Known by some as "The Stock Club of the Northwest." Probably called that by the management. "Curly" was the nickname of Monroe Shapiro, who co-owned the place with his brother Nathan. He said in an interview:

So we rented a space on Fifth Street between Hennepin and Nicollet from William E. Goodfellow, who was one of the founders of the Dayton’s store. He was a partner of the Dayton family, an odd little individual. If we wanted to see him, we'd go to his home. He had a magnificent home with servants, and he wore a Prince Albert coat in the morning with striped trousers. [Laughter] He was really an odd duck. But he rented it to us, which was something. We had no background of business, no credit rating, we were just youngsters.

They got rolling in the 30s, but things changed at the end of the decade:

It wasn't an easy business, particularly after Hitler started rising to prominence and people would have a few drinks—we have so many people here of Germanic ancestry, and many of them were pro-Nazi, of course, as you know—and they'd get full of whiskey and there would be many occasions where both my brother and I were involved in battles, because if we didn’t preserve order, if we permitted that minority, or majority, or any group, to run our place, we may as well go out of business. So we sort of developed a reputation along that line. You don't fool around at Curly’s or you get thrown out, or are told not to come back, and don't challenge us. My brother was like greased lightning. He and I were about the same size, but he was so much quicker. He was left-handed, and they would look for his right to come, and the next thing they knew, the roof caved in. [Laughter] He socked `em with his left, and when they went down, they stayed down.