The Chicagoans behind the "Hardcore Pawn Chicago" 2013 TV show.

Royal Jewelers & Loans (Royal Pawn Shop) is a pawn brokerage group located in Illinois that has three pawnshop locations: two pawn shops in Chicago; A-Royal Pawn Shop 428 S. Clark Street, Chicago, Just Pawn, Inc., 4509 N. Sheridan Rd., Chicago, and A-1 American Jewelers & Pawns, 6151 W. North Ave., Oak Park, Illinois. 

They are one of the largest and oldest pawn and gold buying businesses. Their family has been in the business for over 100 years. Royal Jewelers & Loans offers customers the opportunity to sell their valuables or use them as collateral for a confidential loan.

"We’re not only pawnbrokers, we’re lunatics,” Wayne Cohen said about himself and his brother Randy. “We know how to handle lunatics. This is the craziest shop in the country.” The stars of the new truTV cable show “Hardcore Pawn: Chicago,” is filmed at Royal Pawn Shop, 428 S. Clark Street, in the Loop. “My brother, my dad, my grandfather—we go back three generations. When you say, ‘pawnshop Chicago’, everybody knows the Cohens.” 

The truTV Network show lasted only 8 months from January 2013 to August 2013.

RANDY COHEN

Randy Cohen, co-owner of Royal Pawn Shop with his older brother, Wayne, worked at his father's pawnshop since the age of 5 and only took time out during his early 20s to work as a bouncer at some of Chicago's hottest nightclubs. Randy says that being a bouncer taught him how to deal with any situation before it turns nasty. Of course, his 20-inch biceps also help. Randy is a hard-line rationalist always concerned about the bottom dollar. He would say he is the backbone and workhorse of Royal Pawn and that Wayne is a slacker and a dreamer. "Without me, my brother would turn a large fortune into a small one very quickly," he says. "This pawn shop would be driven into the ground." In addition to his duties at the store, Randy is an avid weight lifter, boater, and collector of firearms and cars.

WAYNE COHEN

Royal Pawn Shop co-owner and older brother Wayne jokes that he was conceived in the backroom of one of his father's old pawn shops and has worked in the family business ever since. Wayne and his brother, Randy, don't always see eye-to-eye. While many people call Wayne "the pawnbroker with a heart of gold," Randy would say that Wayne is nothing more than a sucker for a sob story. Wayne loves to take chances in the hopes that he'll get a big payday, and he admits that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Wayne has been married to his wife, Audrey, for 34 years. Playing basketball is one of Wayne's favorite pastimes. He says he used to play regularly with President Barack Obama (then a Senator from Illinois) and current United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

ELYSE COHEN

Elyse is Randy's daughter. She practically grew up in Royal Pawn Shop and has been working there her entire life. Elyse does it all at the store, from appraising jewelry to making loans to bossing people around. Her forte is knowing how much modern gadgets like cell phones and computers are worth, which makes her an invaluable asset to the store. While she doesn't always agree with her Uncle Wayne, she considers her dad to be her best friend, and she always has his back in the store. Elyse is not above using her close relationship with her father to her own advantage. Randy says of his daughter, "Elyse is our best customer who never pays." Elyse is as smart as she is cute. She graduated with honors from DePaul University with a bachelor's degree in business administration and a minor in Spanish. She has three Pomeranians – Paris, Jake, and Spike –she calls "her kids." She also has a substantial collection of guns, which she regularly tests out at one of the local shooting range.

NATE COHEN

Nate is Wayne's son, but he doesn't always agree with his dad. Nate has been working at Royal Pawn Shop his entire life. He is currently attending college, but he hasn't chosen a major yet. At Royal Pawn Shop, Nate writes up loans and tries to make sure no one does anything stupid. He knows the pawn business and has no time for fools. Nate is a superb tennis player and golfer and loves to spend his free time driving around in his sports car.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Evanston Avenue in Chicago was renamed to Broadway in 1913, the only city thoroughfare without a suffix.

