(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette, 20, Feb. 1947.
In all seriousness, though, this nightclub may have been in operation under that name even before the disastrous Cocoanut Grove fire of 1942. Its owner, Michael "Mack" Petruzelli, was described in the 1940 Census as the proprietor of a tavern, but of course the census does not name the tavern. (His wife Annabelle, some 25 years his junior, is described as a "check-room girl" in a tavern; she also had two small children to look after.) The 1950 Census likewise describes him as the owner of a tavern.
According to my 1947 phone book, this Coconut Grove was located at 1233 North Central Avenue in Lake Station. The structure now standing there was built, per the county records, in 1947.
