WXYZ's Fred Wolf and his Wacky Wandering Wigloo

"Master of Sparemonies," the "Old Percolator," "Swampy Joe," and "King of Detroit Morning Radio," Fred Wolf.

Pioneering Detroit WXYZ sportcaster Fred Wolf was born in Poughkeepsie, New York on May 26, 1910. When Fred was six-years-old, his father died. Fred's mother remarried and the family relocated to Detroit in 1920. The young boy grew up to be a gifted athlete courtesy of the Detroit Recreation Department and their community sports programs. 

Fred played baseball when he attended Cass Technical High School and had aspirations to play in the major leagues. As with most high school athletes, that dream never materialized. After high school, Fred studied engineering in a Ford Trade School apprenticeship program.

At the age of twenty, Fred worked as a pinsetter and began to bowl on a league. Within a year, he bowled his first perfect 300 game, he was hooked on bowling and became instrumental in popularizing what was once a pastime into a professional sport.

After Wolf completed his Ford apprentiship, he was hired in 1934 to work in Chrysler Corporation's engineering department. By World War II, he rose through the ranks to become a superintendent at the Chrysler tank plant in Warren, Michigan, where he supervised 450 employees. While at Chrysler, Wolf was captain of the Tank Arsenal team in their company's ten-team bowling league. Other team names were Dodge Main, Super-finishers, and De Soto Engineers, etc. 

Fred also bowled on a the Stroh's Keglers team in the industrial league where he was their strongest bowler. On April 29, 1941, he won the individual competition in Detroit's American Bowling Conference out of a field of 32 of the city's top bowlers. He bowled 647 [three game total] while the next best competitor totaled 619. Fred clearly had found his groove.

***

On August 14, 1944, at the age of thirty-four, Wolf hurt his back playing softball which forced him to retire from the semi-professional bowling circuit. He was made manager of the Stroh's Keglers and introduced the bowlers over the public address system and reported scores. Norman White of radio station WJR asked Fred if he ever thought about doing a bowling show on radio. "What would it take?" Fred asked. White answered, "Get a guest, write an interview. Write the whole show--opening and closing--but leave two spots for commercials."

While recuperating from his back injury at home, Fred was listening to the World Series on the radio and wondered outloud to his wife Emily if a bowling tournament could be broadcast the same way. "Why not?" Emily answered. 

Fred shopped the idea around to Detroit radio stations before finally being accepted by WXYZ-Radio beginning his long broadcast career. His first weekly show was named The Ten Pin Talker. It was only fifteen minutes long, sponsored by E&B breweries. Wolf reported bowling scores from around Detroit and profiled top bowlers. Broadcasting opened up the bowling and the professional sports world for him.

Radio's The Ten Pin Talker led four years later to television's Make It and Take It, a program where local bowlers would try to make some of bowling's most difficult combinations for cash. Following the success of that program, WXYZ gave Wolf a bowling series called Bowling Champions in 1950. Wolf began live, lane-side broadcasting which became popular locally.

Championship Bowling title card

In 1956, the American Broadcasting Company, WXYZ's parent company, asked Wolf if he would like to announce a coast-to-coast program called Championship Bowling for ABC Sports. That program began a twelve-year national run which did much to popularize bowling nationwide and advance the sport.

In the early days of television, bowling was a winter sport, so the WXYZ station manager asked if Wolf could report on something besides bowling. Soon, he was reading baseball scores, announcing boxing and wrestling matches, commentating at golf tournaments, and hosting the popular Hot Rod Races from the Motor City Speedway where midget race cars competed in 25 lap races, and as an added bonus, there was a demolition derby event which Detroiters took an instant liking to.

Demolition Derby Carnage

While Fred Wolf was pioneering television sports programming, he was also a WXYZ-Radio morning deejay beginning in 1950 until 1965. His show was broadcast from 6 until 9 am every weekday morning. WXYZ-Radio originally broadcast from the Mendelssohn Mansion on East Jefferson Avenue. 

To gin up interest in his early, music radio program, Wolf asked the station manager if he could have an eight-by-ten foot broadcast booth built three feet off the ground in front of the mansion. He also wanted it to have large windows on three sides so motorists and pedestrians could see him spin records. It was a quirky idea, but the mini radio studio was paid for in radio endorsements for Peterson glass and Chaplow Lumber Company, so the project was given the go-ahead. 

Fred christened the booth "Wolf's Wacky Wigloo." It became an overnight sensation drawing in 35% of the morning radio audience. People drove by the Wigloo on their way to work and honked. Wolf told a reporter for the Detroit Free Press, "I like broadcasing from the Wigloo. I can see my listeners drive or walk by. It is more interesting than working in an enclosed studio."

WXYZ had outgrown its downtown studios and urban renewal was about to decimate the Black Bottom area where the studio was located. The station decided to build something they called Broadcast House in Southfield, Michigan. The radio station was slated to move into their new digs in June 1959. Wolf realized he was losing his Wacky Wigloo in the demolition process. On a personal note, he did not want to drive to Southfield from Grosse Pointe Woods. He would have to get up at 3:00 am to make it to work.

As he had done with the original Wigloo, Wolf came up with an original idea. He asked McDonald Trailer Sales if they could modify a thirty-foot trailer and replace the back end with glass on three sides. The station would install the turntables and other broadcasting equipment to make the trailer into a mobile radio studio. 

The cost of the trailer would be paid for with radio endorsements. WXYZ management was skeptical but approved the project on the strength of Wolf's popularity and his success bringing in new sponsors and advertising dollars.

Fred Wolf and his Wandering Wigloo.

