Detroit Historical Society ~ Behind the Scenes Tours

Go Behind the Scenes at some of metro Detroit's most unique locations!

Listen as our expert guides show you these places in ways you've never experienced before!  These weekly tours normally take place on Saturdays, but occasionally special tours take place on weekdays.  On average, tours last from 90 minutes to two hours.

Because reservations are required and many tours sell out quickly, we recommend that you make your plans for these tours well in advance.

Behind the Scenes Tours are sponsored by the DTE Energy Foundation.

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Purchase the Book

Mt. Olivet Cemetery Walking Tour

Saturday, June 8

2 - 4 p.m.

$20 - Society members

$30 - Guests

Since 1888, Mt. Olivet Cemetery has been a comforting and stable presence on Detroit's east side. Today, Mt. Olivet is the largest cemetery in Detroit, consisting of more than 300 acres of carefully tended lawns and gardens that create a peaceful oasis in the city.

Dozens of private family mausoleums can be seen throughout the grounds, interspersed with towering oaks and maples. Many of them honor multiple generations of Detroit area families. Visitors to Mt. Olivet will also see an impressive assortment of individual memorials erected from the 19th century through the present day.

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Historic Detroit Tour

Saturday, June 15

9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

$70 - Society members

$80 - Guests

All day tour includes lunch and resource materials!

The "Historic Detroit" tour is led by Society volunteers Jim and Annette McConnell. Ride in the comfort of a Bianco motor coach as you hear stories from Detroit's past and view key historic sites in our community. Travel to downtown Detroit to walk the grounds where Cadillac founded the city in 1701, learn about the Great Fire of 1805, and see how the Woodward Plan shaped the modern city. Other tour highlights include seeing some key locations from the early years of Ford Motor Company and driving through Detroit's entertainment and sports areas. We will also visit the New Center area, historic Corktown, Midtown and the vibrant Cultural Center. Areas of special interest include the birthplaces of Motown and the Model T. Guests will enjoy lunch at Sindbad's on the Detroit River.

Advance registration is required.  

CLICK HERE to purchase tickets or call (313) 833-1801.

  

Paul Adams debuts a new Detroit poster

Hello Eileen,

It's also been awhile since we've seen the terrific water color paintings of Detroit by my friend and native Detroiter, Paul Adams. As you know, he has a series of familiar 1950s scenes of Detroit, Woodward, and sports on his web site that will surely spark many fond Detroit memories:



 
http://www.paulhadams.com

More of his work (and mine) can be seen locally at:

State of Mind Gallery
120 E. Main St.
Northville, MI 48167

Great Lakes Market Place
107 S Saginaw St
Holly, Michigan 48442

Best regards,

Jim Richie

http://www.etsy.com/shop/jcritchie

L.A.-DETROITERS / MICHIGANDERS PICNIC

SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2013

11:00am-7:00pm

Cheviot Hills Recreation Center

Los Angeles CA

Picnic Area 1 

Music provided by Detroiter Kevin Williams (who now lives in Phoenix AZ).

Respond to detroitersla@yahoo.com if you are planning to attend or call 818-270-1025.

Include your name, the metro Detroit High School you attended, and the names of others in your group. 

Check out our website http://www.michiganla.com to get on our mailing list.

Other activities (roller skating, dancing, etc.) will be finalized soon. 

Gloria Taylor

Picnic Organizer
Los Angeles, CA

PS: We're looking for volunteers to help out.

How 'Bout That?!

http://www.freep.com/article/20130505/NEWS06/305050035/Cool-Michigan-website-Michigan-Memories

Motown group, The Andantes

The Andantes were the go-to backup singers for most Motown artists, including Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops and the girl groups themselves. "Save the Children" came from Gaye's "What's Going On," one of Motown's greatest — and last — albums recorded in Detroit. The Andantes sang backup on many of the record's cuts — including the title track.

Motown Museum officials say the trio sang on more songs than any other group at Motown, almost always anonymously. They were the female and vocal equivalent to the Funk Brothers, the label's house band that itself was largely anonymous in its time but gained acclaim through the 2002 documentary film, "Standing in the Shadows of Motown."

READ MORE...

