Balli-Hi Lounge

I've been trying to identify the unidentified images in the Mildred Mead collection in the Chicago History Museum. If there's a business sign, I can usually make some headway. 

The Balli-Hi Lounge next to the bowling alley (punning on the musical South Pacific) was at 5122 S. Lake Park. 

 

I investigate by first looking in the newspapers because they are more searchable and then looking at white pages and yellow pages. The lounge fielded a bowling league team made up of Japanese-American residents of Hyde Park. They played in a league that was sports news in the Daily Calumet during 1955-1957.

Chicago History Museum, ICHi-087539; Mildred Mead, photographer 1955

 

It was next to a row of stores that included a Records store and included the Hyde Park Hotel.  

I posted these photos on a group on Facebook and many people recalled the bowling alley. 

• Larry Mauksch "Where I rolled my first bowling ball circa 1957"
• Glenn Eisen "We had a synagogue youth group bowling team there in 1954 and my stepfather was part of a B'Nai Brith league there through the 1950's"
• Larry Schwartz "My father was in a league there and I remember going with him in the 1950s."
• William Boardman "It had multiple floors with elevators. I made a nice conference table out of wood from the lanes."
• Penny Martin Klyber "Many birthday parties" 

In addition, many recalled the once large community of Japanese-Americans in Hyde Park, who had been released into Chicago from the internment camps on the West Coast.