tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70732970579234138402024-03-17T20:02:38.900-07:00Fornology.com News and Views of Gregory A. FournierGregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.comBlogger530125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-10027038801209354432024-03-16T08:25:00.000-07:002024-03-16T12:56:45.604-07:00Hissoner Detroit Mayor Coleman Young<p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmBDP4apK90L227A5Z1R1jWm28G9xC6QGvas4PLirgHesqnRq0sDJhdlDmjmYb7HgBElt57K8VQnKnuYT7lvaJ4HVhN2rW9w-GHFIvkdySVkXgSQnRf_kFyg02nA8oysxJEFpM-gk7Xtct12Mj-_H5rK0Sia80C5vdEszrY5iF4OeKdRN0a8duOQPJG9M/s720/Coleman%20Young%20mayor.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="517" height="486" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmBDP4apK90L227A5Z1R1jWm28G9xC6QGvas4PLirgHesqnRq0sDJhdlDmjmYb7HgBElt57K8VQnKnuYT7lvaJ4HVhN2rW9w-GHFIvkdySVkXgSQnRf_kFyg02nA8oysxJEFpM-gk7Xtct12Mj-_H5rK0Sia80C5vdEszrY5iF4OeKdRN0a8duOQPJG9M/w349-h486/Coleman%20Young%20mayor.jpg" width="349" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Coleman Young's identity, life, and career were closely intertwined with issues</span><span style="font-size: large;"> <span>pertaining to the African American community in Detroit and the nation. As the city's chief executive officer for five full terms, more than any other Detroit mayor, Young served the city he loved for twenty years. </span></span><p><span style="font-size: large;">Throughout his political career, the White establishment, representing suburban interests and their media mouthpieces, viewed Coleman Young's ascendency to Detroit's mayor as a social trespass upon their political turf. But the demographics of the city were favorable for Young's election. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The phenomonon known as White flight decimated the city's population and tax base leaving crippling poverty in its wake. White flight redefined the city, first with the G.I. Bill for World War II veterans who moved to the suburbs, and after 1967 when Detroit experienced one of the worst race riots in the history of the United States.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Both of these demographic shifts happened years before Young was elected mayor in 1974. Factor in the virtual collapse of the city's main employer, the automobile industry, due to the oil crisis in the Middle East. This was the situation Mayor Young faced as he entered office and soon became defined by every urban social problem Detroit was heir to. </span><span style="font-size: large;">He was the man in the moment.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Coleman Young began his boyhood in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on May 24, 1918. His father William Coleman Young was a barber who sold a Black newspaper out of his shop. For this, the local KKK began a harrassment campaign prompting him and his growing family in 1924 to become part of what history notes as the Great Migration to the North in search of jobs in the automobile factories and steel mills. Impoverished Southerners, </span><span style="font-size: large;">Black and White,</span><span style="font-size: large;"> poured into Detroit. The men competed for unskilled jobs on the assembly lines, steel mills, and iron foundries, while the women found work in the domestic services industry.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Coleman was five years old when his family moved to Detroit's Black Bottom neighborhood on Antietam Street between St. Aubin and the railroad tracks. He was the oldest of five children born to Ida Reese Young. As Coleman Young details in his autobiography <i>Hard Stuff</i>, he graduated from Eastern High School in 1935 during the depths of the Depression. To help support his family, he hustled to earn money doing small jobs. He recycled glass bottles, swept floors, delivered packages, and answered phones for Dr. Ossian Sweet.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Eventually, Young was hired as an autoworker for the Ford Motor Company. It was there where he joined the United Automobile Workers of America. After being fired from Fords for fighting, he went to work for the United States Postal Service before entering the service during World War II.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">"My political consciousness was awakened at the neighborhood barber shop in Black Bottom where I shined shoes," Young wrote. "Local radicals educated me with dialogue that offered nothing about passivity or surrender but much about unity. As both a means and an end, unity has driven virtually every pursuit of my public life."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The two-chair, barber shop was owned and operated by Haywood Maben, "a self-educated Marxist and (political) pontificator." He and his customers would argue about trade unionism, dialectical materialism, and unity between the races which made for provocative conversation. Maben's barbershop was a left-wing caucus in the afternoon; at night, political meetings were held behind drawn curtains. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">These meetings did not go unnoticed by the FBI, which recorded names of participants and labeled them Communist sympathizers and socialists. Coleman Young's name was included on that list leading to the opening of a confidential dossier on him which followed him through his adult life. Time and again, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI interfered with Young's ability to hold onto a decent job or get fair treatment in the Army Air Corp. All it took was a well-placed phone call or a letter from the FBI and Young's opportunities vanished into thin air.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">With the end of World War II, Detroit was on a collision course with history. The post-war economy began shrinking rapidly as government military contracts expired. The Arsenal of Democracy scrambled to transition back to a peacetime economy. Nowhere was this felt more than in Detroit. To compound Detroit's economic woes, the G.I. Bill and the Veterans' Administration provided low-cost, zero percent down home loans that sparked a dramatic exit from the city which became known as White flight, further devastating the city's population and tax base. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then came a gut punch which sealed Black Detroit's fate. President Eisenhower pushed for an Interstate Highway System based on the Autobaun, which he had seen in Germany at war's end. His primary argument for such a highway was it allowed the military to deploy personnel and equipment quickly to virtually anywhere in the country on expressways. In Detroit, local politicians saw this as an opportunity to clear out the depressed Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods in the name of urban renewal.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Black population regarded the construction of I-375 as little more than Negro removal. Local politicians gave no regard to the people who would be displaced or the impact it was destined to have on the city. Impoverished Black residents were forced into other underfacilitated, overpopulated, segregated areas within Detroit. In short, a powder keg of human misery was created waiting only for a spark to ignite and engulf the area. Up to this point, Detroit's African American community had little or no political influence.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Although not the first American urban area in the 1960s to erupt in civil unrest, the Detroit Riot/Rebellion began on July 23, 1967. It became the most devasting race riot of the era. President Lyndon B. Johnson sanctioned a federal investigation in 1968 into its causes and of other urban civil disorders called The Kerner Commission. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Commission determined after an exhaustive study that the rioting in Detroit was a response to decades of "persausive discrimination and segregation." The siege mentality of the mostly White, aggressive, and combative Detroit Police Department was singled out in particular.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirKNxuth4xQBiTbBXdPdspDmQuPgBiRBmXldQPUnUnNuFU3nOiUzygOtTtg4xKLOE_hNmpJ2zLHy5-VKrp0NNrFJgPzq1ll21JYQJ6cDZKbkf-BrH4Hc5i2jif1iNvZ-j_FhDjFebbnSMgudKsbusndj6dH5ERqK-g6e6UPynOX223nNugMRaB17y8n6I/s271/Kerner%20Commission%20Report.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="271" data-original-width="186" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirKNxuth4xQBiTbBXdPdspDmQuPgBiRBmXldQPUnUnNuFU3nOiUzygOtTtg4xKLOE_hNmpJ2zLHy5-VKrp0NNrFJgPzq1ll21JYQJ6cDZKbkf-BrH4Hc5i2jif1iNvZ-j_FhDjFebbnSMgudKsbusndj6dH5ERqK-g6e6UPynOX223nNugMRaB17y8n6I/w283-h412/Kerner%20Commission%20Report.jpeg" width="283" /></a></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">After the week-long rebellion, </span><span style="font-size: large;">Detroit public opinion polls revealed that 75% of White respondents believed the rioting was caused by radicals guided by a foreign conspiracy to overthrow the American government and our way of life--specifically, Pinko Commies and Black Panthers. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Conservative politicans disputed that the blame fell on White institutions or White society and took no ownership of the issue. Most White people were dismissive and believed that the rioters were criminals who were "let off the hook" by bleeding-heart liberals. <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Refuting that popularly held suburban belief, the Kerner Commission determined that the insurrection was a revolt of underprivileged, overcrowded, and irritable citizens. During a blistering heatwave, they reacted against a provocative police raid that provided the spark igniting the week-long rebellion.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Commission concluded that the root cause of the violence was institutional racism. American society in general is "deeply implicated in the ghetto," the report read. "White society created it. White society maintained it. And White society condoned it." <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ironically, President Johnson, who initiated the study, was unhappy with the result because the Commission's recommendations
were all budget busters with no chance of passage in the United States Congress. Johnson was also a man from the South and knew there would be political repercussions if he threw the weight of the presidency behind the Committee's recommendations.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">As cruel fate would have it, one month after the <i>Kerner Report</i> was published, Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated </span><span style="font-size: large;">while standing on the Lorraine Motel balcony </span><span style="font-size: large;">by James Earl Ray </span><span style="font-size: large;">in Memphis, Tennessee</span><span style="font-size: large;">.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> America's best hope for pulling our nation out of this racial quagmire was cut down in his prime. Grief and anger broke out across the land and demonstrations occured in over one hundred American cities. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The <i>Kerner Report</i> was back-shelved and conveniently forgotten.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In Detroit, a new wave of White flight made Detroit the Blackest city in the United States. African Americans were now in the political majority.The stage was set for a new generation of Black leaders who would struggle to lift Detroit out of its death spiral. The most visible among them--Coleman Young Jr.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Young began his political career coming from the left-wing branch of the American labor movement. He became a respresentative for the Public Workers Union and devoted himself to full-time union organizing. By 1946, Young won a leadership role as a director within the larger Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO). His election to the position was a major victory for the Black community, and he instantly became a spokesperson for Blacks across Detroit.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Earning a reputation as a devoted and hard-working labor organizer in the 1950s, Young was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 1960. He helped draft a new state constitution for Michigan, which in turn led him to run for State Senator in 1964, a position he held for ten years making a name for himself as an effective legislator.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1970, Wayne County Sheriff Roman Gribbs became mayor of the City of Detroit running on a law and order platform. Gribbs hired former New York Police Commissioner John Nichols. Together, they created a special police unit named STRESS, an acronym for Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets, to apprehend street thugs and patrol in primarily minority-isolated neighborhoods. The group became simply known as The Big Four by the city's Black residents. The special unit soon devolved into what amounted to agents of urban terror.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEGNXeVmu5EEeot7ThrsFZJBdwoLPvvSchaoq9ZsQiQ-Tt3xpaqtknGZE3mhq8IvTvFq2BzAXkbKYY8jyfDe2svPWzA6Yt5VNDL_wCJADXlH-niXF2tDKl4yOhKlND2gmyCFLxxl8GUBKN5zgejftnWj9LWHRN445b-DPrid8NgvnHmCAekpm-14aHzzE/s521/STRESS%20police%20unit.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="521" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEGNXeVmu5EEeot7ThrsFZJBdwoLPvvSchaoq9ZsQiQ-Tt3xpaqtknGZE3mhq8IvTvFq2BzAXkbKYY8jyfDe2svPWzA6Yt5VNDL_wCJADXlH-niXF2tDKl4yOhKlND2gmyCFLxxl8GUBKN5zgejftnWj9LWHRN445b-DPrid8NgvnHmCAekpm-14aHzzE/w409-h377/STRESS%20police%20unit.jpg" width="409" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">STRESS Police Unit</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">STRESS police cruisers consisted of a driver and three burly, usually White, plainclothed police detectives. The department had several such units. In less than three years, twenty-two Detroit citizens (twenty-one of them Black) were shot to death, hundreds of illegal arrests were made, and an estimated 400 warrantless police raids were conducted. Rather than protect the citizenry, The Big Four terrorized the city's Black residents. <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1973, Roman Gribbs stepped down as mayor after a single term in office, throwing his support behind his police commissioner John Nichols, who ran on a law and order platform. Coleman Young saw this as an opportunity to leave the Michigan senate and run for Detroit mayor. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Young campaigned against the abuses of the Detroit Police Department which Black residents identified as their number one issue.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> He also ran on a platform of reconstructing the inner city, creating sorely needed jobs for city residents, and hiring city employees to reflect a 50/50 racial balance. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVRUfFJGQuTJ_SGmiw6byFrPuOLumMjRGvoYsKruu49CFoB_OkRkIA3TYoyMi2rH4Oto-WGV-TNy6AmOVCux7FHhDqWuK3WpwGVyNq_5eTDHF7Kg6WSbuckCbWYqZTw7OqGZZaD9xKcXwybo2IGZwxdR-XMQjDDbluFK7wFc0h688XO_txRIYqPoWjwgk/s385/Coleman%20Young%20fire%20John%20Nichols.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="193" data-original-width="385" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVRUfFJGQuTJ_SGmiw6byFrPuOLumMjRGvoYsKruu49CFoB_OkRkIA3TYoyMi2rH4Oto-WGV-TNy6AmOVCux7FHhDqWuK3WpwGVyNq_5eTDHF7Kg6WSbuckCbWYqZTw7OqGZZaD9xKcXwybo2IGZwxdR-XMQjDDbluFK7wFc0h688XO_txRIYqPoWjwgk/w430-h215/Coleman%20Young%20fire%20John%20Nichols.jpg" width="430" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">On election day there were no surprises. In this hard fought election, White precincts voted for Police Commissioner Nichols, and Black precincts voted for Coleman Young Jr., making Young Detroit's first Black mayor by earning 52% of the vote to John Nichols' 48%.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In his inaugral speech, Young urged unity between the races, White and Black, the rich and poor, and the suburbs and the city. He also spoke about restoring law and order.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Young addressed Detroit's criminal element directly, "Dope pushers, rip-off artists, and muggers, it is time for you to leave Detroit. Hit Eight Mile Road. I don't give a damn if you're Black or White, or if you wear Superfly suits or blue uniforms with silver badges. Hit the road!" </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">While Mayor Coleman Young's "New Sheriff in Town" speech resonated with many city residents, The White political establishment extrapulated it as an invitation for Detroit's Black criminals to prey upon the affluent White surburbs. The opposition's fear mongering was echoed and amplified by Detroit's media outlets. And thus, Coleman Young's new administration began.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Young's first political act was to disband the police STRESS units and move toward a community policing approach with mini stations located around the city. He also made good on his promise to hire more Black policemen. The percentage of Black officers went from 10% to 50% during his administration. The net effect was the reduction of police brutality complaints against the department by over 35%, improving police relations within Detroit's neighborhoods.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The nationwide recession of the mid-1970s hit Detroiters especially hard. Unemployment was at 25% increasing costs for public relief programs and reducing city income and property taxes. In 1974, Automobile production was at its lowest level since 1950, and the Middle Eastern oil embargo drove up inflation nationwide. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">As if German Volkswagen imports in the 1950s and 1960s were not enough of a nuisance, in the 1970s, Japanese imports caught Detroit's Big Three (Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler) flat-footed with an large inventory of high-cost, gas-guzzling, luxury and muscle cars gathering dust in storage lots.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">To vent the frustrations of laid-off auto workers, the UAW hosted fundraisers around the city where workers, or anybody else with a few bucks, could take a sledge hammer to a Toyota Corolla for a dollar-a-whack. These displays of the area's collective blue-collar angst did nothing but provide the local media with dramatic made-for-television news moments. The sledgefests also proved how well these imports were built. Most drove off under their own power after an afternoon of pounding.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The fundamental problem rested with the automobile executives who did not take the small car trend seriously and frantically rushed to produce economical cars which were inferior to Japanese imports.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">As Detroit sank deeper into financial crisis, Mayor Young's second, third, and fourth elections were focused on creating jobs for city residents. Young's mantra was "Jobs built Detroit, and only jobs will rebuild it." The automobile companies decentralized and moved much of their manufacturing to the suburbs or to the South where wages were lower. That left Detroit out in the cold. The city could no longer depend on the auto business to enrich its coffers and pay its bills. Something huge and dramatic needed to happen. <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Young tossed the dice and decided that casino gambling was the answer to his city's woes, especially after Windsor, Ontario, across the Detroit River approved gambling on their waterfront. For his next three election campaigns, Young made casino-style gambling the centerpiece of his political platform, much to the dismay of his most ardent supporters, the ministerial alliance of Black churches.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Young's most strident political opponents, the suburban power elite and their media machine hammered away at Young on a daily basis in the city's major newspapers and local news programs. Each time Young promoted casino gambling, the ballot measures were soundly defeated by a 2 to 1 margin in expensive and dirty campaigns.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">For Young's fifth and final campaign for mayor, he did not make casino gambling part of his political platform. It took his successor Mayor Dennis Archer to win approval for casino gambling within the city limits. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">With the State of Michigan running a daily and weekly lottery and Windsor's Caesar's Casino raking in a million dollars a week from Michigan residents, voters' attitudes about gambling softened. In 1996, the proposition narrowly passed. The creation of construction jobs, casino jobs, and vendor jobs did much to stablize Detroit's economy and help revitalize downtown.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Coleman Young decided not to run for a sixth term as mayor. His emphysema from a lifetime of smoking robbed him of his strength and energy. Twenty years serving the city he loved was enough. He fought long and hard to improve Detroit and left the city in better shape than when he entered office.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1kHMu8W4JroCuc12VQcj24PIPr-q_7HFqX_aHGUF55a4uKkFWUHDR4lj8AXQBp2qs4DGijiAviw7Pcs1wQPYYIm-ZBebd4k3iogzCC59PVpRJtXZZZCp2YjvvlKIJYlDfOv7wddQal6nAYpwYO21XCLuCl7KMfiWLV5BJHdcNUjx4gmMB8RD3YbiJEHU/s275/Ren%20Cen.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1kHMu8W4JroCuc12VQcj24PIPr-q_7HFqX_aHGUF55a4uKkFWUHDR4lj8AXQBp2qs4DGijiAviw7Pcs1wQPYYIm-ZBebd4k3iogzCC59PVpRJtXZZZCp2YjvvlKIJYlDfOv7wddQal6nAYpwYO21XCLuCl7KMfiWLV5BJHdcNUjx4gmMB8RD3YbiJEHU/w456-h303/Ren%20Cen.jpeg" width="456" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Renaissance Center</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">During his tenure, the Renaissance Center was completed in 1977 creating jobs and increasing the city's tax base. The Hart Plaza, thirteen acres of people-friendly sidewalks and promenades along the bank of the Detroit River, humanized what was once a blighted area. It included an amphitheater hosting all manner of ethnic and music festivals bringing city and suburban audiences together.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Among many other large construction projects Young supported the People Mover, a light rail loop in the downtown area; Detroit Receiving Hospital; Riverfront Condominiums; and the FOX Theater restoration, looking out at what would become Comerica Park and Ford Field bringing the Tigers and the Lions downtown.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">From the beginning of his political career, Coleman Young was accused by his critics of being corrupt. In a Freedom of Information Act investigation, Young discovered he had been under FBI surveillance since 1940 because of his reputed association with suspected Communists and his labor union activities. Surveillance continued through the 1980s.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">After six federal investigations of his administration, Young was never indicted or charged with a crime. Claims that he was corrupt were malicious myths designed to tarnish the mayor's brass.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Young emerged from a left-leaning element but moderated his political view once in power. He allied himself closely with community leaders, business entrepreneurs, and bankers proving that rather than a socialist, Young was a devout capitalist committed to rebuilding Detroit and improving the lives of its residents. His vision for Detroit laid the foundation for much of the city's resurgence we see today.<br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwf7Ys0iq_GkyI9qfAM3nXkaC1uOk8kZHmc1Kf2W8AEmqqAIegnixj0qHzHksWcCcOJehSMfNadIhfBzPiAGHSrSjjJZvMUaCVrZc1jyKu-ONPrg5pEjIkCRnIFohtioM3HkfUN4NQGrARabdreyuYI518fDO1LyMub1PHl7edZRVE00NqJq2NANs4gz4/s1320/Coleman%20young.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="910" data-original-width="1320" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwf7Ys0iq_GkyI9qfAM3nXkaC1uOk8kZHmc1Kf2W8AEmqqAIegnixj0qHzHksWcCcOJehSMfNadIhfBzPiAGHSrSjjJZvMUaCVrZc1jyKu-ONPrg5pEjIkCRnIFohtioM3HkfUN4NQGrARabdreyuYI518fDO1LyMub1PHl7edZRVE00NqJq2NANs4gz4/w396-h274/Coleman%20young.webp" width="396" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Coleman Young Surveying His Legacy</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">At the age of seventy-nine, Coleman Alexander Young succumbed to lung disease on November 29, 1997. The mayor's body laid in state for two days under the Rotunda in the Hall of Ancestors at the Museum of African American History in Detroit's cultural district.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Funeral services were conducted on Friday, December 5th by Reverend Charles Butler at the New Calvary Baptist Church. Aretha Franklin sang at the ceremony with the combined chorus of Greater Grace Temple and the New Calvary Baptist Church. Coleman Young was buried in a private ceremony in Elmwood Cemetery where many of Detroit's distinguished citizens are interred.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK5DRw5So6I2m1i8fnxO8wkw7Pw9K5BhkMy5oFtgPuPnkPjnwOwM7uSPUPscOgt5TRYoLqUjY6nZ1PbbamwR8WThEel5ykhElf5jFmetsCpgqyE6TB9Uf1oXbTzoRbcvSQJc6r6TjoWT6nn5W2XKTYnDpxYeKoruPByNvFK0r89yVtdp4iYmS4txhu9EQ/s819/Coleman%20Young%20in%20heaven.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="589" data-original-width="819" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK5DRw5So6I2m1i8fnxO8wkw7Pw9K5BhkMy5oFtgPuPnkPjnwOwM7uSPUPscOgt5TRYoLqUjY6nZ1PbbamwR8WThEel5ykhElf5jFmetsCpgqyE6TB9Uf1oXbTzoRbcvSQJc6r6TjoWT6nn5W2XKTYnDpxYeKoruPByNvFK0r89yVtdp4iYmS4txhu9EQ/w520-h375/Coleman%20Young%20in%20heaven.jpeg" width="520" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2024/01/five-hard-way-in-detroits-gamble-for.html">Background on Casino Gambling in Detroit</a></span><br /></p>Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-90756234781500789872024-03-09T17:51:00.000-08:002024-03-09T17:51:59.990-08:00Early Detroit Tiger History<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gUa-_I46YIw/YDrnSwhkgOI/AAAAAAAAPJg/7iSVHISko84hdDqvWfN5mQqK9d9NjUcbQCNcBGAsYHQ/s900/Tiger%2527s%2BCharlie%2BBennett.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="684" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gUa-_I46YIw/YDrnSwhkgOI/AAAAAAAAPJg/7iSVHISko84hdDqvWfN5mQqK9d9NjUcbQCNcBGAsYHQ/w304-h400/Tiger%2527s%2BCharlie%2BBennett.jpg" width="304" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Charlie Bennett</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;">Prior to 1894, the Detroit Tigers played minor league baseball and were one of the founding members of the West League that played throughout the Great Lakes states. Owner George Vandereck choose the corner of Michigan and Trumbull Boulevards as their home field. Previously, the vacant lot was used as a local hay market for farmers and livestock owners. Vandereck bought the lot and built Bennett Park--named after a popular Tiger catcher Charlie Bennett--who lost his legs in a railway accident in 1894 while running on a rain-slick train platform and falling onto the tracks. Bennett's left foot and his right leg above the knee were severed </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">as the train pulled out, </span>ending his baseball career.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-to8FtAA9Cv4/XWCHJGObVmI/AAAAAAAAM9o/xKt2JlGSu_o6Grqe0Q7sLOjkCvylm3GLgCLcBGAs/s1600/FrankNavin.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="714" data-original-width="488" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-to8FtAA9Cv4/XWCHJGObVmI/AAAAAAAAM9o/xKt2JlGSu_o6Grqe0Q7sLOjkCvylm3GLgCLcBGAs/s320/FrankNavin.jpg" width="218" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Frank "Old Stone Face" Navin</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1901, the Tigers joined the new American League as one of its eight founding members. Samuel F. Angus bought the Tigers in 1902 and hired lawyer and baseball enthusiast Frank Joseph Navin to run the club for him. As a young man, Navin was a blackjack and poker dealer in an illegal gambling establishment. He loved horse racing and was an avid wagerer at two racetracks in Windsor, Ontario and attended the Kentucky Derby annually. In 1908, Navin parlayed $5,000 of winnings into buying a significant portion of Tiger stock.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1908, Navin bought another large block of shares making him controlling owner and new president of the organization. When Navin's silent business partner William Yawkey--lumber fortune heir--died in 1919, Navin bought his stock becoming full owner of the club. Because he was suddenly cash-poor, he sold 25% of the franchise to auto-body manufacturer Walter Briggs Sr. and 25% to wheel maker John Kelsey of Kelsey-Hayes Corporation. When Kelsey died, Briggs bought his interest in the team becoming an equal co-owner with Navin, but Briggs was content to allow Navin to run the team unhampered.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RJOZe0dTZbc/XWCHyXKpQ-I/AAAAAAAAM9w/rhR5PTtMPRE00PF2B0l-kmbhCwftRHA3wCLcBGAs/s1600/Frank%2BNavin%2Band%2BTy%2BCobb%2Bsign%2Bcontract.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="239" data-original-width="300" height="318" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RJOZe0dTZbc/XWCHyXKpQ-I/AAAAAAAAM9w/rhR5PTtMPRE00PF2B0l-kmbhCwftRHA3wCLcBGAs/s400/Frank%2BNavin%2Band%2BTy%2BCobb%2Bsign%2Bcontract.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Frank Navin and Ty Cobb</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In 1905, Navin signed legendary Tiger center fielder Ty Cobb for $1,500. The talented ballplayer led the Tigers to their first American League pennant win in 1907. Between seasons, Cobb held out for a $5,000 contract. After bitter negotiations, Navin--a tight-fisted owner--met his match. Cobb was wildly popular with the fans and threatened to expose Navin for the conniving cheapskate he was. The penny-pinching owner quickly did the math and caved-in to Cobb's demand. Cobb led the Tigers to two more consecutive American League pennants in 1908 and 1909 turning a nice profit for the team. Navin made Cobb the team's manager as well as being the team's star player.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y3BFMfoQPIY/XWCOHKtwvxI/AAAAAAAAM-Q/KQp1MGjDohEoN82M0VW44h46ZTXLrRwiACLcBGAs/s1600/Bennett%2BPark.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="960" height="125" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y3BFMfoQPIY/XWCOHKtwvxI/AAAAAAAAM-Q/KQp1MGjDohEoN82M0VW44h46ZTXLrRwiACLcBGAs/s400/Bennett%2BPark.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Navin Field</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Bennett Park consisted of a wooden grandstand and bleachers. It was the smallest ballpark in the league seating 14,000. Owners Navin and Briggs tore down the obsolete wooden Bennett Park between the 1911 and 1912 seasons and built a concrete and steel stadium seating 23,000 fans--renaming it Navin Field. In 1924, Navin built a second deck increasing seating to 30,000.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">By 1931, the Great Depression cut Tiger attendance by 30%. To draw fans to the ballpark, Navin tried to sign the most popular player in the game--Babe Ruth--but he wasn't availabe, so Navin bought out Mickey Cochrane's contact from Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack for $100,000 and made him a player-manager. Cochrane was just what the team needed. He helped the Tigers win pennants in 1934 and 1935.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JEQBWdriogQ/XWCIYTz2iOI/AAAAAAAAM98/slMW-uf2NTIEykHutZGE3Jy9AVEHYP_JwCEwYBhgL/s1600/frank-navin-mickey-cochrane-detroit-world-series.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="640" height="293" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JEQBWdriogQ/XWCIYTz2iOI/AAAAAAAAM98/slMW-uf2NTIEykHutZGE3Jy9AVEHYP_JwCEwYBhgL/s400/frank-navin-mickey-cochrane-detroit-world-series.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mickey Cochran with Grace and Frank Navin--1935</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;">Under Navin's stewardship, the Tigers won four American League pennants but did not win a World Series until the 1935 season, giving the Tigers their first series win. But Navin's victory lap was short-lived. Navin and his wife Grace rode horses several times a week at the Detroit Riding and Hunt Club. Six weeks after the Tigers won the series, Navin went for a solo ride on his favorite horse Masquerader and suffered a fatal heart attack, falling to the ground. When his horse returned riderless to the stable, his wife cried out for help, but it was too late. Navin was dead at age sixty-five. He was buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, Michigan in a family mausoleum.</span><br />
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</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u5IMSjbqNoY/XWCKRtP3xDI/AAAAAAAAM-I/NIja0MMtljE__q1yqPfGj_gJV_UT7Ne7gCEwYBhgL/s1600/Walter%2BBriggs.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="197" data-original-width="255" height="309" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u5IMSjbqNoY/XWCKRtP3xDI/AAAAAAAAM-I/NIja0MMtljE__q1yqPfGj_gJV_UT7Ne7gCEwYBhgL/s400/Walter%2BBriggs.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mickey Cochrane and Walter Briggs</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;">After Navin's death, Walter O. Briggs purchased Navin's stock and became sole owner. Because Briggs made a fortune manufacturing automobile bodies for Ford, Chrysler, Packard, Hudson, and Willys-Overland, he did not need an income from the team and promised not to take a salary during his tenure as owner. In 1938, he changed the name of Navin Field to Briggs Stadium and remained the sole owner of the Tigers until his death in 1952. The stadium was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961 until the franchise moved to Comerica Park in 2000.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">For 104 seasons, t</span>he Tigers played baseball at Michigan and Trumbull earning them the distinction of being the oldest continuous one-name-only city franchise in major league baseball.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2018/02/detroit-boxer-joe-louiss-place-in.html">1935--Detroit Tigers, Lions, and Red Wings win their championships.</a> </span></div>
Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-41491078495703669102024-03-03T07:57:00.000-08:002024-03-03T16:50:15.421-08:00Alex Karras’ Made-In-Detroit Movie—Jimmy B. and Andre (1979)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uxoxxf5od84/X0KEeUMNDXI/AAAAAAAAObc/PfAm0zxdQagBto0eJZ3xcXwzwlQU-6_aACNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Alex%2BKarras%2Bsigned%2Bphoto.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="644" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uxoxxf5od84/X0KEeUMNDXI/AAAAAAAAObc/PfAm0zxdQagBto0eJZ3xcXwzwlQU-6_aACNcBGAsYHQ/s400/Alex%2BKarras%2Bsigned%2Bphoto.jpg" width="321" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Alex Karras proves there is life after professional football.</span></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">When Alex Karras retired from the Detroit Lions in 1970, he
left town for the bright lights of Hollywood. Alex first caught the acting bug
</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">as a senior </span></span>at Emerson High School in Gary, Indiana when he performed in <i>South Pacific</i>. When he played college football at the
University of Iowa, Karras wrestled professionally as villain George Brown
donning a full mask and earning $50 a match. He relished playing the bad guy
and acting crazy. It beat working in the steel mills.</span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">After Karras was drafted by the Detroit Lions, he supplemented
his ridiculously low NFL salary by wrestling in the off-season to help pay the
bills for his growing family. He formed a tag team called Killer Karras and
Krusher Konovski that performed to boos and sneers while winning all of their
matches in the Midwest. While still a Detroit Lion, Karras played himself in
the Hollywood film, <i>Paper Lion</i>. He
garnered good reviews that led him to pursue an acting career.</span></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qLQzQcvcMHo/X0KFjM07AlI/AAAAAAAAObk/-XNv4ZNFTwMQ8mL5QzluPNgKA8Lp6iWjgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Alex%2BKarras%2Band%2BSusan%2BClark.JPG" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="891" data-original-width="695" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qLQzQcvcMHo/X0KFjM07AlI/AAAAAAAAObk/-XNv4ZNFTwMQ8mL5QzluPNgKA8Lp6iWjgCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/Alex%2BKarras%2Band%2BSusan%2BClark.JPG" width="249" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Karras with Susan Clark in BABE.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Karras cut his teeth on several minor roles before he landed
a co-star role in <i>The Babe Didrikson
Zaharias Story</i> with actress Susan Clark, who won a best-actress Emmy for
her excellent performance. They began performing regularly together and eventually
married. In 1979, they jointly formed a Hollywood production company named <i>Georgian Bay Productions</i>.</span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Their first full length movie project was <i>Jimmy B. and Andre</i> which debuted on CBS
on March 19, 1980. It was based on the true story of Jimmy Butsicaris, co-owner
with his brother Johnny of the popular Lindell AC (Athletic Club) sports bar. The
Lindell AC was frequented by Detroit Lion and Tiger athletes, sports writers,
and sports fans from every level of Detroit society. Alex wanted to make a
made-for-TV movie about his friend Jimmy B. trying to adopt a nine-year-old,
African-American street kid named Andre Reynolds.</span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Andre was an elementary school dropout who shined shoes at