The first stop for the newly rechristened Wandering Wigloo was the University of Detroit campus on the corner of Livernois and McNichols. Wolf pulled up at various familiar locations around town like the State Fair Grounds, City Hall, Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detoit Zoo, and private businesses, especially car dealerships. The Wandering Wigloo would broadcast from businesses for a week if they bought 5 spots a day of targeted advertising for 26 weeks. The Wandering Wigloo soon proved its worth.

The promotion was so successful that radio stations from around the country sent their people to Detroit to witness this public relations innovation. WXYZ soon built a second trailer for deejay Paul Winter, a third trailer was located in Dearborn, and a permanent broadcast booth was installed at the Sears Shopping Center in suburban Lincoln Park. Radio engineers were doing remote broadcasts from 6 am until 10 pm everyday. 

Everything was fine until a change of management tightened up their radio broadcasting programming. In short, the dee jays were to talk less, run jingle advertisements, and play music taken from a Top 40 play list. This was the radio industry's response to payola scandals in the music recording and broadcast business in the late 1950s. "Pay for Play" was illegal, and the play lists were the only way radio stations could insure against it. AM radio became repetitive and boring.

Wolf, who was generally a team player, let management know he was displeased. "I play happy music for my morning listeners as they get ready for work. I refuse to play rock & roll." Music trends had changed and his show's ratings dropped.

Wolf decided to retire from his morning radio show in August 1965, but Fred was too valuable to WXYZ to let him go, so he was bumped up to Vice President of Public Relations and official Channel 7 spokesperson. Wolf continued to do special broadcasts like the annual Port Huron to Mackinac Island Gold Cup Races and the Buick Open Golf Tournament.

***

In 1978, a stroke partially paralyzed Wolf and left him unable to speak, though he continued swimming using only one arm. At the age of ninety on August 7, 2000, Fred died in his Grosse Pointe Woods home of complications from a second stroke with his wife Emily by his side. The Wolfs were childless. Fred had a private funeral service and was buried in Roseland Park in Berkley, Michigan.

Emily Rybacki Wolf followed her husband to the grave two years later. At her husband's death, Emily said of him, "Fred was a very upright, kind man and a natural athlete." She must have been a remarkably supportive wife for her ambitious husband who worked long, irregular hours with a punishing broadcast schedule. Whatever they endured together over the years, they were married for sixty-five years. 

Fred Wolf produced over 800 local bowling shows on WXYZ radio and television, including 272 hours of announcing nationwide on ABC's Championship Bowling series. Wolf was a championship bowler in his own right and was inducted into the American Bowling Congress Hall of Fame, the Michigan State Bowling Association Hall of Fame, the Greater Detroit Bowling Hall of Fame, and he served as president of the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association.

A full accounting of Fred Wolf's awards and honors are too numerous to list here, but one stands out in particular. Fred held the American Bowling Congress' record for the most years between his first 300 game and his second in 1975--forty-four years. I am sure that factoid was a source of merriment at Fred's induction to their Hall of Fame. Fred was a bowling champion to be sure, but there have been many bowling champions before and since. Fred was one of a kind.

Shock Theater and Mr. X

The Coca-Cola Santa Story

Santa's origin can be traced back to ancient Germanic folklore and the Norse god Odin. The modern character of Santa was embraced by America with the December 23, 1823 publication of Clement Clarke Moore's 56 line poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," better known as "Twas the Night Before Christmas." Here is Moore's description of the jolly fatman:

 

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself

 

Bavarian immigrant Thomas Nast became America's first political cartoonist. He is responsible for creating the American image of Santa Claus on January 3, 1863, for the illustrated magazine Harper's Weekly. In an wooden engraving named "Santa Claus in Camp," the mythic figure is presenting gifts to Union soldiers during the Civil War while wearing a costume patterned with patriotic stars and stripes. Santa manipulates a Jefferson Davis toy [effigy] dancing on the end of a string.

 

In 1881, Nast created the first of many Santa images based on the description in Clement's narrative poem. These illustrations were without the political and military context of his earlier work. With thirty-three Santa illustrations to his credit, Nast immortalized the figure of Santa Claus we are familiar with today.

Muskegon born Michigan artist Haddon Sundblom painted the iconic image we now recognize as the modern Santa Claus, for the Coca-Cola company from 1931 until 1964. His friend was the original model for his Santa paintings. It is believed Sundblom made $1,000 for his first commission, good money during the Depression era.

 

 

Haddon Sundblom at work.

 

Sundblom's Santa images have appeared in Coke's print advertising, store displays, billboards, posters, calendars, and on television commercials. He helped make Santa the most recognizable and successful pitchman in advertising history.

 

Haddon Sundblom, Santa, and Playboy Magazine 

Detroit's Greektown Stella - Iconic Homeless Woman Remembered

Photo taken of Stella Paris by a Detroit Policeman

I hadn't seen or heard of Greektown Stella for several decades, then several days ago, I found out that she had died almost seven years earlier on January 16th, 2011. When I saw her photograph on a recent Facebook post on the Old Delray/Old Detroit site, I knew that face and suddenly felt very sad. Whenever I go to a Greek restaurant or see the film Zorba, the Greek, I privately think of the crazy old Greek woman who patrolled the dimly lit Greektown neighborhood in Detroit from the late1960s until the early 1990s.

Stella was a modern day Cassandra that nobody wanted to listen to. Over forty years ago, whenever my friends and I would go to Greektown for dinner or shop at Trappers' Alley, Stella was often ranting something in Greek or broken English at the top of her lungs at all hours of the night. Stella's piercing voice would echo off the brick buildings. She was impossible to ignore. Because she was a permanent fixture on Monroe Street, we quipped that she was being paid by the restaurant owners to provide local color for the Greek neighborhood.

