3005 University Ave
Smoky's Club – 1953–Current
proprietor Leonard "Smoky" Schmock & wife Janet.
They owned and operated Hogan's Club from 1953 until '69, when the widening of University
Avenue shut them down. Luckily, Justo's, in business down the street since 1936, was
available, so the Schmocks bought it and renamed it Smoky's Club.
http://www.smokysclub.com/
Justo's Club
Jennie Justo – 1908–1991, her birth name was Vinzenza DiGilormo.
Jennie was dubbed "Queen of the Bootleggers", although she never cared for the label. She was arrested
in 1933 for running a speakeasy out of her home on Spring Street in the
Greenbush neighborhood. Legend has it that a federal agent was
trying to date Jennie, but when rejected him, he turned her in.
Jennie Justo served a year in prison in Milwaukee, and came home to a hero's welcome. Released in March
1934 she arrived at the
train depot on West
Washington Avenue to a welcoming committee of her former customers. They handed her roses and
serenaded her.
She later married Arthur Bramhall, a former quarterback for the Chicago Bears, and the two ran the
Justo's Club.
On Feb. 12, 1923, Jennie's father
Carl Justo was found dying
in a bloodstained snow bank on
Death Corner with a charge of
buckshot in the back of his neck. Some said it was an act of retaliation because his son Dominic had
squealed on men who had robbed the Randall State Bank on Monroe Street in March 1922.
