The building at 1127 Broadway has housed drug stores, grills, soda fountains and some other businesses that have fallen through the cracks of history. For most of our generation, though, it’s been the Pladium and, more recently, D’Ladiums.
The one constant has been Jerry Beaver, who manages the place from his throne – a 1940s or 1950s barber chair- bought to celebrate Jerry’s reaching Social Security age.
Bar and poolroom started as drug store
The building was originally built by the Dormeyer family in 1929 for use as a drug store. It opened in 1930. The dark door at the right of the building used to lead to the basement, which was called The Cellar and used as a soda fountain. In later years, it became The Dungeon and The Marine Room, Jerry said.
Jerry “Big Dog” Priest opened Pladium
Jerry ” Big Dog” Priest, a noted pool player, opened the Pladium in the late 50s. Jerry (the Beaver one) worked there for about 30 years, then he went to work for the new owners. He still wears his trademark shorts, no matter what the weather is like. Serious pool is still a big draw.
House of escapades
A couple of my Central classmates (who should probably remain anonymous unless they choose to identify themselves) were chatting on Facebook about escapades at the Pladium.
- I low crawled 25 yards out of the Pladium one night.
- I can beat that….I was carried out of the Pladium one night.
- I did get put in the penalty box for 2 weeks by Bigdog for riding a Honda 305 scrambler motorcycle into the Pladium one Saturday morning.
Decades of smoke stain ceiling
The bar is definitely a smoking area. One of the customers pointed out the difference between ceiling tiles that have been there for years vs. the ones that have been replaced fairly recently.
Memorabilia covers walls
The walls are covered with trophies, license plates and photos of customers.
Jerry rules with firm, gentle hand
Bartender Emily Banach and customer Chris Eastridge agreed that Jerry, who knows almost everyone by name (and what they drink), keeps things under control with a firm, but gentle touch. Most customers, they said, are pretty well-behaved.
Gallery of D’Ladiums’ Photos
Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the photo to move through the gallery.
Bartender Emily Banach and customer Chris Eastridge agreed that Jerry, a Vietnam vet, takes care of any problems that come up quickly and quietly. Generally, though, most of the customers are well-behaved.
Payphone, 50 cents too. They are going the way of vinyl records. Thats memorabilia in its self.
AAAAAHHHH…. THE OLE PLADIUM…..GOOD TIMES WERE HAD BY ALL. BIG DOG WAS ALL OUR MENTOR. TRUELY A HOME AWAY FROM HOME. AND THE BEAV, OF WHOM LEDGENDS ARE MADE OF, HAS KEPT IT ALIVE ALL THESE YEARS. GOOD CHOICE OF STORIES KEN.
terry
did we shoot pool and play foosball in the early seventies at the pladium. being from indiana the pladium was my home away from home. toots,frankie,
bert & debbie, fred, jeff, sky king. what a crew we
used to run with. didn’t you have a dog named bo?
best times of my life were spent in cape.
Good job Ken. For those of us that began going there when it was just a pool hall, not much remains of the original ambiance. I was there one evening when professional shark came in with his promoter to play Jerry Priest. It would have been about 1964. If you were inside you were priviledged to stay and watch. However, the door was then locked and and the game began. I believe they were playing for $100 a rack. Since I was about 15 I had a curfew and had to leave before it was done. I was later told that Jerry took him to school. Then about 1969 Jerry decided he would offer chili, hot dogs and beer on tap. The rest is history. I believe there have been a couple of marrriages performed there with the service conducted by “Preacher Ferguson”, a fully ordained minister who considered the regulars at the Playdium his “flock”. He was a regular as well.
I can’t say enough about Big Dog. He was a mentor to a lot of us, and I learned so much more than how to shoot pool from him. I agree with Terry Darter’s entry completely. I see Big Dog from time to time and it is always pleasure to chat with him. The Beav, what a character. Always has a friendly greeting and time to talk about old times. I miss the cast of characters that were regulars at the Pladium.
Oh yes, the Pladium and Jerry Priest!
I remember being there one night when this bumpkin asked me if I wanted to play pool for $5.00 a game. Of course he let me win a few games, and then he asked if I would play for $10.00 a game so he could get some of his money back. At $25.00 a game he started beating me like a drum. That’s when Jerry stepped in and said, “You’re done trying to fleece thsi kid, lets you and I play for $100.00 a game”. I saw the finest pool shooting I have ever seen that night. That guy would have cleaned me out if Jerry hadn’t stopped in.