Several newspaper accounts at the time of her death list Stella Paris' age at ninety-five or older. No birth certificate, citizenship, or immigration documentation exists for her, so she was denied public assistance. Stella is believed to have been born on the Greek island of Samos.

Doug Guthrie, writing for The Detroit News on January 21, 2011, discovered that "(Stella) had come to this country in 1938 through an arranged marriage to restaurant owner John Perris. She raised three sons and never wanted to learn English (but she spoke broken English of necessity). Stella was four feet, ten inches tall and very trim. She passed away from a heart condition. Stella's body was laid out at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral on East Lafayette Blvd.

In life, Stella suffered from mental illness and the scourge of schizophrenia. She had family who tried to take her in, but she wanted to be in Greektown where she felt comfortable, even when sleeping outside contending with the weather and other aggressive street people. She carried a nightstick for her protection, given to her by the police at the12th precinct downtown. "The Greek community took care of her by giving her food, shelter, and love," said Frank Becsi. "Stella is buried at Woodmere Cemetery."

"Stella was a blessing to me," says Shelley Rigney, someone who remembers her fondly. "I was young and she would always tell the 'Wolf' types not to bother me because my Momma knew Jack Tocco (Detroit Mafia Don) & my Pappa was a big crazy Irishman & I was the only baby girl in a house full of Big Boys. She would laugh and tell me, 'Ya justa keep walkin'. Don't you let any of that Trash even stick to your shoe.' God bless her sweet soul & kind heart... I still have ribbons and all the things she gave me."

Stella led the hard life of a homeless street person. Even when she was in her fifties, she looked much older than she was. A retired Detroit policeman who wishes not to be identified walked the Greektown beat for years. He tells a more sobering, less romantic story of Stella's street life.

"(Stella) claimed to be some sort of Greek princess, or that her late husband was the king of Greece, or some similar story.... She would hear voices and stand on the street corner and yell at the voices... you could hear her half a mile away on a calm day.

"She was your basic homeless bag lady, and unfortunately, her mind was not all there.... Stella's favorite motel was police headquarters at 1300 Beaubien, just up the street from Greektown. Some (of the officers) took her in as a mascot, providing her with some old marksmanship badges, chevrons, and a nightstick (billy club) that she carried faithfully....

Stella on the street.

"I do know that many of the merchants in Greektown took pity on her regularly and provided her with food as needed. As I said, (Stella) was an icon. Actually, she was a perfect representative of so many mentally challenged people in the United States today."

Detroit policewoman Cynthia Hill said, "From our perspective, she never meant any harm. When I was working as a teenage police cadet, I noticed the officers let her sleep in the basement (of police headquarters) and bathe in our sinks in the women's restroom on the first floor. At first, she scared me. They told me, 'It's just Stella.' Later when I became an officer, I would see her on the street and feel the same way."

News of his mother's death came as a surprise to her seventy-year-old son, Anthony Perris of Livonia. He told The Detroit News that her life began on the streets when she was in her fifties. "The family assumed she had died fifteen years ago when she disappeared from Greektown," Perris said. "We didn't know that she had been ordered by a judge into an assisted care facility because she was brandishing a knife."

Stella Paris spent the last years of her life peacefully at the East Grand Nursing Home on East Grand Blvd. At the time, the facility desperately searched for any relative who could shed light on her immigration status. Because of the common misspelling of her real last name, the Perris family was never notified. Stella was indigent, so the nursing home took her under its protective care. But when Stella needed heart surgery, they were simply not in any position to pay for her hospital bills.

We have all seen homeless people in our communities. Some do their best to be unobtrusive or obsequious, while others rant and rave, wrestling with their personal demons. They are all desperate people living a tooth and nail existence. In our several encounters with Greektown Stella, my wife and I tried our best to avoid and not engage her in conversation because we didn't know what to expect. I regret that decision now.

Shelley Rigney laments, "Stella was a woman who was tossed aside by many, but she still managed to survive somehow. Now I wish I would have taken time for her. She had a lot to say and teach others."

Finding out about Greektown Stella's death brought it all back to me. Rather than our scorn and apathy, these people need acts of kindness and generosity, not only during the holiday season but throughout the entire year.

More on Stella can be found in this link: http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2010/01/greektown_stella_shouts_no_mor.html  

 

Stella's Funeral Service 

Dinner in Detroit with Andre the Giant

Andre as Fezzik the giant in The Princess Bride.

Andre the Giant was born Andre Rene Roussumoff on May 19, 1946 in France. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade thinking an education was unnecessary for a farm laborer. At seventeen, Andre trained for a wrestling career at night and worked as a furniture mover during the day to pay the bills. Wrestling promoters were quick to realize Andre's money-making potential because of his great size.

The Giant, The Hulk, and Trump.

Andre the Giant was billed as The Eighth Wonder of the World through much of his career. His World Wrestling Federation tenure came to a crashing end during Wrestle Mania III in 1987 when Hulk Hogan gave Andre a body slam followed by the Hulk's running leg drop finisher. Andre's immense weight resulted in his chronic bone and joint pain. On that night at Silverdome Stadium in Pontiac, Michigan, Andre the Giant passed the torch to Hulk Hogan. In the 1980s, Andre branched out and co-starred in several films, most notably the giant Fezzik in The Princess Bride.

When Andre was wrestling in Detroit, he hung out at the Lindell AC sports bar. Over the years, people have written about Andre's gargantuan appetite for food and drink. Mel Butsicaris recalls one night when Andre came in after a wresting match at 12:45 am.

"Many people ask me if I ever met Andre the Giant. Yes. He wasn't just tall. There is a photograph of Andre holding up my Uncle Jimmy with one arm. Look at the difference between a normal person's head and the size of Andre's head. He kept a minivan at the bar with the front seats taken out. He drove from the back seat.

