Today's offering would be a perfect fit for legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey. You know - it's the rest of the story.
The recent reference in this corner about the Oct. 10, 1977, fire which destroyed the Twin Coaches supper club in Rostraver Township prompted a question from a reader in Ohio. He follows "hometown news" via The Valley Independent website and asked, "Didn't someone own the Twin Coaches before the Calderone family?"
A story in the newspaper the day after the devastating fire provides the answer.
Written by reporter Fred Hevia, the story emphasized that the blaze "left an empty spot in the heart" of John Clifford Beaumont, of Belle Vernon R.D. 3.
Beaumont, 75, who lived on Smithton Road not far from the Coaches, was credited with being "the founder" of the Twin Coaches and "the man responsible" for putting the two P&LE Railroad cars on the site along Route 51 in 1932.
"The tragic fire Monday morning which demolished the Coaches will probably mark the end of almost a half-century of big time show business in the Mon Valley," Beaumont told Hevia.
Beaumont, whose living room was actually an old Pullman baggage and passenger car after he had another of the old coaches brought in when he built his home on Route 981, said he had a love for railroad cards and new ideas.
He recalled in the interview with Hevia that when beer became legal in Pennsylvania he started a restaurant and beer parlor on the site where he built his home on Route 981. He said the old coal mines in the West Newton and Smithton area "brought a lot of trade" to the establishment.
Business was so brisk, Beaumont added, that he sprung an idea in 1931 and bought the two P&LE coaches at Brownsville, had them delivered by rail to Pricedale and then had a friend, Harry Ashcraft, truck them over old Route 71 to Route 51.
"We owned a farm there at the time and the site looked like a good place to start a restaurant," he told Hevia.
Beaumont put one coach on each side of the lot and constructed a roof over the coaches with the dance floor in the center. He said one of the coaches served as the dining room and the other as the lounge. He built an eight-room apartment on the second floor of the complex. When he initially opened the Coaches on Route 51 it was a restaurant and produce stand. He later obtained a liquor license and introduced the night club.
At that time, he told Hevia, the Coaches seated about 300 persons and business was so good that he had to turn people away during show nights.
"What built the business was our food," he recalled.
Beaumont's was known throughout the region for its home-seasoned ham and fresh country eggs.
Beamont recalled that Tony Calderone and his father-in-law, Joseph Bruno, of Monessen, made the deal to purchase the Twin Coaches from him in 1944.
"Tony and his wife, Rose Bruno Calderone, ran the Coaches and, of course, they enlarged it and made it one of the most popular nights spots in the past," Beaumont told Hevia.
The Calderones continued to build on the original concept, increasing the seating to 1,200 and launching the supper club into the national spotlight with top entertainment.
Even though Rose and Tony Calderone booked most of the biggest stars in show business as well as some of the nation's most prominent politicians for banquets and rallies, Beaumont confessed that he visited the place only once after he sold it in 1944.
"It was during a Democratic banquet and I haven't been there since," he told Hevia.
After selling the Twin Coaches because of health problems in 1944, Beaumont retired at the recommendation of his physician, Dr. A.S. Sickman.
He recalled a vacation to Maine several years earlier when he met a man who, after learning Beaumont was from the Mon Valley, asked him if he knew where Beaumont's Twin Coaches was. He told Beaumont how much he missed the excellent food there.
"Our Twin Coaches was popular 40 years ago," Beaumont said in the 1977 interview.
Beaumont told Hevia he often wondered how Tony and Rose Calderone could continue to bring top shows to the area in light of the high cost of operations which come with inflation in operating such a large place as the Twin Coaches.
"It's tough to operate such a big place with such a big overhead," he said. "But they did a marvelous job."
Beaumont, who still lived in the old family home on Route 981, said he would miss seeing the old Coaches and the thousands of people who traveled for miles to see the big shows or attend banquets there. He said he didn't expect to see another Twin Coaches, "at least not as large as the old one," ever built again.
He was right.
Wreckage of the supper club, which was owned by Bob Calderone, a nephew of Tony Calderone, at the time of the 1977 fire, was razed and the ashes cleared.
Sadly, John Clifford Beaumont died on Dec. 1, 1977, less than two months after the fire at the Twin Coaches.
He took with him a lasting legacy in this area's history.
(If you have memories to share or a story idea, contact Ron Paglia at ronpaglia@verizon.net or c/o The Valley Independent, Eastgate 19, Monessen, PA 15062.)
