GREEK IMMIGRANTS AMERICAN DREAM IN OHIO by TNH Staff published in The National Herald August 8, 2020 The National Herald has given HellenicGenealogyGeek.com permission to post articles that are of interest to our group. -------------------------------------------- AKRON, OH – Greek immigrants Gus Kleines and John Petrou opened the Chocolate Shop in Akron on July 29, 1916, and as the Akron Beacon Journal (ABJ) reported, “it took moxie to open a chocolate shop on a 95-degree day in July.”  The shop was located at 4 South Howard Street near West Market Street with the Cretanborn Kleines as company president, Petrou, from Mandra outside Athens, as secretary and treasurer, while two other Greek immigrants, George Delis and Mike Lampos, served as vice presidents, ABJ reported.  “While the name might sound generic a century later, it was ahead of its time,” ABJ reported, noting that “such establishments were called candy stores and confectioneries before the businessmen i...

ORCHESTRION, GREEK CONFECTIONAIRES AND THE INTRO OF MECHANICAL MUSIC by Steve Frangos published in The National Herald July 25, 2020 The National Herald has given HellenicGenealogyGeek.com permission to post articles that are of interest to our group. -------------------------------------------- Even the most superficial of historical reviews clearly documents the role of Greek immigrants in the establishment and spread of popular entertainment forms across the Western Hemisphere. Public entertainment venues owned and operated by Greeks span just about every entertainment form in the history of the United States ranging across midways, carnivals, circuses, nickelodeons, vaudeville theaters, movie theaters, dance halls, dime-a-dance halls, hay rides, ice skate/roller skate rinks, jazz dance clubs like the Green Mill – said to be the oldest continuously open jazz club in America – bars/saloons/lounges in remote areas of the country that furnished weekend dance bands, the grand Aragon and...

CANDY JIM'S PALACE OF SWEETS by Steve Frangos Published in The National Herald - August 17, 2019 ------------------------------ I am excited that  The National Herald  has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.  ------------------------------ CHICAGO - For fifty-six years, Candy Jim's Palace of Sweets was located at various locations along Taylor Texas' Main Street. When Candy Jim, a.k.a. James Arthur Athas retired in 1955, newspapers from New York, Indiana, Illinois, Washington, Wisconsin, Texas, and elsewhere carried the news of his retirement under the headline, Sweet Success. Athas should be remembered not only as the much beloved small town Greek immigrant candyman but also for bringing the latest in developing cultural art forms to his rural Texas community. Candy Jim Athas is nothing less than one of the very first pioneering movie theater proprietors in North America.  ...

THE PIONEERS OF CONFECTION IN AMERICA By Steve Frangos Published in The National Herald, February 21, 2004 ------------------------------ I am excited that  The National Herald  has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.  ------------------------------ Few Greeks today realize that from the early 1870s until just after World War II, their compatriots held a commanding presence in the American confectionary industry, dishing up tons of sinfully sweet treats from behind the counters of their candy stores and ice cream parlors.   In fact, the Greeks’ early presence in this trade can be documented from a wide variety of sources. As Theodore Saloutos relates in his book, “The Greeks in the United States,” the pioneer confectioners were Eleutherios Pelalas of Sparta and Panagiotis Hatzideris of Smyrna, who established a lukum (sweet) shop shortly after their arrival in 1869. ...

Book “ REMEMBERING NEWARK’S GREEKS;  An American Odyssey ”, authored by Angelique Lampros, introduction by John T. Cunningham, published in 2006 by The Donning Company Publishers.   This book is beautifully illustrated with 322 photographs, including quite a few group photos where practically everyone is identified. In total there are 1,039 Greeks from Newark named. Note: I noticed that several of the names are spelled differently throughout the book. What makes this book very different than others that have been published about Greek-Americans is that excerpts from many different interviews are scattered throughout the book. ---------- Below you will find a description of the book, the Table of Contents, and a list of 1,039 names included in the book. ---------- DESCRIPTION: This memorable book documents the history of Newark's Greek immigrant experience in the early twentieth century. Through the immigrants' voices, the voices of their children, and t...