Jim’s barber shop next door to the Lindel AC to pick up some extra money. But an
older, local bully named Billy began harassing Andre for his hard-earned cash. Jimmy
Butsicaris rescued the ragged, nine-year-old Andre from a beating one afternoon, finding
him in desperate need of a bath, a meal, and some guidance. Over a cheese
burger, fries, and a Coke, Jimmy learned the boy’s story. Andre’s mother was a
widow who was also a heroin addict in poor health. Much of the money Andre
turned over to her ended up in her arm. There was also an older sister and
brother in the household.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Jimmy took the kid under his wing and gave him work doing odd
jobs and a place to stay in the basement storeroom of the bar. Johnny
Butsicaris converted a photo darkroom into a safe place for Andre to stay. He
lived there for nine years. After the death of Andre’s mother from an overdose,
Jimmy tried to adopt Andre but ran into trouble with the boy’s aunt who wanted him
and his siblings as dependents to earn extra welfare money.</span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o8J3Glc67HE/X0K5RCM2O4I/AAAAAAAAOcg/TfgTDyc4QuMHYuqJI20CTD6Oz1DP6Yo9wCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Andre%2BReynolds%2Bwith%2BJimmy%2BButsicaris%2BMarch%2B20%252C%2B1980.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="689" data-original-width="546" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o8J3Glc67HE/X0K5RCM2O4I/AAAAAAAAOcg/TfgTDyc4QuMHYuqJI20CTD6Oz1DP6Yo9wCNcBGAsYHQ/s400/Andre%2BReynolds%2Bwith%2BJimmy%2BButsicaris%2BMarch%2B20%252C%2B1980.jpg" width="316" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Detroit Free Press - March 20, 1980.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Undeterred by the court’s decision to deny him guardianship,
Jimmy became Andre’s foster father and treated him like a son. As Andre grew
into manhood, he called Jimmy “Pop.” To show his appreciation, Andre had a
shirt made that read “I Am a Black Greek.” Jimmy took Andre to Detroit Lion and
Tiger games and introduced him everywhere as his son. Jimmy helped Andre get
back in public school where he earned a high school diploma from Western High
School when he was twenty years old.</span></span></div>
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</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">In the meantime, Karras and Clark pitched their story idea to
CBS and sold them on it. Karras portrayed his friend Jimmy Butsicaris as a
gruff restaurant owner with a big heart, and Susan Clark played his
long-suffering girlfriend Stevie. In the movie, Jimmy keeps finding reasons not
to marry her. Karras’ son, Alex Karras Jr, played a cameo role as the bully who
beats up the young Andre, the real Andre played a restaurant employee called
Bubba, and local Detroit weatherman Sonny Eliot played a drunk in the movie.</span></span></div>
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</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">The movie project was shot entirely in Detroit at the Lindell
AC, Jim’s Barber Shop next door, the Greektown restaurant district downtown, Belle
Isle Park, and the Renaissance Center. The film was notable because of the heart-rending
performance of twelve-year-old Curtis Yates, a student at Country Day School in
Birmingham, Michigan. The real Andre Reynolds said he cried every time he saw
the movie about his life and his foster father Jimmy Butsicaris.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F2bqiR-_BKs/X0KMOXJjaZI/AAAAAAAAOcU/B-r9_zSyG9MwUCZIu69p6Dad76C_ypJAwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Butsicaris%2BJimmy.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1010" data-original-width="1024" height="393" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F2bqiR-_BKs/X0KMOXJjaZI/AAAAAAAAOcU/B-r9_zSyG9MwUCZIu69p6Dad76C_ypJAwCNcBGAsYHQ/s400/Butsicaris%2BJimmy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Johnny Butsicaris in front of the Lindell AC sports bar.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">After Andre’s high school graduation, Jimmy urged him to
attend Grand Rapids Community College where he played football for one
semester, but at 5’ 9” and 185#, Andre wasn’t big enough for college ball, so
he dropped out. When Andre returned to Detroit, he left the influence of his
mentor and drifted into Detroit’s drug culture. When he was busted for
possession and drug trafficking, Andre served his sentence in Marquette Branch
Prison.</span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">In a prison cell at Marquette Branch Prison in Michigan’s
Upper Peninsula on November 21, 1996, thirty-six-year-old Andre learned that
his foster father and mentor Jimmy Butsicaris had died the evening before at
the age of seventy-five from a massive heart attack. Reynolds wasn’t eligible
for parole, so he couldn’t attend the funeral, but he agreed to be interviewed
by <i>Detroit News</i> reporter Thomas
BeVier.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VH5lphrBHcs/X0KJ7imlkoI/AAAAAAAAOcE/plvSSn5c_QkSPk71Yb5hZz4prNo-TaqHQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Andre%2BReynolds%2Bin%2BLindell%2B10-23-1979%2B%25282%2529.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="645" data-original-width="489" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VH5lphrBHcs/X0KJ7imlkoI/AAAAAAAAOcE/plvSSn5c_QkSPk71Yb5hZz4prNo-TaqHQCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/Andre%2BReynolds%2Bin%2BLindell%2B10-23-1979%2B%25282%2529.png" width="242" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Andre Reynolds at Lindell AC in 1979.</span></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">“(Jimmy) Butsicaris took me in when I was a nine-year-old,
punk kid living in a drug infested environment. I had a few moments of fame
when the movie <i>Jimmy B. and Andre</i>
came out. I was nineteen and wanted to be an adult, but I didn’t know how to do
that. I was paid $15,000 for my story, and I used it to buy two cars and go to Grand
Rapids Community College. But along the way, I fell in with a rough crowd and
was in and out of trouble most of my twenties. I’m ashamed of the life I’ve
lived.”</span></span></div>
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</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Andre served his sentence and was released. A few days before
Thanksgiving in 2000, Andre Reynolds was brutally attacked by an unknown person
or persons who beat and stomped him mercilessly. Detroit Police posited that
Andre ran afoul of a local drug gang, but no charges were ever brought in his
murder. He spent his final days in a coma at Detroit’s Receiving Hospital
before succumbing. His body was unidentified in the Wayne County Morgue for
four days before he was buried. What seemed on screen like a promising future
for Andre became a nightmare in real life.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Access Jimmy B. and Andre by name on YouTube!</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2017/02/detroits-lindell-ac-nations-first_21.html">Billy Martin's fight night at the Lindell AC</a><br /></span></span></div></div>
Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-28787508337388108222024-02-28T10:19:00.000-08:002024-02-28T10:19:51.621-08:00Detroit/Windsor Sock-Hop-Jock Robin Seymour<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aVT8r225kIA/WhNgpV4WPfI/AAAAAAAAJcE/SC0t-HnoCG4PH7JZ_F4nKFgOXyDSBC1QACLcBGAs/s1600/Robin%2BSeymour%2Bclose%2Bup.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="602" data-original-width="960" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aVT8r225kIA/WhNgpV4WPfI/AAAAAAAAJcE/SC0t-HnoCG4PH7JZ_F4nKFgOXyDSBC1QACLcBGAs/s320/Robin%2BSeymour%2Bclose%2Bup.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Robin Seymour at the height of his popularity.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Robin Henry Seymour began his career in radio as a child actor on <i>The Lone Ranger</i> show on WXYZ in Detroit. Eventually, he became one of the country's most popular disc-jockeys. During World War II, Seymour spent part of his enlistment as a DJ on Armed Forces Radio.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Seymour's civilian broadcasting career resumed in 1947 in Dearborn, Michigan at WKMH. The newly formed radio station played mainstream pop music with news, sports, and weather segments. Soon, Seymour became the station's top jock who appealed to many of Detroit and Windsor, Ontario listeners. Seymour championed early rock & roll artists and was one of America's first DJs to play doo-wop music and black rhythm & blues which was labeled race music in those days.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">As his popularity grew, Seymour began live appearances with his "Original Rock-n-Roll Revue" at Detroit's legendary <i>Fox Theater</i>. Seymour's personal theme song "Bobbin' with the Robin" was recorded in 1956 by a group popular at the time--<i>The Four Lads</i>. They were accompanied by the <i>Percy Faith Orchestra</i>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Canadian broadcaster CKLW hired Seymour to host a television teen dance show in 1963 entitled <i>Teen Town</i>, modeled on Dick Clark's <i>American Bandstand</i>. Clark's show was broadcast nationally, but Seymour's regional show was wildly popular in the greater Detroit area.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">With the help of rising <i>Motown</i> artists, the show gained popularity and was rebranded as <i>Swingin' Time</i>. Local teens would dance to Top 40 hits and two kids were chosen from the audience to rate new records with an "aye" or a "nay." National acts performing in Detroit or Windsor appeared on <i>Swingin' Time </i>to promote their live shows and records.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Seymour had the good fortune to feature virtually all the <i>Motown </i>artists--The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Little Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas, and the list goes on. Many of them recorded on Gordy and Tamala records before the Motown<i> </i>label.<i> Swingin' Time</i> introduced white suburban teens to local black performers, helping bridge the racial divide in heavily segregated Detroit.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In addition to <i>Motown</i> artists, many local white rock group performers appeared on Seymour's show--people like Glenn Frey, Mitch Ryder, Ted Nugent, and Bob Seger. Because of technical limitations in those days, all of the performers lip-synced their records. The most frequently booked local group on his show was <i>The Rationals</i>--an Ann Arbor garage band. Seymour managed many of the early Detroit groups.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hYoNGaK337c/WhMErdz4vJI/AAAAAAAAJb0/j8VD3tPsM4oQJWG_cXCN6uBDxBRZUSRsgCLcBGAs/s1600/Robin%2BSeymour%2Btoday.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hYoNGaK337c/WhMErdz4vJI/AAAAAAAAJb0/j8VD3tPsM4oQJWG_cXCN6uBDxBRZUSRsgCLcBGAs/s400/Robin%2BSeymour%2Btoday.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Robin Seymour shortly before his death.<br /></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">When CKLW changed ownership in 1968, Robin Seymour was replaced by Tom Shannon, another popular Detroit DJ. America was undergoing drastic political and social turmoil and the music reflected that change. Ever try to dance to psychedelic music? The show dropped in the ratings and ended its run in 1969.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Robin Seymour passed away on April 17, 2020, at the age of ninety-four in San Antonio, Texas. He will be missed by thousands of Detroiters and Windsorites. Robin wrote an indie autobiography </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The DJ That Launched 1,000 Hits</i> </span>just before he died which is available on Amazon. It is a joy to read. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">Robin Seymour's <i>Bobbin' with the Robin</i> theme song: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJFyQuvGG8g">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJFyQuvGG8g</a></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span>Early Bob Seger <i>Swingin Time</i> performance: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMUrxXwL-NM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMUrxXwL-NM</a></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=The+DJ+That+Launched+1000+Hits&i=stripbooks&crid=3GT72TRKGKRST&sprefix=the+dj+that+launched+1000+hits%2Cstripbooks%2C116&ref=nb_sb_noss">The Story of Robin Seymour</a> by Robin Seymour with Carolyn Rosenthal.</span><br /></span></div>
Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-78005521025249293892024-02-21T14:02:00.000-08:002024-02-21T14:02:39.425-08:00Norman "Turkey" Stearnes, Mack Park, and the Detroit Stars<p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdZ-tQ-Cwu1uisMgyfJHn93KDiUtaAjuNtgG2ZcmBP1N9EpYdo0pDYFRKvJsgzapGcjAXjeiC2o64vWYdEK2lepWXz3mTGA5SSg5EgaLBjOt8TX5mG2_SNYjj2-1kB7vz77a-4m0FmhqMcxLQl7UsUuQgTtYVQZX4JaeZQbGbd8Uwi95lv75LUE7bG/s246/Turkey%20Stearnes%20portrait.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="246" data-original-width="205" height="403" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdZ-tQ-Cwu1uisMgyfJHn93KDiUtaAjuNtgG2ZcmBP1N9EpYdo0pDYFRKvJsgzapGcjAXjeiC2o64vWYdEK2lepWXz3mTGA5SSg5EgaLBjOt8TX5mG2_SNYjj2-1kB7vz77a-4m0FmhqMcxLQl7UsUuQgTtYVQZX4JaeZQbGbd8Uwi95lv75LUE7bG/w336-h403/Turkey%20Stearnes%20portrait.jpg" width="336" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Norman "Turkey" Stearnes</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The Negro National League (NNL), America's first successful Black baseball league, was the brainchild of Andrew "Rube" Foster, who was born in Calvert, Texas in 1879. He grew up playing sandlot baseball in the Deep South. A gifted pitcher, Foster was a much sought after player for neighborhood and regional teams. He became a vagabond ballplayer and barnstormed throughout the South, scratching out a living on the mound rather than the land. Like many Black Americans, Foster was drawn to the North by the Great Migration for jobs and a better life.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In 1910, Foster had the foresight to realize that the Chicago area, and other Midwestern cities had sizeable Black populations which could support their own city teams. He organized, owned, and managed the Chicago American Giants. The American Giants were a barnstorming team that picked up games whenever and wherever they could, or they hosted exhibitions which allowed local teams and factory teams to compete against a professional team and split the gate profits after expenses were paid out. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Rube, as he became known professionally, also pitched for the American Giants until 1916. At the age of thirty-seven, his weight became a problem, and he lost his snap. Foster decided to hire younger men to take over the hurling chores, so he could devote his full attention to managing and scheduling the team.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiNNuto3rn-0dk-cKEgRdRIBBG74f-QtcGqRisZahyBZIEdzxNOZ4Q3Lo0P_gVEQ0tmLQ67PE0pVda-o6dcnZ6lFn_mlNxiUZ3FFrVscWXYA-iz2u-_lsobjckqgpEPKOJ5eupH_LgDGBKILaJBbTHOphnrAMVZuVEYxO2ufaiO66k4iKdS3AkcmlK/s266/rube%20foster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="189" data-original-width="266" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiNNuto3rn-0dk-cKEgRdRIBBG74f-QtcGqRisZahyBZIEdzxNOZ4Q3Lo0P_gVEQ0tmLQ67PE0pVda-o6dcnZ6lFn_mlNxiUZ3FFrVscWXYA-iz2u-_lsobjckqgpEPKOJ5eupH_LgDGBKILaJBbTHOphnrAMVZuVEYxO2ufaiO66k4iKdS3AkcmlK/w407-h289/rube%20foster.jpg" width="407" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">When World War I ended in 1919, Foster acted on his dream to create a professional Negro league modeled after the White major leagues. He installed a new team in Detroit and hired known numbers [illegal lottery] operator John T. "Tenny" Blount to manage the team which Foster dubbed The Detroit Stars. Foster also owned the Dayton Marcos from Dayton, Ohio; he hired someone to manage that team for him also. From these three charter teams, the fledgling NNL was born. Soon four other teams rounded out the league though teams came and went over the life of the league.<br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">For the next decade, the Detroit Stars played at Mack Park on Fairview and Mack Avenues in the middle of a White, working-class, German neighborhood on Detroit's near Eastside. It was a short four-mile trolley ride from Detroit's Black Bottom neighborhood to the ball park. The Stars performed before mixed crowds and had fans on both sides of the color line. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Mack Park was constructed in 1914 by Joe Roesink, an avid sports fan from Grand Rapids, who ran a chain of successful haberdasheries [men's clothing stores]. He leased his field to the NNL Detroit Stars, so Detroit could have its own Black team. Roesink also got 25% of the gate.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">On most weekends, as many as 8,000 people could be squeezed into the bleachers with another 2,000 in the grandstand. The ball park was a single-decked structure made of fir lumber planking and tin sheeting over the grandstand. The expensive seats were padded stadium seats under the grandstand. The cheap seats were in the bleachers where spectators had to contend with the elements and teeming crowds. Surprisingly, crowds tended to get along well for the most part. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Mack Park was a left-handed hitters' ball park. Right center field was 279' from home plate, the right field power alley was only 265'. The left field fence was 358', left center field was 390', and center field was 405'. Statistics indicate that NNL batters hit 128% more home runs in Mack Park than in any other Negro league park. Soon, the Stars were to have their first superstar who would take full advantage of that.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In an aside, on Sunday, July 7, 1929, the Detroit Stars were to play a double-header against the Kansas City Monarchs. Two days of heavy rain had soaked Mack Park. Owner and operator John Roesink wanted to get these two games in before he had to issue rain checks and lose money. The skies cleared and 2,000 fans were inside the ball park anxious to see some good baseball. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Standing water surrounded first and second base. A common practice in those days was to use blazing gasoline to evaporate standing water. [Wouldn't spreading sand be safer and more effective?]<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Roesink telephoned a nearby gas station ordering 40 gallons of gas, but the ball park did not have an approved storage tank for that amount, so they filled eight, five-gallon gas cans and stored them under the grandstand along the first base line where the team club houses and the ground keeper's lodging were.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Two gas cans were taken to the infield and emptied on the standing water around first and second base. Before the field was set ablaze, an explosion was heard under the grandstand and someone shouted "FIRE!" Smoke and fire began to rise from the stands and a full-blown panic broke out. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Only three days after the 4th of July, it seems likely someone threw a powerful firework like an M-80 or Cherry Bomb under the stands, but the fire marshal surmised someone dropped a hot cigarette butt under the stands starting the blaze. That theory did not explain the many reports of an explosion and a cloud of black smoke rising before the conflagration. Nobody was ever charged with arson.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Fans were trapped in the stands by a chicken wire barrier to protect them from stray foul balls. Quick-thinking ball players pulled down the wire barrier with some difficulty, allowing fans to pour onto the field, but they were now stuck on the gasoline soaked field. Players from both teams bravely battered down a section of wooden wall enclosing the ball park so fans could escape the flames.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Sixty-one people went to the hospital with thirty cases of broken arms, legs, and other injuries. Miraculously, nobody lost their life. Damage to the park was estimated to be $12,000. Five cars were also lost in the fire. The Stars played out the rest of their season at Dequindre Field at Dequindre and Modern streets on Detroit's far Eastside.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">For the 1930 season, Roesink built a new $30,000 ball park for the Stars in Hamtramck, Michigan, located at 3201 Dan Street. Originally named Roesink Stadium, this ball park had a 315' left field fence and a 407' right field fence. Now, right-handed batters had the homerun advantage. Soon, the ball park became known as Hamtramck Stadium.</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheonxIztG4RpAmLzV7b2ixL45nKkUw9wDwqB84eTArUWYtA58jI7zV6Fz1QL3cHGbL2g7pYRH9N8bbGTB1sIW6agJiKxFCzQtHB6LxWfngKDb3vlv2IwlbLeOPI9P0OhIjkorsJWYOeF_EJbhXGKffibmxVmhwMLnIWfyqAAmqxSZO-ZsxHvzUHNU6/s2048/Turkey%20Strearns%20Field%20poster.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1331" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheonxIztG4RpAmLzV7b2ixL45nKkUw9wDwqB84eTArUWYtA58jI7zV6Fz1QL3cHGbL2g7pYRH9N8bbGTB1sIW6agJiKxFCzQtHB6LxWfngKDb3vlv2IwlbLeOPI9P0OhIjkorsJWYOeF_EJbhXGKffibmxVmhwMLnIWfyqAAmqxSZO-ZsxHvzUHNU6/w416-h640/Turkey%20Strearns%20Field%20poster.jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">2022</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Over the lifetime of The Detroit Stars, many great ballplayers donned the uniform, but one player stood above the rest as the Stars' greatest player. His name was Norman "Turkey" Stearnes from Nashville, Tennessee. The agile and quick Stearnes played first base and pitched for the semipro Southern Negro League in 1920 for the Montgomery Grey Soxs and in 1921 for the Memphis Red Soxs. Scouts from Detroit liked what they saw in the left-handed thrower and batter.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Detroit Stars management offered Stearnes a contract for the 1922 season, but he turned it down so he could finish high school at the age of twenty-one. When his father died, Norman Stearnes had to quit school and get a job to help his mother support their family. But Stearnes returned when he could and graduated late. In 1922, he earned his diploma, much to the joy of his mother. She was determined that Norman get an education. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The achievement is all the more remarkable because in the 1920s, most males and females of both races quit school in the eighth grade when they were fourteen so they could get working papers. Times were always hard and money was to be made.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Stearnes signed with the Detroit Stars for the 1923 season at $200 a month. He soon earned the nickname "Turkey" because of the peculiar way he ran with his arms flapping. But in a foot race, at 5'11" and 175#s, Stearnes was one of the fastest men in the league.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">He sported broad shoulders and had a powerful, whiplike swing that could connect with the ball and hit home runs to any field in any park he played in. Remember that in the 1920s and 1930s, baseballs were not as wound tightly and less lively than they are in today's game. </span><span style="font-size: large;">When Turkey Stearnes hit a long ball, the leather sphere cried out in pain. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyq53ZRJI7BVwZ17hO5w-5CAhqCIAGSO4-FlIhCHWBt8XBgZYhPrmRxmPijbwno11phirrr0lPgZuXmkC76VgszXvqpcx3mWhzxxvPnI2Y1hetMnoDs1vceHugXwhTVyFuPc1LltJT9jkJ7cZePyrjLpoETCOaLYVgA0EcwZg4AvaYHAymhUTFrjG_/s1500/Satchel%20Paige.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1160" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyq53ZRJI7BVwZ17hO5w-5CAhqCIAGSO4-FlIhCHWBt8XBgZYhPrmRxmPijbwno11phirrr0lPgZuXmkC76VgszXvqpcx3mWhzxxvPnI2Y1hetMnoDs1vceHugXwhTVyFuPc1LltJT9jkJ7cZePyrjLpoETCOaLYVgA0EcwZg4AvaYHAymhUTFrjG_/w305-h395/Satchel%20Paige.jpg" width="305" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Satchel Paige is considered one of the greatest pitchers of all time in any league.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Turkey Stearnes' upper body strength, quick reflexes, and good batting eye made him a threat at the plate.</span> Legendary hurler for the Kansas City Monarchs Satchel Paige called Turkey Stearnes "one of the greatest hitters in the Negro leagues, as good as anybody who ever played baseball. I feared him more than any other hitter."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The Stars shifted Stearnes to center field where his speed and wide-ranging fielding ability could cover a lot of ground. Most of the real estate in Mack Park was in center field and he owned it. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Turkey Stearnes' career statistics boast a .349 lifetime batting average, 186 league homeruns, 129 stolen bases, 997 runs batted in, and a .617 slugging percentage. Stearnes is the only professional baseball player to lead his league in triples for six years. Five times he was chosen for the Black All-Star Game, twice he was the NNL batting champion. On November 7, 1987, Stearnes was inducted into the Michigan African American Sports Hall of Fame along with boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">As a player, Turkey Stearnes was detached, colorless, and cooly efficient. Unlike other players, he did not enjoy the spotlight and rarely spoke more than a phrase or a brief sentence. Off the field, he did not smoke, drink, chase women, or keep irregular hours. Stearnes donned the Detroit Stars uniform for eleven seasons. Longer than any other player, and unlike most of the Detroit Star players, he lived in Detroit in the off season with his wife.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In the off season, rather than barnstorm like other players to earn extra money, Stearnes worked in Walter Briggs' automobile body factory at Harper Avenue and Russell Street as a spray painter and a wet sander. He could make steady money that way and spend more time with his wife Nettie Mae.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">After working from late autumn through early April, Stearnes left for spring training in 1927, only days before a fire burned down the block-long Briggs factory. From then on, Stearnes worked the off-season in the foundry at Henry Ford's Rouge Plant until he retired from baseball and worked there full time. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">After Stearnes passed away, his wife Nettie Mae worked tirelessly to get her husband into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, where some of Turkey Stearnes' contemporaries like Rube Foster, Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson, Ray Dandridge and Satchel Paige were already installed. She told the <i>Detroit Free Press</i>, "It's not for me or my daughters' sake, it is for Norman. He deserves it."<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Iq8OtA9nPhP4IdjO07R5XzyxyrBe50VqXzikUVVkjPfmhkrrVSlL3xZUTqVQK0t_-EECNbTp69sHHIHxwYNxZRzA3oknYe02yTOaUPCEGWqN2-wcs40vydIxewMXj3Cg8LC3mBfb8xAxqk_3PBKDj8WvI458EcJn_DjxysuKcPuYLgfclxwSydS8/s480/Turkey%20Stearns%20plaque%20in%20Hall%20of%20Fame%202000.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="343" height="564" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Iq8OtA9nPhP4IdjO07R5XzyxyrBe50VqXzikUVVkjPfmhkrrVSlL3xZUTqVQK0t_-EECNbTp69sHHIHxwYNxZRzA3oknYe02yTOaUPCEGWqN2-wcs40vydIxewMXj3Cg8LC3mBfb8xAxqk_3PBKDj8WvI458EcJn_DjxysuKcPuYLgfclxwSydS8/w403-h564/Turkey%20Stearns%20plaque%20in%20Hall%20of%20Fame%202000.png" width="403" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Baseball Hall of Fame Plaque</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">When the Detroit Tigers moved to Comerica Park in 2000, Norman "Turkey" Stearnes was finally honored with a bronze plaque mounted outside the stadium at the center field gate. Although meant as a tribute to Stearnes by the Tiger management, many Detroit African Americans wondered aloud what it was going to take to get Turkey Stearnes inside the ballpark. There is also a display honoring Stearnes along the third base concourse at The Corner Ballpark, the site of the old Tiger Stadium at Michigan Avenue and Trumbull.</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO3gaHCNeMvMAEWc7Lik4Nedy4OpbHgayII91fXpRBHPxeCMM5-hAEfyNoP4ELQ030uZkuapBj56aJ1ZH7BD1z05vWVUL-6Lg2pIKgcasDXoBA7qg5FiEYUQ3P13vw-ISrEP8WvqAbyOS5AUQvopIoTNPlR3W7LaRbY7eP-QQkxLCV04XslAK2yEoe/s660/Turket%20Stearnes%20daughter%20Joyce.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="660" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO3gaHCNeMvMAEWc7Lik4Nedy4OpbHgayII91fXpRBHPxeCMM5-hAEfyNoP4ELQ030uZkuapBj56aJ1ZH7BD1z05vWVUL-6Lg2pIKgcasDXoBA7qg5FiEYUQ3P13vw-ISrEP8WvqAbyOS5AUQvopIoTNPlR3W7LaRbY7eP-QQkxLCV04XslAK2yEoe/w362-h233/Turket%20Stearnes%20daughter%20Joyce.webp" width="362" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Joyce Stearnes-Thompson at a preservation ceremony for Hamtramck Stadium proudly displaying a photo of her father.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Norman "Turkey" Stearnes was finally elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame in 2000,</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">sixty years after his career ended and twenty-one years after his death on September 4, 1979, Norman "Turkey" Stearnes</span> was elected </span>along with former Tiger manager Sparky Anderson. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In Comerica Park's center field, a NNL flag flies commemorating the Negro league, and during every Negro League Weekend at Comerica Park, Stearnes' daughters Roslyn Stearnes-Brown and Joyce Stearnes-Thompson sing the National Anthem.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2019/08/early-detroit-tiger-history.html">Early Detroit Tiger History</a><br /></span></p>Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-50398660194597567982024-02-16T17:28:00.000-08:002024-02-18T13:59:11.351-08:00The Remarkable Mother Waddles--Patron Saint of Detroit's Poor<div style="text-align: left;"></div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBpY7UFQV-oEkWLq0HevHJlS55CXkPVo85J_Iy1RKP439UlYO-E-HtT3rpfoOKRyxoRVn-bTpgSPUhCgUIqqbDtS7KtySU5GDaWDIJ7g5-RTB5uWYKUYYNW7BTwEkbwH1c0KXuIbzNkwNUvLIyx2UgS-lt9DvsMezr1y_OACMdn0kMjAAcLthe4I29nJI/s1979/Mother%20Waddles%20Health%20Center.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1965" data-original-width="1979" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBpY7UFQV-oEkWLq0HevHJlS55CXkPVo85J_Iy1RKP439UlYO-E-HtT3rpfoOKRyxoRVn-bTpgSPUhCgUIqqbDtS7KtySU5GDaWDIJ7g5-RTB5uWYKUYYNW7BTwEkbwH1c0KXuIbzNkwNUvLIyx2UgS-lt9DvsMezr1y_OACMdn0kMjAAcLthe4I29nJI/w370-h368/Mother%20Waddles%20Health%20Center.jpg" width="370" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mother Waddles Perpetual Mission eventually expanded to include her church, a kitchen/restaurant for the poor and downtrodden, a job training program, job placement services, and a health clinic.<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Long before Mother Waddles became an institution in the city of Detroit, she was no stranger to adversity. Born Charleszetta Lena Campbell in St. Louis, Missouri, on October 7, 1912, she was the oldest of three children of seven who survived into adulthood, born to Henry Campbell and Ella Brown.</span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Her father Henry ran a successful barber shop which doubled as a popular meeting place for African American men in their local community, until he cut a customer's hair who had the contagious skin disease impetigo. Unknowingly, Henry Campbell cut other customers' hair with the same clippers, including some fellow church members who came down with the ailment.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Overnight, word spread throughout his community and congregation that Campbell's Barber Shop was the cause of the outbreak. Members of his congregation shunned him and his family. Campbell lost not only his business but also his self-respect.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Charleszetta was only twelve years old when she witnessed her father die a broken man. She never forgot his despair and the lack of empathy shown to him by their congregation. Miss Charleszetta Campbell quit school in eighth grade despite her love of school and good grades. She began working as a domestic servant to help support her mother and two younger sisters. At the tender age of fourteen, Charleszetta became pregnant by her twenty-four-year-old boyfriend who eventually left her to fend on her own. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">During the heart of the Great Depression, Charleszetta met and married a thirty-seven-year-old truck driver named Leroy Welsh. She was twenty-one. In 1936, the family moved to Detroit. Together, they had six children before she divorced him in 1945. She felt he had no ambition and was not doing his share to support her and her children.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Alone and with seven kids to feed, Charleszetta worked as a bar maid and a "numbers" (illegal lottery) collector to supplement her welfare and Aid to Dependent Children checks, and from a tub in front of the house, she sold barbequed ribs on the weekends to make ends meet. In life, circumstances determine actions, or so it seems. Charleszetta spent the next five years in a common-law marriage with Roosevelt Sturkey and bore him three children before he died unexpectedly.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Finally, with ten children in tow, she found Peyton Waddles and married him in 1950. Waddles worked for the Ford Motor Company and helped his wife in her quest to feed the hungry and clothe the poor. They remained married for thirty years until Peyton died in 1980.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the mid 1940s, Charleszetta began studying the <i>Bible</i> and was ordained twice: initially in the First Pentecostal Church and later, after more study, in the International Association of Universal Truth. By the late 1940s, she began holding <i>Bible</i> readings and prayer meetings in her home with her neighbors and family members.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">With the help and support of her new husband, Reverend Charleszetta Waddles founded the Helping Hand Restaurant offering good-tasting, home cooked, soul food meals for 35 cents a plate for Detroit's poor, all cooked by her in her own kitchen and served up in the living room. Nobody was turned away. Her mission ministered to homeless street people, unwed mothers, abused wives and children, the sick, the elderly, and anyone who was hungry and needed a helping hand.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">At first, she and her kids did all the work, but soon neighbors and fellow churchgoers volunteered to help. Menu items included smoked rib ends, Southern fried chicken, and ham hocks with two sides of either boiled cabbage, black-eyed peas, rice, grits, baked beans, seasonal vegetables, or collard greens.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">If anyone was hungry and did not have a quarter and a dime to pay, dinner was on the house. In the thirty-four years of its existence, the restaurant had several location but never increased the price of its meals. The kitchen/restaurant finally closed in 1984 after a fire destroyed it and everything in the building.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mother Waddles believed in pragmatic Christianity specializing in emergency help. "The church should get beyond religious dogma and focus on the real needs of people. There is no fire and brimstone after death, but there is plenty of hell in Detroit," she said.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1963, Lonnie D. Moore came to her mission a wreck after his mother had died. He had nowhere else to turn. Reverend Waddles calmed him, "I'll be a mother to you." She provided Moore with a place to stay and fed him in exchange for volunteering as a dishwasher. He was the first person to call her Mother Waddles and the name stuck. Her nickname Mother Waddles became the branding her organization was lacking. <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">*** </span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">On her way to becoming a one-woman social-services agency in one of Detroit's most poverty-stricken neighborhoods, Mother Waddles and her Perpetual Mission had many setbacks. In the 1970s, when Detroit and the national economy were reeling from the Oil Crisis, Mother Waddles Perpetual Mission was there to provide services for unemployed autoworkers and their families. In February of 1970, her Mission was burglarized three times.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The first robbery was of typewriters the Mission used to train women how to type. The second time, the Mission's public address system</span><span style="font-size: large;"> used for Sunday services worth $1,500 disappeared. Then, at the end of the month, thieves took away the Mission's entire filing system that held the contact information for their referral services, emergency shelters, job centers, medical aid, social services agencies, and donor lists. Although police reports were filed, no concerted effort was made to discover who the robbers were or what their motives were beyond money.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mother Waddles' charities always ran on a wing and a prayer. Dedicated volunteers helped run the kitchen and clothes distribution center, leaving her to concentrate on fundraising from private organizations and church groups, pledge drives, rummage sales, and talent shows, but never government funding. Waddles believed that government red tape and regulations were a fatal noose that wasted time and money. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In
an effort to make money for her Mission, Mother Waddles self-published a
thirty-six page booklet of her soul food recipes in October 1970.