Mumford Grad promotes Detroit

Allee Willis, a '65 graduate of Mumford HS, is promoting the
good parts of Detroit in a terrific music video.

Click on the video below for a listen. Great tune, great lyrics!
I dare you not to tap your fingers.

Also, check out Allee's bio as a songwriter for
Earth ,Wind &, Fire, The Pointer Sisters, and more.

Jim Williams, Artist

Been awhile since we featured one of Jim Williams' paintings.

TIGER STADIUM

View more of Jim's work at

www.jimwilliamsartist.com

Detroit's Motown piano restored

By Susan Whitall, The Detroit News

APRIL 1, 2013 — A piano with a rich history in Detroit music is finally back home, at the Motown Historical Museum. The nine-foot 1877 Steinway grand piano that sat for years in Motown Studio B on Davison was returned to Hitsville Monday and reassembled in Studio A by Steinway technicians, after a complete restoration at the company's factory in New York. Former Beatle Paul McCartney helped fund the restoration.

READ MORE...

100 Top Michigan Songs

V

www.MichiganRockandRollLegends.com

2013 Legendary Song Ballot
Vote for your top five Michigan songs!

2013The history of Michigan Rock and Roll and the recognition of its artists and songs.

Thank You to our Newest Sponsors!

With sincere appreciation to our
Detroit Memories Supporters

for their generous donations!

Richard Albertson

Darrell Richards

   

Funk Brothers Get Their Star!

Renowned Motown musicians, The Funk Brothers, were honored on March 21, 2013 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Accepting the star were the surviving Funk Brothers Jack Ashford and Eddie Willis. “We are happy to honor The Funk Brothers on the Hollywood Walk of Fame!” stated Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President/CEO, Leron Gubler. “Many of us grew up with their amazing hit songs which they performed with some of the biggest stars of Motown!”

Gubler and guest speakers Stevie Wonder, Ray Parker Jr. and Mickey Stevenson helped The Funk Brothers unveil the 2,493^rd Star in the Category of Recording at 7065 Hollywood Boulevard across from the Live Nation Building.

A video of the entire presentation is available at:http://www.walkoffame.com/the-funk-brothers

Read the Free Press article

A Rare Interview with Mort Neff

Fred Trost interviews Mort Neff who was the original producer of
Michigan Outdoors, a Detroit TV show that ran for 23 years.

From Momentum Books

The Way It Was, Part 2

More Glimpses of Detroit's History from the Pages of Hour Detroit Magazine

by George Bulanda

Most people “begin at the beginning” as a natural progression, but for many readers of Hour Detroit magazine, they “begin at the ending,” for on the back page of each issue is a feature on Detroit history called “The Way It Was.” With each new issue, subscribers often flip first to the final page to look at a historical photograph, complemented by explanatory text.

This book, the second of a series to be published, is a compilation of “The Way It Was,” published in Hour Detroit magazine from 2005-11. The photos evoke a time and place that have passed, but fond memories are impossible to extinguish. In this new edition, you’ll find such local landmarks as Old City Hall, the Guardian and Penobscot buildings, Awrey’s, Tiger Stadium, Olympia Stadium, the Grande Ballroom, the Belle Isle Aquarium, the Mercury, Eastown, Madison, Shubert, and Punch and Judy theaters, as well as such notable Detroit figures as Berry Gordy Jr., George Romney, Coleman A. Young, Edsel Ford, Hank Greenberg, Charles Lindbergh, and Joe Louis. Even Carol Channing and Presidents Eisenhower and Reagan are captured in photos when they visited the city.

So turn back the clock and prepare for a nostalgic journey into Detroit’s golden years.

PURCHASE: http://momentumbooks.com/store/products/the-way-it-was-part-2/

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Heart Soul Detroit

Conversations on the Motor City

by Jenny Risher

Detroit. The Motor City. Motown. By any name, the city ‘on the strait’ that Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded in 1701 has arisen to become one of the most influential, volatile, intriguing, and inspiring locales on the planet. From the rise of the auto industry to the phenomenal success of Motown Records to the Grande Ballroom scene that fostered some of the most influential musicians in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, it can’t be denied: An uncommon number of amazing people have called Detroit home.

