurant part of the club (without the dance hall and nightclub addition) was rebuilt on one of the three lots as an Italian restaurant, and a Mobil Oil gas station was constructed on the corner. The Gloria remained in business until 1993. The gas station was later converted to a diner, the Skyward Grille, that was operated by Lucia's goddaughter Jennifer and her husband Mike Ratliffe. The building was also used to house Skyward’s mobile cart and catering operations. They leased the building to Domino’s Pizza in 2016 while maintaining their catering and grill cart business.
References:
1. David Allen, The Gloria Years, CityScene Magazine, July 2014 https://www.cityscenecolumbus.com/communities/tri-village/the-gloria-years/
2. Lucia Delewese McQuaide, What Was the Gloria Like?, CityScene Magazine, July 2014 https://www.cityscenecolumbus.com/what-was-the-gloria-like/
3. Nostalgia Can't Save Old Swinger From Meeting Valentine's Day Fate, The Columbus Dispatch, January 11, 1970, page 26
4. Columbus Neighborhoods, WOSU-TV
5. David Meyers, Arnett Howard, James Loeffler, and Candice Watkins, Columbus: The Musical Crossroads, Arcadia Publishing, 2008