tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post114115014203899757..comments2024-03-28T19:56:32.848-05:00Comments on Anecdotal Evidence: O Kay's!Patrick Kurphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08436175583386298032noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-51490021960402481912023-01-25T10:18:17.118-06:002023-01-25T10:18:17.118-06:00I just found this blog. I was the Kay's nephe...I just found this blog. I was the Kay's nephew and began working at the bookstore when it was located on E 9th St. close to St. Clair. I helped move the store to Prospect Av. and worked at the stores during Jr. and Sr. high school and briefly after graduating. I also worked in the two warehouses that they owned. Michael Cowan (Mr. Kay) was a graduate of OSU. Served on the Army as a Captain in the intelligence dept. during WWII. He was a diabetic and became blind as a result of that disease. It was a "trip" to work there. Characters of all descriptions floated through the store, some famous and some infamous.<br /> Books and magazines were bought by the pound at a Salvation Army depot. Mr. Kay would stand by conveyer belt and select books and magazines. It wasn't unusual to haul #600 or more pounds of items from a visit. Somehow a wheel on the dolly would not quite be on the scale thus "lightening" the load. I remember Mrs. Kay being a striking redhead in her younger days. She worked seven days a week and was the reason the bookstore was successful. There is much of a personal nature I could include, but it's better to leave those comments remain as such.<br /><br />I rememberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09422107197316076160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-22354718729927685312018-12-16T20:47:49.508-06:002018-12-16T20:47:49.508-06:00I moved to Cleveland in 1980 after I got married a...I moved to Cleveland in 1980 after I got married and loved downtown Cleveland. It was full of delicious nooks and crannies for shopping and one of my first adventures was going out the back door of May Company and into the front door of Kay's! My first test for Kay was a book I had been searching for for over 8 years. I was told by others that I would never find the book but gave Kay a try. She had it in my hands within two minutes. I was astounded!!! Thirty years later I am still on the West Side but seldom venture to downtown anymore since all the great dept stores are long gone. It is an era I sadly miss! LisaLisa Knowles Maciaghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08243191871660715034noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-3280565874836995482014-02-28T08:00:15.345-06:002014-02-28T08:00:15.345-06:00The wonders of Google. This morning I came across ...The wonders of Google. This morning I came across a book I purchased at Kay's in September, 1969 (The Victor Book of the Opera, 1936 copyright - $2.50) The cash register receipt with the store name was tucked inside. This has led me to your great blog about the store. I first discovered it when I went to work at a print shop across the street in the Caxton Building (April 1958). I purchased countless books there, many for a dollar or less. Happily I never had the price raised on me. <br />JerryAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17847955494443282715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-60806651519430528152014-01-31T10:17:14.517-06:002014-01-31T10:17:14.517-06:00Oddly I never had Mrs. Kay raise the price of a bo...Oddly I never had Mrs. Kay raise the price of a book on me. As a teenager I first encountered the works of H. P. Lovecraft and my sister found Kay's was the one bookstore in Cleveland that stocked them and the other Arkham House publications. Mrs. Kay's policy on these - at least for me, was that as long as they remained original to her stock she sold them to me at their original prices - even when they were long out of print. She remained a friend until her death. I was also allowed to occasionally go looking through the sections in the basement to see if there was anything I wanted. I never met her husband who founded the store, who was apparently scholarly but went blind prematurely and died before I discovered the store.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-45560667608889207702011-09-08T18:43:43.474-05:002011-09-08T18:43:43.474-05:00Great article! I used to go to Kay's as a kid...Great article! I used to go to Kay's as a kid and was introduced to Doc Savage and great movie books there. What a great store it was!pearl&eddieskidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16759346405490082120noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-36494872375367428912009-05-05T15:14:00.000-05:002009-05-05T15:14:00.000-05:00it was a great store in a formerly great city. u w...it was a great store in a formerly great city. u werent a clevelander unless u knew kays.period.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-47397700226098427832009-02-13T08:59:00.000-06:002009-02-13T08:59:00.000-06:00My brother and I worked at Publix Book Mart down t...My brother and I worked at Publix Book Mart down the street until the very early 70s. It is hard to believe, in today's Internet and chain store world of Border's and Barnes & Noble (and Amazon), that there were these wonderful places with their selection, personality, and local feel. Whether their demise is a good or bad thing one can debate endlessly, but demise it was.