His entrepreneurial zest was apparent early on as Coulas’ first business venture
was purchasing produce from a market near his Chicago home, loading it into a
wagon and selling it door-to-door. As a high school student, he put together
dances, an experience that led him to start a ballroom in 1932, in the heart of
the Great Depression. The Viking Ballroom attracted some of the biggest names
of the big band era, and remained in operation until 1953, when interest in the
music had waned. Other long-ago business ventures included selling coal and
working as a secretary for the cotton registrar at the Chicago Board of
Trade.
Coulas had a divergent range of interests that included flying his own
airplane, and was a history buff with a particularly keen interest in Winston
Churchill. He was a forceful advocate of domestic manufacturing and took
special pride in helping to design new machinery installed at the Weldbend
plant in the Chicago suburb of Bedford Park, IL.