When Edward Conti learned about the death of Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds, an unusual word flashed through his memory: “Chanticleer.”
The 71-year-old North Hill resident called the Beacon Journal for confirmation of a family legend involving the old Chanticleer Restaurant, a posh dining spot on Ghent Road in the 1950s and 1960s.
Angelo and Virginia Conti liked to point out the Fairlawn landmark to their kids.
“Every time my parents would pass by the Chanticleer, they would tell me this is where Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher had dinner,” he said.
Conti added: “What they were doing in the Akron area, I don’t know.”
It truly was a special occasion. “America’s Sweetheart” and “The Coca-Cola Kid,” perhaps the nation’s most beloved couple at the time, were on their honeymoon Oct. 2, 1955, when they made the stop.
“Wow,” Conti said. “That’s very interesting.”
The singing-and-acting celebrities were recognized as soon as they entered the Chanticleer, the former Ghent Road Inn that chef Michael LoCicero and manager Charles Samie had opened a month earlier near West Market Street. Restaurant workers and about 50 patrons gawked as the stylish couple took their seats at a table.
“Diminutive Debbie was radiant in a blue-grey taffeta blouse and a light-colored skirt. She wore a grey and white-striped scarf at her neck,” Beacon Journal reporter Lloyd Stoyer wrote. “Eddie had on a pair of dark slacks, a green wool sports shirt open at the collar and a grey and brown tweed jacket.”
Belated honeymoon
Following a Sept. 26 wedding in the Catskills of New York, the newlyweds left for a belated, two-week honeymoon at Greenbrier Country Club in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., but there was a little hitch in the plans.
“We were flying to Greenbrier from Chicago, but we were grounded in Cleveland,” Fisher explained. “We don’t have time to take a long trip. After our stay at Greenbrier, I’m due back in New York to go to work.”
So the couple phoned a friend who agreed to drive them to the West Virginia resort. It was a Sunday night and they were getting hungry, so they stopped at the Chanticleer while driving along Route 176.
According to the newspaper, the happy couple “exchanged fond looks” and cheerfully signed autographs for anyone who asked.
“Both ordered shrimp cocktails,” Stoyer noted. “Eddie had chicken noodle soup, a prime rib of beef and a parfait for dessert. Debbie had onion soup, baked potato, Rock Cornish game hen and a parfait. She took along some rye bread and a dozen large black ripe olives for a snack later.”
“Celebrities or not, they’re wonderful people,” restaurant manager Samie told the Beacon Journal. “That Debbie — she’s beautiful.”
“They’re just two kids in love,” a waitress sighed after the two stars signed her order pad.
Fisher turned down Samie’s offer to pick up the dinner tab.
“I’ll take a rain check,” Fisher said. “We’re coming back this way and we’ll stop again.”
No return as couple
Although the couple entertained audiences in Akron over the years, they didn’t return as a couple. They welcomed their daughter, Carrie Fisher, the future Princess Leia of Star Wars, in October 1956 — a year after the dinner at Chanticleer.
Reynolds was pregnant with their son, Todd, in 1958 when Eddie Fisher left her for Hollywood superstar Elizabeth Taylor, whose husband Mike Todd had been killed in a March plane crash. Eddie’s popularity sank and his career stalled.
But three years earlier in Fairlawn, it could be said that Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher were never happier.
Incidentally, Edward Conti’s parents weren’t dining at the Chanticleer that famous night. They found out about the celebrity visitors through the newspaper article.
“My parents would not go to restaurants like that,” Conti said with a laugh.
Beacon Journal copy editor Mark J. Price can be reached at 330-996-3850 or mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.