Published: October 05, 2009 10:37 am      

End of an Era

SIGEL — Sigel was the place to be more than 40 years ago and there wasn’t hardly anyone outside the tiny town who didn’t know the name of a nightclub that drew people from miles around.

Just the name — Elcy’s — would draw a knowing reaction from people as far away Chicago and beyond.

Unfortunately, the historic club, which began in the 1930s, gradually lost popularity in later decades and is now set to be demolished this week to make way for a new cafe/bar in an effort to revitalize a once thriving hot spot.

Fritz Krampe, who recently purchased the aging building, said he is tearing down the current building because it would cost too much to remodel.

Sigel and area residents still reminisce about the famous and, at times infamous, tavern that, along with other other bars, would draw thousands to Sigel on any given weekend.

Ted Hanfland remembers the response he used to get from people when he traveled and they would ask him where he was from.

“I would say ‘Sigel,’ and they would say ‘Elcy’s,” he said.

Fresh out of the Army, Hanfland tended bar at the club part time “for a while” during the 1960s when big name acts like Jerry Lee Lewis were still performing at the club.

The thriving nightspot, however, didn’t start out that way.

While the date it was actually built is unclear, the building started out as a garage that later became a dealership for Studebakers, according to Lorraine Siemer, whose husband’s uncle, Frank Siemer, built the building. It wasn’t until after 1933 when Prohibition of alcohol ended and Frank’s son L.C. Siemer took over the business, the building became a nightclub called Elcy’s.

“It was the biggest and best nightclub in the area,” she said. “People came from all around.”

The nightclub went through several owners throughout its more than 50 years and even went through a name change in the 1970s to The Iron Door. Its name was then briefly changed back to Elcy’s before becoming a dinner club called the Golden Dome and in recent years a storage area.

Eleanor Fearday recalls the club’s early years, at the peak of its popularity when big name bands performed there.

“Sigel couldn’t hardly hold them,” she said.

During the 1930s and ‘40s famous musicians like Guy Lombardo, Tommy Dorsey and Kate Smith could be found playing there.

In later years, as the music scene changed so did the bands at Elcy’s from big band and jazz in the 1940s to jazz and pop and country in ‘50s and ‘60s with rock emerging as the decade ended.

As country music became popular, bands from the Grand Ole Opry performed at Elcy’s.

Local musician Tuffy Baker remembers playing with famous country signers like Stonewall Jackson and George Hamilton IV at the nightclub. The guitarist, who still plays with local bands, performed at the tavern from the late 1950s to 1980s.

Baker also played with a lot of local and area bands that also filled the tavern’s entertainment roster. Local acts included the Artistics from Mattoon and jazz band Preston Jackson and the Rhythm Aces from Decatur.

The club became a hangout for college students who would arrive by train on the weekends.

Part of the reason the nightclub drew huge crowds is because it had the distinction of being one of the only few bars open on a Sunday in a 100-mile radius, according to John Siemer.

The club also became popular with those who served in the military, according to Baker, who recalled Air Force servicemen stopping in from a nearby bus stop.

Baker, who joined the Army in 1956, said the club was well-known in the military.

“When I talked to people in the the service, almost everyone knew Elcy’s,” he said.

Baker said the club with its stage, dance floor and long bar would hold about 500 people.

“Clubs nowadays don’t have crowds like that,” he said.

With two other bars in town, on a Saturday night it wouldn’t be unusual to have 3,000 people in town, he added.

“All the streets would be parked full,” he said.

As the club became known for its music and crowds, it also got a reputation.

Every night a fight would break out, according to Baker

“If someone came to Sigel looking for a fight, they would find one,” quipped John Siemer.

The club also became known in the 1940s for a room in the back used for gambling that would draw people from Chicago, according to Lorraine Siemer.

But the most notorious act at Elcy’s came around 1970 when a man walked into the club and shot and killed his wife because she was reportedly cheating on him, according to John Siemer.

Despite the infamous happenings, those who remember the nightclub, like John Siemer, are sorry to see it go.

“It’s the end of an era.”

Cathy Thoele can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 126 or cathy.thoele@effinghamdailynews.com.