Fifty thousand copies were printed and hand-assembled by volunteers at
the Mission. Each copy sold for $2 but only about five thousand sold the
first month, prompting Mission spokesperson Maggie Kreischer to remark,
"I just hope we can pay the printing bill." When I recently checked for
copies of <i>Mother Waddles' Soul Food Cookbook </i>in September 2023, prices ranged from $200 to $450 for used copies.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSe-56XgE7Y3XK_CZMAd6wNAGklFkEk4pHdn9zn15vvxceZ_pa_u37kPPDRGr-fl9QMPhdt9EqYebx_4sgg_I2jxlXPh5OgTPZa81kw1IhBSzXrsSGi64UZZpZs-y09Swdi9ky_fH39uWG-gpPGvIxWMMe55rStQsL491C9PN15mx_YBXn6wNkr1fNhc8/s276/Mother%20Waddles%20Soul%20Food%20Cookbook%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="183" height="409" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSe-56XgE7Y3XK_CZMAd6wNAGklFkEk4pHdn9zn15vvxceZ_pa_u37kPPDRGr-fl9QMPhdt9EqYebx_4sgg_I2jxlXPh5OgTPZa81kw1IhBSzXrsSGi64UZZpZs-y09Swdi9ky_fH39uWG-gpPGvIxWMMe55rStQsL491C9PN15mx_YBXn6wNkr1fNhc8/w271-h409/Mother%20Waddles%20Soul%20Food%20Cookbook%202.jpg" width="271" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">On</span><span style="font-size: large;"> November 15, 1970, Lee Winfrey wrote an editorial in the <i>Detroit Free Press</i> titled "Debt-Ridden Mother Waddles to be Absorbed by 'System'." It read, "If Mother's God-intoxicated energies are black-coffeed into financial sobriety, something appealing will be lost." Translated into plain English it means, if the charity is to surive, it will need to be managed better. The Missions' recordkeeping was minimal at best and all but inscrutable. To save her charities, auditors were called in to see how bleak the situation was.</span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The following year brought more bad news. On February 3, 1971, a "religious fanatic and sick man" (Mother Waddles' own words) named Willie Green (51) entered the Mission ranting scripture and attacked two people in separate incidents, a man and a woman. While the police were in transit, Waddles tried to settle the man down and put him at ease but with little success. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">When two patrolmen arrived on the scene, Green pulled out a handgun. Officier Daniel G. Ellis (29), pushed his partner out of the line of fire and took two slugs in the chest and right leg. He was DOA before medics could get him to the hospital. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Further investigation revealed that Willie Green had a long criminal record with fourteen convictions extending back twenty-eight years. At his trial nine months later, Green was found innocent by reason of insanity in the slaying of Officier Daniel G. Ellis.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In January of 1984, a warehouse fire destroyed 50% of the food and clothing donations for the needy, and in November, just before Thanksgiving, the Black Firefighters Association delivered a truckload of food and clothing to the Mission meant for distribution to the poor.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">That evening or early the next morning, thieves described as neighborhood toughs snapped the locks from two of the warehouse's six doors and emptied the building. Trying to downplay the robbery, Mother Waddles told the press, "You know it hurts, but it doesn't bring me down."</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">*** </span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">But amid the setbacks the Perpetual Mission battled throughout its existence, bright moments shined through too. For Christmas in 1989, Detroit boxer Tommy Hearns brightened the holiday for many struggling Detroiters by donating $3,000 worth of frozen turkeys and toys to Mother Waddles Perteptual Mission. Hearns was eight years old when Mother Waddles' kitchen fed him and his family when they were hungry. Several Christmases later, Detroit rocker Ted Nugent contributed six hundred pounds of dressed, wrapped, and frozen venison (deer meat) and about 1,000 pounds of clothes for the shelter. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The 1990s began badly for the Mission. Between January and April, their storage facility suffered nine break-ins. Mother Waddles told the press that the only way to prevent further break-ins was to install iron security bars on all the doors and windows. She mentioned in the newspaper article that the cost would be $3,500 which the Mission could not afford.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">As had happened so many times before, Providence smiled upon Mother Waddles. Paul and Lynn Lieberman of Bloomfield Hills read in the local papers about the latest break-ins at the Mission and offered to pay for the installation of the security doors and windows. Once again, Mother Waddles' deep faith in the transcendent goodness of people shone through brightly on this occasion.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mother Waddles' innercity Detroit charity work caught the attention of Michigan's outgoing governor George W. Romney, who was soon to become a cabinet member in the new President-elect Richard M. Nixon's administration. Romney believed Mother Waddles was the living embodiment of the "Black self-help" platform that Nixon campaigned on.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Romney wrangled an invitation for Dr. Charleszetta "Mother" Waddles to attend the 1969 Nixon Inauguration as part of the Michigan delegation. Included in the invitation were invitations to a tea for distinguished ladies, a Republican Governor's party, the vice-president's reception, the swearing-in ceremony for the President, and the Inaugaral Ball at the Smithsonian Institute. "I feel like a movie star, "Waddles remarked to the local Detroit press.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">But what to wear?! To help Mother Waddles dress for the occasion, WXYZ-TV sponsored her wardrobe chosen from Lane Bryant women's store. For the swearing-in ceremony and the receptions, Waddles wore a velvet-trimmed knit suit. But for the Ball, she wore a floor-length, pink silk, caftan gown. Lane Bryant general manager Patti Hanes loaned Waddles her milk stole for the occasion. To chauffeur Reverend Waddles around Washington D.C., Thompson Chrysler Inc. loaned her a charcoal Chrysler Imperial and a driver.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8keWPWHhqWAT8JZI3LXJ0wlkHCPGmqKm9mOYpNMGAdZqsWfisHJJ8M-7Pkw08ynQDMpxE5Hu9Ivr54703HIIL-FP7llC3z7r1lEHx2aiNtN6yokJqXIIJZ2C1mgyO9aOA2NcaV-DTssBZ_hZD1IufrByYS0EfDM_WC1h6chj9QqpWMW1-f6whHSOC6ps/s2167/Mother%20Waddles%20at%20Nixon%20inaugual%201969.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2167" data-original-width="819" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8keWPWHhqWAT8JZI3LXJ0wlkHCPGmqKm9mOYpNMGAdZqsWfisHJJ8M-7Pkw08ynQDMpxE5Hu9Ivr54703HIIL-FP7llC3z7r1lEHx2aiNtN6yokJqXIIJZ2C1mgyO9aOA2NcaV-DTssBZ_hZD1IufrByYS0EfDM_WC1h6chj9QqpWMW1-f6whHSOC6ps/w183-h484/Mother%20Waddles%20at%20Nixon%20inaugual%201969.jpg" width="183" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">What was a Cinderella-like experience for Mother Waddles was commemorated in a photograph of her decked out in the mink stole which ran in the society pages of the Detroit newspapers.</span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">But in a Democrat town like Detroit, partying with the Republican elite did not sit well with some blue collar folks. Rumors began to circulate that Mother Waddles was getting rich on the backs of the people she purported to help. In a public response, Waddles skirted the issue, "I'm in the business of loving the hell out of folks. It's a joy, it really is."<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">As Mother Waddles' fame grew, she became honored with testimonial dinners from civic and service organizations for her "service to humanity." Corporate donations and foundation grants increased as Mother Waddles' charity work was celebrated publicly.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida began filming a documentary in 1990 about Reverend Charleszetta "Mother" Waddles, underwritten by a $175,000 grant from Warner-Lambery Company (Listerine mouthwash). Mother Waddles' charities were additionally pledged $100,000 over the next five years for Waddles' one-woman war on poverty. The documentary was titled <i>You Done Good!</i> It was widely televised on PBS stations across the country.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Most Detroiters today know Mother Waddles' name from billboards along the highways advertising her car donation program which began in 1992. A<i> </i>used car business was set up to accept running used cars in return for tax write-offs equalling Kelly Blue Book values.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">After being cleaned up and minor repairs made, the cars </span><span style="font-size: large;">were priced from $300 to $999 </span><span style="font-size: large;">and sold from Mother Waddles' Used Car Lot. For its first full year of operation in 1993, car sales totalled 1.4 million dollars, allowing another location to open the following year. All the profits went back into the Mission. This program became the financial backbone of the Perpetual Mission.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhZwPxm-I2gZIdqUyLwa4EF7MKwRCef5oNAhi_9GquEsHiZIrifFssE-spsNzq8UyCbQsYDI7d3utIX-AAYOLQGpoFNlQKV596kgTvxJ6urVRI60plUt9RDQE0z4K0ShHi6fpFCoKhCqW8h6pmnLT7wQF9348hVNBHGi2YFfHCzBhLhzl8GgPuQQIDoZ8/s616/Mother%20Waddles%20car%20donations.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="616" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhZwPxm-I2gZIdqUyLwa4EF7MKwRCef5oNAhi_9GquEsHiZIrifFssE-spsNzq8UyCbQsYDI7d3utIX-AAYOLQGpoFNlQKV596kgTvxJ6urVRI60plUt9RDQE0z4K0ShHi6fpFCoKhCqW8h6pmnLT7wQF9348hVNBHGi2YFfHCzBhLhzl8GgPuQQIDoZ8/w441-h244/Mother%20Waddles%20car%20donations.jpg" width="441" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">Even at the age of eighty, Reverend "Mother" Waddles worked twelve-hour days. But o</span><span style="font-size: large;">n November 17, 1992, she </span><span style="font-size: large;">was hospitalized and listed in serious condition in the cardiac unit of Michigan Health Center. Clifford Ford, acting as Mission spokesperson, told reporters, "(Mother Waddles') health issues are from attempting to stretch that which is virtually unstretchable." Her doctors recommended that she pass on the work of the Mission to others. What she needed most was some prolonged rest.</span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Almost nine years later on July 12, 2001, Mother Waddles died at the age of eighty-eight from cardiac arrest at her Detroit home. In her lifetime for service to the poor, Waddles received over 300 awards and honors including entry into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame. Public viewing was scheduled from 9:00 am until 9:00 pm on July 18th at the Swanson Funeral Home on E. Grand Boulevard. <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Over 1,000 mourners gathered at Mother Waddles' funeral ceremony on Thursday, July 19th at the Greater Grace Temple on Schaefer Road. The all-day celebration was attended by politicians, pastors, the press, and many of her admirers.</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Detroit Free Press</i> reporter Alexa Capeloto described Mother Waddles' burial this way:</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span> </span> <i> </i></span><i>Immediate family members wore white as a tribute to their famous relative who donned white at </i><i>funerals because she considered funerals celebrations of life. Relatives carried flowers in her<span><span> </span></span>honor, </i><i>black roses for her children and gold orchids for her grandchildren.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span><span> </span>After the service, a horse-drawn carriage transported Charleszetta Waddles' white and gold-trimmed casket to Elmwood Cemetery for burial. Ten white doves--one for each of her children--were released as a symbolic freeing of her spirit</span><span style="font-size: small;">.</span></i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOQh5E3_D6I_OiJGguxbRdyMMyl9KA-Rau-njMRSvF6laTnwVUuUvB2Zob4Gae-RHrLAEajj-9GhKBWeLpglyASDuXPpqJN0b1H6r75c6nE0Nh6Q4-QnqR_uSIH_Aa4G7CbcHhdd3EteyCutrI_RwBDL-H1laeRglrfrAvAd4i3DxZxYqYkwRF_gd9OjI/s520/Mother%20Waddles%20headstone.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="520" height="413" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOQh5E3_D6I_OiJGguxbRdyMMyl9KA-Rau-njMRSvF6laTnwVUuUvB2Zob4Gae-RHrLAEajj-9GhKBWeLpglyASDuXPpqJN0b1H6r75c6nE0Nh6Q4-QnqR_uSIH_Aa4G7CbcHhdd3EteyCutrI_RwBDL-H1laeRglrfrAvAd4i3DxZxYqYkwRF_gd9OjI/w448-h413/Mother%20Waddles%20headstone.jpg" width="448" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /> </span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2020/10/martha-jean-queenpatron-saint-of-blue.html">Martha Jean the Queen</a></span><br /></p>Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-6211374902535477032024-02-08T09:32:00.000-08:002024-02-08T13:34:32.463-08:00Detroit Boxer Joe Louis' Place in American History<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Joseph Louis Barrow was best known as the "Brown Bomber." He boxed from 1934 until 1951 and reigned as heavyweight champion from 1937 to 1949. Joe was born in Chambers County, Alabama--the seventh of eight children. Both of his parents were children of former slaves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Louis' family moved to Detroit after a brush with the Ku Klux Klan </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">when Joe was twelve. The Louis family was part of the Great Migration after World War I. His family settled on 2700 Catherine Street in the now defunct neighborhood of Black Bottom. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">When old enough, Joe and his older brother worked at the Rouge Plant for the Ford Motor Company.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">During the Great Depression, Joe spent time at a local youth recreation center at 637 Brewster Street in Detroit and made his boxing debut early in 1932 at the age of seventeen. In 1933, Louis won the Detroit-area Golden Gloves Novice Division. In 1934, he won the Chicago Golden Gloves championship and later that year became the United States Amateur Champion in a national AAU tournament in St. Louis, Missouri. By the summer of 1934, Joe had gone pro with a management team.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1936, Louis got a title shot versus world heavyweight champion Max Schmeling in Yankee Stadium. The German trained hard while Louis seemed more interested in his golf game--his new hobby. Schmeling knocked Louis out in the 12th round handing Joe his first professional loss. Schmeling became a national hero in Nazi Germany as an example of Aryan superiority.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Max Schmeling and Joe Louis rematch</span>.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">No path to a rematch was open to Louis until June 22, 1938. Louis and Schmeling met for a second time at Yankee Stadium before a crowd of 70,043. The fight was broadcast worldwide in English, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. It should be noted that Max Schmeling was not a Nazi, but the Nazi party propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels hyped the match proclaiming a Black man could not defeat Herr Schmeling.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">The American press promoted the match as an epic battle between Nazi ideology and American democratic ideals. Louis became the embodiment of anti-Nazi sentiment. After the big media buildup, the fight lasted only two minutes and four seconds. Schmeling went down three times before his trainer threw in the towel ending the match. For the first time in American history, every Black person and White person in the country celebrated the same event at the same time. Not until the end of World War II would that happen again. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Joe Louis became the first African-American national hero. He reigned as heavyweight champion from 1937 until 1949--longer than anyone else. In 1951, Louis was beaten by Rocky Marciano and retired from the ring. The following year, he was responsible for breaking the color line integrating the game of golf. He appeared as a celebrity golfer under a sponsor's exemption at a PGA event in 1952. How many people know that?</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Joe Louis and Max Schmeling</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Joe Louis died on April 12, 1981 of cardiac arrest at the age of sixty-six in Desert Springs Hospital near Las Vegas after a public appearance at the Larry Holmes-Trevor Berbick heavyweight battle. President Ronald Reagan waived eligibility rules for Joe Louis to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">with full military honors </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">on April 21st</span></span>. His funeral was paid for by his friend Max Schmeling, who also acted as a pallbearer.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">In his professional boxing career, Joe Louis won virtually every boxing award there is and was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously in 1982. The City of Detroit honored Joe Louis with a monument on October 16, 1989. The sculpture was sponsored by <i>Sports Illustrated</i> magazine and the Detroit Institute of Arts.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">When drivers look left at Woodward Avenue from eastbound Jefferson Avenue (now a <i>No Left Turn</i>), they are confronted with a colossal fist and forearm suspended from a triangular superstructure--a testament to the regard and respect Detroiters hold for their hometown hero.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ghpl7kgCW_g/Wn82LyVoQMI/AAAAAAAAJ_Q/ffM7QqOSNGkGDGLycr7rP1-tcvIevDJ-wCEwYBhgL/s1600/Joe%2BLewis%2527s%2Bfist.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="159" data-original-width="318" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ghpl7kgCW_g/Wn82LyVoQMI/AAAAAAAAJ_Q/ffM7QqOSNGkGDGLycr7rP1-tcvIevDJ-wCEwYBhgL/s400/Joe%2BLewis%2527s%2Bfist.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Link to the Joe Louis/Max Schmeling 1937 heavyweight fight</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LNzWHuygpw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LNzWHuygpw</a></span> </div>
Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-54142841189008526642024-02-01T09:12:00.000-08:002024-02-01T09:12:03.082-08:00Alex Karras' NFL Gambling Suspension--Part One of Three<p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><blockquote><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qp4-agqhoFs/X2O-wzrjJHI/AAAAAAAAOh8/3MHKgLWjuQ8_SoECi4JNHKmsTb3IQBwpACNcBGAsYHQ/w400-h248/Alex%2BKarras%2Bhead%2Bshot.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Detroit Lion tackle Alex Karras</span> <br /></td></tr></tbody></table></blockquote></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The trouble started in 1961 when reports of Detroit Lion Alex Karras' gambling on professional sports and associating with underworld figures reached the desks of Lions owner William (Bill) Clay Ford and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle. Detroit police commissioner George Edwards and the local FBI had Karras under surveillance for a year because of his association with Jimmy and Johnny Butsicaris and his co-ownership of the popular Lindell AC (Atheletic Club) sports bar.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Alex Karras met the Butsicaris brothers soon after he arrived in Detroit to play for the Lions. The bar was known for its legendary hamburgers and walls festooned with sports memorabilia. It became a hangout for sports writers, sports fans of every stripe, and shady characters who enjoyed rubbing elbows with local team players like everyone else did.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Some of these characters happened to be professional gamblers. Karras liked the place because the owners were Greek and their place reminded him of his hometown Gary, Indiana. The Lindell AC was his refuge where he could relax and relate to people.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-42O3UFHisIo/X2PFEkPrs4I/AAAAAAAAOic/nYIuhJtyEAIFE_mAcczywzprDB9sRwbIgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1024/Lindell%2BAC%2BButsicaris%2BBros.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="982" data-original-width="1024" height="384" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-42O3UFHisIo/X2PFEkPrs4I/AAAAAAAAOic/nYIuhJtyEAIFE_mAcczywzprDB9sRwbIgCNcBGAsYHQ/w400-h384/Lindell%2BAC%2BButsicaris%2BBros.webp" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Johnny and Jimmy Butsicaris</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Karras became a regular customer and was </span><span style="font-size: large;">befriended by the brothers. When their bar opened in 1949, Meleti Butsicaris and his sons each owned one-third of the business. After their father died, the brothers asked Karras if he would like to buy their father's share, so they could move the bar to a better location down Michigan Avenue and renovate an available property. For a $45,000 buy-in, </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Karras became a partner</span>.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">To compound gambling suspicions against Karras, his favorite restaurant in Detroit was The Grecian Gardens in Greektown. Gus Colacasides was the owner and basically the patriarch of all local Greeks in Detroit. Karras liked the </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">authentic Greek</span> food and the atmosphere and went there weekly. I can personally vouch for the quality of their food.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><span style="font-size: large;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7SvKYMWv0AU/X2PGk59PdOI/AAAAAAAAOiw/U0-z54d6GnofokTSyESJhFZMOoWOJWeYwCNcBGAsYHQ/s800/Grecian%2BGardens.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="542" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7SvKYMWv0AU/X2PGk59PdOI/AAAAAAAAOiw/U0-z54d6GnofokTSyESJhFZMOoWOJWeYwCNcBGAsYHQ/w434-h640/Grecian%2BGardens.jpg" width="434" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><br />The restaurant's late night clientele included gamblers, bookies, and ranking underworld figures. Some pretty tough customers would see Karras and come up and shake his hand and strike up a sports conversation. At the heart of it, they were sports fans and Karras was a Lion celebrity. Soon, he felt like one of the boys.<br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">All the while, Karras was under police surveillance everywhere he went. In 1962, the general manager of the Lions Andy Anderson summoned Karras into his office and cautioned him about being in the bar business with the Butsicaris brothers. "They're gangsters and hoodlums--stay away from them."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>"The Hell I will!" <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>"If you stay in the bar business with them, the Lions will take steps."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>"Tell Bill Ford that I need the work because I can't raise my family on the lousy $12,000 a season he pays me."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>For the first few years of his NFL career, Karras wrestled "professionally" </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span style="font-size: large;"><span>in the off-season </span></span>as part of a masked tag team attraction to make financial ends meet. Now that he had a growing family, he was tired of travelling every weekend throughout the Midwest.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Karras had known Jimmy and Johnny Butsicaris for two years and knew they were not connected to organized crime. They were hard-working saloon owners, and these alleged "gangsters" were their customers. It was free enterprise and that wasn't a crime.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>But then there was the issue of Karras and a fellow teammate John Gordy riding home </span><span><span>after an exhibition game against the Cleveland Browns </span>on a "party bus" owned by Vito Giacalone, but it was registered to Odus Tincher--a retired DSR bus driver, known gambler, and former convict. The Giacalone brothers were also known gamblers and underworld crime figures connected with the Detroit Partnership (Mafia). The Detroit Police and the FBI wondered why the party bus was often parked in back of the Lindell AC when not in service.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>End of Part One</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2020/09/alex-karras-nfl-gambling-suspension_23.html" target="_blank">Karras Gambling Suspension Part Two</a> </span></span></p>Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-23771949402812206872024-01-26T08:00:00.000-08:002024-01-26T16:32:52.210-08:00Five the Hard Way in Detroit's Gamble for Casino Gold<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7L945xzQiZXTGd6DmgolD-nL7scjEMbKLNaRbifaHZO74ikZRdT3SkKvRTcKTp_RIBCE20ybEJmhqARzZ7zUMaDA38o6yVasKZ0pf7u4KjHmuTQINhWyZIPqlIGwQA3Yn-8MCOmpRWnSWETqBT2QUP4CLZ9mtZ3oeOtRMKTPxusVOctuwvfp7xGRIEJs/s1000/MICHIGAN%20casinos.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="1000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7L945xzQiZXTGd6DmgolD-nL7scjEMbKLNaRbifaHZO74ikZRdT3SkKvRTcKTp_RIBCE20ybEJmhqARzZ7zUMaDA38o6yVasKZ0pf7u4KjHmuTQINhWyZIPqlIGwQA3Yn-8MCOmpRWnSWETqBT2QUP4CLZ9mtZ3oeOtRMKTPxusVOctuwvfp7xGRIEJs/w437-h240/MICHIGAN%20casinos.jpg" width="437" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Detroit like almost everywhere else has a long history of gambling, but when it came to approving Las Vegas-style casinos within the city limits, it took voters five propositions and twenty-two years for supporters to outvote the opposition. Detroit's religious community mounted a campaign against what they felt was the moral decline of the city. Because Detroit's mayor Coleman Young was the spokesperson for the legislation to legalize casino gambling within the city limits, he became the focus for everything that was wrong about Detroit.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Mayor Young was confronted by a $44.3 million budget deficit by the end of the 1976 fiscal year, the largest operating deficit ever run by the city. To avoid the anticipated layoff of city workers, wage and hiring freezes, and incentives for early retirements, something decisive had to be done. The proposal to legalize casino gambling in Detroit was dubbed "the Circuit Breaker Proposal." It was sponsored in Lansing by Michigan House of Representive Democrat Casmer Oganowski.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The proposal called for a state casino gambling commission to license and regulate games of chance, namely blackjack (21), baccarat, keno, craps, roulette, wheel of fortune, and slot machines. It was not as if gambling and betting parlors were unknown in the city. Cards, dice, and other games of chance like flipping coins, pitching pennies, shooting pool, three card monte, and sports gambling were commonplace among Detroit's blue collar workforce. </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn4FAHS3LeDRI3tXaPuF_CTFU2C33NHaKrHEmiaxv4QoOkV1o9DZD_36cL1Zbkk0Fsb0FoIR5q7H9imwOtQ-M0KE9DrwKj9iN0ZmdcXf7qb9-8dRYIxF6F4V_yAxkdCmemOeLfjZRA0Sf45mmRqW3fsR_tTPiMnp1Mg-9V2X9Jw4JNlGXKChGmDsJ4Ubo/s300/Three%20Card%20Monte.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn4FAHS3LeDRI3tXaPuF_CTFU2C33NHaKrHEmiaxv4QoOkV1o9DZD_36cL1Zbkk0Fsb0FoIR5q7H9imwOtQ-M0KE9DrwKj9iN0ZmdcXf7qb9-8dRYIxF6F4V_yAxkdCmemOeLfjZRA0Sf45mmRqW3fsR_tTPiMnp1Mg-9V2X9Jw4JNlGXKChGmDsJ4Ubo/w380-h213/Three%20Card%20Monte.jpg" width="380" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Three Card Monte<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: large;">In the inner city, "playing the numbers" had long been part of the urban experience where bettors had much better odds of winning than in the Lottos run by the state of Michigan. In addition, backroom club gambling and poker rooms have always operated just below the surface of polite society for people who could afford losing money. Those who could not were soon given the bum's rush.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Many churches have long raised funds by hosting bingo nights and casino gambling charity events to add to their coffers. But Las Vegas-style casinos in one of America's largest cities posed a major threat to a city already struggling with more than its share of urban problems. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Fears of more organized crime, public corruption, increased poverty, prostitution, alcoholism, drug abuse, and immorality were the powerful talking points of the opposition. Because of the heightened emotion connected with this issue, Republican politicians and the <i>Detroit News</i> and <i>Detroit Free Press </i>came out firmly opposed to the proposition.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Supporters of casino gambling touted how many thousands of jobs would be created in a town with high unemployment and poverty. First, construction jobs would be created, and once the casios were operational, thousands of permanent jobs would be created. Casino gambling would revitalize Detroit's blighted downtown cityscape by generating an estimated $200 million in taxes with increased business revenues generated.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The day before the election, the <i>Detroit Free Press</i> urged voters to vote "No" on the advisory question to allow up to six state licensed and regulated casinos in Detroit. Voters defeated the gambling advisory referendum by 59% for a decisive win. Republican Governor William Milliken and the Detroit Area Council of Churches were the most outspoken opponents advocating the referendum's defeat. Michigan House of Representative Cass Organowski and Mayor Coleman Young vowed to continue supporting casino gambling within the Detroit city limits.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The day after the vote, the <i>Detroit Free Press</i> pronounced on its editorial page that the voters rejected "the siren song of the casino gambling backers. The idea that gambling would help the city renew itself is misleading and diverts attention from tackling the real problems of crime, poverty, and affordable housing." </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH4LGmsYgtF61nukaQVpb0ZXUAf68ZJbM6k1oMgyxBoX3slNJRKRDZf0d7lcXciH8ljPsJ-IJv6Lp-Ln9C593OhMapw-6VWqe_n0Ac0b1W0FaRPCuNpFxaEwbpMX9ClZ5bojyH7nFImy_WrJ6lkc_aa4_5SatIrahlLCl1wp3qdOkjQBtITonNJDgvY7A/s1024/Dice%20snake%20eyes.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH4LGmsYgtF61nukaQVpb0ZXUAf68ZJbM6k1oMgyxBoX3slNJRKRDZf0d7lcXciH8ljPsJ-IJv6Lp-Ln9C593OhMapw-6VWqe_n0Ac0b1W0FaRPCuNpFxaEwbpMX9ClZ5bojyH7nFImy_WrJ6lkc_aa4_5SatIrahlLCl1wp3qdOkjQBtITonNJDgvY7A/s320/Dice%20snake%20eyes.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Snake Eyes<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Since Detroit's casino gambling proposition was defeated in 1976, supporters of the proposition believed that the current economic climate was favorable in 1981 because of the prolonged tailspin of the auto industry and the election of conservative Republican Ronald Reagan, who vowed to cut federal aid to cities. The budget deficit for Detroit was projected to be $135 million for the 1981 fiscal year and $147 million for 1982.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">There were no easy options for Mayor Coleman Young. He recommended that the City Council consider tax hikes, deep budget cuts, across-the-board layoffs of city employees, and the sale of city-owned assets and properties. Mayor Young also renewed his request for legalization of casino gambling to generate income for the city.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">This new push for casino gambling was once again sponsored in Lansing by Michigan House of Representative member Casmer Oganowski, Democrat from Detroit. To help with public relations this time was Tom Wishart from the Association for Casinos and Tourism. He was hired as a registered lobbyist. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">On the expectation that casino gambling would build tourism, increase convention business, and reduce unemployment, the proposition was supported by Detroit Police Officers' Association, the United Automobile Workers, the AFL-CIO, the airlines, taxi cab drivers, restaurateurs, hotel operators, and tourism and convention promoters. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Proponents claimed that casino gambling could raise $50 to $75 million in taxes for the city creating 8,000 high-paying construction jobs and 25,000 hospitality and service jobs for city residents. In a rustbelt town with 13% unemployment, the prospect of creating jobs was a strong talking point for a yes vote.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Vocal opponents of the proposition were popular Michigan Governor William Milliken, Attorney General Frank Kelly, the Metropolitan United Methodist Church, the Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit, and Detroit's two major newspapers. The governor and attorney general believed legalizing casino gambling would increase organized and street crime, and it would raise property taxes driving the poor and the elderly out of their homes. The city's clergymen denounced the casino gambling proposal on spiritual and moral grounds. <i>The Detroit Free Press</i> called the ballot proposal "An exhumation of a dead issue, and it smells."</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBtCgnbwwvtqoXVqoBBqqRxh_4szPSUlBL94Gj-3h1Vkn_wu-J5lykSi82F9NyoVHsTgt6AWV1Gf_CvRVnNLm8981uzwAD5CRmkd17l2K6EEw_G4Sl7d0kUzWNRm9TYZrN7lz4eEScm60eSZEP0owrVz5Wm7LkbPg0vEVAWB2B5PW-LCP96psFoB07H-Y/s553/Coleman%20Young.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="369" data-original-width="553" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBtCgnbwwvtqoXVqoBBqqRxh_4szPSUlBL94Gj-3h1Vkn_wu-J5lykSi82F9NyoVHsTgt6AWV1Gf_CvRVnNLm8981uzwAD5CRmkd17l2K6EEw_G4Sl7d0kUzWNRm9TYZrN7lz4eEScm60eSZEP0owrVz5Wm7LkbPg0vEVAWB2B5PW-LCP96psFoB07H-Y/w396-h265/Coleman%20Young.jpg" width="396" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mayor Coleman Young<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In March, Mayor Young made an appeal to a skeptical group of Black ministers to support the gambling proposal to help solve the city's problems. Young told the Council of Baptist Pastors that "The state of Michigan is the biggest gambling house operator in the nation right now. You can go into any grocery or liquor store and bet any amount of money you want on today's number, look on television to see what the winning number is that day, and be paid off tomorrow."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The pastors were not swayed by the mayor's argument. Reverend James E. Lewis, the group's spokesperson, said emphatically that his group was totally against gambling. "We are acutely aware of the economic conditions of the city. However, it is our honest conviction that casino gambling would further erode the moral, spiritual, and economic fiber of our community."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">After the gathering of pastors, a reporter asked the mayor why he did not campaign more vigorously for the proposition. In what may be the most inscrutable statement Mayor Young made regarding this issue, he replied, "I'm not interested in fattening frogs for snakes." Nobody knew exactly what the mayor meant beyond expressing his frustration.</span></p><span style="font-size: large;">Proposition C asked: Should the City Council be able to approve a limited number of hotel casinos to be licensed and regulated under State Law with one half of the proceeds of a tax to be imposed on casinos' gross revenue and paid directly to the City of Detroit?