History UsefulNotes / Cleveland

* Joe Schuster and Jerry Siegel (the creators of Franchise/{{Superman}})

* Pere Ubu (long-running AvantGardeMusic band named after the character from ''Theatre/UbuRoi'')

* Frank Yankovic (musician, known as "America's Polka King", no relation to [[Creator/WeirdAlYankovic Weird Al]])

* Frank Yankovic (musician, known as "America's Polka King")

* Dennis Kucinich (former Congressman from Cleveland; previous Mayor of Cleveland during [[TheSeventies the late 1970s]] [[NeverLiveItDown when the city declared bankruptcy]])

* ''Film/RockyHorrorPictureShow'' takes places in the fictional Denton, Ohio, but the newspaper Janet uses to shield herself from the rain is ''The Plain Dealer'', Cleveland's local paper, suggesting that Cleveland is the closest major city.

* Wrestling/DolphZiggler (born there, according to Wiki/ThatOtherWiki) was once acknowledged during a show in Cleveland.

[[caption-width-right:350:"[[MemeticMutation We're not Detroit!]]"]]

* Creator/LiliReinhart of ''Series/{{Riverdale}}'' is from the nearby town of Bay Village.
* Creator/JakePaul and Creator/LoganPaul are from the nearby town of Westlake.
* Creator/IsabelaMoner

* George Steinbrenner (Who tried to buy the Cleveland Guardians before [[WhatCouldHaveBeen settling]] for the [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity New York]] Yankees instead.)

On some more positive notes, the term "RockAndRoll" was coined in Cleveland by local DJ Alan Freed, and the city has a proud musical heritage and is home to both the RockAndRoll Hall of Fame and the Cleveland Orchestra, the youngest of America's "Big Five" symphonies (the others are New York, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia). Cleveland also houses the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polka_Hall_of_Fame Polka Hall of Fame]], and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovenian-style_polka Cleveland Style Polka]] is a sub-genre of music named after the [[PolkaDork Polka Dorks]] of the city due mostly in part to the success of Frankie Yankovic but also to a large number of people of German and Eastern European (especially Polish) descent in Cleveland. Jazz musicians, including scat jazz, also have been and continue to be popular. The Playhouse Square in downtown is the second-largest theatre complex in the United States, behind UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity's Lincoln Center. The city is also sometimes used as a stand-in for NYC or Chicago in film, due to lower filming costs, since it has similar architecture[[note]]Many a local has {{squee}}d upon seeing the Trust Company Rotunda in ''Film/SpiderMan3''[[/note]]. It possesses a surprising number of truly beautiful churches, more museums than a city thrice its size generally has, and two of the best library systems in the country. Cleveland's the home of Case Western Reserve University, one of the more bizarrely named colleges in the country[[note]]The Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University used to be two separate institutions until 1967. "Western Reserve" itself refers to an old name for northeast Ohio, the Connecticut Western Reserve, claimed by the state of Connecticut for its veterans to settle in following the American Revolution until the state agreed to give it up to the newly-formed state of Ohio.[[/note]], and Cleveland State University. An hour southeast is Kent State University, a [[StrawmanU Berzerkeley]] known for an infamous massacre in 1970.

Possibly the biggest reason why this goes unchallenged is that all but the most anal-retentive of locals have a sense of humor about it -- they'll tell you ''themselves'' how Cleveland is America's down-pat worst. With brutal winters, massive [[DyingTown urban decay]], a river that was once [[PollutedWasteland so polluted that]] [[FreakierThanFiction it caught fire]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyahoga_River#Environmental_concerns thirteen times]] [[https://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/burning-river and named a local beer after that fact]], several political scandals leading to multiple FBI raids, and the fact that road construction is ''never'' finished (also a staple of Ohio in general), most residents have no illusions of being in paradise, and often speak with GallowsHumor. Some choose to stay, however, as the city has a low cost of living, a growing healthcare industry (the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals), and decent nightlife. It can even be called a mini-UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, due to its patchwork of ethnic neighborhoods, Midwest atmosphere, public rail that's both elevated and underground (well, it runs in its own ditch rather than under the street, but same diff), division by a major river (east and west in this case, with people on either side almost never going further than downtown), and massive crime rates. And then there's [[Balloonacy Balloonfest '86]]. And [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Torso_Murderer the Torso Killer...]]

