Market extinguished, but matchbooks still spark memories

In a corner kitchen cabinet, tucked behind the easy-to-forget-we-have olive tray and next to my not-sure-why-we-still-have college fraternity mug lies a cache of memories captured in matchbooks collected long ago. For my wife, Cheryl, and me, the advertising on each cover ignites recollections of great nights out, wonderful vacations and things that don't exist anymore.

There's a matchbook from the suburban restaurant where we enjoyed our wedding rehearsal dinner in 1988. It's a Crate & Barrel now. There are matchbooks from our first fancy dinner date at Carlos', our honeymoon in St. Maarten and our before-kids dream vacations to Thailand, Hong Kong and Hawaii. There is a matchbook from the ill-fated Windows on the World restaurant that once graced the 106th and 107th floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. There are matchbooks from weddings for Kim & Mike, Chris & Jeff, Trish & Keith and some strangers whose matches I grabbed from a hotel lobby because the cover hailed the union of Julie & Burt, which I assumed would amuse my wife no end.

Now, I can't remember the last time I took home a matchbook as a souvenir.

“It's been a long time since I've seen matches anywhere. In restaurants, you can't smoke anymore and that's what killed the industry,” says Bob Cigrang, 62, a Mount Prospect resident who helped found the Windy City Matchcover Club in 1985 for local collectors. “The only thing left is casinos and cigar stores.”

Few merchants want to be seen as promoting smoking, and for people who need to light dinner candles, grills or campfires, disposal lighters are cheap and easy.

At one time, Illinois was home to lots of matchbook manufacturers, Cigrang says. But Chicago Match Company in Libertyville is gone. The recent merge of a Westchester company with a matchmaker in Texas means there are no matchbook-makers in Illinois and fewer than a handful in the nation.

Those who predict that matchbook covers will one day be found in museums are too late. The Western Illinois Museum's “artifact of the month” for January boasts hundreds of old matchbooks collected by Western Illinois University professor Jay W. Stein, who died in 2007.

“It's pretty cool,” Sue Scott, curator of the museum in downtown Macomb, says of all the memories contained in those books of matches. “It sparks stories, for sure.”

A glance at eBay reveals collectors selling matchbooks, usually for three or four dollars, from defunct suburban landmarks such as Elgin's House of Jean restaurant, Henrici's in Des Plaines, Fishermen's Inn in Elburn, Ray's Tavern in Wheeling, Radio Club Farm in Palatine, The Northern Chalet German restaurant in Libertyville, Andy's Steakhouse in Oak Brook and the plush, red-carpeted King's Palace in Lisle. Each matchbook brings to mind a story for someone.

Seeing a quaint, 40-year-old matchbook advertising a West Dundee cabinetmaker “Trained in Germany,” I am surprised when Johannes Kajan, now 75, answers the phone.

“That was so far back,” says Kajan, who notes that I might be the only person who saw his matchbook ad and actually called him. “I did it for business, but it didn't do me any good. My business is gone and the matchbooks are gone.”

While the matchbooks didn't bring him business, he understands their allure.

“I used to collect them. I had a big jar, hundreds. Whenever I went on vacation, I'd bring back matchbooks,” says Kajan, who adds that he eventually burned his collection in his outside fireplace. “That time is gone.”

But not forgotten. Members of the Windy City Matchcover Club ($5 annual dues) will meet from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5, at the Oakbrook Terrace Park District, 1 S325 Ardmore Ave.

“I probably have a couple hundred thousand,” says Cigrang, a railroad equipment salesman who called Wednesday on his drive to Minnesota and has picked up many matchbooks during three decades on the road. He's got matchbooks from politicians such as the old Mayor Richard J. Daley and presidential runner-up Wendell Willkie.

“I'm a big sports fan, so I've got every athlete or movie star who owned a restaurant,” Cigrang says. He's got matches from Mike Ditka's old bowling alley in Willowbrook, Rick Casares' bowling alley in Buffalo Grove, Sid Luckman's car dealership on Ogden Avenue, Nellie Fox's bowling alley in Pennsylvania and Bronko Nagurski's gas station in International Falls, Minn.

One of his favorites is Jimmy Hoffa's personal matchbook featuring the James Hoffa name with the Teamsters logo, Cigrang says.

“They're not real valuable,” adds Cigrang, who generated some interest in the hobby when he displayed his collection at the Mount Prospect Public Library where his wife, Phyllis, works. A matchbook featuring a Hall-of-Fame baseball player from the 1930s might fetch 10 bucks, he says. The dozen members of his club are into the hobby just to remember the glory years of matchbooks.

“The next generation isn't interested in this,” Cigrang says, adding that you don't have to need matches to appreciate matchbooks.

“I've never smoked in my life,” Cigrang says. “I'm just a collector.”