Jerry told John Seabaugh (Yogi) and I that if we would help set up the new billiard table, he would teach us how to play. We did, and Jerry taught us stuff we would have never learned elsewhere. What a super guy!
I also heard there was a table stakes poker game in the basement on ocassion, but “I know nothing!”.
John Martin ’58
Flashback to the 80’s….. It was a priviledge to be escorted out of the Pladium by the “Beav” for under age drinking. You could not fool the Beaver! Good times had by ALL!
Just a note to everyone:
This site is suddenly getting as many as 800 spam comments a day. The spam filter does a great job of flagging them before they get out to the world (with maybe two or three a week sneaking by).
Unfortunately, it sometimes grabs a legitimate message like the one from Sheri, sent at 9:49am. I didn’t get around the checking the quarantined messages until this evening, so, Sheri, that’s why this was late showing up.
If you post a comment and don’t see it in a couple of hours, send me an email. I’ll check the filter.
Thanks, folks.
I wish the Pladium hadn’t been so close to my field house classes at SEMO. Seems every time I flipped a coin the Pladium won so I skipped the class. I agree with all that has been said. Bigdog was a positive influence in a lot of lives and it’s nice to see a few of those guys popping up on this forum. quick story: every time the phone rang all the married guys would immediately yell to Capt. Beaver “I’m not here” after about the fourth call the good Captain said “if no one’s here I might as well lock up and go home” (cleaned up for publication). The Captain is a legend.
It’s probably obvious that I wasn’t a Pladium regular because I refer to the Beav as Jerry instead of his last name or some form of it.
Did his “Captain” nickname come from his military rank? He is a Vietnam vet.
Heck of a nice guy. Everyone I spoke with had something good to say about him.
Greg
Did you have a brother named Frankie?
To add to the list of businesses at that location – I believe there were bowling lanes at one time.
That confused me, too. There was a bowling alley called the Playdium, at 115 Themis St.
Some stories noted that the Teen Age Club was located on the second floor of that building. That’s probably the location where dancers caused the floor to shake so hard that the place was shut down and the shebang was relocated to the bank parking lot at Broadway and Main.
The pool hall / bar was spelled Pladium and Playdium in different news stories and even in the print on the wall, which has both spellings on it.
The old Pladium, with Big Dog and Beav was a legendary place. I learned how to shoot pool there in the mid 60’s and drink (in a bar) in the very early 70’s. As I recall pool was 20 cents a game and they racked them for you.
What happened to the tarpon?
Priest has it. Took down when I sold out in2004!
I remember when Capt Beaver had a terrible pain in his stomach resulting in the removal of his appendix. The pain didn’t go away so they went back in to find he had swallowed a tooth pick while eating a BLT sandwich and it had perforated his intestine. It was removed and all was well. If you recall the large Tarpon on the wall had a giant toothpick in it’s mouth commemorating the event.
Jerry Priest gave me a great piece of advice when i was in eighth grade, “Stay out of the Pladium You are not a pool player.” as usual he was right.
The dark door to the right of the Pladium led, in 1965-66, to the Polynesian Room, which my dad owned. Because of pressure from SEMO, all he could sell was 3.2 beer (remember 3.2?). But, that didn’t slow down business, and a couple of young Central teachers were regulars.
In the late 60’s Jerry let us use that underground (basement) space for a “Find of the Holidays” party one Christmas vacation. We served more than 3.2 and no one checked IDs that night.
Additionally, one can not talk the history of the Pladium without metioning Smitty – who, I believe, still owns the name.
I remember 3.2 beer as Sunday beer
Had my first legal drink at the Pladium compliments of the Big Dog. Beav is the Captain but also known by many as the Puss. At one time foosball was played as much as pool in the Pladium. Good to see the names of many of my old friends posting.
I used to live across the street above Werner’s grocery while attending SEMO. I started my day with a pickled egg and a beer. It was my second home. Jerry Priest and Bruce Welch would ask me to bring some of my girlfriend in because at that time it was pretty much a guy’s kinda pool hall. I have so many good memories of that bar and those two guys! Wow….that was a great place to hang out.
Nice job Ken. I recognize your style. I wonder what these would look like in b&w?
Bob, Thanks for the compliment.
As you know, you’d shoot it differently if you were shooting in B&W. You’d use tones, not colors.
Black and white would have made dealing with all the weird color lighting easier, but this is one of those times when I like the color. All of those neon signs and posters and stuff wouldn’t have worked as well in B&W.
On the other hand, I would have worked the portraits a little harder and differently if I hadn’t had the crutch of color to fall back on.
