Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 6, 1976.
‘Everybody Worked For Me’
By MARY HENRICHS
“EVERYBODY IN TOWN worked for me at one time or another,” Frances (Fanny) Philley said with a warm smile as she reminisced shortly before her 85th birthday (March 5, 1975) about her 45 years of operating the Premier Candy Shop in the Premier Theatre Building on Lincolnway.
Mrs. Philley and her husband, the late Wallace Philley, who died in June, 1950, opened their soda fountain, homemade candy, and popcorn (carmel and regular salted) store in 1922 when the building was constructed. The quality of its merchandise can be judged by Gene Hart’s comment years later, “The best English toffee in the world died with Wally.”
Mrs. Philley still has records showing that during the years in which they sold popcorn, the Philleys purchased it by the tonーliterallyーwith monthly orders ranging from 200 to 300 pounds.
For many years, the store remained open until 9 p.m., furnishing popcorn and soda fountain products to theater goers. Mrs. Philley said the hours explain the large number of former employees because high school girls were hired to help after school.
“I’M ALWAYS RUNNING into people who say, ‘I used to work for you,’” she grinned.
Our employee who came to stay, however, was Miss Helene Winters who joined the Philleys in 1934 and who was still working at the store when it closed, July 1, 1967.
“We stayed open during the depressionーbarely. Then, the theater began selling its own popcorn and candy so we started offering lunches in the 1930s,” Mrs. Philley remembers.
Miss Winters did the cooking, specializing in homemade pies, with two or three flavorsーsuch as apricot, chocolate, or lemonーbeing offered each day.
The many Valparaisoans who lunched regularly at Fanny’s (through the years everyone forgot the official name and the shop was universally known as “Fanny’s”) knew each day what the featured entree would be before they entered the doorーmeat loaf on Monday; spaghetti, Tuesday; creamed chicken, Wednesday; and macaroni with tuna, Friday.
In 1975, a man stopped Mrs. Philley on the street to say, “I wish I had some of that creamed chicken on biscuit.”
MRS. PHILLEY REMEMBERS that when the shop began serving meals, a meat loaf lunch which included potatoes and cole slaw sold for 25 cents. During the last six months of its operation, the store charged 90 cents for the same meal.
“Coffee was a nickel when we started and it nearly broke my heart when we had to go to 15 cents,” she smiled.
Commenting on other changes through the years, Mrs. Philley noted that when the Premier Candy Shop closed, it was the only restaurant in the block between Washington and Lafayette on Lincolnway. When the Philleys went into the lunch business, four other restaurants operated in that blockーFarmers, American, Rainbow, and Belmont.
“People had a good time in the store. There was always lots of courting and matchmaking going on there. Neal and Dorothy Fry met in our place. So did Claude and Charlotte Sweeny,” Mrs. Philley grinned.
A locally famous “dice game” which provided many happy memories also went on in that store at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. every week day, including 9 a.m. Thursdays was when the store was closed to the public.