Possibly the biggest reason why this goes unchallenged is that all but the most anal-retentive of locals have a sense of humor about it -- they'll tell you ''themselves'' how Cleveland is America's down-pat worst. With brutal winters, massive [[DyingTown urban decay]], a river that was once [[PollutedWasteland so polluted that]] [[FreakierThanFiction it caught fire]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyahoga_River#Environmental_concerns thirteen times]] [[https://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/burning-river and named a local beer after that fact]], several political scandals leading to multiple FBI raids, and the fact that road construction is ''never'' finished (also a staple of Ohio in general), most residents have no illusions of being in paradise, and often speak with GallowsHumor. Some choose to stay, however, as the city has a low cost of living, a growing healthcare industry (the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals), and decent nightlife. It can even be called a mini-UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, due to its patchwork of ethnic neighborhoods, Midwest atmosphere, public rail that's both elevated and underground (well, it runs in its own ditch rather than under the street, but same diff), division by a major river (east and west in this case, with people on either side almost never going further than downtown), and massive crime rates. And then there's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloonfest_86 Balloonfest '86]]. And [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Torso_Murderer the Torso Killer...]]

Possibly the biggest reason why this goes unchallenged is that all but the most anal-retentive of locals have a sense of humor about it -- they'll tell you ''themselves'' how Cleveland is America's down-pat worst. With brutal winters, massive [[DyingTown urban decay]], a river that was once [[PollutedWasteland so polluted that]] [[FreakierThanFiction it caught fire]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyahoga_River#Environmental_concerns thirteen times]] [[https://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/burning-river and named a local beer after that fact]], several political scandals leading to multiple FBI raids, and the fact that road construction is ''never'' finished (also a staple of Ohio in general), most residents have no illusions of being in paradise, and often speak with GallowsHumor. Some choose to stay, however, as the city has a low cost of living, a growing healthcare industry (the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals), and decent nightlife. It can even be called a mini-UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, due to its patchwork of ethnic neighborhoods, Midwest atmosphere, public rail that's both elevated and underground (well, it runs in its own ditch rather than under the street, but same diff), division by a major river (east and west in this case, with people on either side almost never going further than downtown), and massive crime rates. And then there's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloonfest_'86 Balloonfest '86]]. And [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Torso_Murderer the Torso Killer...]]

Possibly the biggest reason why this goes unchallenged is that all but the most anal-retentive of locals have a sense of humor about it -- they'll tell you ''themselves'' how Cleveland is America's down-pat worst. With brutal winters, massive [[DyingTown urban decay]], a river that was once [[PollutedWasteland so polluted that]] [[FreakierThanFiction it caught fire]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyahoga_River#Environmental_concerns thirteen times]] [[https://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/burning-river and named a local beer after that fact]], several political scandals leading to multiple FBI raids, and the fact that road construction is ''never'' finished (also a staple of Ohio in general), most residents have no illusions of being in paradise, and often speak with GallowsHumor. Some choose to stay, however, as the city has a low cost of living, a growing healthcare industry (the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals), and decent nightlife. It can even be called a mini-UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, due to its patchwork of ethnic neighborhoods, Midwest atmosphere, public rail that's both elevated and underground (well, it runs in its own ditch rather than under the street, but same diff), division by a major river (east and west in this case, with people on either side almost never going further than downtown), and massive crime rates. And then there's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Torso_Murderer the Torso Killer...]]

[[caption-width-right:350:We put up signs to remind us where we live!]]