"You would not believe how much he could eat and drink. I remember one night when Andre ordered a cheeseburger with fries and two beers. We reminded him we were going out to dinner as soon as we closed the bar. Then, he ordered another and another.... In less than an hour and a half, Andre ordered nine cheese burgers with fries and two beers each. Our burgers were 1/3 of a pound of ground round. That's three pounds of meat, not to mention potatoes, bread, and eighteen beers.

"Then we went to the Grecian Gardens restaurant in Greektown. Uncle Jimmy ask the chef to make Andre a special plate of food. They took a serving platter and filled it with a whole chicken, a couple of lamb shanks, pastichio, stuffed grape leaves, rice, vegetables, and all the Greek trimmings. Enough food to feed a family of four. Andre ate it all. We jokingly asked him if he wanted dessert. He replied, 'Not yet, I'll have another one of these,' pointing to his empty platter. I don't remember what he had for dessert."

Andre's huge size was the result of gigantism caused by excessive growth hormone. The condition is known as acromegaly. It causes pronounced cheekbones, forehead bulges, enlarged jaw protrusion, enlargement of hands, feed, and nose. Internally, it causes a weakening of the heart muscle.

Andre Roussimoff died on January 27, 1993 from congestive heart failure in a Paris hotel room at the age of forty-six. He was in Paris to attend his father's funeral and celebrate his mother's birthday. Andre's body was shipped to the United States for cremation. His ashes were scattered on his ranch in Ellerbe, North Carolina. Andre is survived by one daughter, Robin Christensen Roussimoff born in 1979.

Billy Martin's Detroit Fight Night:
http://fornology.blogspot.com/2017/04/billy-martin-fight-night-in-detroit.html

Victorian Theater and The Limelight

In the Victorian period, the expression in the limelight meant the most desirable acting area on the stage, front and center. Today, the expression simply means someone is getting public recognition and acclaim.

The limelight effect was discovered by Goldsmith Gurney in the 1820s based on his work with an oxy-hydrogen blowpipe. Scottish inventor, Thomas Drummond (1797-1840), built a working model of the calcium light in 1826 for use in the surveying profession.

The calcium light was created by super heating a cylinder of quicklime (calcium oxide) with an oxy-hydrogen flame that gives off a bright light with a greenish tint.

Eleven years later, the term limelight was coined to describe a form of stage illumination first used in 1837 for a public performance at the Covent Garden Theatre in London. 

By the 1860s, this new technology of stage lighting was in wide use in theaters and dance halls around the world. It was a great improvement over the previous method of stage lighting, candle powered footlights placed along the stage apron. 

Limelight lanterns could also be placed along the front of the lower balcony for general stage illumination providing more natural light than footlights alone. 

A lighthouse-like lens (Fresnel lens) was developed that could direct and focus concentrated light on the stage to spotlight a solo performance. Actors and performers must have felt they were living in the heyday of the theater.

The term green room has been used since the Victoria period to describe the waiting area performers use before going on stage. Theater lore has it that actors would sit in a room lit by limelight to allow their eyes to adjust to the harsh stage lighting, preventing squinting during their stage entrances.

Although the electric light replaced limelight in theaters by the end of the nineteenth century, the term limelight still exists in show business, as does the term green room.

Today, the green room is used by celebrities before they appear on talk shows, but it is not usually painted green. The room still performs a similar function as in the Victorian age--to prepare a performer to go on stage.

Michigan Homegrown Terrorism of the 1930s--The Black Legion

I like to think I am well-versed in Michigan and Detroit history, but it wasn't until I recently read Tom Stanton's Terror in the City of Champions that I learned of the Black Legion, a splinter group of the Ku Klux Klan. The original group called the Black Guard was founded in the mid-1920's as a security force for Ohio Klan officers, many of whom held public office.

After being kicked out of the Klan for establishing a fiefdom, Dr. Billy Shephard from Lima, Ohio further radicalized the group. They became known as the Black Legion, an even more ruthless and reckless organization than the Klan. In 1931, a Michigan regiment was established by Arthur Lupp of Highland Park.

From there, Virgil "Bert" Effinger began to reorganize the group throughout the Midwest and became the group's spokesperson. Every new member had to repeat an oath "In the name of God and the Devil." They were given a .38 caliber bullet cartridge and told another one had their name on it if they violated their vow of secrecy.

Some people were tricked into joining by friends or family and soon discovered they were in over their heads. High-ranking officers wore black capes with gold trim and brandished weapons openly. The legion expanded aggressively through deception, threats, and brutality. Beatings and torture were used to keep errant members in line.

Policemen display captured Black Legion vestments and the tools of their trade.

The Black Legion boasted having over one million members nationwide. At its height in Michigan, there were 5 brigades, 16 regiments, 64 battalions, and 256 companies. Law enforcement estimated membership at 20,000 to 30,000 statewide. The Detroit area had 10,000 members. Michigan State Police investigator Ira Holloway Marmon discovered Black Legion strongholds in Highland Park, Ecorse, Wyandotte, Lincoln Park, Saline, Monroe, Irish Hills, Pontiac, Flint, Saginaw, and of course, Detroit. Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio also had active chapters.

Their members were primarily angry, white, Anglo-Saxon males who were transplants from the South during the boom years of the auto industry in what history marks as the Great Migration. Whites and Blacks with little or no industrial skills flooded into Detroit heeding Henry Ford's clarion call, "Jobs at $5 a day." Competition for work was fierce in the 1920s, but during the Great Depression, people were killed over jobs.

