Column by Norma Higgs — I attended the City Council meeting on Jan. 2 to witness our new city leaders take their oath of office and I met a friend and prominent local podiatrist, Dr. Henry Merletti as he was leaving.

He read last week’s story and told me he was renovating 1607 Pine Ave. after Felicetti’s shoe repair closed. He moved in during 1956, and provided full-service foot care, had three treatment rooms and did minimum surgery at that time. He married Pasqualina (better known as Lena) DiDietro the following year and she, like many other marriage partners, did the bookkeeping. After 10 years at this location he moved to their present office at 616 Pine Ave. and was joined by his two sons, Drs. Michael and Theodore. Henry is active in the Niagara Falls Rotary Club.

Across Pine Avenue in the 1600 block even numbers, was the Royalite Lamp Company at 1602 Pine, the former home of the Frank Biehl Wallpaper and Paint Company. Next door at 1604 Pine was Gene’s Shop selling men’s wear. Joe Cristiano, who formerly ran the store as Kaufman & Cristiano Men’s Clothing, was now partnered with Eugene Lunken who also had a store at 1917-19 Main with several apartments.

George Levy Sales sold electrical appliances at 1606 Pine. Ceil’s Fashion Shoppe featured women’s wear at 1608 and owners Cecilia and Nicholas Moraco lived nearby at 1617 Walnut. Mary Rotella, widow of Anthony, remained a resident at 1608 Pine where they formerly operated the Rotella Coffee Shop.

There was a Red & White Grocers at 1610 Pine and I am not sure who was the owner/operator at this time, but it may have been Charles Elias. In 1930, Buffalo businessman Smith M. Flickinger developed the Red & White brand to compete with The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., known as the A&P, which was the dominant grocery store chain in the Northeast in the 1920s and ’30s. He found that small independent grocers could band together to compete more effectively and he formed a buying co-operative, attracting quality vendors throughout the U.S. offering his private label goods. The independents paid what is now called “franchise fees” so they could purchase and stock these brands. In return they received advertising and other marketing support. The Federated Group, founded by the Flickinger family, currently owns the Red & White brand.

Next door was the Avenue Beauty Shop operated by Nancy Sirianni followed by Sal Maglie’s Liquor Store at 1614. Salvatore Anthony Maglie was born on April 26, 1917, and is best known locally for his career as a baseball pitcher from 1945-58 for the New York Giants, Cleveland Indians, Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals. According to Wikipedia, “Maglie was also known as “Sal the Barber,” because he gave close shaves — that is, pitched inside to hitters. He also sported a five o'clock shadow look. He had the distinction of being one of the few players to play for all three New York City baseball teams. During a 10-year baseball career, Maglie compiled 119 wins, 862 strikeouts, and an 3.15 earned run average. He was a World Series Champion in 1954 while pitching with the New York Giants.” During 1956, he was with the Brooklyn Dodgers and maintained a residence at 2727 Pierce Ave. with his wife Katherine.

Moving along to 1616 Pine was a Belmer’s Ice Cream Company location operated by LaVerne Searles who later formed the Searles Dairy at 918 Niagara St. I had a great conversation with Rodney Rhodes who told me about his dad, Everett Leroy Rhodes who founded the Belmer’s ice cream parlor business in 1932 and had seven locations throughout Niagara Falls. He met his wife Berneita May Scott at Iowa State University and when they decided to go into the ice cream business they came up with the name Belmer’s from initials in their combined names. Laverne Searles became a partner and made the ice cream mix at one of their locations which later became Diffines’ Dairy.

Back in the 1940s, Everett owned and operated the Plantation Restaurant at Pine and Military as a “dry” nightclub. They presented Saturday night entertainment and Fred Jones, a famous local tap dance instructor held his recitals there. During this time he met Ray Kroc who sold paper products for the Lily Tulip Company and eventually became a multi-mixer milkshake machine salesman, traveling across the country. During his sales visits to the Plantation, he talked Mr. Rhodes into building a stainless steel version of a milkshake cup. It was built next door as The Milk Cup.

Following falling sales from competition from Hamilton Beach mixers, Kroc visited Richard and Maurice McDonald who had purchased eight of his multi-mixers. While at their McDonald’s in San Bernardino, Calif. Ray became convinced that he could sell mixers to every new franchise restaurant that they opened, and so he offered his services to the McDonald brothers as a franchising agent. He subsequently purchased the franchising rights from the brothers and opened his first McDonald’s in Des Plaines, Ill. He founded the McDonald’s corporation in 1955 and oversaw its worldwide growth. At some point, Kroc remembered The Milk Cup and it became the location of the present day McDonald’s. Originally, it was a small building and provided only service from its drive-in window.

I’m out of space so the rest will have to wait until next week.

Norma Higgs serves with the Niagara Beautification Commission and Niagara Falls Block Club Council. Her columns appear Mondays in the Gazette.