* Lili Reinhart of ''Series/{{Riverdale}}'' is from the nearby town of Bay Village.

* [[Series/McHalesNavy Tim]] [[Series/TheCarolBurnettShow Con]][[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants way]]

* [[Film/{{Tootsie}} Teri Garr]]

* [[Series/FamilyFeud Steve]] [[Series/TheSteveHarveyShow Harvey]]
* [[Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond Patricia]] [[Series/TheMiddle Heaton]]

* [[Series/SaturdayNightLive Molly Shannon]]

** ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' creator Bill Watterson. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes#Books The strip takes place in Watterson's hometown]] of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagrin_Falls,_Ohio Chagrin Falls]], a suburb of Cleveland.

* Vanessa Bayer

* [[Series/TheArsenioHallShow Arsenio Hall]]

* [[Film/SixDaysSevenNights Anne Heche]]

Known in some circles as "The Mistake By The Lake" (i.e., Erie), "The Land," "The 216," or "Cleland," Cleveland is one of the three "Big C's" in UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}}, along with Columbus and Cincinnati. Located on the state's northeastern coast, Cleveland was once one of the industrial boom towns that surrounded the Great Lakes in the late 19th and early 20th century and (briefly) was the fifth-largest city in the United States. Those days are long, long gone, and Cleveland is now often considered a WretchedHive and a PlaceWorseThanDeath, and the source of a [[http://youtu.be/L_DEp1lz0CM?t=32s steaming joke]] that's been going for years. Recent polls and news articles only reinforce this image, as it was once rated the [[http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/11/americas-most-miserable-cities-business-beltway-miserable-cities.html most miserable city in America]]. It was also the original {{Trope Namer|s}} for AliensInCleveland, as the city is considered by many the image of mundane mediocrity (at best).

* George Steinbrenner (Who tried to buy the Cleveland Indians before [[WhatCouldHaveBeen settling]] for the [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity New York]] Yankees instead.)

* ''Film/RockyHorrorPictureShow'' takes places in the fictional Denton, Ohio, but the newspaper Janet uses to shield herself from the rain is ''The Plain Dealer'', Cleveland's local paper, suggesting that the town is somewhere in Northeast Ohio.

Fun times in Cleveland today! (Cleveland!)

Come on down to Cleveland Town, everyone. Known in some circles as "The Mistake By The Lake" (i.e., Erie), "The Land," "The 216," or "Cleland," Cleveland is one of the three "Big C's" in UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}}, along with Columbus and Cincinnati. Located on the state's northeastern coast, Cleveland was once one of the industrial boom towns that surrounded the Great Lakes in the late 19th and early 20th century and (briefly) was the fifth-largest city in the United States. Those days are long, long gone, and Cleveland is now often considered a WretchedHive and a PlaceWorseThanDeath[[note]]Our main export is crippling depression![[/note]], and the source of a [[http://youtu.be/L_DEp1lz0CM?t=32s steaming joke]] that's been going for years. Recent polls and news articles only reinforce this image, as it was once rated the [[http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/11/americas-most-miserable-cities-business-beltway-miserable-cities.html most miserable city in America]]. It was also the original {{Trope Namer|s}} for AliensInCleveland, as the city is considered by many the image of mundane mediocrity (at best).