I think everything in the place was shot available light except for the two shots of The Beav in his barber’s chair. The light was too low and too funky, so I bounced a strobe off the ceiling. I don’t think you’d have known it if I hadn’t told you.
Ahhhh SEMO and the Pladium, 7 of the best years of my life. Great to read some awesome memories by some notorious regs. I will never forget the 1 and only time big dog took me downstairs to the ‘TABLE’ schooled me but taught me 3 quick games, what a privilege to have in my memories. I cant believe nobody mentioned the red shag carpet walls- freakin classic. Beaver, what a classic down to earth good guy – I will never forget 2 trips INDY500, and 3 Daytona Bike weeeks / spring break i just stayed an extra week to catch both – told ya took me 7 yrs to graduate.
Darn i forgot to mention the van out front with the “EAT MORE BEAVER” bumper sticker .
The amazing thing about “the Beave” you can move away from Cape, not go in his place for 25 years, come back, and he greets you by your first name, as if you were in the place last night. Phenomenal!
I agree Mark…he is crazy like that. I know it moved but is it still open???
Is this the same Jerry “Bigdog” Priest that I was stationed with the Air Force in Little Falls, Minn?I knew you loved to bowl but didn’t know of your pool ability. Dick Hughes
Back in the day, I heard stories of my mother (Gretchen – no last name is necessary) getting…ahem…a little too “happy” and jumping behind the bar with Beav because she wasn’t ready to leave. My dad had to throw her over his shoulder and carry her out!
As for me, I bet I wore a path from the old disc bowling machine in the back corner, to the bathroom, over to the bar (for another cold Stag beer) and then back to the bowling machine to do it all over again, and again, and again.
The Pladium was always a fun time!
Ohh Pard!! This was the only bar in Cape I couldn’t enter until I was 21! Can’t get one over on the Beav.
Beav is a wise one and can always be counted on for his words of wisdom, jokes and to watch catch up on sporting events. I don’t get in as much to see as in the old days.(this is a good thing) But Homecoming and Christmas eve are always a great time to catch up with old friends that have moved away from Cape. Awesome article on great people and place!!
In the fall of 1962, Greg Nunnelee and I were “rack boys.” We were freshmen in high school and Jerry Priest paid us .50 an hour to work after school (3:30 – 6:00) and Saturdays.
It was years before my parents found out!
Thank you for sharing these wonderful, as usual, photos and stories. Oh how I love your stories!
Early 70’s Big Dog had a bartender named Monique and another named Phil. Good times had by all.
In these ultra politically-correct times, Beav would have been sued for never having hired any old and/or ugly, female bartenders.
During the mid- ’70s, every Wednesday, draft beer went for a quarter, served in a frosty, chilled mug (and free salty popcorn to keep everyone ordering more cold ones!
And if my failing memory is correct, most of the same Wednesday crowd could be found on Thursday at the Algiers Lounge in the basement of the closed Iden-Ha hotel for quarter beers. Let me know if anyone else remembers it this way.
Thanks Jerry, for helping to make college such a blast for so many people now in our 60s & 70s !
You’re absolutely correct about Big Dog he was a mentor as well as an all-around great man, he always had time for you. Best days of growing up I ever had fun times.
The Beave !!! Way too many stories.Mickey Merv Miles and Beave were roommates on Mill Hill in the 70’s. Beave worked at DQ on Broadway and brought home burgers, chili and what he thought we’d eat. He was the leader of that dysfunctional group and kept us on the good side. Short story: gas hot water heater went out. Beave lites a rolled up newspaper, lit it with a match, bent down, put it to the pilot lite and POOF!!! Beave turned around and his beard and eyebrows were smokin. He said, wasn’t expecting that Pard. There’s only oneBeave, and I’m happy to be a friend of his for 50 years. I loved him
Well said, Beav was the rock of the Pladium, knew everyone and always greeted you with a smile and your name. Lot’s of laughs in the Pladium!! He is missed by many!!
I hope you’re doing well!
God BLESS You BEAVER!!
Beav was a legend in his own time. A mentor to many and just a down right kind and generous man. Rest In Peace My Friend❤️☀️I’ll never forget you
I spent many nights at the Pladium. Drinking 50 cent Snowballs and 80 cent draughts. Playing foosball and pool with Doug Best, Dave Cole, and Mark Bodine. Pladium was where the locals and the college kids from out of town leagrned to get along. Even spent date nights there with Donna Brown, who became my wife, 40 years ago and going strong.
Steve Blumer
For years, a drawing of my father, David ‘Fat Cat’ Lufcy, graced the walls of the Pladium. I wonder if it is still there?
Matthew Lufcy