The Legion was frustrated by the economic and social instability of the 1930s. They felt alienated by Detroit's industrial landscape. One of their core beliefs was that Anglo-Saxon Protestants were being pushed aside in America because foreigners (Catholic and Jewish immigrants) and Blacks were taking their jobs they believed they were entitled to.

1937 Movie Lobby Card

Being in the Legion made members feel connected with something larger than themselves. Membership for many people increased their self-esteem and sense of white supremacy. They absolutely believed race mixing was destabilizing the American way of life leading to social degeneracy.

Legionnaires widened the scope of their wrath to include terrorizing and murdering welfare recipients, labor union organizers, and political opponents. Probably more than anything else, the Black Legion hated socialists and communists. The legionnaires were a homegrown, right-wing, secret terrorist society.

Using fronts like the Wayne County Rifle and Pistol Club (members honed their shooting skills in the club's backroom firing range) and the Wolverine Republican Club (where thinly disguised rallies and gatherings were staged), Legion-approved speakers would rail against their perceived enemies and rally the faithful. New recruits would hear lengthy diatribes whipping the crowd to a frenzy of hatred.

The Legion provided easy answers to the complex questions of their day. One of their political fliers read, "We will fight political Romanism (Catholics), Judaism (Jews), Communism (Socialists), and all 'isms' which our forefathers came to this country to avoid," all the while wrapping themselves in the American flag and patriotism. 

Charles Poole

Works Progress organizer Charles Poole (22- year-old Catholic) was shot five times at point blank range in Dearborn Township on May 13th, 1936. A number of key Legion members were arrested and convicted.

Investigators uncovered the organization's propaganda, their enrollment records, some Black Legion robes and hoods including the tools of their trade--guns, bludgeons, blackjacks, and whips. Dayton Dean was convicted of being the trigger-man in Poole's death. Once on the stand, Dean sang like a canary.

For more details on the Black Legion, view this link: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/11/28/history-the-black-legion-where-vets-and-the-klan-met/

In 1937, Warner Bros. Pictures made a movie about the Black Legion starring Humphrey Bogart. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027367/

Ford Tri-Motor Pioneers Commercial Flight

Restored Ford Tri-Motor

In today's jetsetter world, commercial air travel is taken for granted by most people, but in the 1920s the aeronautics industry had to prove itself safe before Americans felt confident enough to board an airplane and leave terra firma. It was not until Henry Ford bought the Stout Metal Airplane Company in 1924 from designer and engineer William Bushnell that public confidence in air travel rose because of Ford's strong reputation for reliability in the automobile business.

Bushnell designed a three-engined transport plane based on an all-metal Dutch plane developed by the Fokker Aircraft Corporation (Fokker F.VII). While waiting to participate in an air show at the newly constructed Ford Airport in Dearborn, Michigan, the innovative Dutch plane was stored in a Ford hanger. Ford engineers surreptitiously measured its dimensions and plagiarized the design.

Ford Motor Company (FoMoCo) created a new aircraft division and kept Bushnell on as the president of Production in 1925. At a press conference, Henry Ford proclaimed "The first thing that must be done with aerial navigation is to make it fool-proof.... What Ford Motor Company means to do is prove whether commercial air travel can be done safely and profitably."

The plane was introduced for limited excursion service as the Ford Tri-Motor in 1926. Soon, the plane became popularly known as the Tin Goose or the Flying Washboard. Only one-hundred and ninety-nine were ever produced.

Ford Airport with Henry Ford Museum in the background.

The airplane's body was clad in corrugated aluminum alloy for lightweight strength, which regrettably resulted in air drag reducing the plane's overall performance. The original Tri-Motor was powered by three 200 hp Wright engines but was upgraded to 235 hp Wright engines, and upgraded again with 300 hp radial engines. The propellers were two-bladed with a fixed pitch. The maximum air speed of 132 mph was increased to 150 mph depending on the equipped engine. The plane had a low stall speed of 57 mph. The Tri-Motor could safely reach a height of 16,500 feet with a range of 500 miles.

The Ford Tri-Motor was a combination of old and new technologies. As was common in early wooden and canvas airplanes, the engine gauges were mounted onto the engine struts outside the cockpit, and the rudder and wing flaps were controlled by steel cables mounted on the exterior of the airplane. The plane soon developed a reputation for ruggedness and versatility. It could be fitted with skis or pontoons for snow and water takeoffs and landings. The seats also could be removed to carry freight.

External cables controlling wing flaps and tail rudder.

The Ford Tri-Motor pioneered two-way, air-to-ground radio communication with their planes while in flight. Once the Department of Commerce Aeronautics Branch developed the Beacon Navigation System, a continuous radar signal was broadcast from fixed beacon locations across the country. Navigators were able to determine a plane's relative bearings by radio impulse without visual sightings, helping pilots guide their planes to their next destination.

Ford Tri-Motors were equipped with avionics that helped establish air corridors and domestic routes coast-to-coast making reliable commercial flight possible. Pan American Airlines scheduled the first international flights with service from Key West to Havana, Cuba in 1927 using Ford Tri-Motors.

Transcontinental Air Transport pioneered the first coast-to-coast service from New York to California. Initially, passengers would fly during the day and take sleeper trains at night. The first commercial planes carried a crew of three (pilot, co-pilot/navigator, and a stewardess) serving eight or nine passengers. By August 1929, the planes had a passenger capacity of twelve which reduced leg room but increased profitability.

Admiral Richard E. Byrd and supply crew-1929.

To promote air travel and the reliability of air service, Henry Ford's son Edsel financed Admiral Richard E. Byrd's flight over the South Pole to the tune of $100,000. On November 29, 1929, Byrd became the first person to fly over both poles, creating more than $100,000 worth of domestic and international publicity for the Ford Tri-Motor. Byrd left the plane in Antarctica but upon Edsel Ford's request, he retrieved the plane in 1935 and had it shipped to Dearborn, Michigan for display in the Henry Ford Museum.