<br /></span><p><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Detroit News </i>and the <i>Detroit Free Press</i> ran daily diatribes against Proposition C and daily horror stories about how casino gambling ruined Atlantic City in god-forsaken New Jersey, all the while getting paid for running Michigan Lotto numbers over the banner of their front pages. Their hypocrisy could not be denied.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0GMc3lzX6sjUYdsmPDrE2e082afizfwauvkW1naliPe7MCrvBThZ54PIlbTZnE41vEgCTAUp8NavWidgTLD_ZLXBAP6_cIQQn9FrRxjl03tFHDyAfK-fxRMnL47j3EhE-VlcxgX-UKjIp0w1Hzo26FIZqu74KFsm87K7ZkEW4QmX9fVz8uuhV5bGAbhM/s819/Detroit%20Free%20Pree%20Lotto%20Numbers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="235" data-original-width="819" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0GMc3lzX6sjUYdsmPDrE2e082afizfwauvkW1naliPe7MCrvBThZ54PIlbTZnE41vEgCTAUp8NavWidgTLD_ZLXBAP6_cIQQn9FrRxjl03tFHDyAfK-fxRMnL47j3EhE-VlcxgX-UKjIp0w1Hzo26FIZqu74KFsm87K7ZkEW4QmX9fVz8uuhV5bGAbhM/w487-h142/Detroit%20Free%20Pree%20Lotto%20Numbers.jpg" width="487" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">On November 3, 1981, the day of the general election, Prop C was defeated for a second time by a similar 3 to 2 margin, slightly larger than in 1976. The wording of the proposal was short on specifics. Surely, casino gambling opponents in Detroit believed this was finally a dead issue. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In January 1988, Mayor Young's opening salvo to try for a third time to get Detroit voters to approve casino gambling was a press conference telling reporters, "Detroit never came out of the last recession. We need to take radical steps to preserve this city. Within days, I am going to set up a commission to study casino gambling and make a recommendation to the Detroit City Council." Political pundits were surprised the mayor would defy the two previous voter mandates against casino gambling.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In February, Mayor Young announced at City Hall that the members of the 60-plus committee ranged from top movers in corporate Detroit to little-known community activists. Former Detroit WJBK-TV Channel 2 anchor Beverly Payne was chosen by the mayor to be the commissioner in charge of administrating the $150,000, three-month study on the feasibility of casino gambling and its probable impact on Detroit.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">After the press conference was concluded, Pastor John Peoples of the Calvary Baptist Church told the assorted press that "You can't ride to heaven in the devil's chariot. There is no way you can reconcile an immoral seed to produce a moral one." Reverend William Quick, pastor of the Metropolitan United Methodist Church added, "I think the issue of casino gambling is the Sword of Damocles that hangs over Coleman Young's head." </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Casino gambling supporter and committee member Patrick Meehan told the press, "To think the Almighty is foursquare against casino gambling, yet he winks at the state lottery, horse racing, and bingo, I just find very hypocritical."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">When questioned by the press, Jay Berman, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Detroit said, "In traditional Roman Catholic theology, there is nothing intrinsically evil about the act of wagering. Catholics are free to make up their own minds about casino gambling in Detroit." </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Reverend Samuel White III of Scott Memorial United Methodist Church got in the last word, "It appears that some of the clergy are hypocritically and immorally supporting Coleman Young's casino gambling proposal. One has to question our appalling silence in the face of such flagrant evils. Gambling is sinful because it fosters avarice and idolizes mammon. It can make us greedy and worship the almighty dollar. The religious community of churches needs to have moral integrity to take a prophetic stand against casino gambling."<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The essential issue and the players remained the same this time around, but religious casino opponents agreed to consolidate their efforts under an umbrella committee named United Detroiters Against Gambling to rally the religious community.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Their public relations campaign began with a color poster of Roman soldiers playing dice on the robe of Jesus at the foot of the cross. The caption read, "Over the years, some very influential people have looked down on gambling." The plan was to distribute 2000 of these posters, mostly to Detroit churches.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The opposition got some unexpected support from officials representing the Detroit Race Course, Hazel Park Harness Raceway, and Northville Downs. They came out united against casino gambling because they feared it would drastically affect their business and possibly lead to racetrack closures. They contributed a large chunk of money to the anti-casino forces. In politics, an enemy of my enemy is a friend of mine.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The mayor's committee considered European-style casino gambling which is usually kept small, requires identification, registration, and an entry fee. Most European gambling spots operate only 12 to 14 hours a day, and they offer no free drinks, no free meals, and no credit. One faction supported Las Vegas-style casinos but not wide-open like Vegas, where gambling dominates the landscape and the local economy. The issues of the number, size, location, and how the tax revenues would be used needed study and discussion. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some socially conscious committee members wanted tightly controlled casinos discretely tucked away on the upper floors of existing hotels to bring business into the city at minimal cost. The Vegas-style casino faction won out because they favored 24/7, easy access casinos as a way to bring thousands of people into the city to create new jobs.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">On June 8, 1988, forty-six casino gambling committee members voted to approve casino gambling, fifteen voted against, and three abstained. The committee was discharged of their duties. Now, the issue was in the hands of the City Council. Proposition Y was drafted and read: "If casino gambling is approved by state law, then it shall be prohibited within the city limits of Detroit and Belle Isle."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Critics of how the bill was worded noted that a yes vote is against casino gambling; a no vote is for casino gambling. The mere mention of Belle Isle was a dog whistle for opponents who were likely to vote yes. It was a red herring for supporters who needed to vote no. Because of strong opposition, the idea of using Belle Isle for a casino site </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">was discarded </span><span style="font-size: large;">five months earlier</span><span style="font-size: large;"> in February by the gambling committee.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Emotions were running high on both sides. Opponents ran a media blitz of full-page newspaper ads and radio spots everyday leading up to the August 2 primary election. Three days before the election, supporters and foes went head-to-head in a chant-down at Kennedy Square in a rally staged by casino supporters but disrupted by pro-gambling demonstrators.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">This exercise in democracy resembled a "Tastes Great, Less Filling" shouting match in the bleachers of Tiger Stadium. Nobody got hurt except for Attorney General Frank Kelly's ego. He was shouted off the podium.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">When voting day finally arrived. Detroiters voted for the third time another 3 to 2 margin against casino gambling (61%/39%). Mayor Young's throw of the dice crapped out. After voting, the mayor was exhausted, felt weak, and had a headache. His cousin and personal physican Dr. Claud Young took Coleman's vital signs and recommended several days of rest. "The mayor's condition is not serious," Dr. Young said. "For once, he decided to do what I told him to do."</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMxKJRq0Jilx-2zlat0Hw2g14oxeLeFdq6Q6UjMEj7pTOieNRYDbRHNQZZUlXomotisK1hoNNMQ2SInYqYbZNQ08TfSfnwMURQLhD7jwfdGXOfl_3s-ROs3fbJHvKNTf7hfVfCUd9qM44Q700SENuLJdOU3qpFDq6NQz6G6rR8acC1hD-DEOq46Prjr6U/s310/dice%20box%20cars.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="162" data-original-width="310" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMxKJRq0Jilx-2zlat0Hw2g14oxeLeFdq6Q6UjMEj7pTOieNRYDbRHNQZZUlXomotisK1hoNNMQ2SInYqYbZNQ08TfSfnwMURQLhD7jwfdGXOfl_3s-ROs3fbJHvKNTf7hfVfCUd9qM44Q700SENuLJdOU3qpFDq6NQz6G6rR8acC1hD-DEOq46Prjr6U/w345-h180/dice%20box%20cars.jpg" width="345" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Box Cars<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">On March 23, 1992, the Windsor, Ontario city council voted unanimously to approve a bid for casino-style gambling to bolster its sagging economy. If approved by Ottawa, Canada's capital city, the downtown Windsor riverfront casino could draw an estimated 50 million people annually from the United States and Canada. Detroit casino gambling supporters across the Detroit River saw Windsor's potential windfall gain as Detroit's loss of income. Ottawa approved the measure to legalize casino gambling in 1993. On May, 1994, Windsor opened a temporary casino called Caesar's Windsor.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The prospect of a Canadian riverfront casino re-ignited the debate over legalizing casino gambling in Detroit. Proponents estimated that Detroit casinos could generate as much as $26 to 50 million in yearly income for the city. Although Mayor Young was still an avid supporter, his ill health became a factor. After failing in four previous attempts, Young decided to allow other people to actively promote the gambling proposition.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">When the mayor was asked to comment on plans for casinos in Windsor and Chicago, he took a jab at opponents of casino gambling. "All I can say is, 'I told you so'. If Detroiters did not approve gambling, some other city would emerge as the gambling capital of the Midwest. Casino gambling could be a source of 40 to 50 thousand jobs in this
city, not to mention increased tax revenue and increased tourism."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Leading the movement to legalize casino gambling in Detroit in 1993 was sixty-three-year-old, retired Detroit Water Department employee David Greenidge, coordinator of the grass roots Citizens for Casino Gambling. Greenidge wanted to do something to help the city secure new jobs and increase its tax base. "Without those," he said, "we are nothing." He and several of his friends circulated petitions and secured enough signatures to place the measure on the June 2, 1993 Special Election ballot.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The major opposition came from Detroiters Uniting for Open Government, a religious coalition led by Reverend William Quick of the Metropolitan United Methodist Church, who helped defeat the previous attempts to open the city to casino gambling. The group was confident they could once again turn out the vote.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Public opinion appeared to shift in favor of casino gambling in Detroit after the move by Windsor to establish a riverfront casino on the Canadian side of the Detroit River, reducing the stigma for some voters. Windsor hoped to open a temporary casino in the fall.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Also softening public opinion towards casino gambling was when the Detroit City Council voted to allow real estate developers Ted Gatzaros and Jim Papas to place in trust 0.7 of on acre of their own downtown property to the Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa Tribe for an Indian-run casino, pending United States Department of the Interior approval under the "sovereign nation" statute. This move took the issue out of the hands of the voters. Eight Indian casinos already operated legally </span><span style="font-size: large;">on reservation property</span><span style="font-size: large;"> in Michigan under federal agreement.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvdpMarJPqfShw3ojQd7VeE0_CoZpA7m1gCho_aLrBggNAHt4t6W_nXojtD89gntmgoiJTQM2l-a_f6lfQPL06_tdFM8WaQLOTsfcqNWnlZeDS4eDiP4jHcB_TXjsdmyMx283RkE6e0U9tKcjzeT6Z_8BC7-ih-HFyEF7mav58XZSfaHt1DR01pjptc4k/s300/Caesar's%20Windsor%20casino.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvdpMarJPqfShw3ojQd7VeE0_CoZpA7m1gCho_aLrBggNAHt4t6W_nXojtD89gntmgoiJTQM2l-a_f6lfQPL06_tdFM8WaQLOTsfcqNWnlZeDS4eDiP4jHcB_TXjsdmyMx283RkE6e0U9tKcjzeT6Z_8BC7-ih-HFyEF7mav58XZSfaHt1DR01pjptc4k/w447-h251/Caesar's%20Windsor%20casino.jpg" width="447" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Caesar's Windsor Casino<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Political consultant to Mayor Young, Adolph Mongo, believed the voters were not as emotional this time about casino gambling because it was the fourth time on the ballot. After the blood sport of the last election, voters were weary and more complacent than ever before. Tina Lam, staff writer for the <i>Detroit Free Press</i>, noted "with less than three weeks left before the June 2nd vote, both sides in this quiet campaign have raised little money, generated little heat, and shown little evidence of organization."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">After Proposition A went to the voters, the measure went down in defeat by a thin margin of 51% to 49%. In the three previous losses, each measure won by a two-digit margin rather than a 2 point margin. Supporters were edging closer to the victory they craved. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Detroit Free Press</i> attributed the close vote to low voter turnout, weariness over the casino gambling debate, and public resignation after the Windsor, Ontario City Council announced it was building a riverfront casino. The <i>Free Press </i>editorial page took a last shot at casino supporters, "Casinos are what you turn to when you are bankrupt of ideas and unable to tell the difference between blackjack and an urban renewal strategy."<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">On September 16, 1993, the Michigan House Oversight and Ethics Committee approved a resolution to ratify the Indian gambling compact signed by Governor John Engler. The Greektown Chippawa Indian Casino was a fait accompli and out of the hands of local leaders and Detroit voters.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4GDvvXpQCDNcm55_IFM3SCakSffl7L1yJ44ijzX6mVAc9KBIYLb_3dwx-S3Eb2qkjmZyEr5EFa7rBhyphenhyphen8qBX5Xm_PHBLnPbcxxCI85570xf9XUL0BBF6CiUOIAh4CafFcgSGumbAs26gFi-nHA3N6e44aGWD5zm55T1ABIGiTFeaV2kFCld8_kWRwS43k/s281/casino%20greektown.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="179" data-original-width="281" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4GDvvXpQCDNcm55_IFM3SCakSffl7L1yJ44ijzX6mVAc9KBIYLb_3dwx-S3Eb2qkjmZyEr5EFa7rBhyphenhyphen8qBX5Xm_PHBLnPbcxxCI85570xf9XUL0BBF6CiUOIAh4CafFcgSGumbAs26gFi-nHA3N6e44aGWD5zm55T1ABIGiTFeaV2kFCld8_kWRwS43k/w416-h265/casino%20greektown.jpg" width="416" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Greektown Casino<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1996, for the fifth time in twenty-two years, casino gambling was on the Michigan ballot. A coalition of well-funded supporters rallied under the banner of Michigan First. Their proposal was more specific than the four proposals that came before. <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Proposal E would:</span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Permit
up to three gaming casinos in any city that has a population of 800,000
or more and is within 100 miles of any state or country in which
gambling is permitted, and has casino gambling approved by a majority of
voters. [<i>Detroit was the only city in Michigan that qualifed, allaying the fears of other communities across the state.</i>]</span></li><li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Establish
a state-controlled Gaming Control Board to regulate casino gambling and
keep organized crime out of casino operations. <br /></span></li><li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Impose an 18% state tax on gross gambling revenues. [<i>In
Vegas, this is called "skimming off the top." In this instance, the
process is public and above board.</i>]<br /></span></li><li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Allocate 55% of tax revenue on gross gambling revenues to the host city for crime prevention and economic development.</span></li><li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Allocate 45% of tax revenue to the state for public education.</span></li></ol><p><span style="font-size: large;">Michigan First projected that construction of three casino complexes would cost $1.8 billion, creating 11,000 permanent jobs and requiring tens of millions of dollars in locally-sourced goods and services each year. The pro-gambling group ran television and radio spots which focused on how well Caesar's Windsor Casino and the Northern Belle Casino, a paddle-wheel boat docked within walking distance from Caesar's, were doing raking in Michigan dollars.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">After the first year of Windsor's casino operations, an Ontario provincial government-sponsored study showed:</span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: large;">The six downtown hotels with a total of 1,171 rooms showed an increase in business from an average of 500 rooms rented to around 900 rented a day.</span></li><li><span style="font-size: large;">Visiting gamblers, mostly from Detroit and its suburbs, spend $29 million on local Windsor businesses.</span></li><li><span style="font-size: large;">Forty-five percent of Casino patrons ate in Windsor restaurants.</span></li></ul><p><span style="font-size: large;">A boatload of money was floating around the Michigan airwaves. A WXYZ-TV advertising executive said they were selling twice as many ads than they had in the 1992 campaign. The WXYZ-TV morning news hour ran no fewer than eighteen political ads. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Reverend Calvin Zastrow, a thirty-seven-year-old Assemby of God minister who lived in Midland, Michigan, actively worked against the casino proposition. The motivated anti-gambling activists were affiliated with churches that viewed gambling as inherently immoral and unethical. Zastrow's mantra was that gambling creates "Neighbors robbing neighbors, husband's beating wives, entrepreneurs declaring bankrupcy, lives being ruined, and souls being lost."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Casino spokesperson Roger Martin called Reverend Zastrow's repeal
movement "a small coalition armed with half-truths and scare tactics
supported by right-wing extremists from other states that declared war
on Michigan voters and 15,000 jobs in Detroit. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Detroiters Uniting for Open Government centered their efforts on the greater Detroit religious community and through extensive advertising on radio, Black radio stations in particular. The governor and the attorney general were still lobbying against casino gambling in the state of Michigan.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Both major Detroit newspapers still ran endless diatribes against gambling, all the while earning revenue from running the State Lottery numbers in their papers and running ads for Vegas get-aways, Windsor gambing weekends, and cruise ship tours with casino gambling featured. The <i>Detroit News</i> and the <i>Free Press </i>benefited financially from the gambling advertising, yet they used every fear tactic they could to defeat Proposition E.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The anti-casino gambling proposal ran out of time and money. It fell short of the 247,000 signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot. Now in favor of the casino proposition, Mayor Dennis Archer flipped his opposition when he realized that license fees alone could top $100 million yearly from each of the three casinos. That kind of money could pay for a lot of city services that the city could not otherwise afford. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Turnout in Detroit for the November 2, 1996 statewide election was stronger than expected due to a bear hunting proposal and a measure to approve the Foxtown Stadium Complex, a dual stadium project (Ford Field and Comerica Park) downtown. Also there was something about the Windsor casinos vacuuming up $1 million a day of Michigan money that did not sit well with Michigan voters. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Finally, after twenty-two years of struggle, five gambling propositions, and untold millions of hours and dollars, Proposition E won by 59% to 42% in Detroit, a 17 point victory. The statistics further revealed that Wayne County voted 79% to 21%, a whopping 58 point margin. The three casinos granted licenses were the MGM Grand Casino, Motorcity Casino, and the Greektown-Chippawa Indian Casino. By the turn of the millenium, all three casinos were operational and earning income for the city of Detroit.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ-znM6T4tObqypDMJXfPPOUPzBc1niEa4BXTbfK14tOIG9x2Q5npazm-2bW-9FL3hWrOVYz5BgGLeA7iZ4n7W6AxXdOMpsNrX8-x-G8jEpWwwpQWPPoYBosjsOhn_bb5CGSwE7BMVVvCBQkV6_qs3eABZ_SkpiIroMBMthn8rL-5cmbtW7AjuUFOjPmU/s340/Casino%20gambling%20cards.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="148" data-original-width="340" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ-znM6T4tObqypDMJXfPPOUPzBc1niEa4BXTbfK14tOIG9x2Q5npazm-2bW-9FL3hWrOVYz5BgGLeA7iZ4n7W6AxXdOMpsNrX8-x-G8jEpWwwpQWPPoYBosjsOhn_bb5CGSwE7BMVVvCBQkV6_qs3eABZ_SkpiIroMBMthn8rL-5cmbtW7AjuUFOjPmU/w489-h212/Casino%20gambling%20cards.jpg" width="489" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2018/12/detroits-numbers-racket.html">Detroit's Early Numbers Racket</a> </span></p>Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-63166715049475241962024-01-19T09:32:00.000-08:002024-01-19T09:32:14.344-08:00Popeye and His Pals Captain Jolly and Poopdeck Paul<p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-21OZ5ugC2Os/YBm76FvJ1lI/AAAAAAAAPBM/mmsz7I-prOg6wzl8QhyQbl0GnKcuOtPOQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1280/Popeye%2Bcomic%2Bstrip%2Bleader.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="1280" height="191" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-21OZ5ugC2Os/YBm76FvJ1lI/AAAAAAAAPBM/mmsz7I-prOg6wzl8QhyQbl0GnKcuOtPOQCNcBGAsYHQ/w400-h191/Popeye%2Bcomic%2Bstrip%2Bleader.png" width="400" /></a></span></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>"I'm Popeye the Sailor Man<br />I'm Popeye the Sailor Man<br />I'm strong to the "finich"<br />'cause I eats me spinach<br />I'm Popeye the Sailor Man"</i> <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Popeye was the creation of E.C. Segar. The "one-eyed runt" debuted as a minor character in an early comic strip entitled <i>Thimble Theater</i> on December 19, 1919. When Popeye became popular, the comic strip was retitled <i>Popeye</i>. Syndication rights were sold to <i>King Features Syndicate</i>, which debuted the <i>Popeye</i> strip on January 17, 1929, introducing the character to a national audience.</span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In 1933, the Fleischer Brothers--Max and Dave--adapted the newspaper comic strip character into cartoon shorts for <i>Paramount Pictures</i>. All but three of their cartoons were six to eight minute, one-reelers filmed in black and white. Their three masterpieces were twenty minute, two-reelers filmed in Technicolor: <i>Popeye Meets Sinbad</i> (sic) in 1936, <i>Popeye Meets Ali Baba</i> (sic) in 1937, and <i>Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp</i> in 1939.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The cartoon Popeye muttered and mangled the English language much to the annoyance of English teachers everywhere. He was odd-looking and unsophisticated, but he had a heart of gold with compassion for the underdog. Popeye was brave, chivalrous, and loyal. His pipe could be used as a steam whistle for his trademark "toot-toot." He displayed his ingenuity using his pipe for a cutting torch, a jet engine, a propeller, and a periscope.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The not so secret source of Popeye's great strength was spinach. The spinach-growing community of Crystal, Texas, erected a statue of Popeye in recognition of his positive effects on the spinach industry as a great source of "strenkth and vitaliky."</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4jU4vqJBUAM/YBm7G5FeffI/AAAAAAAAPBE/0eB7x-1jJxoEYEiIZY5u3N6TzHDmuJweQCNcBGAsYHQ/s350/Popeye%2BI%2Byam%2Bwhat%2BI%2Byam.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="350" height="380" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4jU4vqJBUAM/YBm7G5FeffI/AAAAAAAAPBE/0eB7x-1jJxoEYEiIZY5u3N6TzHDmuJweQCNcBGAsYHQ/w400-h380/Popeye%2BI%2Byam%2Bwhat%2BI%2Byam.webp" width="400" /></a></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Several key characters in the <i>Popeye</i> cartoons were based on real people from Chester, Illinois, who made an impression on animator E.C. Segar when he worked there as a reporter. Popeye was based on Frank "Rocky" Fiegel, who in real life had a prominent chin, sinewy physique, a pipe, and a history of fist-fighting in the local travern.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u-I97h5mty8/YBm9a1NsqeI/AAAAAAAAPBc/Aw08mJp5VVMoekGlpqoVA-UEyL_lu0BLgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1280/Popeye%2Band%2Binspiration%2Bfor%2Bthe%2Bcharacter%2BFrank%2BRocky%2BFiegel.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u-I97h5mty8/YBm9a1NsqeI/AAAAAAAAPBc/Aw08mJp5VVMoekGlpqoVA-UEyL_lu0BLgCNcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/Popeye%2Band%2Binspiration%2Bfor%2Bthe%2Bcharacter%2BFrank%2BRocky%2BFiegel.webp" width="400" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The inspiration for Olive Oyl was Dora Paskel, an uncommonly tall, lanky lady with a washboard figure who wore her hair in a tight bun close to her neckline. She ran the general store.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The Wimpy character was modeled after a rotund, local opera house owner named Wiebusch, who regularly sent his stagehand to buy hamburgers for him between performances.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The Chester, Illinois Chamber of Commerce built a Popeye character trail through their town in honor of E.C. Segar and his creations. Statues of many of the series characters adorn their city streets.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Paramount Pictures</i> sold their <i>Popeye</i> cartoon television rights and their interests in the <i>Popeye</i> brand to <i>Associated Artists Productions (AAP)</i> in1955. <i>AAP </i>churned out 220 new cartoons in the next two years to round out their cartoon package. These made-for-TV cartoons were streamlined and simplified for smaller TV budgets. In short, they were cheaply made. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J6AHKPFZC0s/YBm8TyzxohI/AAAAAAAAPBU/3KrOHoTthA4wv8NNlFUXLJV6NEHksObNgCNcBGAsYHQ/s640/Captain%2BJolly%2Bon%2Bset.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="507" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J6AHKPFZC0s/YBm8TyzxohI/AAAAAAAAPBU/3KrOHoTthA4wv8NNlFUXLJV6NEHksObNgCNcBGAsYHQ/w318-h400/Captain%2BJolly%2Bon%2Bset.jpg" width="318" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-size: large;">In 1957, CKLW-TV (Channel 9) in Windsor, Ontario purchased the broadcast rights from <i>AAP </i>for 234 Popeye cartoons. The station hired Toby David in 1958 to portray Captain Jolly as the weekday program host. The Captain spoke English with a bad German accent and referred to the kids in his audience as his "Chip Mates." He wore a captain's hat cockeyed on his head, a striped tee-shirt, eyeglasses down his nose, and a signature chin strap beard. The show aired weekdays and weekends from 6:00 pm to 6:30 pm sponsored by Vernor's Ginger Ale.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In character, Captain Jolly was a frequent visitor of hospitalized
children at Children's Hospital in Windsor, Ontario, and he did charity work
throughout the Detroit area as well. Toby David often volunteered his time for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital--his favorite charity.<br /></span></p><p></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The weekend hosting chores were handled by Captain Jolly's first mate Poopdeck Paul portrayed by CKLW-TV weatherman Paul Allan Schultz. Poopdeck Paul wore a dark sweater with sleeves rolled up to reveal fake mariners tattoos on his forearms. He wore a canvas sailor's cap confidently tilted on his head.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Schultz's son Bill recalls, "The name Poopdeck Paul came pretty much out of nowhere. Ten minutes before the weekend show went on the air, the program director asked, 'What are you going to call yourself?' My dad thought for a couple of minutes and came up with the name."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">That story may be true, but it is also true that Popeye's long-lost father who deserted him on Goon Island was named Poopdeck Pappy. Perhaps the name surfaced in Schultz's subconscious mind.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kGmYNf7MdQM/YBnBaDIcHZI/AAAAAAAAPBw/cP_YAA_NN9sD-Unz_awPy7EaENqhr-LJQCNcBGAsYHQ/s545/poopdeck%2Bpaul%2Bwith%2Bson%2BBill.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="545" height="330" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kGmYNf7MdQM/YBnBaDIcHZI/AAAAAAAAPBw/cP_YAA_NN9sD-Unz_awPy7EaENqhr-LJQCNcBGAsYHQ/w400-h330/poopdeck%2Bpaul%2Bwith%2Bson%2BBill.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><span style="font-size: large;">Captain Jolly used hand puppets for his show which was common for kid's shows of that era. Schultz's weekend show was hipper than Captain Jolly's weekday show. Poopdeck Paul appealed to the older kids in the audience. When the Limbo became a popular dance in 1961, Poopdeck held Limbo contests with his studio audience. When the Beatles' popularity broke across the nation in February 1964, he had kids with mop-top haircuts lip synch Beatles songs live on the air.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">When the weather permitted, Poopdeck Paul occasionally did his show on the front lawn outside the CKLW studios. He would conduct go-cart races, miniature golf contests, Hula-Hoop competitions, Frisbee tosses, and relay races with teams made up from his studio audience. Both <i>Popeye</i> co-hosts were popular with kids on both sides of the Detroit River.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">CKLW-TV cancelled <i>Popeye and His Pals</i> in December of 1964 after seven seasons, due to programming changes. Toby David took it pretty hard. He continued to work around Detroit doing media work and serving on the board of directors for several non-profit organizations assisting with fund-raising.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In 1971, Mr. David had it with winter in Detroit and retired to Scottsdale, Arizona. For a time, he sold real estate </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">and was a tour guide </span>on the side, </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">but he never lost his desire to entertain. </span>On September 14, 1994 while performing for senior citizens at a Mesa, Arizona senior center, Toby David died from a heart attack at the age of eighty. He was survived by his wife, two sons, and a daughter.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Paul Allan Schultz soured on show business after <i>Popeye and His Pals </i>was cancelled. He became a salesman for many years and had a couple of brushes with the law. For a time he lived in the Netherlands and Thailand. Schultz spent the last six months of his life in Leamington, Ontario, on the Canadian shores of Lake Erie. He died on September 19, 2000 at the age of seventy-five.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">As per Schultze's final request, no funeral or burial service was held. His ashes were scattered in an undisclosed Canadian location. Schultz was survived by two daughters and a son. A second son, Bruce, preceeded his father in death. Schultz's daughter Diane told a <i>Windsor Star</i> reporter upon the passing of her father, "He taught us kids never be a spectator; always be a player."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2019/05/brave-new-world-of-betty-boop.html">Max Fleischer's Betty Boop Character </a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2017/11/detroitwindsor-sock-hop-jock-robin.html">Detroit/Windsor Sock-Hop Jock Robin Seymour</a> </span><br /></p>Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-35402330615570775172024-01-07T09:44:00.000-08:002024-01-07T09:44:27.700-08:00Detroit's Ghost Town Delray and O-So Memories<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2slZBldzAXM/U__ZodlLkGI/AAAAAAAAClE/30t5-FK7CKI/s1600/O-So%2Bgrape%2Bpop%2Bbottle.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2slZBldzAXM/U__ZodlLkGI/AAAAAAAAClE/30t5-FK7CKI/s1600/O-So%2Bgrape%2Bpop%2Bbottle.jpg" width="120" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">O-So pop was a local Detroit soft drink sensation bottled in Delray at 8559-61 W. Jefferson Ave. Not as famous as Vernor's Ginger Ale but just as beloved. John Kar's bottling works opened in 1922, located north of the Peerless Cement factory and just south of the old Delray Bridge </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">onto Zug Island</span>, also known as the "one way bridge" no longer in use.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Adults from the Baby Boomer generation remember that O-So was the bargain pop of our day. The clear-glass bottled soft drinks were colorful and the flavors were fabulous. Linda J. Kulczyk remembers watching the mechanized bottle filler in action. "The place smelled like bleach and sugar water. Rock and Rye was my favorite flavor," she wrote on the <i>Old Delray</i> facebook site.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Other popular flavors were creme soda, lemon-lime, cherry, grape, strawberry, root beer, and orange. I don't believe they had a cola drink, though I could be wrong about that.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZuiiPBRZYBE/U__Zuhs_7wI/AAAAAAAAClM/uTTSEGAXPfk/s1600/O-So%2Bbottle%2Bcap.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZuiiPBRZYBE/U__Zuhs_7wI/AAAAAAAAClM/uTTSEGAXPfk/s1600/O-So%2Bbottle%2Bcap.jpg" width="191" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">John A. Stavola, Jr. remembers "as a kid, they bottled the soda right there and the dude (perhaps Ed Kar, son of the founder) used to fish right out of the back window of the place." Diana Bors McPeck used to work there when she was young. Her grandparents were friends with the owners. Diana recalls, "I was paid in pop!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">One of the old timers working the same shift as me at the Zug Island coke ovens was nicknamed 'Pop'. He
would buy several cases of assorted flavors of O-So pop every day in the spring and summer and roll them in </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">from the parking lot on a hand truck (dolly)</span> with a cooler
full of ice. Pop sold the stuff for a dollar a bottle, a 400% markup. He also sold salted peanuts in the summer and fresh roasted chestnuts in the winter. On
a hot day, everyone was glad to hear him call out "COLD POP."