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-1157743906808314602006-09-08T14:31:00.000-05:002006-09-08T14:31:00.000-05:00I have a friend named Jim McKee who worked at Kay'...I have a friend named Jim McKee who worked at Kay's Books in the '70s at some point or another. He has spoken frequently of working with Gary Dumm and a number of other people, including Harry. I'm sure he'd love to hear from Gary and some of the other folks from Kay's Books. Jim lives in Florida now and has been coming into my comic shop since around 1986. If you want to reach Jim, I will be happy to forward your messages. E-mail the shop at: comicworld_beyond@yahoo.comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-1144341363881408922006-04-06T11:36:00.000-05:002006-04-06T11:36:00.000-05:00Hello, just visited your blog, it's pretty good. J...Hello, just visited your blog, it's pretty good. <A HREF="http://www.horseoutlet.com" REL="nofollow">James Azteca</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-1143035833303611462006-03-22T07:57:00.000-06:002006-03-22T07:57:00.000-06:00Hey, I was Mrs. Kay's last stock clerk! If you nev...Hey, I was Mrs. Kay's last stock clerk! If you never saw them you wouldn't have believed the catacombs that were the basement stockrooms. There were three of them- under her part of the building and also under the jewelry store next door (which used to be her magazine store) and the third under the bar on the other side. And the roaches were legion- up on the high shelves where they'd eat the glue from paperbacks and on the wall by the furnace. I kept a can of Raid down there and hit them with a dose when I turned the lights on each morning. There were four aisles in each basement (three under the bar) and two of the basements had pull strings on bulbs down the aisles- four in each aisle; the bar basement had flourescent lights. It was spooky turning them on each morning and darkness would creep after me as I turned them off at night. <BR/>I worked there from March 1982 thru July 1983 when Mrs. Kay, having her first year in the red, decided she wasn't going to finance the store out of her savings (which were quite considerable- she'd always be going over to Ohio Savings to play with her money markets as Harry said) and closed the store. She was 71 so it was getting hard on her. She did a nice thing for long term employees- she gave them $100 for each year of service; Harry got $3000 and Gary Dumm $1600.<BR/><BR/>Mrs. Kay was siad to have been quite beautiful in her younger years- she was a girl friend of Reuben Sturman's. She'd traveled widely in Europe. <BR/><BR/>After retiring she did volunteer work at Mayfield regional Library till she got cancer. I kept in touch by Christmas cards. She died in December 2000 which would have made her around 88.<BR/><BR/>Her longest term employee was Harry Condiles, an overweight old gay guy,who wore shirts with the sleeves cut off; he was her right hand man and did all the ordering for thirty years. His boyfriends would come in to see him and Mrs. Kay, not politically correct, would say "Get out of here- you creep!" Harry had no education- couldn't spell- but talked like an Oxford professor. He was usually quiet, sitting on a chair behind Mrs. Kay's podium, doing his ordering unless he got up to help someone find something. Once in a while he couldn't be bothered such as if a book was in a section up on the far end of one of the platforms that ran the length of the store. He would direct the customer from his chair. One day he was irritated and the customer couldn't find the book; he started saying "Oh, it's up there by that cocks,,,,,- that godd... bastard sunovabitch motherf.....it's over by that f...ing thing there". I looked around to see if anyone was scandalized and saw a young lady just cracking up. Harry was a trip. He used to let my girlfriend Marsha, now my wife, know when it was safe to sneak downstairs and see me as Mrs. Kay didn't me interrupted when I was working. <BR/><BR/>Working at Kay's is a a priceless memory of old Cleveland when there were six major department stores and people shopped downtown before the shoppng malls were built and the suburban chain bookstores took over. It didn't pay much and there were no benefits except vacation but it was one of my favorite jobs. Mrs. Kay would occasionally be mean until you snapped back once and then she was your best friend. Some people didn't learn this and quit. I did and had no problems.<BR/><BR/>I met my wife Marsha there- she was a customer. As it was the largest bookstore in Cleveland anyone who loved books, no matter how prominent, would be in sooner or later. This is the first thing I found on the Internet about her or the store. Jim Neff did an article on the store once; I'd like to see it posted. Far as I know there was never an obituary of Mrs. Kay. R.I.P.<BR/>Bill McCroden, native ClevelanderAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com