Cape Girardeau's 'other side'

Every town has that other side. For every workaday community there is always that smaller zone where the rules -- even if they still apply -- may not be enforced so strictly. These are the places where people go to drink, where they go to dance, and sometimes where they go to break the law. For Cape Girardeau, this place has always been East Cape Girardeau.

"It's true up and down the Mississippi Valley from Minnesota all the way down to the Gulf," said Dr. Frank Nickell, director of the Center for Regional History at Southeast Missouri State University. "People who live on opposite sides of the river have much in common, but there is always one dominant city. There's never enough economic growth to support two dominant economies, so the one that's the first to develop services and industry tends to dominate the region, and then there's always the place on the other side."

These other places, said Nickell, are usually the ferry points of old. Because ferries ran at intervals and because delays due to ice or mechanical malfunction were far from uncommon, these places had a captive audience in travelers.

"It's very common that people are just waiting. So stores pop up and places to drink a beer might pop up and before long it's 'do you want to play a little dice while you wait,' even maybe 'would you like a little company while you're held up?'"

Nickell said this phenomenon is as old as the river settlements themselves. He points to Quincy, Ill., and West Quincy, Mo., to St. Louis and East St. Louis, Ill., to Memphis, Tenn., and West Memphis, Ark., as examples of these parallel economies.

East Cape Girardeau fits the bill.

In 1905 the following item ran in Cape Girardeau's Daily Republican: "The 'lid' is firmly on in Cape Girardeau, and no spirits are sold here today, Sunday; still, those who have a taste for something stronger than lemonade take the ferry across the river to Illinois, where liquor is served from an unpainted frame building standing among the bushes and trees; the ferryman does a booming business."

For much of the 20th century, Illinois' more liberal drinking laws drew thirsty Cape Girardeans to the east side.

Playground

Retired Southeast Missourian reporter and longtime Illinois resident Ray Owen said in the 1950s, the Purple Crackle, which opened its doors in 1939, was the area's foremost landmark. "I heard about it all the time when I was in the Army," said Owen. "People would say 'Oh I know where you're from. Have you been to the Crackle?' They were from all over but they'd definitely heard about it."

They weren't the only ones.

Legends like Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and Woody Herman made the Crackle a preferred tour stop on the Memphis-St. Louis-Chicago circuit.

The Crackle in those days was the classiest joint around. "You walked in, people were dressed in coat and tie, like you would to go to church today," said Jerry Ford, who first played the Crackle as a 15-year-old trumpet player. "It had nice carpet, nice lighting. You just knew you were in a nice place."

Depending on the era, the dining room would be filled with the melodious sounds of orchestras led by men like Herb Suedekum, Bill Brandt or Jack Stalcup. Band members in matching brown polyester suits swayed to the rhythms and dancers jittered, jived, swung or rumbaed late into the night.

It was, say many, something that does not exist today; a playground for the whole family.

"The Purple Crackle was a place where little girls first danced with their fathers and little boys first danced with their mothers," said Ray's wife, Sally Owen, also a former Southeast Missourian reporter. "The ladies 'salon' had a really nifty perfume machine ... as kids we loved going to the restroom armed with change from our parents and coming out smelling like fancy skunks."

Local families also got their first taste of exotic cuisine at the Crackle, thanks to the area's only Chinese chef-in-residence.

Gambling

But this opulence landed in East Cape Girardeau for an unsavory reason. "The reason these places could afford the big groups was three paces out the back door; that's where all the gambling was," said Ford.

In a smaller structure behind the Crackle, through the lounge and past the ever-present piano and guitar duo of Eddie and Vi Keys, was where revelers looking for a different type of fun went to find it.

"You'd never have known it was going on unless someone told you, but if you went into the lounge and asked the bartender where the action was, he'd tell you ... it wasn't a secret," said Ford.

The gambling room was out back for good reason.