He was a door machine operator on the receiving end of the ramming machine. For the life of me, I can't remember his real
name. Everybody just called him Pop.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">When I worked as a laborer at Zug Island in 1967, the Delray downtown area already showed signs of two decades of neglect. Many of the shops and second story residences became little more than tenements for transient workers. After the Detroit Riots in July, the writing was on the wall for Delray. Like many other Detroit neighborhoods, White flight went into hyper-drive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It is always sad to see an established community fall into ruin and abandonment. But almost one hundred years of history and heavy industry had taken its toll on the Delray neighborhood and turned it into what it is today, a virtual ghost town within the Detroit city limits.<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Delray lost its ethnic heart and soul </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">in the sixties and seventies. </span></span>What was once a vibrant European mixture of Hungarian, Slovakian, and Polish immigrants dispersed among the Detroit suburbs, notably the Downriver areas of Allen Park, Lincoln Park, and Wyandotte.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lfThnrohNq8/U_-nE8oGtvI/AAAAAAAACko/hmZ2fN62T0k/s1600/Delray%2Bburned%2Bout%2Bshell.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lfThnrohNq8/U_-nE8oGtvI/AAAAAAAACko/hmZ2fN62T0k/s1600/Delray%2Bburned%2Bout%2Bshell.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now, all that's left of the Delray neighborhood are mostly memories and photographs fading in family albums. Remember any of these places? First Slovak Church (Holy Redeemer), St. John's Catholic Church, The Hungarian Village Bakery, Hevesi Cafe (with dining and dancing), Joey's Stables, Fox Hardware, Szabo's Meat Market, Delray Baking Company, Al's Bar, Kovac's Bar, and King's Chinese Restaurant. They are gone but not forgotten.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Realistically, Delray is zoned for heavy industry and will never recover as a viable residential area. But I could be wrong. What impact the new international transport bridge will have on Delray is yet to be known or felt. One thing is for certain, the area is ripe for some sort of redevelopment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">For more detailed information on the community of Delray, check out this link:<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delray,_Detroit"> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delray,_Detroit</a></span></div>
Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-52041950087435601162024-01-01T08:28:00.000-08:002024-01-01T08:52:46.742-08:00Beverly Payne--WJBK-TV Channel 2 Trendsetter<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_GKP5MEcTdFbeFGmLIQTYFoOtBPsqpmcnhRgASN1gM076H3w8_AaX6yTcV8P0JN2Tw-BQ5qXN-yekqCmmbcEO1BwTStZt9caZ84F-YY16UalyCsouZ7-gedHBPX4A7BbZhMVhPa3CP_X9ZOTZCzkVkYwK6ku1E105CRJtOWm7HIOcVim6TI88es7vuDY/s240/Beverly%20Payne.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="188" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_GKP5MEcTdFbeFGmLIQTYFoOtBPsqpmcnhRgASN1gM076H3w8_AaX6yTcV8P0JN2Tw-BQ5qXN-yekqCmmbcEO1BwTStZt9caZ84F-YY16UalyCsouZ7-gedHBPX4A7BbZhMVhPa3CP_X9ZOTZCzkVkYwK6ku1E105CRJtOWm7HIOcVim6TI88es7vuDY/w331-h422/Beverly%20Payne.jpg" width="331" /></a></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Beverly Payne Eyewitness News Publicity Photo</span><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Beverly Payne was not a native Detroiter, but fate brought her to Detroit. She was raised in San Francisco and
went to college there earning English and foreign language
(French and Spanish) degrees. In 1968, she and her husband Harry R.
Payne, an executive director of an international arbitration
association, moved to Japan for his job. <br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In Japan, the Paynes hired a housekeeper. Soon boredom set in for Mrs Payne, so she began to study Japanese and picked up enough to teach Japanese businessmen how to speak and pronounce English properly. This led to Payne being interviewed on Japanese TV, which in turn, led to a job teaching English classes on her own educational TV program. After three years in Japan, the Payne family moved back to the United States, so Harry R. Payne could take a job in Detroit.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Not long after the family moved to the area, a friend suggested that Beverly (26) audition to co-host a new program at WJBK-TV Channel 2 in Detroit named <i>Focus: Detroit</i>. It was a public-affairs program that discussed issues important to Detroit's minority community, a largely ignored and underserved television demographic. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Payne was hired to begin on July 1, 1973 and teamed with experienced Channel 2 newsman Woody Willis for the Sunday morning program. Management wanted to see how she performed in the ratings rankings. Her numbers were positive.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In a move to capture a larger share of the housewife 18-to-49-year-old television audience, coveted by advertisers because they spend most of the household income, Channel 2 quickly promoted Payne to co-anchor the station's new 7 to 8 morning newscast and the noon news with Channel 2 veteran Vic Caputo.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Two years later, Beverly Payne was moved to the 6 pm newscast with Joe Glover, making her the first African American woman to co-anchor a prime time broadcast and gain celebrity status in Detroit. At the time, she was only one of four Black women in the country to co-anchor a daily, prime time newscast.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhndjjBf_DOMUOF6a0ty2EUmnS7En4pIe_NPpIXqJqjrC8yLyZHk-iWog1NBTRwKChYD1Owsg33L8vaGn7w1nDtyQ-Ox99Il_mv6x5vmx1pCOVAjxXBmZeFkZF-3DGtpWXTMJXgtFoaXJqL8jet3aqGI_p9ObH4CtT1VWk2Kesn3V2Ssq6KoYGx4S8ns8I/s819/Beverly%20Payne%20and%20Channel%202%20team.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="819" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhndjjBf_DOMUOF6a0ty2EUmnS7En4pIe_NPpIXqJqjrC8yLyZHk-iWog1NBTRwKChYD1Owsg33L8vaGn7w1nDtyQ-Ox99Il_mv6x5vmx1pCOVAjxXBmZeFkZF-3DGtpWXTMJXgtFoaXJqL8jet3aqGI_p9ObH4CtT1VWk2Kesn3V2Ssq6KoYGx4S8ns8I/w422-h418/Beverly%20Payne%20and%20Channel%202%20team.jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Eyewitness News print advertisement</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Although Payne's meteoric rise appears to be seamless, she had a difficult hurdle to overcome. <i>Detroit Free Press </i>TV critic Bettelou Peterson explained in her column, "The housewife 18-to-49 demographic that Channel 2 wants to attract is also the most critical of women on the air.... Let a woman come across as aggressive and women resent her as do some men. Let a woman on the air seem too intelligent and she is disliked. But worst of all, let her look sexy, and she is unwelcome in the family living room where the housewife watches with her husband. Beverly Payne passes all the tests of being acceptable to men and women viewers. She projects an image of sincerity, trustworthiness, friendliness, and attractiveness."</span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Simply put, Payne was non-threatening to the Detroit viewing audience. Women began writing Channel 2 saying they watched solely to see what Beverly Payne was wearing. In response to that, Payne admitted in a fluff <i>Detroit Free Press</i> feature article that she spends "an inordinate amount of money on her wardrobe. I like simple clothes and designer clothes. I wear Halston and Geoffry Beene a lot. I see buying clothes and looking nice as part of my job."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">When asked in the same interview if she found television glamorous, Payne candidly admitted, "The only time I feel glamorous is when I go to the bank.... People think television is glamorous, but there is incredible tension. We come across cool, but believe me, there is nothing glamorous about doing a live news show."<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">With television news celebrity comes great responsibility. News anchors are required to make personal appearances, host charity auctions, attend community service group events, and accept awards, that is, in addition to working their scheduled assignments. More often than not, the celebrity's personal life suffers.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Television news is a goldfish bowl inside a pressure-cooker. It requires its on-air talent to lead a somewhat schizophrenic life. Coming into people's homes everynight exacts a personal price. People feel like they know you which entitles them to violate the celebrity's privacy. Everywhere they go and everything they do in public is fair game for newspaper columnists. So even in their most private moments, celebrities have to be guarded with their behavior. Especially so for women.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The demands of celebrity must have weighed heavily upon Payne's domestic life, though she insisted "(her) chosen career was not responsible for the breakup" of her marriage. She and her husband Harry Payne Jr. divorced in mid-March of 1976 after twelve years of marriage. Beverly retained custody of their three sons Harry Payne III (10), Mark (8), and David (6).</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the year since Joe Glover was teamed with Beverly Payne, Channel 2's market research found they were reaching younger viewers without turning away their core audience. This news teaming had a calming on-camera chemistry.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In a business where your career hangs in the balance with every ratings report and the cold calculus of the station's earnings, Glover and Payne competed favorably for market share against Channel 4 in the ratings race, while Channel 7 remained far and away the ratings leader.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhosr9gbw6XyWWbBTkaR161gJXTLiFT1PzFFHmqFfJZk1faChUjn0PpDiJPuFLxMdu7vzdfPTlvfN-q1PubMcx9SVKyWzZDYrQJcuatV3r-vmnzNWdfdMDjZtygWMfxlvyR56WMfOUomOUehw341Sny8J1Rji2-ZI5DEqHEvHHCoYPg9fsy7zX65lnW7sg/s2474/Beverly%20Payne%20at%20desdesk.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2474" data-original-width="2112" height="417" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhosr9gbw6XyWWbBTkaR161gJXTLiFT1PzFFHmqFfJZk1faChUjn0PpDiJPuFLxMdu7vzdfPTlvfN-q1PubMcx9SVKyWzZDYrQJcuatV3r-vmnzNWdfdMDjZtygWMfxlvyR56WMfOUomOUehw341Sny8J1Rji2-ZI5DEqHEvHHCoYPg9fsy7zX65lnW7sg/w356-h417/Beverly%20Payne%20at%20desdesk.jpg" width="356" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Beverly Payne being interviewed behind the scenes.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">All seemed fine until June 15, 1977, when Beverly Payne abruptly quit her $80,000/year job in protest over a live phone interview with the head of the Nazi movement in America. She was nursing a cold at home watching Channel 2 news when she saw her co-anchor Joe Glover allow a hate-filled rant against Jews, Blacks, and immigrants go unquestioned.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The 90-second interview with the national coordinator of the <i>National Socialist White People's Party of America </i>was allowed "to spew his hate over the TV2 airwaves without any balance." Payne criticized her colleague for not asking any probing questions and for the station not having booked a spokesperson from an opposing group for rebuttal. "I may have washed my career down the drain," Payne said in an interview, "but I have my integrity and my dignity."<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Station manager Bob McBride refused to issue a public apology over the incident but also refused to accept Payne's resignation. The station continued to honor Ms. Payne's contract which had two years left to run. The station gave Payne a temporary leave of absence to allow Glover and Payne to soothe their egos.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPMY4T8gf_VHEr3V8Rf0rhjzGqX9cCBbECwsvH-hatb3aveVZh63moCpNh_v5-bWwkdFLxtFJhxEjyjQGQsmGzqZgEmnPpQ-iAjaLxamwCaJjtfwvT3DM9MMmBrHcOh3z2_SFjV2nHiVMrQreEFi-FFT4WsvKQdmhk_HMtr173xurPApYYRbzQCw4Vfa8/s226/Bob%20McBride%20WJBK%20station%20manager.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="226" data-original-width="155" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPMY4T8gf_VHEr3V8Rf0rhjzGqX9cCBbECwsvH-hatb3aveVZh63moCpNh_v5-bWwkdFLxtFJhxEjyjQGQsmGzqZgEmnPpQ-iAjaLxamwCaJjtfwvT3DM9MMmBrHcOh3z2_SFjV2nHiVMrQreEFi-FFT4WsvKQdmhk_HMtr173xurPApYYRbzQCw4Vfa8/w219-h319/Bob%20McBride%20WJBK%20station%20manager.jpg" width="219" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Bob McBride</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Payne's fans stood solidly behind her, and they made it known to the station. Two weeks after her protest against WJBK, Payne returned to the <i>Eyewitness News </i>desk to co-anchor with Robbie Timmons while Joe Glover was on temporary assignment elsewhere. Station manager Bob McBride opened the Wednesday night broadcast apologizing to the audience for the offensive interview.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In September of 1979, Ms. Payne's agent negotiated a three-year contract with a substantial salary increase from $80,000 per year to $120,000. WJBK-TV management, not known for their generosity, realized Payne was too important to the station and its image. They did not want to take a chance on losing her to WXYZ-TV Channel 7, which had poached several of their top ratings earners in recent years like John Kelly, Marilyn Turner, and Al Ackerman.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Beverly Payne was the Channel 2 golden girl until November of 1979 when she was one of several journalists invited to a briefing session at the White House with cabinet members and President Carter. Channel 2's conservative management refused to let her attend calling the invitation "public relations puffery."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The decision was typical of WJBK management's failure to capitalize on an opportunity that would enhance Payne and the station's local stature. When she complained that if her co-anchor Joe Glover had received the invitation, the station would have sent him with an expense account. Her statement reopened old wounds. Management began to see Payne as a "troublemaker."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In November of 1980, the station sent Payne on a two-week charity mission to help feed starving Somalian children in Africa. She was able to raise $40,000 from Detroit viewers for the project. Her mission of mercy was filmed by a camera crew and later compiled into a WJBK-TV feature story. When Payne returned home, she was hospitalized </span><span style="font-size: large;">at Mt. Carmel Mercy Hospital </span><span style="font-size: large;">for dehydration and exhaustion. Her doctor ordered three weeks of rest.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">When she returned to work, Payne announced her engagement to Guy Draper, a former chief of protocol in the Carter administration. The couple met at the Democratic National Convention in New York City. They wed on June 20, 1981, in Washington D.C. at St. Albans Church on the grounds of the National Cathedral. The bride wore a street-length, eggshell-colored lace gown. The reception was held at the Shoreham Hotel. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR3Vg90Iu0_LveSnAyJyS5dHdFA-_akNDUM45V_0OmaDkH-1Lo1qa99yvSLd644z1EJBrpm1_ze3YUbKn8zf0NpnBLX2UXro4_BtuVgTrsPSheffvlOGFe0BWMPTwPR3xbFmeHTIUwnvWdecxwgi0yH_uEvsfpmkNeOa8sO0NonoD4cTcAKr1MfR9KQZk/s958/Beverly%20Payne%20marries%20Guy%20Draper%20June%2020%201981.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="816" height="401" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR3Vg90Iu0_LveSnAyJyS5dHdFA-_akNDUM45V_0OmaDkH-1Lo1qa99yvSLd644z1EJBrpm1_ze3YUbKn8zf0NpnBLX2UXro4_BtuVgTrsPSheffvlOGFe0BWMPTwPR3xbFmeHTIUwnvWdecxwgi0yH_uEvsfpmkNeOa8sO0NonoD4cTcAKr1MfR9KQZk/w342-h401/Beverly%20Payne%20marries%20Guy%20Draper%20June%2020%201981.jpg" width="342" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Beverly Payne and Guy Draper</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Payne
decided to use her husband's surname on the air beginning July 6, 1981.
WJBK management was bewildered and miffed after all the years and money
they spent promoting Beverly Payne to their Detroit audience. Payne
insisted on using her married name--Beverly Payne Draper. She continued
to work at the anchor desk until December 1982 when WJBK-TV suspended
her without pay for an unspecified reason. Rather than buckle under, she
resigned her position after nine years with the station.</span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1985, Payne launched a new career as a consultant and official spokesperson for the Michigan Commerce Department. Two years later in March 1987, after six years of marriage to Andrew Gay Draper, Beverly divorced him and dropped his name from hers. The reason was once again held private.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In an unexpected turn of events, Detroit Mayor Coleman Young nominated Beverly Payne in February 1978 to serve as administrator of the Casino Gambling Commission and its $150,000 budget. The 35 person committee was charged with studying and drafting a recommendation whether Detroit should allow gambling casinos within the city limits. A proposal was written which the voters rejected in a special election.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Glad to be free from her gambling commission duties, Ms. Payne began a consulting firm for small businesses named <i>Beverly Payne & Associates</i> in June 1988. A year and a half later, Ms. Payne announced her engagement to Michigan Senator Morris Hood (D-Detroit). In no apparent hurry to tie the knot, they were married twenty months later in a private, civil ceremony performed by Recorder's Court Judge Geraldine Bledsoe-Ford. <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">At some point, Beverly Payne moved back to her hometown of San Francisco to be close to family. She passed away at home on November 12, 1999, of complications from cervical cancer at the age of fifty-four. At Ms. Payne's request, there was no memorial service. She left behind three grown sons, five grandkids, two sisters, one brother, and her mother Virginia Wroten.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Beverly Payne's contribution to Detroit television history is that her success opened doors for other women and minorities at news desks across the city: women like Diana Lewis, Doris Biscoe, Robbie Timmons, Kathy Adams, Linda Wright-Avery, Carmen Harlan, Kai Maxwell, and Terry Murphy.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">"These women were transformed by the power of television. Deserved or not, a certain glamor and credibility is attached to these golden beings whose fate it is to be on-camera. It is magical!" wrote <i>Detroit Free Press </i>reporter Donna Britt.</span><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2023/11/diana-lewis-wxyz-tvs-grande-dame-of.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">Diana Lewis--WXYZ-TV's Grande Dame</span></a><br /></p></div>Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-14766025203461054592023-12-26T10:58:00.000-08:002023-12-26T10:58:35.495-08:00Soupy Sales Late Night Detroit Variety Show<p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-10jGtWZz5BQ/X-50Oe8e89I/AAAAAAAAO54/vnxusGbSL6gOrsQiJ0W_MgAXnshK0smwQCNcBGAsYHQ/s250/Soupy%2B4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="250" height="269" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-10jGtWZz5BQ/X-50Oe8e89I/AAAAAAAAO54/vnxusGbSL6gOrsQiJ0W_MgAXnshK0smwQCNcBGAsYHQ/w400-h269/Soupy%2B4.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />After serving twenty-six months in the United States Navy in World War II--twelve in the Pacific theater--Milton Supman took his G.I. Bill benefits and earned a master's degree in journalism in 1949. While attending Marshall College in Huntington, West Virgina, Supman </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">was bit by the show business bug and </span>began working part-time doing standup comedy in local nightclubs and dee-jaying a morning radio show on WHTN-AM.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Supman moved to Cincinnati when he landed a television spot on WKRC-TV hosting a teen dance show called <i>Soupy's Soda Shop</i>--the first in the country. Supman worked under the stage name Soupy Hines. When his show was cancelled, a friend at the station told Soupy about Detroit station WXYZ-TV that was looking for live entertainers to round out its local programming schedule.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The unemployed, twenty-seven-year-old performer legally changed his stage name to Soupy Sales; took his young wife and baby to stay with relatives in Huntington, West Virgina; and drove to Detroit with $10 in his pocket. He auditioned for Channel 7 general manager John Pival to host a daily, children's lunchtime show. Pival was impressed and hired him. Soupy used his fast-talking, improvisational skills to good effect and soon made his program a success. Soupy wanted to show he had the talent to attract more than a kiddie audience.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">When an 11:00 PM slot opened up unexpectedly two months later, program director Pete Strand reserved the time slot for Soupy to do an adult-focused, variety show of comedy and music entertainment. <i>Soupy's On</i> debuted on November 10th, 1953.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DtUzGE09g34/X-53JrX1bhI/AAAAAAAAO6M/_FRaFkZ87Ho_Sq4hSf8zNGJfMB8sO9h8ACNcBGAsYHQ/s400/Soupy%2527s%2BOn%2Bad.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="130" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DtUzGE09g34/X-53JrX1bhI/AAAAAAAAO6M/_FRaFkZ87Ho_Sq4hSf8zNGJfMB8sO9h8ACNcBGAsYHQ/w208-h640/Soupy%2527s%2BOn%2Bad.jpg" width="208" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">Unlike his lunchtime show which was roughly outlined and ad libbed giving it a spontaneous flair, the evening show was scripted and well-rehearsed. Soupy and his stage director Pete Strand wrote the nightly opening monologue and comedy sketches each afternoon for the evening broadcast. The show opened with Soupy doing a standup routine followed by a cutting-edge comic sketch and live guest performances by some of the best jazz muscians of the era.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Soupy was a jazz lover living in a jazz town. Detroit at that time was the home to twenty-four jazz clubs before urban renewal in 1959 wiped out the Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods where most of the jazz clubs were located. Soupy's nighttime show soon became a scheduled stop for jazz performers like Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, George Shearing, Della Reese, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis, who was living in the Detroit area at the time.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Soupy's house band "Two Joes and a Hank" led by Hal Gordon had some chops too. Guitarist Joe Messina and drummer Jack Brokensha later became members of Motown's <i>Funk Brothers.</i> Rounding out the group was Joe Oddo, who played bass, and Hank Trevision, who played piano. Soupy's theme song was Charlie Parker's "Yardbird Suite."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Soupy portrayed an array of comic characters like belching Sheriff Wyatt Burp, European crooner Charles Vichysoisse, Colonel Claude Bottom, and Western cowboy hero The Lone Stranger. Other performers were Clyde Adler who played Indian mystic Kuda Dux and Mississippi gambler Wes Jefferson; character actress Bertha Forman, with fifty years of show business experience, played Soupy's mother-in-law; attractive blonde Jane Hamilton played ditzy literary critic Harriet Von Loon and hip-swinging floozy Bubbles, Soupy's on-screen wife.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-weWNUDMWHig/X-51EgqDJJI/AAAAAAAAO6A/rJQDg3l87scVMzRiLFkHF7JnEsgYH4sPACNcBGAsYHQ/s430/Soup%2527s%2BOn%2Bcast.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="430" height="345" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-weWNUDMWHig/X-51EgqDJJI/AAAAAAAAO6A/rJQDg3l87scVMzRiLFkHF7JnEsgYH4sPACNcBGAsYHQ/w400-h345/Soup%2527s%2BOn%2Bcast.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Detroit's most recognized voice actor Rube Weiss--announcer for Detroit Dragway commercials and the official Hudson's department store Santa for many years--played Charlie Pan and the Lone Stranger's sidekick Pronto.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UGlXuPGUl-0/X-9caWU9_pI/AAAAAAAAO6w/UETykB8GdmgltQk9p8kovnLdqis_Wr9bwCNcBGAsYHQ/s200/Soupy%2BRube%2BWeiss.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="163" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UGlXuPGUl-0/X-9caWU9_pI/AAAAAAAAO6w/UETykB8GdmgltQk9p8kovnLdqis_Wr9bwCNcBGAsYHQ/w163-h200/Soupy%2BRube%2BWeiss.jpg" width="163" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Rube Weiss</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: large;"></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Soupy and his troupe pioneered late-night comedy shows and paved the way for programs like <i>Saturday Night Live</i>. His show was before the age of videotape and only one Kinescope segment (a fixed 16mm camera filming a TV program directly from the screen) survives from the show which is linked below. Soupy interviews trumpeter Clifford Brown at the end of Brown's performance.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The final episode of Soupy's On aired November 27, 1959. Soupy had done 3,300 morning and evening shows for WXYZ in six years when his variety show was cancelled. At the time, Soupy was the highest paid celebrity in Detroit television. When the station declined to renegotiate Soupy's contract, he was free to shop his talents in Hollywood.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In a statement to Detroit local media, Soupy took a moment to make it real. "I've been working in a state of exhaustion for years. My workday begins at 9:00 am and ends at 2:30 am. I get three hours of sleep at night and another two hours in the afternoon. You wear a little ragged after awhile. I see my fans more than I see my own family," Soupy said. "But let's face it. Here in Detroit, local live television is dying because the networks are producing more of their own programming and crowding out local talent." <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Soupy Sales relocated to Los Angeles and appeared in some television episodes and several movies but never became a television or movie star in Hollywood. He wasn't leading man material, and his face was too well-known for him to be a convincing character actor. But he recreated himself as a "TV personality" and made a steady living as a panelist on the game show circuit doing programs like <i>Hollywood Squares, $20,000 Pyramid, To Tell the Truth, </i>and <i>What's My Line</i>.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iuP3CfFZDQ" target="_blank">Here is the only surviving clip of Soupy's On from 1956 featuring jazz great Clifford Brown.</a></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2017/06/lunch-with-soupy-sales-in-detroit.html" target="_blank">Lunch With Soupy</a> </span></span><br /></p>Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-10941297364326317182023-12-15T09:16:00.000-08:002023-12-15T09:16:38.551-08:00The Coca-Cola Santa Story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZtZcg6ydSqE/VmxSUjtMr6I/AAAAAAAAFoA/czvN_nIUjSc/s1600/Santa%2BCoca-Cola%2Bportrait.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZtZcg6ydSqE/VmxSUjtMr6I/AAAAAAAAFoA/czvN_nIUjSc/s400/Santa%2BCoca-Cola%2Bportrait.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">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:</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="long-line">As I drew in my head, and was turning around,</span><br /><span class="long-line">Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.</span><br /><span class="long-line">He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,</span><br /><span class="long-line">And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;</span><br /><span class="long-line">A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,</span><br /><span class="long-line">And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.</span><br /><span class="long-line">His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!</span><br /><span class="long-line">His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!</span><br /><span class="long-line">His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow</span><br /><span class="long-line">And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;</span><br /><span class="long-line">The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,</span><br /><span class="long-line">And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;</span><br /><span class="long-line">He had a broad face and a little round belly,</span><br /><span class="long-line">That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.</span><br /><span class="long-line">He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,</span><br /><span class="long-line">And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;">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 <i>Harper's Weekly.</i> 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.<br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gz4QfK124ek/Yaj2WVORctI/AAAAAAAAQtw/p6O2gmKtPHEQdB_imnpWUkPN9GM0tMaGwCNcBGAsYHQ/s800/Santa%2BClaus%2Bharpers_1863_01-_thomas-nast-santa-claus.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="800" height="433" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gz4QfK124ek/Yaj2WVORctI/AAAAAAAAQtw/p6O2gmKtPHEQdB_imnpWUkPN9GM0tMaGwCNcBGAsYHQ/w462-h433/Santa%2BClaus%2Bharpers_1863_01-_thomas-nast-santa-claus.jpg" width="462" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;">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.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: x-large;"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HKB-tlh0GV4/YagTtYwfHxI/AAAAAAAAQtk/1WxrBis3aMMxFbNtkN89zRXlHGoqy4a_ACPcBGAYYCw/s998/Santa%2BClaus%2BNash.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="998" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HKB-tlh0GV4/YagTtYwfHxI/AAAAAAAAQtk/1WxrBis3aMMxFbNtkN89zRXlHGoqy4a_ACPcBGAYYCw/w321-h400/Santa%2BClaus%2BNash.jpg" width="321" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;">Muskegon born Michigan artist Haddon Sundblom painted the iconic image we now recognize as the modern Santa Claus, for the <i>Coca-Cola</i> 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.<br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y8a7k1Q75c8/VmxUvFhSmXI/AAAAAAAAFoM/cjJtY5UMrNw/s1600/Santa%2BClaus%2Bartist%2BHaddon%2BSundblom.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y8a7k1Q75c8/VmxUvFhSmXI/AAAAAAAAFoM/cjJtY5UMrNw/w496-h278/Santa%2BClaus%2Bartist%2BHaddon%2BSundblom.jpg" width="496" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Haddon Sundblom at work.</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody></tbody></table></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;">Sundblom's Santa images have appeared in <i>Coke's</i> print advertising, store displays, billboards, posters, calendars, and on television commercials. He helped make Santa the most recognizable and successful pitchman in advertising history. </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mGlKESIAiMw/YagUpgTL-XI/AAAAAAAAQts/AYppnIjW_cYzaJHsGFG7m5de372rlvbcQCPcBGAYYCw/s313/Santa%2BClaus%2Bcoke%2B2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="161" data-original-width="313" height="248" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mGlKESIAiMw/YagUpgTL-XI/AAAAAAAAQts/AYppnIjW_cYzaJHsGFG7m5de372rlvbcQCPcBGAYYCw/w481-h248/Santa%2BClaus%2Bcoke%2B2.jpg" width="481" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2021/12/haddon-sundblom-santa-claus-and-playboy.html">Haddon Sundblom, Santa, and Playboy Magazine</a> <br /></span></div>
Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-40227068017920685832023-12-09T08:26:00.000-08:002023-12-09T08:26:43.081-08:00West Dearborn's Muirhead's Department Store<p></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mWEeiJwjDv8/X7fdbxJEVlI/AAAAAAAAOwc/LVHesCTBG-g_8zwZUggVqc-tTbscvzvcwCNcBGAsYHQ/s563/Muirhead%2527s%2BDepartment%2BStore.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="563" height="265" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mWEeiJwjDv8/X7fdbxJEVlI/AAAAAAAAOwc/LVHesCTBG-g_8zwZUggVqc-tTbscvzvcwCNcBGAsYHQ/w400-h265/Muirhead%2527s%2BDepartment%2BStore.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mrs. Alberta Muirhead<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br />If you grew up in Downriver Detroit in the 1950s or 1960s, after the Hudson's Thanksgiving Day parade on Woodward Avenue, you had your heart set on a visit to Santa's igloo at Muirhead's on Michigan Avenue in West Dearborn. Baby Boomers have precious memories of riding the rails in Santa's sleigh with their parents and siblings to get their photo taken with Santa Claus. Over the years, several men have donned the red suit and white beard. Early on, Mr. Muirhead played the role, but succeeding Santas were Bob Oxley and Tim Pryce. There may have been others.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In 1946, John Muirhead married Alberta Jamieson, and they opened a neighborhood department store featuring women's clothing and a toy department. Dearborn resident Jon Jahr explained that his father drew up the blueprints for the original Muirhead's building which was on three levels.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"The basement was the storeroom, shopping was on the street level, and the Muirheads lived on the second level. As their business grew, they expanded the footprint of the building, and in the early sixties, they built a new building around the old building, replacing the street facade for a modern, upscale look." By then, John and Alberta lived in their own home, creating more sales space on the second level.</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3pbaOEQkJ4g/X7fY0xkLfhI/AAAAAAAAOv4/GVAKf1aQuDEc0hS4HDSqKttpywDX3o3LwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1414/Muirhead%2527s%2BAlberta%2B1971.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1414" data-original-width="961" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3pbaOEQkJ4g/X7fY0xkLfhI/AAAAAAAAOv4/GVAKf1aQuDEc0hS4HDSqKttpywDX3o3LwCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/Muirhead%2527s%2BAlberta%2B1971.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mrs. Muirhead - 1971</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Lynn Richards Tobin worked at Muirhead's in 1961 and 1962. She remembers, "Mr. Muirhead was in his early sixties. Mrs. Muirhead was younger, maybe in her forties.... She always wore the cash register key around her neck. She took care of their customers and oversaw sales on the main floor. Mr. Muirhead spent most of his time on the second floor in the stockroom and oversaw employees to make sure everyone was working and not goofing off.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"The main floor was girls and teen clothing in front and children's clothing in the back. A customer service center was in the middle of the sales floor where shoppers would take returns and ask questions. There was a cash register station near the front door and one near the parking lot exit in back. An elevator and a stairwell led to the second floor where the stockroom and business offices were. Dolls were sold upstairs including the exclusive Madame Alexander dolls. Another stairwell on the ground floor led to the toy department in the basement which featured bicycles."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qugVP8PAlDc/X7ffE4mLvKI/AAAAAAAAOwo/Zg4LKWXNdbUsHsB5W_7lSXGRowx50BoEACNcBGAsYHQ/s523/Christmas%2BSanta%2Bvisit.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="368" data-original-width="523" height="281" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qugVP8PAlDc/X7ffE4mLvKI/AAAAAAAAOwo/Zg4LKWXNdbUsHsB5W_7lSXGRowx50BoEACNcBGAsYHQ/w400-h281/Christmas%2BSanta%2Bvisit.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My family in 1957. I'm sitting next to my mother.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br />During the Christmas season, Santa's igloo sleigh ride in the basement was the big attraction. As far as I have been able to determine, the sleigh was manually pushed back and forth on a rail track. Jon Jahr remembers seeing the sleigh in the Muirhead's warehouse in the early 1970s. Jahr asked Mr. Muirhead if he might bring the sleigh out just for Christmas photos, but he was done with it by then. I wonder if the sleigh is somewhere in Dearborn waiting to be rediscovered.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">John died in 1983 at the age of eighty-three. Alberta operated the store by herself with the help of a dedicated band of loyal employees for seven more years. Then, she closed the popular store after forty-three years in business. Competition from shopping malls and Crowley's on Michigan Avenue off Outer Drive in particular cut into her business.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Alberta's story did not end with the closing of her boutique department store. Mrs. Muirhead--as most people called her--became a model for philanthrophy. She believed in giving back to the Dearborn community who had supported her and her husband John, making their business a success. Alberta devoted her later life to Dearborn and its people.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Alberta Muirhead parlayed her charismatic personality and charitable spirit to become Dearborn's biggest benefactor and philantropist since the Ford family. For starters, she donated her three-level building to the Oakwood Health Care Foundation for their data-processing center.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">An avid believer in public education, Alberta became the namesake for Dearborn's Teacher of the Year award established in 1997. She supported both Henry Ford Community College and Rochester College giving generously to their scholarship funds to help needy and struggling students. Dearborn Public Schools awards an annual scholarship in her name.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In 2007, Alberta Muirhead established the Oakwood Healthcare Foundation with a $500,000 gift to support nursing education and advanced nursing degrees for Oakwood Healthcare employees. Many a nurse owes a debt of gratitude to the generosity of Mrs. Muirhead. Her support was not limited to people. Alberta was a supporter of the Dearborn Animal Shelter and received their Big Heart Award in 2006.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w5VCu0ymd9w/X7fa_r3lMkI/AAAAAAAAOwQ/sMGZZ4eGzhAh4pwqtTgSSLlInZ0yRIN2ACNcBGAsYHQ/s800/Muirheads%2B2005%2BRuss%2BGibb.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="800" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w5VCu0ymd9w/X7fa_r3lMkI/AAAAAAAAOwQ/sMGZZ4eGzhAh4pwqtTgSSLlInZ0yRIN2ACNcBGAsYHQ/s320/Muirheads%2B2005%2BRuss%2BGibb.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-size: large;">After the death of her husband, Alberta and Russ Gibb--of Grande Ballroom fame and Dearborn High School teacher--became friends. How and when they met is unclear, but Gibb was a deejay at WKNR-FM which was next door to the department store. They became lifelong friends and companions for nearly thirty years until Alberta's death on January 14, 2011 at the age of ninety-one</span>. <span style="font-size: large;">"Alberta put so many people through college," Gibb said. "She was a great, generous lady and I loved her dearly."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2013/12/merry-christmas-history-from-ford.html" target="_blank">Ford Rotunda Christmas Memories</a> </span><br /></p><p></p>Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-25075062389322480112023-11-23T12:05:00.000-08:002023-12-03T08:06:58.699-08:00Diana Lewis--WXYZ-TV's Grande Dame of Detroit Nightly News<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBZzM6U8ZKvrQ24kSNr9Q30DVUUhqMxxYF65bJo3VY6THLQEvDJDwSqOBzbGDECwVWvYDV4-8MiUFuAmBAntAf2ODzSZ_ZeC6aMvF0MuTerbNwY6AcFIYys258CYfp3PzNZrHEXjuo3X9qPU8MR4pMAY7uzDMcgbh_G3R3EmNzoKjwphaL7rY29ph4FEk/s800/Diana%20Lewis%20closeup.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBZzM6U8ZKvrQ24kSNr9Q30DVUUhqMxxYF65bJo3VY6THLQEvDJDwSqOBzbGDECwVWvYDV4-8MiUFuAmBAntAf2ODzSZ_ZeC6aMvF0MuTerbNwY6AcFIYys258CYfp3PzNZrHEXjuo3X9qPU8MR4pMAY7uzDMcgbh_G3R3EmNzoKjwphaL7rY29ph4FEk/w377-h283/Diana%20Lewis%20closeup.jpg" width="377" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Diana Lewis<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Thirty-four-year-old Diana Lewis burst onto the local Detroit television news scene when she was chosen to co-anchor the 5:30 pm, Channel 7<i> Action News</i> with bombastic Bill Bonds. <i>Detroit Free Press</i> television critic Bettelou Peterson wrote that "Diana Lewis comes across with strength to balance Bill Bonds' strong personality. She might have overwhelmed the more easy-going Jac Le Goff or John Kelly, <i>Action News</i>' other nightly news anchors." Finally Bonds met his match.<br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"It was amusing to watch Bonds and Lewis the first week they teamed for Channel 7's new 5:30 pm newscast. Bill knew he had tough competition and wasn't about to give Diana too much room. I don't think he actually looked at her once. He tossed her cues by saying "Diana" while looking resolutely straight at the camera," Peterson wrote.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">To promote the 5:30 pm newscast, WXYZ-TV Channel 7 ran daily 3/4 page ads in the Detroit newspapers launching the team of Bonds and Lewis. Over a short time, they became more comfortable on-air together, and within a year, they were the news team to beat in the local Nielsen ratings race competing head-to-head against Channel 4's Mort Crim and Carmen Harlan, and WJBK-TV Channel 2's Joe Glover and Beverly Payne.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Diana Lewis did not follow a lifelong ambition to be a television newsanchor. She grew up Diana Robinson in Coatesvill, Pennsylvania. After her schooling, she worked as a psychiatric social worker at Emreeville State Hospital working with troubled youth and as a public special education teacher at Scott Intermediate High School. Both experiences prepared her for the job she was destined to have co-anchoring with Bill Bonds.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1968, Diana Robinson's stepfather showed her an article in the Phildelphia newspaper. Phildelphia's WPVI-TV Channel 6 needed a part-time, assistant producer for a program named <i>Black Book</i> about issues that were important to the Black community. The next day, Ms. Robinson asked her students if they thought she should apply for the job. The next thing she knew, Diana was filling out an application.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The moment that changed her life occurred while writing a script and preparing for an appearance of author Maya Angelou. Just before the broadcast, Angelou cancelled because she wasn't feeling well. Diana went to the producer and asked what they were going to do.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Kid," he said, "you're on!" That was the first time she had appeared on camera, and Diana realized she was good at it. "That day, I claimed my voice, so help me, to be a voice for the people."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Diana was long married to Glen Lewis, a sound editor for Paramont Pictures and Universal Pictures. They had two daughters, Donna and Glenda. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1974, so Diana could take a job with KABC-TV as a consumer investigative reporter. She began using her married name professionally--Diana Lewis.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">After two years beating the pavement in Los Angeles for KABC-TV, Lewis received a phone call from a young, unknown actor/screenplay writer named Sylvester Stallone. He told Lewis he liked her investigative reporting. "I like your no-nonsense, hard edge. That's what I'm looking for."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Looking for what?"</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Someone to play a TV reporter in a film I'm making." <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4aUW4ZDZBy00LL1PjnHjhpuJif2Mtb9-vwUDtSXImuon-ulTFIYSNehDC7X5uTODBRkYUl0J34HoIEEqo8EJhe4NOAITuqzJMESpN5OaetlamlT1k3EPer9OlOZFIIaEveeTDmVzPpSnV4_WAevWmcR3eFnvhJVLBrq8aph2khinonYfribucVmqDJA/s3046/Diana%20Lewis%20and%20Sly%20Stallone.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2464" data-original-width="3046" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4aUW4ZDZBy00LL1PjnHjhpuJif2Mtb9-vwUDtSXImuon-ulTFIYSNehDC7X5uTODBRkYUl0J34HoIEEqo8EJhe4NOAITuqzJMESpN5OaetlamlT1k3EPer9OlOZFIIaEveeTDmVzPpSnV4_WAevWmcR3eFnvhJVLBrq8aph2khinonYfribucVmqDJA/w417-h336/Diana%20Lewis%20and%20Sly%20Stallone.jpg" width="417" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />The film <i>Rocky</i> premiered in 1976 in time for the United States Bi-Centennial Celebration. Playing herself in the film, the director placed an Afro wig on Lewis' head and pointed her toward the cameras. She interviewed Rocky Balboa, a washed-up pug, as he tenderized a side of beef hanging in a packing house. The scene has since become one of the most memorable sequences in film history.</span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">WXYZ-TV program director Phil Nye had hired Lewis when he worked in Los Angeles. Now he was the top programing person at Channel 7 looking for someone who was confident and could handle co-anchor Bill Bonds, who had his difficult on-air moments. Lewis had a levelheaded, calming influence that counterbalanced Bonds. The pair developed mutual respect for one another and dominated Detroit local news for many years.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">One year into their run, the early 5:30 pm broadcast came in strong in the Nielsen ratings attracting the biggest audience of women 18 to 49 years old, the demographic advertisers love most. Men were watching too. Bonds and Lewis drew about 37 percent of the viewing audience the first time ratings data was available for the 5:30 pm <i>Action News</i>. The following year, the ratings were 44 percent, almost twice as much as Channels 2 and 4 together. Newspaper TV critic Chris Stoehr dubbed Bonds and Lewis the "King and Queen of Local Newscasts." <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixtEnOxEmwne2ZRvdb2mIqappWYE0888aQwNzX0VXh0C1uf4h7eFkHTDu9wMvQ0YyJCZWm1mS_Wr1l_jPBPfpkRbHi2JIHC_dIKi-UdCiV49iAgtFbOP7Fx-NrcuT0tESWM1DXUzH2qLTWi7ZNUPqU2zkIq7iEic-13iMaO1BG_G_35_4o_9-ykhEWdtk/s800/Diana%20Lewis%20and%20Bill%20Bonds.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixtEnOxEmwne2ZRvdb2mIqappWYE0888aQwNzX0VXh0C1uf4h7eFkHTDu9wMvQ0YyJCZWm1mS_Wr1l_jPBPfpkRbHi2JIHC_dIKi-UdCiV49iAgtFbOP7Fx-NrcuT0tESWM1DXUzH2qLTWi7ZNUPqU2zkIq7iEic-13iMaO1BG_G_35_4o_9-ykhEWdtk/w336-h448/Diana%20Lewis%20and%20Bill%20Bonds.webp" width="336" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Bonds and Lewis</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">By August 1977, Lewis hosted her own daytime show called <i>AM Detroit </i>where
she tackled controversial issues of the day. Market research found that
viewers felt she was too abrasive and aggressive for a morning audience
of housewives. The station wanted her to be more likeable and less
threatening, so they softened Lewis' hair, makeup, and wardrobe.</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">One good thing about working for Channel 7, each of the
anchors had a yearly clothing allowance. In a behind the scenes
interview with Channel 7's News Director Phil Nye, he explained the
station's dress code. "The station pays for the news team's clothing,
mostly purchased from <i>Gwynn's</i> in Birmingham. Bob Gwynn makes
clothes to order for each reporter and anchorperson. Diana is an
absolute pleasure to work with because she is dynamic. As for Bonds,
he's a paradox; he swings from wild to conservative.... We don't want
the clothes to upstage the content of the program. Their clothes should
be subdued but stylish and fairly conservtive."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Detroit Free Press</i> celebrity watchdog Bob Talbert, often publicly at odds with Bill Bonds, could not resist using Diana Lewis to bludgeon Bonds in his March 10, 1980 column. "You don't realize how good Diana Lewis is until you watch her take the lead anchor spot while Bonds is on vacation. You don't even notice Bonds is gone."<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1982, The Detroit television market had no shortage of competent women co-anchors including Beverly Payne, Doris Biscoe, Kai Maxwell, Carmen Harlen, and Robbie Timmons. Diana Lewis' popularity and ratings led the field earning her a $500,000 three-year contract with a baby-blue Chrysler Imperial thrown in to sweeten the deal.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">But when her contract was up in 1985, Lewis became the casualty of the contact wars when her contract was not renewed. Channel 7 once again raided Channel 2's talent pool and hired Robbie Timmons for the 5 pm newscast and Dayna Eubanks for the 11 pm newscast. Diana moved her family to Los Angeles,
California, where her husband Glen was a film editor and sound effects
man for Paramount and Universal Pictures. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhte4bZtQPtZH54Yw4UY2dcj_Q_Ix2apo3zYxPYy0MtdLSxIyeKQVW-XYlnFX3ED2scHenAR73lbCqFZSEiWR74eB1rLvSfn_H7YKnpDvP_gkQERttG2744xkevvKxN54o8H1UaZQ-N2xnTWVlqk1XtpmPVRc_ptJr524y6f4O5VFFxeUyUbIeZul1CV54/s1155/Diana%20Lewis%20and%20Glenn%20her%20husband.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1155" data-original-width="696" height="521" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhte4bZtQPtZH54Yw4UY2dcj_Q_Ix2apo3zYxPYy0MtdLSxIyeKQVW-XYlnFX3ED2scHenAR73lbCqFZSEiWR74eB1rLvSfn_H7YKnpDvP_gkQERttG2744xkevvKxN54o8H1UaZQ-N2xnTWVlqk1XtpmPVRc_ptJr524y6f4O5VFFxeUyUbIeZul1CV54/w315-h521/Diana%20Lewis%20and%20Glenn%20her%20husband.jpeg" width="315" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Glen and Diana Lewis</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">One thing Lewis learned from her tenure with Bill Bonds
was to land on your feet after a crisis. Lewis went national and took a
position in October 1986 with CNN in Atlanta, Georgia, which lasted all
of one week. "I didn't realize what a jolt it was going to be being a
long-distance mother."</span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">She didn't want to uproot her twelve-year-old daughter Glenda out of school in the middle of a term, and her twenty-year-old daughter Donna needed to finish college. Diana dusted off her SAG (Screen Actors Guild) card and took some television bit parts including reprising her role in <i>Rocky 5.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">After Lewis' three year absence, Channel 7 announced they would not renew Dayna Eubanks' contract. Eubanks and Bill Bonds had no on-screen chemistry and did not get along, so the station rehired Lewis in 1988 for an estimated $150,000 to co-anchor the 11 pm newscast and stop the ratings hemmoraging. Lewis admitted to the press that she missed the money and her celebrity status. She was happy to be back. Channel 7's public relations team did a hard sell advertising the on-air reunion of Bonds and Lewis.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Lewis (69) stayed with Channel 7 until her last broadcast on October 3, 2012. After forty-four years in television news, including thirty-five years at WXYZ-TV, Diana Lewis signed-off by addressing her audience for the last time, "To everyone at home, God bless you. Thanks so much for loving me. I love you back. Good night."<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Diana Lewis hoped to retire and travel around the country with her husband, but soon after, Glenn Lewis developed memory loss and PTSD from two tours of duty as a U.S. Marine in Vietnam. Diana back-shelved her retirement plans to become his caregiver.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the meantime, her brother, who was suffering from kidney disease, took care of their 101-year-old mother Doris Spann in Pennsylvania. When he died suddenly from heart failure, Lewis made the funeral arrangements and moved her mother to Michigan into the family home in Farmingham Hills. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2aqTjvRcErmLrjp1ny3vdoW_1_MDlyjYw_DbD2DM8YsYuntLVjHZ8zGGB7GtPY8VrHRSxHwk7cef9Lwmcdhk7NZSTP0mUJQHnQwWHV1AcYrh7iIRrb_9zQQgXfY7EklnSBPWgzwgYIE38ZSDs6ZaftOJauX0bbUusrHFWTY06rwAFcL7WoO54BLYycHU/s1024/Diana%20Lewis%20and%20her%20family.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2aqTjvRcErmLrjp1ny3vdoW_1_MDlyjYw_DbD2DM8YsYuntLVjHZ8zGGB7GtPY8VrHRSxHwk7cef9Lwmcdhk7NZSTP0mUJQHnQwWHV1AcYrh7iIRrb_9zQQgXfY7EklnSBPWgzwgYIE38ZSDs6ZaftOJauX0bbUusrHFWTY06rwAFcL7WoO54BLYycHU/w393-h295/Diana%20Lewis%20and%20her%20family.jpg" width="393" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Lewis women with family matriarch Doris Spann</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Lewis and her daughters did the best they could, but when Diana's back went out while lifting her mother, Diana asked for help from ProMedica Hospice in Southfield. Something she vowed she would never do. Diana was able to keep her mother at home until she passed away in 2022 at the age of 103.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In a heartfelt interview on April 23, 2023, with Cambrey Thomas from <i>Hour Detroit</i> magazine, Diana Lewis (80) spoke about the toll of being a caregiver. "Taking care of an ailing person can tax one's spirit more than I ever thought possible. We need to normalize the conversation... to recognize that asking for help and support should not be seen as a sign of failure or weakness but rather as one of courage."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Without realizing it, Diana Lewis embodied what her longtime co-anchor Bill Bonds would say when he signed-off at the end of every broadcast, "Stay classy Detroit!"</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2023/11/bill-bonds-and-wxyz-channel-7-action.html">Bill Bonds and Channel 7 Action News</a></span><br /></p>Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-83227164610251749262023-11-15T10:38:00.000-08:002023-11-24T13:23:30.599-08:00Bill Bonds and WXYZ Channel 7 Action News<p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirQflc7YLZgvLBBwQtlU3-38TzLxhhggK8KuKglTQCs3c8-8z9nqDFrWhhssDfRht5fpS4uuoT8WknDOvLcM4xlYkw-jle45reEqIzu_ky9Mk4lHpNEUw2Wo_XOK9BF1hR1a_bp3y5ptjMkPWXpFkb-F4ihoHgmYVz7mLOA_Rt1-g8BPqNzwCsj1ww0pQ/s1320/Bill%20Bonds%20Detroit%20News%20Photo%20Archive.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1320" data-original-width="990" height="435" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirQflc7YLZgvLBBwQtlU3-38TzLxhhggK8KuKglTQCs3c8-8z9nqDFrWhhssDfRht5fpS4uuoT8WknDOvLcM4xlYkw-jle45reEqIzu_ky9Mk4lHpNEUw2Wo_XOK9BF1hR1a_bp3y5ptjMkPWXpFkb-F4ihoHgmYVz7mLOA_Rt1-g8BPqNzwCsj1ww0pQ/w326-h435/Bill%20Bonds%20Detroit%20News%20Photo%20Archive.jpg" width="326" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Bill Bonds WXYZ-TV Ratings Leader</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>"It's hard being Bill Bonds. You can't even imagine."</i>--Bill Bonds<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">No
other Detroit television news celebrity had more written about his
every move and misstep than Detroit-born William Duane Bonds, better
known as Bill Bonds. He was usually the number one news anchor in the
Detroit media market for most of the 1970s, 1980s, and into the
mid-1990s. Every point in the Arbitron and Neilsen rating television system
translates into how many viewers a show attracts measured against its
competition. Millions of dollars of advertising revenue is at stake.
Over the years, Bonds was a cash cow for WXYZ-TV.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Bonds had a serious demeanor and expressive face on camera. A lowered eyebrow or a furrowed forehead spoke volumes about how Bill personally felt about the story he was reporting. What made Bonds literally stand out more on the screen than his cross town competition was he wanted to appear as big as possible for the home audience. His face and shoulders, including his fabled toupees, filled most of the screen. When he looked into the camera, viewers felt like he was looking back at them. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">After a <i>Detroit Free Press </i>reader poll in 1973 voted Bonds Detroit's Number One celebrity, <i>Free Press</i> staff writer Gary Blonston damned him with faint praise, "Bonds might not be the best newsman in town or even the best voice, but he certainly is the best theater in town. That explains much of why so many people are buying Bonds. He seems to be frequently overplaying the part of a television anchorman, except he really is one."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Over the years, Bonds had a love/hate relationship with the local press. Afterall, the free publicity is what kept his name in the news. Bonds has been described as flamboyant, pompous, arrogant, opinionated, insufferable, tart-tongued, and hot-tempered. Bonds has also earned himself many names like the Babe Ruth of Bombast, the Mad Prophet of the Airwaves, Emperor Bonds, Mr. News Christ, Billzilla, Infotainer, helmet head, scalp-weasel, rogue journalist, and the Sun King of Detroit News.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Billy Bonds was born in Detroit in the middle of a Michigan winter on February 23, 1932 during the depths of the Great Depression. He was the second of six children of Richard Bonds and Katherine Collins. What we know of Bill's childhood comes mostly from Bonds himself in a newspaper interview he did </span><span style="font-size: large;">with <i>Free Press </i>feature writer Patty LaNoune Stearns </span><span style="font-size: large;">in December of 1992 </span><span style="font-size: large;">when he was sixty years old. <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">"I had a marvelous, loving childhood, thanks to my mother, Katherine, a bright caring Catholic homemaker. But I came from a very, very alcoholic family. My Scotts-Irish father was aggressive and domineering. My older brother Dick had a privileged relationship with him."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bonds went on to describe an incident when he was in the first grade. "My dog got out and was hit by a car. My dad didn't want it in the house, so he put it on the porch in the dead of winter, and it froze to death. In the morning, he told me to throw the dog in the garbage. I was angry at my dad and with shovel in hand, I told him 'It's my dog. I'm going to bury it!' Standing up to my father empowered me and I liked it." This episode may be responsible for Bill's lifelong defiance of authority which marked much of his career.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bonds grew up to be a rebellious student who was bored with his parochial education. He was encouraged to leave Catholic Central High school, then Royal Oak Shrine, followed by Berkley High School, and finally he dropped out of Royal Oak High School to join the United States Air Force and serve in Korea. While serving his country, Bonds passed his high school equalivancy test. When his enlistment was up, he used his G.I. Bill benefit to enroll at the University of Detroit, majored in political science, and graduated in 1960.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bill Bonds' first broadcasting job was in Albion, Michigan at WALM-AM. He was paid one dollar an hour as a field reporter. From that modest beginning, Bonds followed opportunity and the road back home to Detroit to work at several local AM radio stations before landing a job in 1964 as on-air talent at the WXYZ-TV Channel 7 news department.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8lcK20fIBEB-n1EkIo95uKniZdsAE8k2oEUiqY0xUOmEiJW61Q16Orfvk982_6EpuEdrtFjxwcTpmNCKLE-XiOlXC8RO9Y6L33U2b_Z5BuLDm79x-Btsy6pvBFC0SMYQI5K6W0WZsWVrsAJsl8yxzKbM8JXI1N7rVA7iF4ACr6HWz9EQQOjMkrbV48aw/s259/Bill%20Bonds%20Detroit%20Free%20Press.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="194" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8lcK20fIBEB-n1EkIo95uKniZdsAE8k2oEUiqY0xUOmEiJW61Q16Orfvk982_6EpuEdrtFjxwcTpmNCKLE-XiOlXC8RO9Y6L33U2b_Z5BuLDm79x-Btsy6pvBFC0SMYQI5K6W0WZsWVrsAJsl8yxzKbM8JXI1N7rVA7iF4ACr6HWz9EQQOjMkrbV48aw/w290-h388/Bill%20Bonds%20Detroit%20Free%20Press.jpg" width="290" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Within a year, Bonds was given an anchor position on a program that bore his name--Bill Bonds News. The fifteen minute color broadcast covered news, sports, and weather at 6:30 PM and 11:00PM. During the Detroit Riots of July 1967, the Channel 7 coverage was far superior to Channel 4 or Channel 2's coverage. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Detroit Free Press</i> media reporter Bettelou Peterson lauded the WXYZ-TV news team for their in-the-field coverage, "(They) outdistanced the other stations as the best TV news reporting in Detroit. Bonds' face was particularly expressive as he came back on camera after watching film clips that were broadcast as fast as the film could be developed and sent to the newsroom in real time, each time delivering a small editorial reflecting his feelings." During that terrible week, Metropolitan Detroiters were riveted to their televisions. Bill Bonds became a certified news celebrity.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1970, an anchor position opened up at KABC-TV in Los Angeles. Sensing this was a good career move, Bonds interviewed for the position and was hired. He worked there for two years before returning to Detroit. For some reason, the Bonds magic did not work in California's largest media market.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">While in tinsel town, Bonds landed bit parts in two Hollywood productions. First in the TV show <i>It Takes a Thief</i> with Robert Wagner in 1970 and the following year in <i>Escape from Planet of the Apes.</i> In both instances, he played a TV news reporter which was not much of a stretch for him. Bonds was released from his KABC-TV contact in February 1971. He did not do well in the Los Angeles ratings and the station decided to go in a different direction.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Two months later, Bonds returned to WXYZ-TV Channel 7. In an interview with <i>Detroit Free Press</i> gossip columnist Bob Talbert, Bonds revealed what his problem in Los Angeles was, "They wanted happy news with the anchors laughing it up. I believe news should be serious and informative. Yakety-yak happy talk on camera did not come easy for me."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the two years since Bonds had jumped ship, </span><span style="font-size: large;">Channel 7 news ratings faltered</span><span style="font-size: large;">. WXYZ station manager Donald F. Keck lauded Bonds for his "performance and personal involvement in the Detoit community. Bill's presence will greatly enhance our overall news image and competitive position in our market." Keck noted that WXYZ-TV's news approach will shift from a "light" news style used by their competitors in favor of a more "hard-hitting" approach.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In his gossip column, Bob Talbert broke down Bonds contract for his readers, "Bill Bonds landed a $50,000 a year contact for anchoring their 6:00 PM and 11:00 PM newscasts. His primary responsibility is to boost WXYZ-TV's ratings."</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">With Bonds' return to WXYZ-TV, the station aggressively expanded its news department to make it more competitive in their television news market. Their news programs were expanded and renamed <i>Channel 7 Action News</i> and given a new on-screen look. The musical introduction was the same news theme that the ABC network used in its four other mega media markets: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The music was an expanded version of a brief melody taken from the movie score of <i>Cool Hand Luke</i> written by Lalo Schifrin for the famous tar-spreading scene. The musical interlude had a teletype-sounding melody that commanded viewers' attention. Following the lead-in, Bonds welcomed his audience and began reading the teleprompter. WXYZ's ratings began to slowly rise.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Channel 7 raided on-air talent from Detroit's other news organizations. From Channel 2, they lured Marilyn Turner to do the weather segment, and to balance Bonds' hard edge, amicable John Kelly was brought in to co-anchor the newsdesk. For sports, Dave Diles continued his segment until he decided to leave the station over a personal issue. That left an opening for Channel 7 to bring in Al Ackerman from Channel 4, who had just been fired for editorializing on the air, something Channel 7 encouraged. The advertising department began running ads proclaiming "We Got Who You Wanted." Their persistence paid off. Within two years, <i>Channel 7 Action News</i> was the top-rated news station in Detroit.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuKA7ROge9vI4PjkxQrtUmZDQvtoO3Xymq2QaDBk5SWDdGUTevQx9F4zju9vy7omOEwcFS3HZhCmlOvU7tzS7-rjt9CyZNI6fN02VxmZmQ1jBNlOyF89JiAOd5piFPGBLca-DumJ9DEEVx45VCePVkx3_Dk2Qnz24eBtMIELwyU0PxeHNPTohHF79hjtQ/s1619/Bill%20Bonds%20Action%20News%20Team.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1619" data-original-width="819" height="544" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuKA7ROge9vI4PjkxQrtUmZDQvtoO3Xymq2QaDBk5SWDdGUTevQx9F4zju9vy7omOEwcFS3HZhCmlOvU7tzS7-rjt9CyZNI6fN02VxmZmQ1jBNlOyF89JiAOd5piFPGBLca-DumJ9DEEVx45VCePVkx3_Dk2Qnz24eBtMIELwyU0PxeHNPTohHF79hjtQ/w275-h544/Bill%20Bonds%20Action%20News%20Team.jpg" width="275" /></a></span></div><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> ***</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bill Bonds' triumphant return to his hometown was marred by an incident which foreshadowed what would ultimately end his career. Early Sunday morning on November 18, 1973, Bonds, his brother, and their wives were returning home after dining at a West Bloomfield restaurant. Bonds (41) told police that his car was sideswiped by Kenneth Moody (18) of Milford, Michigan, before Bonds' car lost control and went into a ditch. Bonds yelled at Moody and a fistfight ensued. Neither Bonds nor Moody, a student at Michigan State University, filed assault charges. Moody received a ticket for reckless driving. Bonds called a tow truck.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">WXYZ-TV spokesperson told the press that Bonds was "a little shook up, and he aches a little, but other than that, he is fine." Bonds was sidelined from his anchorman position for a week to recover from the beating he took. He was taken to William Beaumont Hospital where he was treated for bruises, a swollen eye, and a possible hairline fracture of his cheekbone.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In January 1974, WNBC-TV in New York was shopping for a new anchorman. WXYZ offered Bonds a $75,000 contract to keep him in Detroit. Afterward, the <i>Action News</i> team scored their highest ratings to date, but to his station's chagrin, Bonds was arrested in West Bloomfield Township for drunk driving, littering, and driving without a license on May 5, 1974.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">After a patrolman witnessed Bonds throwing a paper cup from his car into the street, he was stopped. Corporal Dan Pitsos determined that Bonds was drinking in his car and drunk. When asked Bonds to show his driver's license, he could not produce it. Bonds was taken to the Oakland County Jail in Pontiac and was held for six hours until his wife Joanne posted a $100 bond.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bonds was charged with drunk driving and littering, but the charge of failing to carry his license was dropped. WXYZ-TV spokesperson Phil Nye refused to say whether the station would take disciplinary action against Bonds if convicted. Reaction from viewers about Bonds was mostly supportive and favorable.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bonds pleaded guilty on October 8, 1974 to a reduced charge of driving with visibility impaired "due to the consumption of intoxicating liquor." He was ordered to enroll in Oakland County's Alcohol-Highway Safety Program. Under the reduced charge, the conviction would remain on Bond's driving record for seven years rather than life, and he received four bad-driving points instead of six. Bonds also had to surrender his license plates for thirty days. Because he refused to take a police breathalyzer test, his driving privilege was suspended for ninety days. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">WXYZ-TV general manager Jim Osborne announced that because this was Bonds' first offense, the station planned no disciplinary action, but in January 1975, Jac LeGoff from Channel 2 News jumped stations and slid into Bonds' primetime co-anchor spot at 6:00 PM, cutting Bonds back to the 7:00 PM and 11:00 PM News. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">By the end of the month, Bonds suffered a mild heart attack while on a business trip to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Only the week before, he had recovered from the flu at Bennett Community Hospital. Bonds took a leave of absence to recover his health and returned to Channel 7 on May 5, 1975 to anchor the 7:00 PM news, again just in time for the May ratings sweep.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">On June 12, 1975, Bonds announced that he was moving to WABC-TV in New York City at the end of August, for a salary reported to be somewhere between $120,000 to $150,000. But only eleven months after taking the WABC anchor job, Bonds returned to Detroit and was glad to be back. The New York City media market was so huge that Bonds made little more than a blip in the ratings, so his contract was not renewed. Bonds returned to the WXYZ-TV <i>Action News Team</i> to co-anchor with John Kelly.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bonds was at the top of his game. His agent negotiated a multiyear contract which began at the $200,000 mark. Bonds was the highest paid newsanchor in town. Despite his tarnished history at Channel 7 for excessive absences from the newsroom and bad publicity for two alcohol-related incidents, Bonds remained the number one anchorperson in the Detroit media market.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the <i>Detroit Free Press'</i> annual readers' poll taken in September of 1981 for Detroit's most popular local anchorperson, Bonds netted 1,929 votes of over 7,000 ballots cast. Mort Crim of Channel 4 was in second place with 676 fewer votes. No other Detroit anchorperson could come close to Bonds popularity with the general public.