{"id":5,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-03-04 21:31:57","latitude":41.5031910000000010541043593548238277435302734375,"longitude":-81.6362570000000005165929906070232391357421875,"title":"Leo's Casino","subtitle":"Cleveland's Motown Outpost","fullsize":"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/a70964832d3eacfe9272536cc9d27a18.jpg","address":"7500 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH","zoom":15,"creator":["CSU Center for Public History and Digital Humanities"],"description":"In 1963, business partners Leo Frank and Jules Berger opened Leo's Casino in the lounge of the old Quad Hall Hotel at 7500 Euclid Avenue. The club could host 700 people and regularly booked the top jazz and R&B acts of its era. The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, John Coltrane, Ray Charles and The Temptations all performed at Leo's Casino, as did comedians Richard Pryor and Flip Wilson. Otis Redding played his final concert there on December 9, 1967, dying in a plane crash in Wisconsin the following afternoon.
\r\n
\r\nCo-owner Leo Frank opened his first club - Leo's - in 1952 at East 49th Street and Central Avenue. Leo's attracted the nation's leading jazz and R&B acts, but burned down in 1962, leading to the opening of Leo's Casino the following year. The new club, which quickly established itself as a key stop for touring Motown artists, was one of the most racially integrated nightlife spots in Cleveland. In July 1966 The Supremes played to a packed house of blacks and whites at Leo's not long after the Hough Uprising broke out mere blocks away from the club.
\r\n
\r\nEventually, bigger venues offering bigger paydays began to lure the most popular performers away from Leo's Casino. Continued population decline and disinvestment in Cleveland's east side after the Hough Uprising further hurt the club's fortunes. Leo's Casino closed in 1972 and was later torn down. In 1999, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named it a historic landmark, placing a plaque on the site where Leo's Casino once stood.","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"Demolished","lede":null,"website":null,"related_resources":["Adams, Deanna R. Rock 'n' Roll and the Cleveland Connection. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2002.","\"Leo's Casino,\" Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, case.edu/ech/articles/l/leos-casino.","Petkovich, John. \"Cleveland's Legendary Leo's Casino Made Music History, Transcended Race.\" Cleveland.com, May 14, 2017. www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2017/05/clevelands_legendary_leos_casi.html."],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/a70964832d3eacfe9272536cc9d27a18.jpg":{"id":11023,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Gladys Knight & The Pips","description":"An ad for Gladys Night & The Pips at Leo's Casino | Cleveland SGS","thumbnail":"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/a70964832d3eacfe9272536cc9d27a18.jpg"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/5ce93f52076b1593f7c0cbea7a10d47e.jpg":{"id":11209,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Leo's Casino's First Location","description":"Leo's Casino at the corner of Cedar and E. 49th with Abbotts Bar-B-Q to its west | Cleveland Public Library, Photograph Collection | July 8, 1958","thumbnail":"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/5ce93f52076b1593f7c0cbea7a10d47e.jpg"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/373f8981cdacb661b220f92598cac0ab.jpg":{"id":8482,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Looking East on Euclid Avenue with Quad Hall Hotel at Right","description":"Completed in 1925, Quad Hall was among many apartment buildings that rose along the former "Millionaires' Row" on Euclid Avenue in the Roaring Twenties. | Cleveland Public Library, Photograph Collection | 1927","thumbnail":"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/373f8981cdacb661b220f92598cac0ab.jpg"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/4e5be01ac24f56ace4c5e16b12ba17cd.jpg":{"id":11022,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Lounge at Quad Hall Hotel, ca. 1920s","description":"In 1963, Quad Hall, a hotel and men's club at the corner of Euclid Avenue and East 75th Street, became the home of Leo's Casino. | Cleveland Memory, Michael Schwartz Library Special Collections at Cleveland State University | ca. 1920s","thumbnail":"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/4e5be01ac24f56ace4c5e16b12ba17cd.jpg"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/5de7bcbf457dcb02a9f95c00a53a85a4.jpg":{"id":11021,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Quad Hall Hotel Postcard","description":"The back of this postcard reads: "Quad Hall guest room, club residence for men, 7500 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio." Leo Frank and Jules Berger purchased the Quad Hall Hotel in 1963 and opened Leo's Casino. | Cleveland Memory, Michael Schwartz Library Special Collections at Cleveland State University | Bebout & Downs, Inc.","thumbnail":"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/5de7bcbf457dcb02a9f95c00a53a85a4.jpg"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/f8a7ae283fef7f49173313dcad0bd4dd.jpg":{"id":8484,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Leo's Casino, 1970","description":"Leo's Casino shared the ground level of the old Quad Hall Hotel with Nite-N-Day Wash & Dry and Quad Drug. | Cleveland Public Library, Photograph Collection | 1970","thumbnail":"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/f8a7ae283fef7f49173313dcad0bd4dd.jpg"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/09fa9090f696ab8e6296c070695fb30a.jpg":{"id":10965,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"John Coltrane ad","description":"An ad for a John Coltrane concert at the old Leo's Casino at E. 49th and Cedar. Note the mention of a coming Dizzy Gillespie concert as well. | Call & Post, July 28, 1962","thumbnail":"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/09fa9090f696ab8e6296c070695fb30a.jpg"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/6d455d12f045989f9b364173511d64dd.jpg":{"id":11024,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Nina Simone","description":"1968 ad for Nina Simone at Leo's Casino in The Cleveland Press Showtime Magazine | Cleveland Press | 1968","thumbnail":"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/6d455d12f045989f9b364173511d64dd.jpg"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/224e42d6121fe8254ca3e86317ee576d.jpg":{"id":10964,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Ray Charles","description":"An ad for a Ray Charles concert at Leo's Casino | Call & Post, August 6, 1966","thumbnail":"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/224e42d6121fe8254ca3e86317ee576d.jpg"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/e115adefd9177605edc49eced957b0c6.jpg":{"id":10963,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"1967 Spring Jazz Festival","description":"Promo for the 1967 Spring Jazz Festival at Leo's Casino featuring Cannonball Adderley and, separately, four nights of shows by the Four Tops | Call & Post, February 25, 1967","thumbnail":"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/e115adefd9177605edc49eced957b0c6.jpg"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/original/999067-leos-casino-historical-overview_mixdown_3bc3f5aa71.mp3":{"id":30,"mime-type":"audio/mpeg","title":"Cleveland's Integrated Music Scene","description":"John Grabowski provides a historical overview of Leo's Casino | Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection "},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/original/920003-leos-casino-memories-of-acts-at-leos_mixdown_4a0b2e159d.mp3":{"id":27,"mime-type":"audio/mpeg","title":"Big Acts At Leo's Casino","description":"Larry Rivers remembers Leo's Casino as a place for top acts | Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/original/999004-leos-casino-four-tops-memories_mixdown_eb116abaac.mp3":{"id":28,"mime-type":"audio/mpeg","title":"The Four Tops At Leo's Casino","description":"Bennie Jean Johnson remembers seeing the Four Tops at Leo's Casino | Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/original/999004-leos-casino-location_mixdown_df4b46b967.mp3":{"id":29,"mime-type":"audio/mpeg","title":"Living Near Leo's Casino","description":"Bennie Jean Johnson describes the location and the atmosphere of Leo's Casino | Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection"},"https://www.clevelandhistorical.org/files/original/e7a3f18c8d1f37a58c91280c2f4c3a4b.mp3":{"id":12220,"mime-type":"audio/mpeg","title":"Marvin Gaye at Leo's Casino","description":"Clara Nelson remembers meeting Marvin Gaye at Leo's when she was a teenager. | Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection"}}}