Broadway in Chicago is neither an avenue nor a street. It is of two Chicago thoroughfare without a suffix. Adding a suffix is a mistake that many have made, including the City of Chicago whose error, now corrected, could be seen every day in plain sight at the corner of Broadway and Catalpa. The street sign on that corner read “Broadway Av.” Almost every other sign along the thoroughfare reads properly with no suffix added. 

The Broadway thoroughfare sign at Broadway and Wellington was changed in mid-2016, and then the "AV" for avenue was added to this sign. Perhaps a printer's mistake.

The U.S. Post Office recently shows Broadway as "Broadway Sreet" on their Zip Code Finder website page.

Chicago Street Sign, Looking West, on Devon Avenue.

If you say that Lincoln Park West also has no suffix, you must go back to 1920 for proof. According to the Chicago Almanac and Year-Book for 1920; Lincoln Park West is a Boulevard that runs 1/2 mile from Fullerton Avenue / Fullerton Boulevard on the north to Clark Street on the south. The Boulevard or "BLVD" suffix would not fit on the street sign, so the city left it off.

Let's go back to the beginning of Chicago area history. In 1854 landowners organized to make their land more attractive and more valuable by constructing the Lake Shore Plank Road, which became Evanston Avenue, then renamed Broadway in 1913. Lake Shore Plank Road was the last wooden plank road built in the Chicago area.

Evanston Avenue was an important connection for those traveling between Chicago and its northern neighbor Evanston. It cut through woodland areas, including the 'White Birch Forest' that would eventually become neighborhoods such as Uptown, Edgewater, and Rogers Park. The land on which Evanston Avenue was built was more stable ground compared to the swampier soil located east of the road to the lakefront.

As roads such as Evanston Avenue became increasingly traveled, the woods that they sliced through made way to what is now the far north lakefront neighborhoods of Chicago. Developers saw potential in the land and built communities that catered mostly to well-off Chicago families, moving away from the city center.

In order to service these new residents, businesses started to quickly pop up along Evanston Avenue. In 1913, those merchants pushed to have the street’s name changed. Uptown and Edgewater were evolving into Chicago’s version of New York City’s "Great White Way," they chose to rename the street Broadway to reflect the new opulent area.

NYC’s Broadway also has no suffix. Originally the Wickquasgeck Trail, Dutch settlers needed to widen the Manhattan Island street to make room for 4-horse drawn traffic (to allow a 4-horse team to turn 180°) in the mid-1600s. After completion, they renamed the street in Dutch to "Brede Weg" which translated to "Broad Way" in English. Like the Dutch word, Broad Way was spoken as one-word, Broadway, and over time, was spelled as one-word, Broadway.

For those who believe Broadway deserves a suffix, the thoroughfare is technically a 'Way' but became a portmanteau word when Broad Way was turned into one word.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Osborn Oldroyd, Collector of Lincoln Memorabilia and Founder of his "Lincoln Museum."

The Lincoln Museum, in the heart of downtown Washington, D.C, is housed in the old Ford's Theater, where President Lincoln was assassinated. Its history may begin with Osborn Hamline Ingham Oldroyd of Ohio, an admirer of Abraham Lincoln. In his eighteenth year, during Lincoln's first campaign for the Presidency, Oldroyd was inspired by a little book, "The Life, Speeches, and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln." He was eager to learn more about this man who could reach such heights with no more than a year of schooling.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Oldroyd was one of the first to enlist when Company E, 20th Ohio Infantry, was organized in his neighborhood. He spent nearly four years in defense of the Union, upholding the principles of his hero. At the age of 22, after his discharge from the Army, Oldroyd determined to devote his life to the pursuit of knowledge about this great man. With unfailing devotion, he gathered pictures, speeches, newspaper articles, books, furniture, and other Lincoln mementos that he could obtain by gift or purchase. He sustained himself and his family by selling some of his collected relics.

Osborn Hamline Ingham Oldroyd, date unknown.

While attending a memorial service for Lincoln in 1880, Oldroyd displayed his collection. When Lincoln's son Robert sought a tenant for the family's house in Springfield in 1883, Oldroyd found the perfect place for his collection. 

