The Beverly Hills of the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s, was owned by the Cleveland Syndicate, and ran by Schraeder, Tucker, and Croft. Three guys who had ties to a lot of the other local clubs in N. Ky. And Cincinnati. In 1969, Beverly was sold to Dick Schilling, who renovated the club and reopened it in 1970, the club operated up until May, 28 1977, at which time there was a fire, which destroyed the entire building and killed 165 patrons and employees. During both ownerships, Beverly was a show club and fine restaurant, with famous names and acts appearing nightly, it has always been billed as “The Showplace of the Nation”. There was gambling in the club up thru 1961, which was the end of pretty much all the gambling in the area. I have heard stories that gambling went on during the Schilling ownership, but the times I spoke with Mr. Schilling, he denied anything like that taking place, and I haven’t ever found any hard proof that it did. After the fire, the club was never rebuilt, and the land still sits vacant today.
The city of Southgate is the next city south of Newport, it has been around since 1907. During the Syndicate years of Beverly, it was advertised as having a Newport address, to associate it with the area of vice and other clubs. They could do this cause the nearest Post Office to Beverly was in Newport. During the 70’s, Schilling used the Southgate address to disassociate the club from that era. Hope this helps answer your questions.