Remembering Sin Strip
People who lived and worked on Calumet City's infamous Sin Strip say there was more than vice in their little neighborhood
A view of old State Street. The Zig-Zag Club was at 18 W. State St. times archive photo
It used to be that if you told someone you were from Calumet City, they'd raise an eyebrow and ask about Sin Strip.
The three-block section of State Street just west of the Indiana state line was home to a host of neighborhood taverns, night clubs and strip joints.
In the prosperous years that followed World War II, the clubs featured such headliners as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Tommy Dorsey and Eartha Kitt. Bobby Short, the "King of Cabaret," was discovered while playing at the Club Caliente here. Even Sally Rand did her fan dance at The Riptide.
The "Las Vegas of the Midwest" was known across the country and businessmen and conventioneers who traveled to Chicago would make a trip to Calumet City part of their plans. At its peak, the area was so crowded people walked shoulder to shoulder down State Street as they traveled between the taverns and clubs.
At one time, the city had more liquor licenses per capita than any other community in the United States. A 1941 Life magazine (VIEW A PDF :: Large download) article said Calumet City had, "14,000 inhabitants, no railroad station, no Protestant church, no traffic lights, no central telephone system, 308 nightclubs and seven policemen."
But behind the marquees advertising such acts as "Cynthia the Body" and "Evelyn West and her $50,000 Treasure Chest" was an ethnic neighborhood not unlike others at the time. Italian immigrants raised their families here - many working in Indiana's steel mills and sending their children to Catholic school.
John Bacino was born and raised at the corner of State Street and Wentworth Avenue. His family owned and operated John's Pizza, a staple on the strip for 64 years.
"Calumet City was not just the strip. It was much, much more, a great little town to grow up in," Bacino said.
Retired Calumet City Police officer Anthony Lucito Sr., left, remembers very little crime growing up on Sin Strip. His friend and fellow officer Jerry Janiga concurs, adding that the community would keep itself in line. photos by Christopher smith | the times and archive photos
"The safest street in town"
Anthony Lucito Sr. grew up on Garfield Avenue near Wentworth Avenue, just one block south of State Street.
"State Street was the safest street in town," Lucito said. "Women would go shopping in downtown Hammond and would walk home down State Street because it was safe."
His next-door neighbor rented apartments out to some of the girls who danced in the clubs.
"It was just a different time," he said.
Lucito and his longtime friend Jerry Janiga joined the Calumet City police force in 1964 and served as partners during most of their careers. The retired cops often were assigned to the Sin Strip district and said they never had any serious problems with any of the clubs or taverns there.
Janiga and Lucito said the businesses there primarily took care of the problems themselves.
"If they had a bad reputation, nobody was going to come," Janiga said. "If somebody from out of town had too much and said something, the doormen would say, 'No, that's enough,' and that was it."
Members of the Calumet City Police force during Sin Strip's heyday. times archive photo
The former partners said the camaraderie in the community made it easy for them as officers.
"Everybody was kind of related, and if not, everybody knew everybody," Lucito said. "We knew every business place in Calumet City when we came on."
"We knew all the owners," Janiga said.
One of their old captains would send them to a call and would know the names of the families living on either side of the business.
"It was a rarity he'd give you the address of the pub if we got a call," Lucito said. "You'd better know the tavern by name."
Janiga said occasionally the mayor would get a complaint about something unsavory going on at a tavern. The mayor would tell the police chief and the chief would ask Lucito and Janiga to stop by the business.
"We'd go for a beer, talk to the owners and that ended it," Janiga said.
The tavern owners sponsored sports for local children and were involved in a lot of civic organizations as well.
"They had open hearts," Lucito said. "Those people gave a lot to the community."
The dining room of John's Pizzeria. photo courtesy john's pizzeria
John Bacino sits in what was his regular booth when he owned John's Pizzeria on State Street in Calumet City. The restaurant - now Price's Soul Food - was the oldest operating business on State Street and was open during the heyday and demise of Sin Strip. christopher smith | the times
"It was all a camaraderie"
John Bacino's father, Phil, started John's Pizza - named for his only son - in 1943 at the corner of State Street and Forsythe Avenue.
"We believe it was the first pizza restaurant in the Chicago area," he said.
Bacino started working there when he was 12, standing on a beer case drawing draft beer.
"I worked between school and the service and worked full-time in 1962 and stayed there full-time ever since," he said. "It's been my whole life, my only job besides the Army."
The strip began "as an entertainment area," he said.
"Jazz musicians would gather after their shows (in Chicago) and jam, and they'd all come to our place at 4 a.m. and had pizza and beer for breakfast," Bacino said. One block down from John's was Barney's, a tavern on the corner of Ingraham Avenue and State Street owned and operated by Mary and Barney Antonietti. After Barney's death, Mary kept the neighborhood joint going for more than 50 years. Ed Antonietti, now a Cook County Circuit Court judge in the Markham courthouse, grew up above his Mom's tavern then in the house next door. "Early on, we never, ever thought to lock the house," Antonietti said. "We always felt safe, in spite of what was going on down the street. ... When you're raised among it, you don't think that much of it. There are strip joints down the street, no big deal." Antonietti said he remembers seeing the Shriner's walking down State Street with fezzes on when they'd come to Chicago for the annual convention and hearing the hawkers in front of every club inviting visitors to come inside and "see the lovely girls." Like a lot of the neighborhood kids, Antonietti made money on the strip, too, with the help of some of the dancers at the clubs.
"We had a shoeshine box and we'd work the street during the day," using the money they got to go to a movie, he said. "The girls who worked there were very kind to the kids in the neighborhood. If they were sitting at the bar with a guy, they'd say, 'Let the kid shine your shoes.'" Antonietti grew up with an understanding of the women who worked in the clubs. "Some of these people were just common, ordinary people who wanted to live like everyone else lived and just make a little more money as dancers than waitresses," he said. "A lot of them lived in the neighborhood because it made it easier for them to come and go to work." In spite of the free-flowing beer, late hours and topless entertainment in the neighborhood, the folks who lived and worked there said they never saw any trouble. "We had a good time," Bacino said. "It was not rough back then. It was safe. The kids could walk down the street. In the bars, at night, after closing, it was all a camaraderie. ... All the club owners all knew each other. They were all friends. What happened with one club drew people to the next club. "Everybody depended on each other."
