It is very true! From akronlife.com:
[Luigi’s Restaurant owner Tony Ciriello] was just a kid in the ‘70s when his uncle Mickey Ciriello rescued the broken-down band from storage…The restaurant’s electrician, Butch Pastik, did the rewiring and a repairman at an old jukebox warehouse in Cleveland got the mechanical parts working again. Then Mickey and some friends began looking for characters to replace the old foam band members – brittle and crumbling from dry rot.
After discovering that Ken dolls and GI Joes didn’t work in the bandbox, Mickey settled on some 8-inch action figure Superman dolls. They were just the right size, and their arms were flexible enough to be posed with the musical instruments. Then he decided to swap out the male lead singer for a more glamorous blond Barbie…Mickey hired a local seamstress to create tuxedos for the band and created mop-top wigs for their heads…
For now, a new Barbie doll has replaced the ‘70s lead singer, but the male band members from the first restoration live on. One has been wearing a Superman suit under his tuxedo for all these years. In the tradition of protecting Clark Kent’s real identity, Tony won’t say which one is the true Man of Steel.
Son of Stuck Funky 
It’s the one who looks like Les Moore, natch.
I’m still waiting for the return of the revolving beer sign. I definitely learned one thing from forty-whatever years of reading FW…that being what a band box is. I suppose it’s better than nothing and it’s highly unlikely I would have learned about band boxes elsewhere, so there you go.
So who’s the blonde waitress? I don’t think I’ve seen her before. Is it supposed to be Rachael?
Bobanero, the red/blonde/whatever haired waitress is indeed “Rache.” And yes, the carpet matches the drapes.
Are we going to get a week of insanely hilarious quips about the band box? If so, this would confirm Batty’s uncanny ability to zero in on stuff nobody gives a shit about.
So Montoni’s has a customer (a rare enough phenomena) who knows band box refurbishment trivia. What are the odds? Greater than the odds of picking a perfect NCAA tournament bracket I’d bet.
Anyways, the one still wearing the Superman suit is the one with glasses. This guy lives in Westview and he hasn’t read the comics?
Well, that was cute and inoffensive (apart from the recurring theme that all adults are obsessed with comic books). It figures that it would be an anecdote Batom appropriated from one of his friends.
Ohio is a boring place.
Sigh. The Band Box.
Yes, I have been to Luigi’s in Akron. The Band Box is cute and interesting for about 5 minutes.
If you want funny Pizza Shop humor, have a look at Family Guy explaining how Puzza Shop salads are made. They forgot to dump a mountain of mozzarella on top of it though.
How odd and tragic it is that a strip about the sort of kitsch that they end up talking about on PBS is the most enjoyable strip of the year.
@Epicus Doomus: You’d think the the way Batty fetishizes Luigi’s band-box, it was the only one in the world. But I (Grandpa) Googled “Chicago Coin Band-Box”, and after about 2 or 3 minutes discovered that there are quite a few in collectors’ hands. In fact, if you have a spare 10 or 12 grand, there are even a few on the market you could buy.
Oh, and if you go to YouTube, there are lots of videos of them in action.
“Eh. Not terrible.” Sorry, that’s about all I can muster.
So, a deeply inside reference, and using someone else ideas. Typically half-assed effort. While not stunningly terrible, it is rather lazy and pointless. And we well know that’s as good as it’s ever going to get.
Wow, did someone feed Rachel a knuckle sandwich? She need to get her teeth capped!