The Lincoln's Springfield, Illinois, House. NOTE: Mary added a 2nd floor in 1856 without Abraham knowing.

For 10 years, Oldroyd operated his "Lincoln Museum" there with rather dubious financial practices, charging a small fee for visitors and skimping Robert Lincoln on the rent. Robert Lincoln gave the family home to the state government in 1887 (for free public use), and Oldroyd was hired by the state of Illinois to be the first custodian of the house and gave him a salary of $1,000 per year. Oldroyd undoubtedly used this salary to increase his collection at every turn.

One-half of a stereo card picture of Oldroyd's Lincoln collection in "The Parlor" of the Lincoln House.

After ten years of residence in Springfield, Oldroyd moved his collection to Washington and took up residence in the Government-owned Petersen House at 516 10th Street, northwest. This was the house into which the President was carried, across the street from Ford's Theater, after Booth's fatal shot. It was here that Lincoln died on the morning of April 15, 1865, approximately nine hours later. 

When a Democratic governor was elected in Illinois in 1893, the staunch Republican Oldroyd was evicted from the Lincoln House. Luckily for Ford's Theatre, the then-owners of the Petersen House invited Oldroyd and his now-homeless collection to Washington. He set up shop in the former boarding house across the street from Ford's Theatre at the Petersen House.

This picture was taken from within the front parlor of the Petersen House, facing toward the rear parlor. The door to the right leads into the room where Lincoln died at the Petersen House.

View from within the rear parlor of the Petersen House in the direction of the front parlor. This photo shows only the front parlor.

Photograph shot from the entrance of the room where Lincoln died. The bed Lincoln died in would have been located in the bottom right-hand corner of this photo.

This photo was taken from the rear of William T. Clark's rented room where Lincoln died. Ahead is the doorway to the hallway to the Petersen House entrance, and the X marks the location of Lincoln's deathbed.

When the U.S. government acquired the Petersen House in 1896—the government first purchased a historic home—Oldroyd continued living in the house and served as curator. 

Osborn Oldroyd in front of the Lincoln Museum in the Petersen Boarding House in 1925

THE SIGN READS: HOUSE IN WHICH ABRAHAM LINCOLN DIED — CONTAINS THE — "OLDROYD LINCOLN MEMORIAL COLLECTION" OF OVER 3000 ARTICLES. DAY AND EVENING ADMISSION 27¢ + 3¢ TAX ● TOTAL 30¢

In the 1920s, Oldroyd brokered a deal with then Illinois Representative Henry Riggs Rathbone—son of the Lincolns' ill-fated guests on the night of the assassination—for the federal government to purchase the collection for $50,000 ($785,000 today).

Congressman Henry Riggs Rathbone (left) with Osborn Oldroyd, owner of an extensive collection of Lincoln memorabilia housed in the Petersen House from 1893 to 1930. Rathbone arranged the U.S. government's purchase of the collection in 1926.

In 1932, Oldroyd's collection moved into a repurposed Ford's Theatre, which had sat empty since several floors had collapsed in 1892. With the centennial of the Civil War approaching and plans to restore the Theatre under debate in the 1940s and 1950s, descendants of theatre owner John T. Ford and the Defense Department began to return objects pertinent to the assassination. These included the pistol used to assassinate the President and the door to the Presidential Box where Lincoln sat that night.

A 1935 guide to the Ford's Theatre Museum compared its significance to the Lincoln Memorial, saying the "Lincoln Memorial is a shrine to a great Patriot; the Lincoln Museum is primarily a memorial to the human qualities of a beloved leader." 

Osborn Hamline Ingham Oldroyd (1842-1930)

The self-appointed "Captain" Oldroyd, who was once described as a "deadbeat" by Robert Lincoln, strikes me as one of the most exciting personalities of the Ford's Theatre story—eccentric, conniving, financially unscrupulous. But he astutely figured out how to help others understand and love Lincoln as he did—through preserving and displaying objects of historical significance. 

ADDITIONAL READING:

Life of Osborn H. Oldroyd, Founder and Collector of Lincoln Mementos. pub:1927

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.