Possibly the biggest reason why this goes unchallenged is that all but the most anal-retentive of locals have a sense of humor about it -- they'll tell you ''themselves'' how Cleveland is America's down-pat worst. With brutal winters, massive [[DyingTown urban decay]], a river that was once [[PollutedWasteland so polluted that]] [[FreakierThanFiction it caught fire]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyahoga_River#Environmental_concerns thirteen times]] [[https://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/burning-river and named a local beer after that fact]][[note]]It's so polluted that all our fish have AIDS![[/note]], several political scandals leading to multiple FBI raids, and the fact that road construction is ''never'' finished[[note]]Under construction since 1868![[/note]] (also a staple of Ohio in general), most residents have no illusions of being in paradise, and often speak with GallowsHumor. Some choose to stay, however, as the city has a low cost of living, a growing healthcare industry (the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals), and decent nightlife. It can even be called a mini-UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, due to its patchwork of ethnic neighborhoods, Midwest atmosphere, public rail that's both elevated and underground, division by a major river (east and west in this case, with people on either side almost never going further than downtown), and massive crime rates. And a fun fact about that river (the Cuyahoga)- in 1936, one of the torso murder victims was recovered from it... and it caught fire. [[FromBadToWorse In the middle of the Great Depression.]] (If you've never heard of the Cleveland torso murders... [[NightmareFuel consider]] [[BodyHorror yourself]] [[TheUnsolvedMystery lucky]].)

The term "RockAndRoll" was coined in Cleveland by local DJ Alan Freed, and the city has a proud musical heritage and is home to both the RockAndRoll Hall of Fame and the Cleveland Orchestra, the youngest of America's "Big Five" symphonies (the others are New York, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia). However, Cleveland also houses the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polka_Hall_of_Fame Polka Hall of Fame]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovenian-style_polka Cleveland Style Polka]] is a sub-genre of music named after the [[PolkaDork Polka Dorks]] of the city due mostly in part to the success of Frankie Yankovic but also to a large number of people of German and Eastern European (especially Polish) descent in Cleveland. Jazz musicians, including scat jazz, also have been and continue to be popular. The Playhouse Square in downtown is the second-largest theatre complex in the United States, behind UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity's Lincoln Center. The city is also sometimes used as a stand-in for NYC or Chicago in film, due to lower filming costs, since it has similar architecture[[note]]Many a local has {{squee}}d upon seeing the Trust Company Rotunda in ''Film/SpiderMan3''[[/note]]. It possesses a surprising number of truly beautiful churches, more museums than a city thrice its size generally has, and two of the best library systems in the country. Cleveland's the home of Case Western Reserve University, one of the more bizarrely named colleges in the country[[note]]The Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University used to be two separate institutions until 1967. "Western Reserve" itself refers to an old name for northeast Ohio, the Connecticut Western Reserve, claimed by the state of Connecticut for its veterans to settle in following the American Revolution until the state agreed to give it up to the newly-formed state of Ohio.[[/note]], and Cleveland State University. An hour southeast is Kent State University, a [[StrawmanU Berzerkeley]] known for an infamous massacre in 1970.

The city was named for surveyor Moses Cleaveland[[note]]He's the guy who invented Cleveland![[/note]] (the first 'A' was reportedly dropped so the name would fit on a newspaper masthead) and has no connection to [[UsefulNotes/NorthEastEngland the English county of Cleveland]], or the [[UsefulNotes/GroverCleveland 22nd and 24th President of the United States]] (who was only distantly related to Moses Cleaveland).

Cleveland's baseball and basketball teams are respectively the Guardians (formerly the Indians) and the Cavaliers. The Guardians a have gone for over sixty years without a World Series title, longer than any other Major League Baseball team that hasn't been [[UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} cursed by a goat-owning bartender]]... at least until 2016, when they inherited the title of longest drought ''by losing to the Cubs!'' Meanwhile, the Cavs (founded in 1970) never even made it to the NBA Finals until 2007. When it looked like the latter were poised to finally win a championship in the late [=2000s=], they ended up losing star player UsefulNotes/LeBronJames (from nearby Akron, some 40 miles [64 kilometers] to the south) to the UsefulNotes/{{Miami}} Heat in 2010, with whom he won two titles... before he chose to return to the Cavs in 2014, leading them to their very first NBA title in 2016 (in which they became the first team to ever rally from a 3–1 hole in the Finals) and ending a 52-year championship drought which had affected ''all'' of Cleveland's pro sports teams ever since the Browns last won a title in 1964 (two years ''before'' the Super Bowl even ''existed'', and also before [=LeBron's=] ''mother'' was born). The Cavs eventually lost [=LeBron=] a second time in 2018, this time to the Los Angeles Lakers. In other sports, hockey is only represented through the second-tier American Hockey League (the NHL only had a Cleveland team for two years), where ten Cleveland teams won the Calder Cup, most recently the Lake Erie Monsters (since renamed the Cleveland Monsters) in 2016--just 8 days before the Cavs' title;[[note]]The Monsters, farm team of the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets, are owned by the same guy as the Cavaliers and the teams share an arena![[/note]] and while Cleveland won some indoor soccer tournaments, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFC_Cleveland the town's only team]] is in the fourth tier (UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer has two teams in Ohio, but they're in Columbus and Cincinnati).