"None of these places would have the back rooms attached to the actual establishment, that way you could get separate business licenses for the two different places," said Owen. "And if they ever got busted, you could just say 'bye bye' to the manager and start over."

Owen said he's come across gambling chips from the Colony Club, Thunderbird Club -- both also in East Cape Girardeau -- and Purple Crackle during his time as an antiques collector.

Many believe the influence of the Crackle and other clubs helped them escape many a police bust. "There would be a phone call the day of the bust or sometimes you'd see a handshake between a police officer and the manager where money was exchanged," said one witness.

But the preventive measures didn't always pay off. In 1941, Alexander County raided and seized gambling devices from the Crackle, the Colony Club and two other night clubs. Raids would be periodic throughout the next two decades.

Leland "Freck" Shivelbine, longtime owner of Shivelbine's Music Store in Cape Girardeau and a drummer who played the circuit with the Pete Propst Band, said the raids were often half-hearted at best. "Everybody knew about it, when there'd be a raid, it was pretty clear the people who owned clubs knew too because the clubs would be closed on those days," he said.

The Thunderbird Club was even said to have roulette tables that could flip over to look like pool tables in the event of an unexpected raid.

Mafia influences were widely acknowledged in Southern Illinois. Williamson County to the north was known as "Bloody Williamson," and to the south, in Alexander County, Al Capone had known associates.

Shivelbine also remembers the gambling at many of the East Cape Girardeau clubs.

"In the mid-1950s there, gambling was on the QT. You had to go behind a closed door. You went and knocked and somebody would come let you in. I personally was never much of a gambler. I didn't have any money to play with, but I remember walking back there in between sets and they'd be around a table playing cards," he said. "They had the whole gauntlet of games back then; blackjack tables, roulette, craps tables, slots, but I didn't spend my money on that stuff."

The gambling was not always of the low-stakes variety. Ownership of the Colony Club itself is said to have changed hands during a poker game.

"During goose hunting season highrollers would come here and spend a lot of money," said Joe James, a saxophonist who played with the Herb Suedekum and Bill French bands in the area. "That's the only way the clubs could afford to hire Woody Herman."

Dancers

It wasn't just the gambling and the geese that drew men across the river. "Between Cape Girardeau and McClure there were six or seven nightclubs, and in between East Cape and Cairo there were clubs spaced every so often along the road," said Owen. "At one time or another most of these clubs featured exotic dancers."

Competition for dancers was fierce.

"I can tell you that two or three of the clubs with exotic dancers kept blowing up or catching fire," said Owen. "Now maybe this was a coincidence, I don't know, but most people thought it was the competition over the girls. Because let's face it, there was money to be made. And if you had a nightclub you were in it to make money."

Disagreements over juke boxes and other turf issues came to a head in July 1968 when distributor Howard Baker was murdered by gangsters while driving on Route 3.

This grizzly murder of a well-known Cape Girardean in some ways marked the end of an era. Gambling had dried up in the early '60s, and the days of big bands had given way reluctantly to rock 'n' roll. Families no longer went across the river together.

Over the next decade clubs either shut down or changed their format to accommodate younger crowds, disco and underage drinking. The drinking age in Illinois remained 18 until 1984.

East Cape Girardeau was officially incorporated in 1975, but it never achieved the growth anticipated due in part to flooding concerns and building restrictions.

Today it is still a destination for fun, but now primarily of the adult variety. The Crackle will soon reopen its doors as the Big Blue Martini Lounge; a "gentlemen's club." Many in the community are horrified by the transformation of this beloved landmark. But others say the adult industry is like many others that have come and gone on this side of the river.

"People probably have the wrong idea. You automatically attach sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, but this place is family run and family operated. I've never feared for my safety in here," said Bethany Rinacke, an exotic dancer at Hush Puppy in McClure. "We have young couples, old couples, single men, single women. It's fun and it's safe, and it's a fantasy for people. In the end that's what it's about. That's why people come over here."

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245