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">When Bonds withdrew from the local Emmy Awards competition in 1980, he called the awards "ludicrous, insulting, and a sham." Bonds was the only news celebrity to publicly withdraw from the televised event. He told WXYZ-TV vice president and general manager Jeanne Findlater, "I am not going to play the part of an Eight Mile Road whore because of the pimping that's going on for these little statuettes."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bonds pointed out that unqualified people outside the television news community (actors, sports celebrities, advertisers, and academics) chose the nominees, and a Channel 2 executive was chairman of the nominating committee. Channel 2 received 37 nominations, Channel 7 received 19, and Channel 2 received just 16. There was a clear conflict of interest.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">After the televised event, The Detroit Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced that the Detroit Emmy Awards would no longer be broadcast because of public controversy and bad ratings. Such was Bill Bonds' influence over the local media scene.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">But Bonds was about to be brought low with the death of his oldest daughter. On December 16, 1981, tragedy struck the Bonds' family when Joan Patricia Bonds (18), home for winter break from Michigan State University, was killed in a head-on collision with another car on a winding stretch of Commerce Road in Orchard Lake. Her Volkswagen Rabbit was hit by a Mercury driven by Russell William Brown (34), when it was believed his car crossed the center lane. Brown suffered a concussion and was treated at Osteopathic Hospital and released. Both cars were totalled.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Orchard Lake Police investigation revealed that both Joan Patricia Bonds and Russell William Brown were legally drunk when the accident occured. Brown's blood alcohol level was 0.19 and Joan Bonds' blood alcohol level was 0.17. In Michigan, a person is legally drunk with a level of 0.10. Drunken driving was a misdemeanor carrying a maximum penalty of 90 days in county jail and/or a $500 fine. Brown was charged with the head-on crash. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bill Bonds was off the air for almost three weeks after the death of his daughter before returning to anchor Channel 7's 6:00 PM broadcast. At the end of the hour-long newscast, Bonds, holding back tears, thanked the many viewers who had called or written to express their condolences.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bonds' health began to deteriorate in 1982. He complained his back and legs began to give him problems and sidelined him from December until February. WXYZ-TV spokesperson told the press that Bonds was on special assignment to downplay his absence.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">On October 15, 1983, Bonds (50) collapsed in Metro Airport just before his scheduled flight to Tokyo to cover Mayor Coleman Young's tour of Japan. He complained about acute stomach pains and difficulty standing up and was taken to Wayne County General Hospital and held for tests and observation for several days. He missed his trip. Ruth Whitmore, spokesperson for Channel 7 said, "(Bill) needs rest. We won't push him to travel." Medical tests indicated that doctors found no heart damage. Bonds returned to the news desk the following Wednesday.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">On Friday, February 3, 1984, Bonds was hospitalized for exhaustion. His physican said his patient was suffering from persistent problems with his lower legs. Numerous station sources believed Bonds' recent round of health problems were the result of grief over the death of his daughter. Others believed he was being treated for drug and alcohol dependency. After a month of recuperating, Bonds returned to the anchor desk. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ten months later, Bonds' wife Joanne Sipsock (47) filed for divorce. They were married for 24 years and had four children: Joan [deceased in 1981], John, and twin daughters Krissy and Mary. By all accounts, it was a messy divorce. Some unspecified time later, Bonds announced that he had a "significant other" named Karen Field, who was a manufacturer's sales representative. His health and general disposition improved.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bill Bonds' most notorious moment to date of his broadcasting career happened on Friday, July 14, 1989. At the end of his 11 PM broadcast where he was noticeably slurring his words, Bonds challenged Mayor Coleman Young to a charity boxing match to benefit the Detroit Public Schools athletic program. He proposed a one-round showdown at the Palace of Auburn Hills on August 11th during halftime at the Detroit Pistons' charity all-star exhibition game.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRVdHcQANi5PSlFcnbfujz61DuAiCzMgjaEqIxs5qenET409oc2HFTaFeTUlpQCquuECFf4Q_KCFS8WmML9020SPSowZ9DeZxeIT1iTI4MO0NMxX9Q4csAjI_eZq4nideyFWpuMDsywtWXl84zLmU9Nt8mA47UFLxFQLXeXesgd-NSQHDXmNBEwIaKV2E/s474/Bill%20Bonds%20and%20Coleman%20Young.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="474" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRVdHcQANi5PSlFcnbfujz61DuAiCzMgjaEqIxs5qenET409oc2HFTaFeTUlpQCquuECFf4Q_KCFS8WmML9020SPSowZ9DeZxeIT1iTI4MO0NMxX9Q4csAjI_eZq4nideyFWpuMDsywtWXl84zLmU9Nt8mA47UFLxFQLXeXesgd-NSQHDXmNBEwIaKV2E/w433-h325/Bill%20Bonds%20and%20Coleman%20Young.jpg" width="433" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mayor Coleman Young and Bill Bonds eating coneys downtown.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bonds suggested that both he and Mayor Young put up $10,000 each to donate, along with the proceeds of the exhibition basketball game, to help restore varsity sports in Detroit.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Local media wags dubbed the fight "The Showdown in Motown" and "Malice at the Palace." One reporter wrote</span><span style="font-size: large;">,"This is a way for Bill Bonds and
Detroit Mayor Coleman Young to settle the accumulation of small but
distracting grievances between them."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then, Bonds was absent without official leave from his Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night broadcasts. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Station manager Tom Griesdorn arranged an impromptu news conference on Thursday to end speculation. "Bill called me earlier today and asked for some time off, vacation and personal leave, and we granted that request." </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Griesdorn refused to comment on the barage of questions that followed. Usually, he answered "No comment!" or "That's none of your business." The entire incident was a public relations disaster for Channel 7.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some Channel 7 staffers, pleading for anonymity, leaked the news that Bonds asked the station for help and some time off to enter an unidentified medical facility for an unspecified treatment. Three weeks later, Griesdorn confirmed WXYZ-TV's worst-kept secret, "Bill Bonds revealed that he has a problem with alcoholism, and he has checked himself into a California clinic for treatment."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">After drying out, Bonds returned to the newsdesk in August. At the end of his 6 PM newscast, he confessed publicly that he was an alcoholic, but a sober one ready to do the news once more. Maybe this time he would win his battle over the bottle. For now, he would have to be satisfied with winning over the hearts of many Detroiters, who were all too familiar with alcohol addiction in their families.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">***</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1991, WXYZ-TV signed Bonds to a long term contract (5 to 7 years) for a million dollars a year prompting many people to wonder why he was worth so much considering his checkered history at the station. The answer was simple. Advertising rates were dependent on ratings achieved. Bonds was a ratings generator for the station for most of his long career. He appeared twice daily anchoring the news, he hosted prime time specials, anchored local election coverage, and made countless public appearances for the station. Being number one in his media market for twenty consecutive years earned Bonds the nickname "The Million Dollar Man."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjtLX6OeWkt0AwltUsp3vtzdoaWNRzM8PoRJXAU6G32_g06yOtstjzNBYHTFLEn-zg5Swx1WaWqUL-PbJRwevHH_SCrwNa3xPTyLYpOlVRib4xfpjIrW3-uKjGmEdlsGkX_uhiLKGfJ6PH-LqNHe-z_OmbsqNHlQUe4o6R5vJFcZaURj4-LvOR6QIxcVU/s712/Bill%20Bonds.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="712" data-original-width="534" height="461" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjtLX6OeWkt0AwltUsp3vtzdoaWNRzM8PoRJXAU6G32_g06yOtstjzNBYHTFLEn-zg5Swx1WaWqUL-PbJRwevHH_SCrwNa3xPTyLYpOlVRib4xfpjIrW3-uKjGmEdlsGkX_uhiLKGfJ6PH-LqNHe-z_OmbsqNHlQUe4o6R5vJFcZaURj4-LvOR6QIxcVU/w346-h461/Bill%20Bonds.jpg" width="346" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Always impeccably dressed on camera, Bill often wore Levis or shorts at the newsdesk.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bonds kept his nose clean until an incident in April 1994 when his briefcase did not make it through security screening at Metro Airport. A pair of brass knuckles was detected at the inspection checkpoint. Although possessing a weapon was illegal in Michigan, the Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor said he determined there was "No criminal intent in this case. The brass knuckles were accidently possessed."<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bonds told authorities "I own four briefcases and grabbed the wrong one. Someone gave the brass knuckles to me as a gag-gift at work. I threw them in a briefcase and forgot about them." The knucks and the briefcase were turned over to airport police to be destroyed.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Once again, Bonds' celebrity status saved him considerable legal fallout, and he was able to catch his flight to New York City. Critics familiar with Bonds' background wondered, "How many bites at the apple can one person take?" Detroiters were about to find out.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">*** <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">On Sunday, August 7, 1994, Bonds was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving following a twenty-mile pursuit. A 1991, teal-blue Jaguar XJS was veering erratically on northbound Southfield Freeway. A driver called 911 and reported the incident. The sportscar swerved west onto I-696 before exiting at Orchard Lake Road. At a red light, a red Ferrari pulled up next to the Jag and revved its engine. Both cars peeled their tires when the light turned green, the Ferrari pulled out in front leaving the Jag fishtailing in its dust.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Another witness called 911 reporting that he saw Bill Bonds pull into a gas station to fuel up. On the way out of the station, Bonds smacked his car into a lamppost and then verred onto Indian Trail coming within inches of colliding with another car. As Bonds turned west down Commerce Road, five police cars closed in on him. It was soon discovered that the Jag did not belong to Bonds. It was a Channel 7 company car that he was joyriding in. <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Orchard Lake Police used video and audiotape to record Bonds as he performed a sobriety test while seated in the car. He declined a breathalyzer test and a standing sobriety test, citing neurological problems from an unspecified orthopedic condition--an excuse he had used successfully before.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Police later obtained blood samples after the arrest which showed Bonds' blood alcohol was 0.21%--twice the legal limit. He was jailed for twelve hours until his second wife Karen posted bail. If convicted, he faced six months in jail, a $500 fine, a suspended license for six months, and community service. Two days later, <i>Free Press</i> reporter Susan Ager wrote, "Bonds is captivating because he is an exquisitely flamboyant failure at self-improvement."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">This incident threatened to end Bonds' reign at the summit of Detroit television news. Station manager Tom Griesdorn announced to the press that Bonds "asked for and was granted a personal leave of absence, the duration of which will be determined by the outcome of the allegations." Bonds remained in seclusion at his Union Lake home.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">On August 11, 1994, Bonds was suspended from WXYZ-TV by Griesdorn pending "successful completion of alcohol treatment in Atlanta at Talbott-Marsh Recovery Center until his health is up to speed. The station wishes Bill Bonds every success as he sets about combating his addiction to alcohol once and for all." This was Bonds' third attempt at alcohol rehabilitation.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">On December 2, 1994, Bonds pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of driving with an unlawful blood alcohol level; the driving under the influence charge was dismissed. His sentence included 12 months of supervised suspension with a 270-day license suspension, continued outpatient alcoholism treatment, a $1,115 fine exclusive of court costs, and attendance three times a week at Alcohol Anonymous meetings. If he did not comply with all stipulations of his sentencing, he would be jailed for 90 days.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">On January 11, 1995, WXYZ-TV fired Bonds. "We've simply decided to hold our head high and face the future without Bill Bonds," said General Manager Griesdorn. "This is not a personal decision but simply a judgement about what is best for the station's long-term interest." Bill Bonds' long career with WXYZ-TV was over. Despite attempts to regain his footing at other Detroit media outlets, the old magic was gone. He was reduced to being a pitchman for Turf Builders and Gardiner-White Furniture.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCXTa9GYcwWLnmfs2VJ6YzQ2ineNjxyayv6b08HVLNAfoO4wm_pV_lBLclL7_o-9wH5sylmuP-VV73KjwH99d-H32I8OwHeE2gquvGWSD1A8_lmdaHkSUnYm15LmRmPpytL5ANvTQolnnc2zcsuK24QhRHX4Yg2CKdfbkib0qUX7I7OA_CtPPpudCXRRQ/s1320/Bill%20Bonds%20photo%20collage%20of%20his%20career%202014.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="746" data-original-width="1320" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCXTa9GYcwWLnmfs2VJ6YzQ2ineNjxyayv6b08HVLNAfoO4wm_pV_lBLclL7_o-9wH5sylmuP-VV73KjwH99d-H32I8OwHeE2gquvGWSD1A8_lmdaHkSUnYm15LmRmPpytL5ANvTQolnnc2zcsuK24QhRHX4Yg2CKdfbkib0qUX7I7OA_CtPPpudCXRRQ/w480-h271/Bill%20Bonds%20photo%20collage%20of%20his%20career%202014.webp" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A collage of photos from Bill Bonds' funeral.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">On December 13, 2014, Bill Bonds died of a heart attack at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Pontiac, Michigan at the age of eighty-two. His visitation was on December 18th at Lynch & Sons Funeral Home in Clawson, with a funeral mass held at Holy Name Catholic Church in Birmingham the next day.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Despite Bonds' human failings, many thousands of working-class Detroiters admired him for his pluck, bluntness, and tenacity. He will be remembered for his on-air swagger, piercing gaze, defense of the underdog, and his authoritative delivery of the news.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KKUzhIcTv8">John Bonds speaks at his father's memorial service</a></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2023/11/diana-lewis-wxyz-tvs-grande-dame-of.html">Diana Lewis--Detroit Icon</a> </span><br /></p>Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-40382005465837620662023-11-03T08:38:00.000-07:002023-11-03T08:38:51.597-07:00Eastern Michigan University Student Queried - "Is Paul (McCartney) Dead?"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">The biggest hoax in the history of Rock & Roll is surely the "Is Paul Dead?" controversy. On Sunday afternoon, October 12, 1969, Thomas Zarski, an Eastern Michigan University student, called [Uncle Russ] Gibb, a concert promoter and popular D.J. for Detroit's underground music radio station - WKNR-FM.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">On the air, Zarski asked Gibb what he knew about the death of Paul McCartney. This was the first the D.J. heard of it. "Have you ever played <i>"Revolution 9</i>" from the <i>The White Album</i> backwards?" Zarski asked.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Gibb hadn't. Skeptical, he humored his call-in listener and played the song backwards. For the first time his audience heard, "Turn me on, dead man." Then WKNR's phone started ringing off the hook.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Apparently, the rumor started when Tim Harper wrote an article on September 17, 1969 in the Drake University (Iowa) newspaper. The story circulated by word of mouth through the counter culture underground for a month until Zarski caught wind of it. He called Uncle Russ asking about it. Gibb had solid connections with the local Detroit and British rock scene because he was a concert promoter at the Grande Ballroom--Detroit's rock Mecca.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">University of Michigan student Fred LaBour heard the October 12th radio broadcast and published an article two days later in the October 14th edition of <i>The Michigan Daily</i> as a record review parody of the Beatles' latest album <i>Abbey Road</i>. This article was credited for giving the story legs and was the key exposure that propelled the hoax nationally and internationally.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The legend goes that Paul died in November of 1966 in a car crash. The three categories of clues were:</span><br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Clues found on the album covers and liner sleeve notes,</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Clues found playing the records forward, and </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Clues found playing the records backwards.</span></li>
</ol>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The clues came from the albums:</span><br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><i><span style="font-size: large;">Yesterday and Today,</span></i></li>
<i>
</i>
<li><i><span style="font-size: large;">Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,</span></i></li>
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<li><i><span style="font-size: large;">Magical Mystery Tour,</span></i></li>
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</i>
<li><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Beatles [the White Album], and</span></i></li>
<i>
</i>
<li><i><span style="font-size: large;">Abbey Road.</span></i></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: large;">Some people thought the Beatles masterminded the hoax because of the large number of clues. They thought there were too many for this story to be merely coincidental. </span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WZLqWCbcFRw/UtQ3wCu6eMI/AAAAAAAACBw/zxwnRC6J4CY/s1600/Paul+MacCartney+Life+magazine+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WZLqWCbcFRw/UtQ3wCu6eMI/AAAAAAAACBw/zxwnRC6J4CY/s320/Paul+MacCartney+Life+magazine+cover.jpg" width="237" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">The story peaked in America on November 7th, 1969, when <i>Life</i> magazine ran an interview with Paul McCartney at his farm in Scotland, debunking the myth. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For more detailed information on the myth and the clues, check out these links: </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://turnmeondeadman.com/the-paul-is-dead-rumor/">http://turnmeondeadman.com/the-paul-is-dead-rumor/</a> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://keenerpodcast.com/?page_id=602">http://keenerpodcast.com/?page_id=602</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Video link: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqBf6iNPVOg">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqBf6iNPVOg</a></span></div>
Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-37856581048808941852023-10-20T09:25:00.000-07:002023-10-20T09:25:33.754-07:00Detroit's Shock Theater<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">In 1957, Universal Pictures syndicated a television package of fifty-two classic horror movies released by Screen Gems called <i>Shock Theatre</i>. The package included the original <i>Dracula</i>, <i>Frankenstein</i>, <i>Mummy</i>, and <i>Wolfman</i> movies. </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Shock Theatre</i> premiered with Lugosi's <i>Dracula</i> in Detroit on WXYZ channel seven at 11:30 pm on Friday, February 7, 1958.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Each syndicated television market had their own host. Detroit had one of the first horror movie personalities in the country. The show was hosted by <i>Mr. X</i>--Tom "Doc" Dougall--a classically trained actor who taught English at the Detroit Institute of Technology and moonlighted as a vampire on Friday nights. Unlike later horror movie hosts who would spoof their roles or riff on the movies they showed, Dougall was grimly serious and set a solemn tone for what was to follow. What most people don't know about Professor Dougall is that he co-wrote several <i>Lone Ranger</i> and <i>Green Hornet </i>scripts for WXYZ radio.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The opening of the show was memorable, but I was only nine years old when I started staying up every Friday night to see the classic monsters and mad-scientists--<i>The Invisible Man</i> comes to mind. This is how I remember the opening:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The show's marquee card came up with ominous organ music and a crack of thunder in the background. Replete in vampire garb with cape, Mr. X walked slowly on screen holding a huge open book announcing the night's feature in a scary voice. Next, he would say, "Before we release the forces of evil, insulate yourself against them." With a sense of impending doom, Mr. X continued, "Lock your doors, close your windows, and dim</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> your lights</span>. Prepare for Shock." The camera came in for an extreme close-up of Mr. X's face, more lightening and thunder effects, and finally his gaunt face morphed into a skull. Then the film would roll.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There was something positively unholy about the show which made it an instant success with my generation of ghoulish Detroit Baby Boomers. The show's ominous organ music set the mood for the audience. The piece was listed only as #7 on a recording of <i>Video Moods </i>licensed for commercial television and not available to the public.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">No video link to Detroit's <i>Shock Theatre's</i> opening has surfaced, but the above newspaper ad for the show gives an idea of the facial dissolve special effect. If anyone knows where I can find a link, Gmail me so I can add it to this post. Thanks.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Detroit's Baby Boomer Kid Show Hosts: </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2017/12/detroit-baby-boomer-kids-show-hosts.html">https://fornology.blogspot.com/2017/12/detroit-baby-boomer-kids-show-hosts.html</a></span> </span></div>
Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com49tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-78056370730349850352023-10-09T14:09:00.000-07:002023-10-09T14:09:22.922-07:00Sir Graves Ghastly's Rise and Fall<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZA2zn6Ayy3E/X8gg5DalCfI/AAAAAAAAOy0/WcYryPTc6UIgDf6TCY8-CuOPM_nKHsWAwCNcBGAsYHQ/s424/Sir%2Bgraves%2B6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="311" data-original-width="424" height="294" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZA2zn6Ayy3E/X8gg5DalCfI/AAAAAAAAOy0/WcYryPTc6UIgDf6TCY8-CuOPM_nKHsWAwCNcBGAsYHQ/w400-h294/Sir%2Bgraves%2B6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><span style="font-size: large;">Lawson Deming was a graduate of Western Reserve University who studied speech, drama, and math. "Deming began performing professionally when he worked in vaudeville," said Sonny Eliot, Lawson's longtime friend.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">A lifelong Cleveland, Ohio resident, Deming landed a radio job at WHK in 1932 where he met his wife Rita, who was a hostess of a women's talk show. "The greatest fun was radio," Deming said in a 1982 <i>Detroit Free Press</i> interview, "because we were creating something in somebody's mind with voices, dialogue, music, and sound effects. We created a whole world."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In 1949, Deming switched over to Cleveland television station WTAM where he met co-worker Bill Kennedy early in their television careers. They became good friends. Deming hosted a movie show called <i>One O'Clock Playhouse</i>. He also worked as a puppeteer on a program entitled <i>Woodrow the Woodsman</i>. Although his face never appeared on-screen, he supplied the voices for characters named Freddy Gezundheit, the alley crock; Tarkington Whom II, the owl; and Voracious, the elephant. His work on <i>Woodrow the Woodman </i>brought Deming to Detroit in 1966 when the show was moved to WJBK for taping.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Soon after arriving at WJBK, Deming was approached by program producer and director Jay Frommert about playing the character Ghoulardi and showing horror movies. But Ghoulardi was already being done in Cleveland by Ernie Anderson. Deming suggested he be allowed to create his own character. On Saturday, January 22, 1967, Sir Graves Ghastly rose from the grave on the premise that "Sir Graves was hanged 400 years ago by Queen Elizabeth, but like a bad vaccination, it didn't take."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The shadow-eyed, hair plastered down, goateed Sir Graves began his show by opening a creaky casket from within which was located on a graveyeard set. For the next two hours, the red-gloved, black-capped, comic vampire cracked bad jokes while riffing on the B-grade horror movies he showed between commercial breaks. To complete his Dracula parody, Sir Graves had an infectious laugh, "Nyeeea aaaa haa haaaaa" and he was prone to "hippyisms" in his speech.</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Te5n2pLzzFY/X8gdHjR95gI/AAAAAAAAOyg/owvVy7tn5yUscCznofvGuwqZtYNQrq7AwCNcBGAsYHQ/s252/Sir%2BGraves%2B3.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="252" height="305" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Te5n2pLzzFY/X8gdHjR95gI/AAAAAAAAOyg/owvVy7tn5yUscCznofvGuwqZtYNQrq7AwCNcBGAsYHQ/w400-h305/Sir%2BGraves%2B3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sir Graves and his alter-ego Lawson Deming</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Weekly segments on Sir Graves program were the scrolling of children's names celebrating their birthdays, and the "Art Ghoulery" where kids sent in their drawings of Sir Graves, vampires, and werewolves, hoping Sir Graves would feature them on his show.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Deming created a cast of characters all portrayed by him and edited onto the master tape so Sir Graves could interact with them on camera. The cast included Reel McCoy, a character who digs up old B-movie horror films; Tilly Trollhouse, wildly off-key, blonde singer; the Glob, an extreme closeup of Deming's mouth videoed </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">upside down</span>, lip-syncing songs; Cool Ghoul, an over-the-hill motorcycle freak; and Walter, Sir Grave's prissy alter ego who keeps telling him, "You're sick, sick, sick!"</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Unlike earlier WXYZ horror movie host Mr. X on <i>Shock Theater</i>, Sir Graves wasn't meant to scare anybody. Deming worked from a rough outline and adlibbed his way through the show, often spouting bad jokes sent in by viewers. The show was a mixture of cheesy horror movies and corny humor.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Viewers, half of whom were males over eighteen-years-old, were almost afraid to laugh at some of Sir Graves' groaners but couldn't help themselves like: "What did the Frankenstein monster say after he ate a six-cylinder engine?" What? "I could've had a V8."<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Deming continued to live in Cleveland and took charter flights to Detroit twice a month on Wednesdays until January 1970. He missed his flight and the plane crashed through the Lake Erie ice killing all aboard. After that, Deming and his wife agreed that taking the three-hour, midnight bus ride was a safer option.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In true vampire fashion, he arrived at WJBK before the break of dawn and read fan mail before preparing for taping from 9 am until 11 am for the Saturday show. Then, he taped nine additional segments to be fitted into two movies between commercial breaks, before he took the 4:00 pm bus back to Cleveland. Deming worked two twelve hour days a month producing four programs.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The high point of Sir Graves' career may have been when he emceed Detroit's American Cancer Society benefit called "Black Cat Caper," a pre-halloween costume ball at Cobo Hall on Friday, October 13, 1972. Sir Graves made a grand entrance at 9:15 pm in a coffin carried by Detroit media pallbearers Bob Allison, J.P. McCarthy, Dick Purtan, Bob Talbert, Jac Le Goff, and John Kelly. Tickets cost $13.13. The grand prize for best costume was an eight-day trip to London for two, with a three-day stay at a 500-year-old, haunted abode in a village named Pluckley.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2MtlKgVA1h0/X8ghin49baI/AAAAAAAAOy8/qGsmhlp6jlMcT7ai6H3Xc8gc8RBcvjO8wCNcBGAsYHQ/s256/Sir%2BGraves%2B5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="159" data-original-width="256" height="249" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2MtlKgVA1h0/X8ghin49baI/AAAAAAAAOy8/qGsmhlp6jlMcT7ai6H3Xc8gc8RBcvjO8wCNcBGAsYHQ/w400-h249/Sir%2BGraves%2B5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"> In April of 1983 after sixteen years of faithful service, Lawson Deming was handed his walking papers by WJBK's general manager Bill Flynn. "I never could figure out why he dumped me. We had the highest-rated Saturday show in our market, and it was a money-maker for them." But it was too late for Sir Graves. By this time, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, had run off with his male audience.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Deming retired in Cleveland and lived for another twenty-four years before he left this vale of tears on April 27, 2007, at the age of ninety-four. His spirit can rest easy knowing the joy he gave to his television audience. </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Many a Detroit Baby Boomer will shed a tear in memory of Lawson Deming's Sir Graves Ghastly character.</span> David Deming's eulogy at his father's funeral service attributed the longevity of his father's career to "his warm spirit and genuine love of kids."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai5qktbixuA" target="_blank">Sir Graves show intro</a> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82YLrwaDGdA&t=134s" target="_blank">Sir Graves characters</a> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2017/12/detroits-shock-theater.html" target="_blank">Shock Theater WXYZ</a> </span><br /></p>Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-78597606715273854782023-09-29T08:55:00.000-07:002023-09-29T08:55:49.946-07:00The Women Pioneers of CKLW AM Radio--Jo Jo Shutty and Rosalie Trombley<p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikCCQmL4h3c2oNcdN8H84i7z5WCjQ12XnALmXAlyfQsKXQi3aIKVBi7mpW7u4cN5haZAW-wevsCkk2-1LAKbcx8pw1EZ72Bps_Ulofzkh2p22o9yu8EctpCVsD5r-z5Z_0t-4cfj_OyFTehts_CS9cG1TlFkW73btOficlR1wKq5EdOH-rhkoQCLDz/s232/CKLW%20logo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="232" data-original-width="200" height="461" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikCCQmL4h3c2oNcdN8H84i7z5WCjQ12XnALmXAlyfQsKXQi3aIKVBi7mpW7u4cN5haZAW-wevsCkk2-1LAKbcx8pw1EZ72Bps_Ulofzkh2p22o9yu8EctpCVsD5r-z5Z_0t-4cfj_OyFTehts_CS9cG1TlFkW73btOficlR1wKq5EdOH-rhkoQCLDz/w397-h461/CKLW%20logo.jpg" width="397" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">When we Detroit Baby Boomers were in our teens, CKLW-AM radio was known as "The Big 8." The station broadcast out of Windsor, Ontario, and they had offices in Southfield, Michigan. The Canadian station's 50,000 watt transmitter dwarfed everything within its broadcast signal, making CKLW the dominant AM station in the region on both sides of the Detroit River. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">During the day, CKLW's signal could be heard throughout Southeastern Michigan, much of Ohio, and beyond. In the evenings, the station directed its signal to a northeastern nightime signal, so it would not interfer with powerful Mexican AM radio signals to avoid static overlap. The Canadian station could be heard as far away as Des Moines, Iowa; Cincinnati, Ohio; Toronto, Ontario; and the Eastern Seaboard. On a good night when the atmospheric conditions allowed, CKLW could be heard in Scandinavia.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The station first broadcast in 1932 during the Great Depression. With the growing popularity of television in the 1950s, CKLW radio began to lose its traditional adult audience base. A decision was made in 1967 to target a younger demographic. CKLW-AM began programming locally-based disc-jockeys playing Top 40 singles for their younger listeners. The management commissioned the Johnny Mann Singers to produce an upbeat, youthful-sounding station ID jingle. Three months later, CKLW became the number one pop radio outlet in their market and one of the top ten AM stations in North America.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">To complete the station's makeover, management hired twenty-two-year-old Byron MacGregor as their news director, the youngest in the station's history. MacGregor was known for his deep resonant voice and high-energy delivery. The news was repackaged as <i>20/20 News</i> because they offered their news programing at twenty minutes after the hour and twenty minutes before the hour. When all the other radio stations in town had their news at the top of the hour and half-past the hour, CKLW was playing music.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The Big 8's newscasts were delivered in a rapid-fire manner to make the news sound more sensational and exciting. The sound of a teletype machine clicking audibly in the background gave the news the sound of immediacy.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Another news innovation at CKLW-AM was having North America's first female helicopter traffic and news reporter, Jo Jo Shutty. Jo Jo, as she was popularly known, spent up to seven hours a day reporting live on Detroit traffic. As a news person, Jo Jo would often be the first reporter on the scene of breaking stories where she would do live remotes. Jo Jo became an instant celebrity.