Cleveland's baseball and basketball teams—respectively the Indians, to be renamed the Guardians after the 2021 season, and Cavaliers—are fairly solid, although the Indians have gone for over sixty years without a World Series title, longer than any other Major League Baseball team that hasn't been [[UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} cursed by a goat-owning bartender]]... at least until 2016, when they inherited the title of longest drought ''by losing to the Cubs!'' Meanwhile, the Cavs (founded in 1970) never even made it to the NBA Finals until 2007. When it looked like the latter were poised to finally win a championship in the late [=2000s=], they ended up losing star player UsefulNotes/LeBronJames (from nearby Akron, some 40 miles [64 kilometers] to the south) to the UsefulNotes/{{Miami}} Heat in 2010, with whom he won two titles... before he chose to return to the Cavs in 2014, leading them to their very first NBA title in 2016 (in which they became the first team to ever rally from a 3–1 hole in the Finals) and ending a 52-year championship drought which had affected ''all'' of Cleveland's pro sports teams ever since the Browns last won a title in 1964 (two years ''before'' the Super Bowl even ''existed'', and also before [=LeBron's=] ''mother'' was born). The Cavs eventually lost [=LeBron=] a second time in 2018, this time to the Los Angeles Lakers. In other sports, hockey is only represented through the second-tier American Hockey League (the NHL only had a Cleveland team for two years), where ten Cleveland teams won the Calder Cup, most recently the Lake Erie Monsters (since renamed the Cleveland Monsters) in 2016--just 8 days before the Cavs' title;[[note]]The Monsters, farm team of the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets, are owned by the same guy as the Cavaliers and the teams share an arena![[/note]] and while Cleveland won some indoor soccer tournaments, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFC_Cleveland the town's only team]] is in the fourth tier (UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer has two teams in Ohio, but they're in Columbus and Cincinnati).

Come on down to Cleveland Town, everyone. Known in some circles as "The Mistake By The Lake" (i.e., Erie), "The Land," "The 216," or "Cleland," Cleveland is one of the three "Big C's" in UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}}, along with Columbus and Cincinnati. Located on the state's northeastern coast, Cleveland was once one of the industrial boom towns that surrounded the Great Lakes in the late 19th and early 20th century and (briefly) was the fifth-largest city in the country. Those days are long, long gone, and Cleveland is now often considered a WretchedHive and a PlaceWorseThanDeath[[note]]Our main export is crippling depression![[/note]], and the source of a [[http://youtu.be/L_DEp1lz0CM?t=32s steaming joke]] that's been going for years. Recent polls and news articles only reinforce this image, as it was once rated the [[http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/11/americas-most-miserable-cities-business-beltway-miserable-cities.html most miserable city in America]]. It was also the original {{Trope Namer|s}} for AliensInCleveland, as the city is considered by many the image of mundane mediocrity (at best).

* Pere Ubu

* Ringworm

* [[Film/SawI Monica Potter]]

* Roger Penske (Founder of Penske and owner of Penske Racing in UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} and Indycar) hails from Shaker Heights.

* This Guy