Club 78
So many changes were made to the area where Club 78 was located that its location can be described several different ways. I kind of went down the rabbit hole on this one, but drive-ins and carnivals and such all sounded like fun. If there is no source listed for the information in the section below, just chalk it up to Internet factoids that may or may not be true.
In March 1956, a crime report in the Minneapolis Star (see below) gave the address of the Club as 7801 Elliot Ave. in Bloomington.
Perhaps it was on a corner – it was also described as being on 78th Street (thus its name), a bit east of Portland.
And it was often described as being next to the Bloomington Drive-In, which was located at 1101 E. 78th Street – on the southwest corner of 494 and 12th Ave. South. This was the first drive-in in Minnesota and it was opened prior to 1948. It closed in the early-to-mid ’70s.
Nearby was the Collins Mobile Home Court, which was built in the late ’40s. The Collins (Mildred and William) owned a traveling carnival and stored all of the equipment in a vacant lot behind the drive-in and next to the Mobile Home Court (currently Walmart). The Mobile Home Court closed around 1994 and construction began on the Walmart.
ON WITH THE SHOW
Blood ran hot on March 29, 1956, at the Club 78. It was a convoluted story of a man (Perkins) who was accused of ramming his car against that of another man (Ninerson) and in the process breaking a window at the Club 78. This story was mixed up with another story about a man trying to free his dog from the pound, so it was difficult to get the facts straight, but at least we have the street address and the first hit on the Strib database. (Minneapolis Star, March 30, 1956)
The name of the place seemed to go back and forth between Club 78 and Conrad’s Club 78. The ad below uses the latter. Music for dancing was provided by the Modern Mics, featuring Bob Burak and Wally Fuller, performing pop songs. This was 1958, the early days of Rock ‘n’ Roll – wonder if this was a roadhouse kind of a place? No food, no alcohol, room for 200!
Bloomington Sun, July 24, 1958, courtesy Pat Donnelly
On August 14, 1958, Will Jones referred to the place as Conrad’s Club 78. An article in the Minneapolis Star on January 26, 1963, reveals that the owner was Harold Conrad. Conrad died on June 10, 1963, at the age of 49. His home address was the same as the bar.
The Twin City Tenpin of November 1964 included an ad welcoming bowlers; the ad shows there was live music and dancing every Thursday through Sunday and that the club had a capacity of 200.
Ad from Twin City Tenpin, December 5, 1964
Fire destroyed the vacant Club 78 on March 28, 1967. It had been vacant for two or three months. It was described as a once-popular, one story, wood framed dance hall. (Minneapolis Tribune, March 29, 1967)