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0hyEqaLiKCObaiqP14233EHFCeCyRGDr7QFHKt72De3G9bnvflGowU8n5i4VPI0wcfqhFIXmD4nS6AwDCCicHr2MVQcKmhWnYdXW4F3UGxitBZIjio45xtuFB49mFnp8GxbFVWk3eEhl4m2dhVdbSRytXuWYlf7Aib4nqn5yZUA49BdnTX70NYiZK/s1229/jo%20jo%20shutty-macgregor%20in%20cockpit%20of%20copter.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1229" data-original-width="880" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0hyEqaLiKCObaiqP14233EHFCeCyRGDr7QFHKt72De3G9bnvflGowU8n5i4VPI0wcfqhFIXmD4nS6AwDCCicHr2MVQcKmhWnYdXW4F3UGxitBZIjio45xtuFB49mFnp8GxbFVWk3eEhl4m2dhVdbSRytXuWYlf7Aib4nqn5yZUA49BdnTX70NYiZK/w322-h450/jo%20jo%20shutty-macgregor%20in%20cockpit%20of%20copter.png" width="322" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Jo Jo Shutty grew up in West Bloomfield, Michigan. At nine years old, she became a world champion baton twirler, and at seventeen while a student at Berkley High School, she became Miss Teenage Detroit. Jo Jo went to Michigan State University graduating Cum Laude with a bachelor of arts degree in television, radio, and film.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Jo Jo Shutty was twenty-six-years-old and single when she was hired to be the "Eyes in the Sky" for CKLW-AM radio on Monday, September 9, 1974. News director Byron MacGregor thought he had hired a helicopter traffic reporter, but soon discovered she became a radio personality much loved in the Detroit and Windsor area. Jo Jo's feminine voice was a welcome change from the deep-voiced, male dee-jays who dominated the radio airwaves. Her starting salary was $20,000 with an attractive fringe benefits package.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Six months later, Byron MacGregor married Jo Jo Shutty at Marygrove College in their Sacred Heart Chapel. They were both twenty-seven years old. Just shy of twenty years later, Byron MacGregor died unexpectedly from complications of pneumonia on Tuesday, January 3, 1995, in Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital.</span><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The real powerhouse behind the Big 8's popularity was a woman unknown by most people outside the radio and music communities. Rosalie Trombley was CKLW's music director from 1967 through 1984. She had an incredible ability for recognizing talent and hit singles, earning her the title "The Girl with the Golden Ear."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKWiycuM7t-2V0dMziQ0b_Anus7Qmt8gwM3fPDAkA8yp8x0r5H0r3ZPd7bY4mPsm1nrOWSZIli1vm9H921v3BHmWDx0BWUbcie0Mzzpi8jfQBQuYZFLoEaplowcrmNNkOfCIJIaUplUFNYjpq4Na2CNV1Uh1td0ruxjOTa7VNMjHT8ysIaznhZ-Xty/s663/Bob%20Seger%201978%20with%20Rosalie%20Trombley.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="663" data-original-width="546" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKWiycuM7t-2V0dMziQ0b_Anus7Qmt8gwM3fPDAkA8yp8x0r5H0r3ZPd7bY4mPsm1nrOWSZIli1vm9H921v3BHmWDx0BWUbcie0Mzzpi8jfQBQuYZFLoEaplowcrmNNkOfCIJIaUplUFNYjpq4Na2CNV1Uh1td0ruxjOTa7VNMjHT8ysIaznhZ-Xty/w325-h394/Bob%20Seger%201978%20with%20Rosalie%20Trombley.jpeg" width="325" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Rosalie Trombley with Bob Seger on the occasion of Seger's 1978 album "Stranger in Town."</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Trombley helped the careers of many Detroit and Canadian musicians by debuting their music over the airwaves: artists and groups like Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Supremes, Little Stevie Wonder, the Funkadelics, and many musicians like Bob Seger, Mitch Rider, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Gordon Lightfoot, Paul Anka, Joni Mitchell, and Anne Murray to name just a few.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Trombley chose the right blend of pop music that appealed to young Black and White audiences on both sides of the Detroit River. On the CKLW television side, dee-jay Robin Seymour hosted a popular afternoon dance program named <i>Swinging Time</i>, giving many of these artists their first television exposure as well.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The rise of FM stereo radio and album-oriented programming in the 1970s began eroding CKLW's youthful audience. Rock & Roll grew up and so did its audience. The Big 8 Top 40 format was abandoned in the 1980s, replaced with fully-automated programming of jazz standards and Big Band music for an older demographic. The station's Golden Age was over.<br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia0mHIBmayUjYNXtVxH1CJdq1BpmomXQJRQ_1C_Xc8ApSlnVQicwZq8MOzstsHR94Lt4yZNMPpB1GzXqx7fs5d_mqs3puJYnrU9REzmzr1K5mok8no-hnKyzBJKmX_ZKbc3TOslDM_XApUa0-EK9SHzRQ97YV8Ykkj4-r5OCZ-h7O8Zw_hULJmfqbA/s555/Rosalie%20Trombley.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="555" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia0mHIBmayUjYNXtVxH1CJdq1BpmomXQJRQ_1C_Xc8ApSlnVQicwZq8MOzstsHR94Lt4yZNMPpB1GzXqx7fs5d_mqs3puJYnrU9REzmzr1K5mok8no-hnKyzBJKmX_ZKbc3TOslDM_XApUa0-EK9SHzRQ97YV8Ykkj4-r5OCZ-h7O8Zw_hULJmfqbA/w473-h428/Rosalie%20Trombley.jpg" width="473" /></a> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Rosalie Trombley passed away on November 23, 2021 at the age of eighty-two. At her funeral, Jo Jo Shutty called Trombley "an important mentor whose power as a woman in a male-dominated industry commanded respect." Trombley was posthumously inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame as a legend of AM pop radio.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Because of Trombley's importance and influence in the pop music business, the Windsor, Ontario City Council approved $100,000 for the creation, installation, and unveiling of a life-sized, bronze statue of Trombley leaning against a big 8. The statue was unveiled at Windsor's Riverfront Park by artist Donna Mayne on September 18, 2023, to coincide with Rosalie's eighty-fourth birthday.</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2017/11/detroitwindsor-sock-hop-jock-robin.html">Swinging Time's Robin Seymour</a></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiLyzuYJKtg">CKLW Jingle</a> </span><br /></p>Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-39255823299047839832023-09-01T08:46:00.000-07:002023-09-01T08:46:34.566-07:00Walter P. Reuther Assassination Attempt Foiled<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PmeIMoKxZfI/VhVZZt0kVBI/AAAAAAAAFHI/btH1PpPE-7k/s1600/Walter%2BReuther%2BTime%2BMag%2BCover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PmeIMoKxZfI/VhVZZt0kVBI/AAAAAAAAFHI/btH1PpPE-7k/s400/Walter%2BReuther%2BTime%2BMag%2BCover.jpg" width="302" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Walter P. Reuther, recently re-elected to a second term as United Automobile Workers (UAW) president, lived with his wife May and their two small daughters in a modest ranch house on Appoline Street in Detroit, just south of Eight Mile Road.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">In his 2013 book <i>Built in Detroit: A Story of the UAW, a Company, and a Gangster, </i>Bob Morris recounts the evening of</span> April 20, 1948. After coming home late from a UAW meeting, Reuther prepared to eat his warmed-over dinner. He was opening the refrigerator door to get some peaches when he turned to answer a question from his wife and survived a 12 gauge shotgun blast through the kitchen window.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Four lead pellets lodged in his right arm, one in his chest, and the rest hit the kitchen cabinets. Reuther was taken to New Grace Hospital where doctors told him he might lose his arm. The labor leader was determined to save it. By working tirelessly at painful physical therapy, he was able to regain limited use of his arm. For the rest of his life, neither Reuther nor his family were without UAW bodyguards and traveled everywhere in an armored Packard. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The attempt on Reuther's life was not an isolated incident of industrial violence. Thirteen months later, Walter's brother Victor, met a similar fate. Bob Morris writes, "Late on the evening of May 24, Victor was reading in his living room when a shot gun blast blew threw his front living room window. The shotgun pellets ripped through the right side of his face and upper body tearing out his right eye."</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KF2NnhyhCxA/Vh2L-LbicCI/AAAAAAAAFIM/Y5Y21QTCxC8/s1600/Walter%2BReuther%2Bwith%2Bbrothers%2BRoy%2Band%2BVictor.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="335" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KF2NnhyhCxA/Vh2L-LbicCI/AAAAAAAAFIM/Y5Y21QTCxC8/s400/Walter%2BReuther%2Bwith%2Bbrothers%2BRoy%2Band%2BVictor.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Victor and Walter Reuther shaking hands left-handed with brother Roy between them.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">At first the Detroit police dismissed the botched murder </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">attempt </span>of Walter Reuther as a power struggle among union Communists. <i>The Red Scare </i>was a popular and convenient scapegoat for corporate America and made good copy for the post-war press. A Detroit detective said, "Gamblers and crime syndicates have nothing to do with this. It's Communists."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But investigators began hearing underworld connections might be involved. Within five days of Reuther being shot, Detroit police--acting on a telephone tip--brought former vice-president of Ford UAW Local 400, Carl E. Bolton, in for questioning. He was charged with intent to commit murder.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qjkhX5Bf9IY/VhVz-Qh5KRI/AAAAAAAAFHc/4SwhkNR8lpo/s1600/Joseph%2BLouisell%2Band%2BCarl%2BE.%2BBolton.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qjkhX5Bf9IY/VhVz-Qh5KRI/AAAAAAAAFHc/4SwhkNR8lpo/s320/Joseph%2BLouisell%2Band%2BCarl%2BE.%2BBolton.jpg" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Joseph W. Louisell and Carl. E. Bolton</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Joseph W. Louisell, Detroit attorney known for defending suspected mob figures, argued Bolton had an alibi and was not at the scene of the crime. After three days in jail, Bolton was released and prosecutors dropped the charges. Bolton was free but still under suspicion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">During the Senator Kefauver Organized Crime Committee hearings (1951-1952), testimony suggested Walter Reuther ran afoul of the Detroit underworld.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Before the shooting, Reuther was aware a Sicilian gang, led by Santo Perrone, was acting as a strike-breaking agency for Detroit companies--big and small. Author Nelson Lichtenstein writes in <i>The Most Dangerous Man In Detroit: Walter Reuther and the Fate of American Labor</i>, "Reuther's assailants were paid by Santo 'the Shark' Perrone, an illiterate but powerful Sicilian gangster." The mid-century labor movement was the age of "the cash payoff, the sweetheart contract, and the gangland beating. It was part of the industrial relations system."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Organized Crime Committee felt the Detroit police made no serious attempt to solve the crime or curb the anti-union violence. "The Detroit police saw industrial violence as little more significant than a bar brawl," Lichtenstein wrote. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Six years later, Wayne County Prosecutor O'Brien announced at a Detroit press conference that he had solved the Reuther shooting. Arrest warrants were issued for Santo Perrone, Carl B. Renda, Peter M. Lombardo, and Clarence Jacobs. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Donald Ritchie, an ex-con with connections with the Perrones, made a secret arrangement with UAW officials. Ritchie agreed to rat out the people involved with the Reuther shooting for a $25,000 payoff placed in escrow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">If he cooperated with authorities, he would get $5,000 after making the initial statement to the prosecutor and the arrest warrants were issued, an additional $10,000 payable when those named in the warrants were bound over for trial, and another $10,000 when convicted. </span><span style="font-size: large;">If murdered before he could cash-in, Ritchie wanted the reward given to his common-law wife.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Part of Ritchie's statement to Prosecutor O'Brien reads, "The night of the shooting, I was picked up at a gas station. The car was a red Mercury.... I sat in the back seat. Clarence Jacobs drove and Peter Lombardo sat in the front seat with Jacobs. The shotgun was in the front seat between (them)--a <i>Winchester</i> 12 gauge pump. I was there in case there was any trouble. If anything happened, I was to drive the car away.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"Jacobs did the shooting. He was the only one who got out of the car.... I heard the report from the gun. Then Jacob got back in the car and said, 'Well, I knocked the bastard down.' After the job, they dropped me off at Helen's bar.... I had some drinks and went to see Carl Renda. He got a bundle of cash and handed it to me. I took a taxi to Windsor and counted my money after I got to Canada. Exactly five grand."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">As prearranged, when Ritchie came back across the international border, he was immediately placed under the protection of the Detroit Police Department. While waiting for the trial so he could give his star-witness testimony, </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">he told the Detroit police detail assigned to protect him that he wanted to take a shower.</span> Ritchie escaped from a bathroom window at the Statler Hilton Hotel on Grand Circus Park. Ritchie was on the lam. Once again, he took a cab to safety across the United States/Canada border.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">At the same time, Ritchie's common law wife was given the first installment of the escrow account. Ritchie delivered on the first part of the bargain. He made an initial statement and the suspects were charged. The UAW had no choice but pay off the first escrow installment. Ritchie dropped a dime from Canada and </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">denied his entire confession</span> to a<i> Detroit Free Press </i>reporter. He said he needed the money and was taking the UAW for a ride.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Without Ritchie's testimony, Prosecutor O'Brien's case collapsed leaving him</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> with an embarrassing fiasco</span>. </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">He dropped all the charges. </span>The UAW made the stupid mistake of paying a witness. The labor organization had been swindled out of $5,000 by an ex-con.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">*** </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XFdGC3J1tIQ/VhVUhM6KgtI/AAAAAAAAFG4/uf5NlHiU2PM/s1600/Battle%2Bof%2Bthe%2BOverpass%2BWalter%2BReuther%2Band%2BRichard%2BFrankensteen.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XFdGC3J1tIQ/VhVUhM6KgtI/AAAAAAAAFG4/uf5NlHiU2PM/s1600/Battle%2Bof%2Bthe%2BOverpass%2BWalter%2BReuther%2Band%2BRichard%2BFrankensteen.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Seconds before the confrontation.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The assassination attempt was not the first time Walter Reuther ran afoul of the car companies. On May 26, 1937, Reuther and several other labor organizers were badly beaten by Ford Motor Company Security men in what history notes as the <i>Battle of the Overpass</i>. This was Ford's security chief Harry Bennett's opening salvo against labor organization inside the Ford empire. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Bob Morris writes, "This was a public relations disaster for Ford, as a <i>Detroit News</i> photographer captured the beating of the labor leaders. The photos... were published around the world. The attack on Walter Reuther made him one of the most recognized labor leaders in Detroit and the country."</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0sZEiA8Vmx8/VhVTD9U5KSI/AAAAAAAAFGw/gz2Jk89Hsrw/s1600/Walter%2BReuther%2Band%2BRichard%2BFrankensteen.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="215" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0sZEiA8Vmx8/VhVTD9U5KSI/AAAAAAAAFGw/gz2Jk89Hsrw/s320/Walter%2BReuther%2Band%2BRichard%2BFrankensteen.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Arnold Freeman of the <i>Detroit Times </i>reported that Bennett assembled semi-permanent gangs of thugs known as outside squads. A member of one of those squads "Fats Perry" turned state's evidence in 1939. He testified, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"These squads were armed with pistols, whips, blackjacks, lengths of rubber hose called persuaders, and a variety of weapons, some of which made up by a department in the (Rouge) plant itself."</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">*** </span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">On May11, 1970</span><i><span style="font-size: large;">, </span>The New York Times</i> reported Walter Reuther, his wife May, and four other people died in the crash of a two-engined Lear Jet on May 9th at 9:33 PM. The chartered jet--on its final approach to the Pellston Regional Airport, arriving from Detroit in the fog and rain--broke through the clouds short of the runway and clipped some tree tops sheering off both wings. The plane crashed and burst into a fireball a mile southwest of the airport.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Federal Aviation Administration listed a faulty altimeter as the official cause. It had been tampered with. Some parts were missing, others were incorrect, and one was installed upside down. </span>No charges were ever filed, but the persistent belief is the crash was not an accident. Reuther was sixty-two. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Silent clip of police investigating Walter Reuther's home after the assassination attempt. His wife speaks briefly to the press. Fingerprints are taken outside the Reuther home. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMayuqfDpuI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMayuqfDpuI</a> </span></span></div>
Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-87303986474112637812023-08-26T09:58:00.000-07:002023-08-26T09:58:59.374-07:00Detroit's Forgotten Speedboat Champion Gar Wood<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Garfield "Gar" Wood</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">One of the least remembered Detroit sports celebrities is speedboat champion Garfield "Gar" Authur Wood. He was known as the "Grey Fox of Algonac" by many in the speedboat racing world. He was the first person to go over 100 mph on the water. Gar Wood won five straight powerboat <i>Gold Cup</i> races between 1917 and 1921. He won the British International Trophy for Motorboats known as the <i>Harmsworth Trophy</i> nine times and retired from speedboat racing in 1933 to concentrate on business concerns.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Gar Wood was born in Mapleton, Iowa on December 4, 1880. His father was a patriotic Civil War veteran and named Gar after the current president James A. Garfield and his vice-president Chester Arthur. Gar was the third of twelve children. As a growing boy, Gar assisted his father who was a ferryboat operator on Lake Osakia in Minnesota. It is here where he learned his love of boating and developed his mechanical skill for inventing devices to solve mechanical problems.</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3zqY-gz_Dr4/WneWyCsLf-I/AAAAAAAAJ4k/-J7ZnUNeMdcuWORVR4tz3B5gwNYqs3iKQCLcBGAs/s1600/Garwood%2Bdump%2Btruck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="400" height="220" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3zqY-gz_Dr4/WneWyCsLf-I/AAAAAAAAJ4k/-J7ZnUNeMdcuWORVR4tz3B5gwNYqs3iKQCLcBGAs/s320/Garwood%2Bdump%2Btruck.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Without any formal engineering training, Gar Wood invented the hydraulic lift for the titling beds of coal trucks in 1911 at the age of thirty-one. In addition to the dump truck, his company developed the self-packing garbage truck familiar in every corner of this country. In all, Gar Wood held over thirty United States patents making him a multi-millionaire by the age of forty.</span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JxXKGU7HnhM/WneXOwYhJPI/AAAAAAAAJ4s/Hm7_VE6IzPoCHfcQg1dcl-jn7KTH_ck4ACLcBGAs/s1600/Garwood%2Bgarbage%2Btruck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="400" height="244" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JxXKGU7HnhM/WneXOwYhJPI/AAAAAAAAJ4s/Hm7_VE6IzPoCHfcQg1dcl-jn7KTH_ck4ACLcBGAs/s320/Garwood%2Bgarbage%2Btruck.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Gar Wood and his eight brothers established the Wood Hoist Company which soon became Garwood Industries. Alongside industrial giants like Ford, Dodge, and Chalmers, the family built an industrial empire around the hydraulic lift which enabled Gar to pursue his love of speedboat racing.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1916, Gar Wood purchased his first motorboat naming it <i>Miss Detroit</i>. The following year he put a Curtiss "12" airplane engine in a speedboat against the advice of everyone and won the 15th Annual Gold Cup Race on the Detroit River. </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Fours years later, he set a new water speed record of 74.87 mph. </span>In the next twelve years, he and his racing team built ten <i>Miss America's</i> and broke the water speed record five more times raising the speed to 124.86 mph on the St. Clair River in 1932.</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xCP-LnTljOs/WneXe7EgSuI/AAAAAAAAJ40/K2wwnQ49rKghitO1Tny-dwap1lrwK-7EwCLcBGAs/s1600/Gar%2BWood%2527s%2BMiss%2BAmerica%2BX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="411" data-original-width="604" height="271" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xCP-LnTljOs/WneXe7EgSuI/AAAAAAAAJ40/K2wwnQ49rKghitO1Tny-dwap1lrwK-7EwCLcBGAs/s400/Gar%2BWood%2527s%2BMiss%2BAmerica%2BX.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Miss America X</i> was the last of Gar Wood's racing boats. The $600,000 speed boat was powered by four 1800 horsepower, twelve cylinder Packard engines run in tandem in a double-hulled boat. The boat's stringers were made of top quality spruce with the rest of the boat made of mahogany. This was the first boat to go over two miles a minute using 10 gallons of fuel per mile when full open. After Wood won the international Harmsworth Trophy in 1932 and 1933, he retired from racing leaving his son to carry on the family tradition. Gar Wood did more to develop the American speedboat sport than anybody.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In the 1930s, Garwood Industries built a new boat plant in Marysville, Michigan capable of producing 1,200 quality custom boats a year. Their two basic commercial models were a 28' runabout and a 22' runabout. In all, the factory produced 10,000 boats before the company converted over to the war effort during World War II. The company had extensive military contracts for military hoists, hydraulic units, dump trucks, tow trucks, and transport trucks. After the war, Garwood Industries quit boat production in 1947.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In his later years, Wood worked on a commercially feasible, battery-powered electric automobile. His electric car used eight 12-volt lead batteries connected in a series to power two specially designed 90-volt, 2 hp DC motors. The top speed was 52 mph and cost about twenty cents to recharge the batteries. The car was named the Gar Wood Super Electric Model A and was featured in the July 1967 issue of <i>Popular Mechanics</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Garfield Arthur Wood died from stomach cancer at the age of ninety on June 19, 1971 and was buried in Algonac, Michigan. Upon his death, <i>Detroit News </i>reporter George Van wrote, "To the public, he was Tom Swift, Jules Verne, and Frank Merriwell, with a little bit of Horatio Alger thrown in."</span><br />
<br />
A short clip of Miss America X and Gar Wood in action winning the Harmsworth Trophy in 1932. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMlahrYMF74">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMlahrYMF74</a></div>
Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-29155086078027676422023-08-20T08:47:00.000-07:002023-08-20T08:47:41.355-07:00Detroit's Greektown Stella - Iconic Homeless Woman Remembered<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XN3mn_mwz-s/VGJtYHdC4wI/AAAAAAAADIk/aLyKmZBNWGs/s1600/Greek%2BTown%2BStella%2BParis.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XN3mn_mwz-s/VGJtYHdC4wI/AAAAAAAADIk/aLyKmZBNWGs/s320/Greek%2BTown%2BStella%2BParis.jpg" width="284" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Photo taken of Stella Paris by a Detroit Policeman</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">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 <i>Old Delray/Old Detroit</i> site, I knew that face and suddenly felt very sad. Whenever I go to a Greek restaurant or see the film <i>Zorba, the Greek</i>, 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.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Doug Guthrie, writing for <i>The Detroit News</i> 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). </span>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.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">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."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"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."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"(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.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"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....</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FHyKWCVMfyw/VGJxwNiWVbI/AAAAAAAADIs/tFFcOpd7W9U/s1600/Greektown%2BStella.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FHyKWCVMfyw/VGJxwNiWVbI/AAAAAAAADIs/tFFcOpd7W9U/s400/Greektown%2BStella.jpg" width="286" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Stella on the street.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"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."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">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."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">News of his mother's death came as a surprise to her seventy-year-old son, Anthony Perris of Livonia. He told <i>The Detroit News</i> 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."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">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."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">More on Stella can be found in this link: <a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2010/01/greektown_stella_shouts_no_mor.html">http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2010/01/greektown_stella_shouts_no_mor.html</a> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://multimedia.detnews.com/pix/photogalleries/newsgallery/20100121Stella/index8.html?fbclid=IwAR0hqHGqstDTHSt_V8mx_rGrTzOp_2xIwdoyKcQu5O0kFc5JbbnzbY3WD8U">Stella's Funeral Service</a> </span><br />
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Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7073297057923413840.post-45091381344838000522023-08-02T08:48:00.013-07:002024-03-17T16:08:46.890-07:00Docuartist DeVon Cunningham--a Detroit Art Treasure--has Left this Vale of Tears Behind<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgps6iSAnm2oMe-rlWk5mIg5PSYkUebQoOju25dCYRZPVKEOqT8krhHU3l2Uk0kiKDIMedhFUh5GUIOdaEq79F94L5cfAu0nUS8_Z_WanUiOrrMgwaY98wydrBZZ_QoSsivW2IwNBpVUiOeksHIhWQI4ovbi-aQIAieukqHdp0nidraPYED4NsWKvoOVis/s1440/DeVon%20and%20his%20Rose.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1080" height="498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgps6iSAnm2oMe-rlWk5mIg5PSYkUebQoOju25dCYRZPVKEOqT8krhHU3l2Uk0kiKDIMedhFUh5GUIOdaEq79F94L5cfAu0nUS8_Z_WanUiOrrMgwaY98wydrBZZ_QoSsivW2IwNBpVUiOeksHIhWQI4ovbi-aQIAieukqHdp0nidraPYED4NsWKvoOVis/w374-h498/DeVon%20and%20his%20Rose.jpg" width="374" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">DeVon Cunningham and his loving partner Rose Johnson</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr align="center"><td><br /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;">Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on February 21, 1935, DeVon Cunningham began his art training at the tender age of eleven when he won a scholarship to the John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana. Part of his training was a two-week, all expenses paid seminar to study in Italy.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He continued his art training at the Detroit Center for Creative Studies and the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center. Cunningham went on to complete a bachelor's degree from the Detroit
Institute of Technology and a master's degree from Wayne State
University.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">While he was working as a community outreach and public relations
executive for Detroit Edison, DeVon was painting. Over his long career, DeVon's paintings have appeared in many galleries including eleven one-man shows, and his work hangs in many private and public art collections. His work is digitally archived and indexed in the catalog for the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1969, DeVon Cunningham achieved national recognition when he
painted the mural of the Black Christ on the dome of St. Cecelia
Catholic church at Livernois and Burlingame in Detroit. This work
featured a twenty-four-foot, brown-skinned image of Jesus with six
multiethnic angels beside him serving high mass. The church's parishioners
were mostly African Americans from the neighborhood. The mural was a welcomed addition to this French Romanesque church built in 1930 before the ethnicity of the neighborhood changed.</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pK-euLaMgs8/Xqg6gQNLLtI/AAAAAAAAOBg/rS_qV4GKs0UxhNNiaWvx1qE8pZ7wkRugACNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Black%2BJesus.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="265" data-original-width="399" height="265" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pK-euLaMgs8/Xqg6gQNLLtI/AAAAAAAAOBg/rS_qV4GKs0UxhNNiaWvx1qE8pZ7wkRugACNcBGAsYHQ/s400/Black%2BJesus.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A national controversy erupted when the mural appeared on the cover of <i>Ebony</i>
magazine in March 1969. Twenty-five years later on December 25th, 1994,
the mural once again became the topic of controversy when the <i>New York Times</i>
featured the church mural on Christmas Day. Reverend Raymond Ellis,
rector of St. Cecelia's, responded to the
criticism in a <i>Detroit Free Press</i> interview.</span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--WUU4eN-_Qw/Xqg6y-mETtI/AAAAAAAAOBw/JXv3q5QlbV46c0GfwCAqgXuXWP-QFQ0TwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Black%2BJesus%2BEbony%2Bmagazine.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="366" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--WUU4eN-_Qw/Xqg6y-mETtI/AAAAAAAAOBw/JXv3q5QlbV46c0GfwCAqgXuXWP-QFQ0TwCEwYBhgL/s400/Black%2BJesus%2BEbony%2Bmagazine.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">"Black
parishioners have a legitmate complaint when they walk into a church to
worship and everything is white. Christianity forces people to accept
Western European culture.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"The historical Christ was
Hebrew, a Jew from the Middle East. He might have had dark skin; he might have been fair. But
Christ is the head of the church, he is God, and he is any color
people want him to be."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Cunningham's commissioned
portraits of prominent Detroit community leaders include
Martha Jean "The Queen" Steinberg, a WCHB radio personality active in
Detroit's African American community; Coleman Young, the city's first
black mayor; Abe Burnstein, Detroit's reputed Purple Gang boss during
Prohibition; and many others.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The most mysterious
portrait Cunningham has painted is of Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. It
was unveiled at Gordy's Boston-Edison mansion as a birthday present from
his sister Anna Gordy Gaye--the wife of singer Marvin Gaye. Berry was
quite moved and lauded the painting of him dressed up like Napoleon.
Somewhere along the line, someone suggested that it might not be a
compliment to be compared to Napoleon, and the painting disappeared. (More on that story appears in
the link at the end of this post.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Cunningham's portraits gave way to what he calls docuart that informs, instructs, and involves the viewer. His work combines symbolism with cultural iconography that leaves the viewer
with a montage of images to ponder. DeVon's art not only appeals
to the eye but also to the mind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">DeVon's jazz musician series typifies
much of his later work. Historically, Detroit was
instrumental in the 1920s through the 1950s for providing African American jazz and blues musicians venues to
perform and make a living through their music. To document the historic </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">relationship of Jews and African Americans</span>, Cunningham painted legendary performers like Theolonius
Monk, Louie Armstrong, Billie Holiday, and Miles Davis, who performed in Detroit's legendary nightclubs owned by Jewish impresarios who hired Black acts when other venue bookers would not. </span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U1ClnhIq2WY/Xqg7hKVmKGI/AAAAAAAAOB8/JJn2R4CRowgC44N_HY46di0HbgRPjGCygCEwYBhgL/s1600/DeVon%2BCunningham%2BStrange%2BFruit%2BBillie%2BHoliday.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="192" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U1ClnhIq2WY/Xqg7hKVmKGI/AAAAAAAAOB8/JJn2R4CRowgC44N_HY46di0HbgRPjGCygCEwYBhgL/s400/DeVon%2BCunningham%2BStrange%2BFruit%2BBillie%2BHoliday.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Billie Holiday docuart</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;">DeVon Cunningham has produced significant art that remains relevant in our changing times. The <i>Spill the Honey</i> foundation commissioned a series of paintings that emphasizes the shared legacy of Jewish people and African Americans seeking historical truth and social justice through educational and artistic programs. The theme of Cunningham's last body of work deals with the environment and the pollinators--both endangered.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mr. Cunningham passed away at 1:00 am Monday morning, July 31st at the age of eighty-eight after complications from a prolonged illness. Only two weeks before, DeVon and Rose Johnson went to Cafe D'Mongo's in downtown Detroit for his last outing where he enjoyed meeting with some of his fans, my wife Sue and I among them. Amble towards the light, my friend. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2019/09/berry-gordys-lost-portrait.html">Berry Gordy's Lost Portrait</a></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://fornology.blogspot.com/2020/10/martha-jean-queenpatron-saint-of-blue.html" target="_blank">Martha Jean the Queen</a> </span></div>
Gregory A. Fournierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198070079476508084noreply@blogger.com17