The Ford Tri-Motor became the workhorse for United States and international airlines. Known as the first luxury airliner, it redefined world travel marking the beginning of global, commercial flight. American Airlines, Grand Canyon Airlines, Pan American, Transcontinental Airlines, Trans World Airlines, United Airlines, and smaller carriers flew Ford Tri-Motors. A round trip excursion ticket from Ford Airport in Dearborn to the Kentucky Derby in 1929 cost $122 with one stop for fuel in Cincinnati.

Typical excursion advertisement to promote air travel.

The aircraft industry underwent rapid development in the 1930s when a new generation of vastly superior planes like Boeing's 247 and the Douglas DC-2 began to dominate the commercial aviation market. The Tri-Motor had declining sales during the Great Depression and was losing money, so FoMoCo closed its airplane division on June 7, 1933. The company chose to concentrate on its core business--automobiles. On a human level, the death of Henry Ford's personal pilot Harry J. Brooks during a test flight made Ford lose interest in aviation.

Originally designed as a civil airplane, the Ford Tri-Motor saw military service in World War II in the United States Army Air Force. It is believed only eight of these classic planes are airworthy today. In popular culture, it was a Ford Tri-Motor that appeared in the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom leap-frogging across the map.

Ford's Willow Run B-24 Bomber Plant

Remembering Detroit's Qwikee Donut and Coffee Shops

A young, optimistic Russian blacksmith named John Weise migrated to Detroit in the late 1920s, just in time for the Great Depression. Its stranglehold on manufacturing hit the automotive blue collar workforce particularly hard. Nobody was hiring blacksmiths.

Weise struggled but found work where and when he could, learning English as he went along. By 1938, Weise decided to take a risk and go into business for himself. He borrowed some money, bought some equipment, and went into the doughnut and coffee shop business which would eventually make him a wealthy man. 

Weise named his new business The New Era as an optimistic gesture for shaking off the bad luck he had experienced in America during his first decade here. His first retail shop was on Bates St. at Cadillac Square. Because of the war in Europe, Detroit factories and businesses were once again bustling with activity. His foresight paid off. The shop was packed from its opening day with customers lining up outside for a quick and inexpensive breakfast.

In 1942, Weise partnered up with Frank Reed and together they opened a second, larger operation in the lobby of the Hammond Building. Both of the shops were branded as Qwikee Donut and Coffee Shop. The new name with its quirky spelling was an effective marketing detail emphasizing their speed and convenience. Their trademark name on their bright, neon signage lit up even the grayest, bone-chilling Detroit mornings.

High-rise office workers soon discovered they could pop in and out in minutes for hot coffee and warm donuts. Downtown shoppers found a convenient place in the shopping loop to take a break and grab a quick bite with some fresh brewed coffee. Qwikee hot chocolate with whipped cream was a favorite with kids in the winter.

"Get Your Daily Dozen" was their slogan.

Space was limited in the early shops and restaurant seating took up too much space. The pace of life downtown quickened when the United States entered World War Two. Frank Reed had the idea to install stand-up counters along the walls for their busy customers. Daily editions of the Detroit News, the Free Press, and the Times were enclosed behind glass cases mounted across the walls for the convenience of customers who preferred to stand, slam down a quick cup of coffee and a doughnut, read the headlines, and dash off to work. Reed's second location served 5,000 to 6,000 customers daily.

With the demolition of the Hammond Building in 1956, Weise and Reed opened another larger shop on Grand River Boulevard at State Street. Soon other shops opened. There was one at 222 W. Congress St., one in the Guardian Building, one in the Fisher Building, and the largest shop at State and Griswold St. At that location, sandwiches and warm lunch plates were dispensed with self-service automat machines. Hot dishes with gravy like meatloaf, roasted chicken, and roast beef were popular menu items.

Qwikee Donut expanded their menu to include sandwiches and soups and adopted a cafeteria-style format. At the height of their popularity, Qwikee Donuts numbered five or six locations in the downtown loop serving 20,000 dozen donuts a week. The Grand River Avenue location became a hangout for generations of Cass Tech and other students looking for a warm, dry, convenient place to wait for the bus home which might take over an hour. Since it was after the lunch rush, the owners welcomed their steady business. Better to have customers than an empty shop.

The local doughnut chain became famous for their large, warm, and delicious donuts. You could get them plain, powder-sugared, cinnamon-sugared, iced with chocolate, vanilla, cherry, or orange frosting. Others were glazed and dipped in chopped nuts. They also served jelly and custard-filled doughnuts. Custard-filled were only served in the winter because the summer heat was too dangerous. The filling might spoil and make people sick.

Qwikee Donuts also served sandwiches and soups. Bean and pea soups were popular in the winter, and lighter soups like French onion were served in the summer. Chicken noodle and chili were year-round favorites. All soups were served in crockery bowls. Food was served on plates, and the utensils were stainless steel--never plastic. Sandwiches were traditional and served on sliced white or whole wheat bread from the nearby Wonder Bread bakery. Peanut butter & jelly, egg or tuna salad, and ham, turkey or roast beef with cheese were the standard sandwiches.

Weise and Reed together may have helped revolutionize the fast food business. Their most notable neon marquee sign was mechanical and one of the top three greatest signs in Detroit behind the Vernor's Sign on Woodward and the red and yellow neon, pulsating Flame Show Bar entrance in Paradise Valley. The Qwikee Donut sign had a hand dunking a doughnut into a simulated, steaming cup of coffee, all outlined in neon. That doughnut went up and down all day and never got soggy! The bright sign, co-mingled with the smell of warm doughnuts and freshly brewed coffee, was irresistible.

