IRVING ‘SLICK’ SHAPIRO, 1920-2002
Ex-owner’s Aku-Aku Club drew crowds, raves

Irving "Slick" Shapiro, a former Toledo night club owner whose Aku-Aku club drew everyone from Toledo’s corporate elite to some of America’s best known mob figures of the 1970s, died yesterday at Medical College of Ohio Hospitals after a lengthy illness. He was 81.

The Toledo native had been in declining health since undergoing leg surgery last year. He had a kidney transplant four years ago.

A colorful bookmaking figure in his early years - he was arrested several times in the 1940s and 1950s for gambling - Mr. Shapiro opened the Aku-Aku in the Town House Motel in 1960, drawing some of the country’s top entertainers over the next decade.

Names like Duke Ellington, Henny Youngman, and Phyllis Diller drew sell-out crowds to the establishment at Monroe and Bancroft streets.

"There’s no question: He ran the last of the great clubs in this town," said Seymour Rothman, a retired Blade columnist. "There’s never been any place like that since. Not even close."

Chester Devenow, retired chairman of the former Sheller-Globe Corp., said Toledo will never see a place like the Aku-Aku club again.

"It was a gathering place for the top and bottom of society - the elite to the lowest characters that Toledo had to offer. It was the last important gathering place for the last generation of Toledo."

By the time it closed in 1970, it had became one of the city’s most popular clubs, drawing the city’s movers and shakers as well as some of the leaders of Detroit’s crime families, including Jack Tocco and Anthony Zerilli.

Gene Fodor, retired Toledo police detective who worked on organized crime, said the Aku-Aku drew everyone, "The top business people in the city, the politicians, and a lot of the mob, they used to come down from Detroit. It was a jewel of a place."

Described as a gracious host with a sense of humor, Mr. Shapiro often greeted people as they walked in the door. The Town House was part of same complex as the club.

The son of a Jewish Polish immigrant tailor, Mr. Shapiro was reared in Toledo’s Old West End. The family, which included one older sister, spent some years in Cleveland but returned here.

Like so many of his generation, he dropped out of school after the eighth grade and worked in various jobs until World War II when he was a medic in the Army. After he returned, Mr. Shapiro was frequently charged, five times in 1948 alone for keeping a gambling house at M&S Sports Center, 320 Monroe St. It was then that he picked up the nickname Slick for his quick hands at the card table.

He later operated five restaurants and clubs in Toledo from the 1950s to the early ’70s, including the Aku-Aku.

Others included Guiseppe’s Italian on Superior Street; the Embers supper club, on Secor Road near Monroe Street; the Gas Light Club (later the Lamplite Club), on West Central Avenue near Douglas Road, and the Granada Gardens on Monroe near Secor.

In the 1970s, Mr. Shapiro sold the Granada Gardens and moved to Las Vegas where he operated a cleaning supply manufacturing business. It was during his years in Nevada when he ran into more troubles with the law.

In 1971, he was accused of taking part in negotiations with Detroit crime families. He was an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme to conceal mob ownership of a Las Vegas casino and hotel.

In Las Vegas, he had three companies, including Alfa Chemical. Mr. Shapiro was heard on an FBI wiretap bragging that he had been entertaining the governor of New Mexico at the same time Alfa company was trying to get contracts with that state. He was accused of strong-arming several hotels to use his cleaning products. He was was never charged with a crime, however.

He enjoyed golf and belonged to the Indian Wells country club in California. As a teenager, he had been a featherweight boxer.

He moved to Palm Springs, Calif., in the 1970s, but returned to the Toledo area in 1998, living in Springfield Township.

Surviving are his sons, Greg, Myron, and Norman; sister, Alice Hart, and six grandchildren.

Visitation will be after 2 p.m. tomorrow in Walter Funeral Home, 4653 Glendale Ave., where the funeral will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

The family requests tributes to Calvary Assembly of God or the charity of the donor’s choice.