Bowling, Once a First Date, Now Takes Back Seat (original) (raw)

New York|Bowling, Once a First Date, Now Takes Back Seat

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/10/nyregion/bowling-once-a-first-date-now-takes-back-seat.html

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Dec. 10, 2000

BACK when men were men and bowling alleys were bowling alleys, Paramus Lanes was so hot that the likes of Joe Louis and Jayne Mansfield would show up there to watch the best in tenpins, and to be watched.

''That place was packed every Monday night,'' recalled Chuck Pezzano, the dean of bowling writers, who dubbed Paramus Lanes the ''Home of Champions.' ''There was seating for 500 spectators.''

Even people who never set foot there remember seeing Paramus Lanes on the 1950's television shows ''Make That Spare'' and ''Championship Bowling.'' Among the greats who smashed pins in Paramus were Lou Campi, nicknamed ''wrong-foot Lou'' because he led with his left foot -- like a boccie player -- and Graz Castellano, the first person to bowl a perfect 300 game on television.

''Paramus got so famous that bowlers would go 50 miles out of their way just to see it,'' Mr. Pezzano said.

Today, Paramus Lanes is Sports World, an entertainment complex where children have birthday parties. Bowling alleys are called bowling centers by people in the business -- to avoid the politically incorrect connotation of the word alley. And that's not all. Alleys themselves are called lanes, the gutter is called the channel and the pit -- where the pins tumble -- is called the receptacle.

And the most famous bowling house in New Jersey is the fictional Stuckeybowl, a defunct bowling alley in Northvale, which is now the set of the NBC series ''Ed.''

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