Original Quikee Donut owner John Weise.

When the Detroit Free Press interviewed John Weise in 1959, he said, "An office boy or girl can come into (our shops) and pick up a dozen cups of coffee and a bag of doughnuts for the entire office staff and be back (to work) before the boss (realizes they are gone)." 

John Weise and his partner Frank Reed parlayed their original shops into a million-dollar enterprise that became part of the fabric of downtown Detroit's daily life for decades. When Frank Reed suffered his first heart attack in 1956, he sold his interests in the company to his partner Weise. 

Sometime in the 1960s, Weise sold his interest in Quikee Donuts to Joe Hermann and Sons who were in the baking business. Thereafter, he retired. With the decline of downtown business activity in the seventies and eighties, and the loss of downtown shoppers to suburban shopping centers, Qwikee Donuts downtown went quietly out of business in the mid-1980s.

I was told by former Quikee Cafeteria employee, Chris Bosley, that the Hermann family, Albert, his wife Judy, and his sons Rick, Scott, and daughter Shelley, took their company with their new branding to the suburb of Southfield in the late 70s or early 80s.

They closed their downtown operations but kept the commissary on Grand River Avenue open to supply their cafeterias with fresh made doughnuts, soups, and sandwiches which they delivered daily to their various locations. The cafeterias were popular and stayed in business until the early 2000s when Albert retired and sold off the business.

***

Founder John Weise died at the age of fifty-three on Monday, October 3, 1966, leaving behind his wife Gilda, his sister, three daughters, and three grandchildren. Mr. Weise is buried in White Chapel Memorial Park Cemetery in Troy, Michigan.

Co-founder Frank Reed suffered a heart attack aboard the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II en route to Great Britain to begin a European tour. Mr. Reed died August 16, 1979 at the age of seventy-seven leaving behind his wife Hazelle, two brothers, and a sister. He is buried in Palm Beach, Florida.

White Castle Rules

B'wana Don in Jungle-La with Bongo Bailey

B'wana Don and Bongo Bailey

B'wana Don in Jungle-La ran on WJBK-TV, channel 2 in Detroit, Michigan, from 1960 to 1963. The program's host, Don Hunt, was born in 1931 in Ferndale, Michigan. While a child, Don convinced his mother to allow him to purchase and raise mating pairs of Mallard ducks and Ringneck pheasants. When both pairs produced chicks, Don sold them to his friends. Little could he imagine then that animal propagation would become an important part of his life's work.

While attending St. James School in Ferndale, Don began working at Ferndale Feed and Pet Supply. After graduating in 1948, Don spent three years at the University of Detroit before being drafted and serving two years in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.

Upon his return home, Don heard the pet store he worked at was being sold. With the help of his parents, he bought a half-interest in the store for $20,000. Two stores later, Don took on the brand name B'wana Don and opened his own pet shop in 1959. He started wearing a safari outfit and hat with a leopard print headband. B'wana Don promoted his pet shop by making appearences on local Detroit television programs like Lunch with Soupy Sales and Popeye and Friends. He brought animals with him to teach Detroit youth about caring for their pets and being kind to animals.

These short cameo appearances led to WJBK-TV hiring Don Hunt to host his own weekend show aptly named B'wana Don in Jungle-La. The station built him an African trading post set known as Jungle-La. A large part of the program's success was Don's unpredictable chimpanzee co-star Bongo Bailey.

It soon became clear to the audience of mostly children that Bongo Bailey did not always follow the script, much to their delight. B'wana Don and Bongo Bailey regularly made appearances at the Michigan State Fair in the summer and the J.L. Hudson Thanksgiving Day Parade in late autumn.

When WJBK-TV's parent company Storer Broadcasting saw how popular the show was, they decided to fly Hunt and Bongo Bailey weekly in a private plane to Cleveland. The live Detroit show was filmed in the morning, and the Cleveland show was repeated live in the afternoon.

The show was a big hit and Storer Broadcasting syndicated it nationally. Hunt's weekly salary instantly rose to $5,000 a week. Storer Broadcasting began sending Hunt around Europe and Africa to showcase the world's animals in special programs.

While in Rome, Italy, to film segments for his B'wana Don program, Italian customs officials impounded the film crew's thirteen cases of equipment. It took a full nine hours to clear customs. After the film crew got their equipment, they began work on their project called B'wana Don and Topalino Visit Rome. 

Topalino was a small, white mouse that usually rode on Don's safari hat, but when Don knelt down to pet some neighborhood cats at the Roman Forum, Topalino retreated to B'wana Don's safari shirt breast pocket. The film crew also visited the Trevi Fountain and the Amphitheater. Much to Topalino's terror, everywhere they went, there were "cats, cats, cats."

Hunt traveled to Africa with his wife Iris, and they fell in love with Kenya. Don decided to move there to establish a game preserve for endangered African wild animals. WJBK-TV reported that Don Hunt quit his job over a contract dispute, but Don fell under the spell of Africa and found his calling as a preservationist and environmentalist. B'wana Don's dedicated kiddie audience was disappointed.

On December 25, 1964, Mrs. Irene Poremba from Redford, Michigan, was outraged enough that she wrote and complained to the Detroit Free Press on Christmas Day, "I'd like to know why B'wana Don is off WJBK-TV, and why it was replaced with that Happyland thing? My children loved watching B'wana Don. They cried when he went off the air and won't even watch Happyland."

Don Hunt in 1964.

In Kenya, Oscar-winning actor William Holden went on several photographic safaris lead by Don Hunt, and the men became friends. Together, they jointly created the 1,200 acre Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy in Nanyuki, Kenya, about 110 miles outside of Narobi. Hunt managed the conservancy while Holden continued making Hollywood films to raise money to help support the operation.

Because of a worldwide shortage of African animals for zoos, endangered animals were bred and sold to zoological societies to help finance the animal preserve. The game preserve included thirty-seven species of breeding herds to counteract diminishing herds due to over-hunting, poaching, and human demands made upon the land.

In 1969, Holden and Hunt filmed a promotional documentary called "Adventures at the Jade Sea." Rather than another program with big game hunters armed with elephant guns and local people of color carrying their gear, this program was different. The documentary showcased the deeply held beliefs of William Holden and Don Hunt in wildlife conservation and preservation. Holden was the on screen talent while Hunt worked behind the scenes. Back in Ferndale, Don's brother continued to run the B'wana Don Pet Shop.

Stephanie Powers and William Holden

A year after William Holden's death at the age of sixty-three on November 12, 1981, the William Holden Wildlife Federation was founded to honor Holden's dedication to wildlife and habitat conservation. The founders were Hollywood actress Stephanie Powers (Holden's life partner) and Don and Iris Hunt.

The charitable trust's Education Center strives to inspire a personal commitment to protect wildlife and the environment. The foundation teaches alternatives to habitat destruction and promotes innovations in energy production techniques with low environmental impact.

(B'wana) Don Hunt and Iris lived in Africa for almost fifty years. After Don suffered a stroke, the Hunts returned to Michigan. Several months later on April 29, 2016, Don Hunt died at the age of eighty-four at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. He was survived by his wife, four brothers, and a sister. Don and Iris had two children, Kevin and Kimberly, and two grandchildren, Ryan and Alex.

Don Hunt's Detroit Public Television interview excerpt

More information on the William Holden Wildlife Federation

Samuel Zug - The Man Behind the Island

Samuel Zug

Samuel Zug is thought by some people to have been an industrialist, but that couldn't be further from the truth. He was a devout Presbyterian who took an interest in politics and human rights.

In 1836 at the tender age of twenty-years-old, Samuel Zug came to Detroit, Michigan from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Using money he saved as a bookkeeper in the Pittsburgh area, he went into the furniture making business with Marcus Stevenson, a Detroit investor.  

The prospect of endless stands of pine, oak and maple trees as raw material, and convenient access to Eastern markets by way of the Detroit River for their finished products made Detroit an ideal place for a young man to make his fortune. 

But in 1859 after twenty-three years in the furniture business, his partnership with Stevenson was dissolved leaving Samuel Zug a wealthy man to pursue real estate and political ambitions.

In 1859 (or 1876 depending on which source you choose), Samuel Zug purchased 325 acres of land along the Detroit River from Michigan's second Territorial governor, General Lewis B. Cass. Over 250 acres of the parcel was marshland with a sulfur spring bubbling up 1,200 barrels of mineral water a day.

The marshy peninsula of land was a part of Ecorse Township before it became the city of River Rouge. In unrecorded time, the land was rumored to be an ancient burial site for a number of native American tribes known to inhabit the area.

Samuel Zug and his wife Anna built a home on the island, but after ten years they decided that the marshland and natural sulfur spring on the site proved too much for them to endure. The Zugs surrendered the land to the red fox, water fowl, muskrats, and mosquitoes. The croaking frogs and singing insects were left to serenade the damp night air because the island was virtually uninhabitable.

In 1888, Samuel Zug authorized the River Rouge River Improvement Company to cut a small canal at the south end of his land. Known by locals as Mud Run, it was dredged out sixty feet wide and eight feet deep. 

Short Cut Canal at bottom of map was Mud Run.

The Zug family peninsula became a man-made island overnight separating it from the north end of Ecorse Township. The channel improved the flow of the Rouge River into the Detroit River, but it did little to circulate water around the newly formed island, leaving a slow-moving backwater.

On December 26, 1889, Samuel Zug died leaving his holdings to his wife, Anne, who died on June 10th,1891. It has been reported wrongly that Mr. Zug died in 1896. My source for the correct date of Zug's death comes from his tombstone in Detroit's Elmwood Cemetery.

The Zug heirs sold the island for $300,000 to George Brady and Charles Noble, who wanted to use the site for an industrial dumping ground. The island was diked with interlocking steel panels and back-filled with construction rubble and dredging waste to raise the ground above the water table and reclaim the land from its natural state.

Heavy industry was about to move onto the island but Mr. Zug never lived to see it. The island's namesake was "Waiting for the Coming of Our Lord" as the inscription on his grave marker proclaims.

In addition to being a bookkeeper and the owner of a successful furniture manufacturing company, Samuel Zug also is credited with being one of the founding members of the Republican Party, which was considered to be the progressive party of the day. Their first official meeting took place on July 6, 1854, in Jackson, Michigan.

The Republicans were an abolitionist party that came to national attention when they won 33% of the presidential vote from the Democrats and the Whigs in 1856. Four years later in 1860, they broke through the two-party system and elected Abraham Lincoln to the White House.

Samuel Zug was an anti-slavery advocate long before Lincoln was elected and The Civil War began. He bought and set aside a parcel of land for refugee slaves in the city of Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada, a destination of the Underground Railroad. What other support he gave to the Abolitionist Movement is shrouded in the dim history of time and whispers of the unrecorded past.

At the time of his death, Samuel Zug was unaware of the mighty industrial complex his soggy marshland would become. He would never know the history Zug Island would make possible or the long-term environmental impact the steel industry would have on the area and its people.

In Detroit's Elmwood Cemetery

Zug Island closes its steel-making operations in April, 2020.