Through compelling portraits and raw interview transcripts that allow them to tell their stories in their own words, Heart Soul Detroit presents 50 of the most influential, successful, fascinating, and beloved Detroiters. From super-athletes like Nicklas Lidstrom, Barry Sanders, Al Kaline, and Tommy Hearns to internationally admired musicians like Smokey Robinson, Jack White, Eminem, and Martha Reeves to business visionaries such as Berry Gordy, Lee Iacocca, and Bill Ford Jr., Heart Soul Detroit showcases some of the men and women who put The Motor City on the map.

PURCHASE: http://momentumbooks.com/store/products/heart-soul-detroit/

Motor City Radio Flashbacks

"Music From The Soundtrack Of Your Life"
http://www.mcrfb.com/ 

A great website with a lot of radio nostalgia
and airchecks
http://www.mcrfb.com/?page_id=45

Favorite Detroit Facebook Pages

The Detroit Shoppe

https://www.facebook.com/TheDetroitShoppe

Faygo

https://www.facebook.com/faygo

Fans of Twin Pines Farm Dairy
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fans-of-Twin-Pines-Farm-Dairy/ 

 Better Made

https://www.facebook.com/bettermade?ref=ts&fref=ts

Awrey's Bakery Reopens (After Closing For Good)

From www.WXYZ.com

LIVONIA, Mich. (WXYZ) - Awrey's Bakery reopened Monday, following last month's last minute deal that saved the Detroit institution from the auction block.

Rabin Worldwide canceled the auction after Jim McColgan of Minnie Marie Bakers bought the company.

Awrey's was founded in 1910 in Detroit and grew to become one of the largest privately-owned bakeries in the U.S.

It was well-known for its pastries and breads, but ran into financial trouble in 2012.

Last fall, the company notified the State of Michigan that it would have to layoff nearly 200 workers if it could not find a buyer. Most of the layoffs were supposed to take effect in late January 2013. The rest were scheduled to take place in early February. 

Awrey website: http://www.awrey.com/

Find Awrey Bakeries on Facebook
 

Funk Brothers to get their star

Funk Brothers will finally get their star
on the Hollywood Walk of Fame!

CLICK HERE to order the
"Standing In The Shadows of Motown"
DVD from Amazon.

The much-fabled, long-neglected Motown studio band is set to be immortalized in the sidewalk near Hollywood and Vine, with a ceremony that’s expected to include surviving Funks Joe Messina, Eddie Willis and Jack Ashford.

It didn’t happen overnight: The March 21 event will culminate a process that began more than five years ago, and which cleared a final fundraising deadline by the skin of its teeth.

Motown star Valerie Simpson and late-night bandleader Paul Shaffer were among those who made key contributions to meet the project’s $25,000 goal, with Detroit native Ray Parker Jr. pushing it past the finish line in February.

Donations are requested to help several Motown figures and their families attend the March 21 event. Checks can be made out to Funk Brothers Hollywood Star Fund and mailed to 25702 Holiday Circle B, Stevenson Ranch, CA, 91381.

Read more in the Detroit Free Press by Brian McCollum

LIVES REMEMBERED

Bobby Rogers, founding member of The Miracles

Bobby Rogers (on right in above photo), a singer-songwriter who was a founding member of the Motown group The Miracles, has died at 73. Rogers died early Sunday morning in Detroit after a long illness, according to the Associated Press.

As a songwriter, Rogers worked frequently with Smokey Robinson, and the two co-founded the Miracles in 1955 along with three other partners — Claudette Rogers, a cousin of Rogers; Pete Moore; and Ronnie White. The group's hits included "The Tears of a Clown," "I Second That Emotion" and "You've Really Got a Hold on Me."

Read more in The Detroit News by Susan Whitall

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Richard Street of the Temptations

Richard Street, longtime member of the Temptations, and featured vocalist on such hits as "Papa Was A Rolling Stone," "Heavenly" and "Hey Girl (I Like Your Style)," has died in Las Vegas at age 70 after a short hospitalization. Street's death comes less than two weeks after the death of former group-mate Damon Harris.   

Read more in The Detroit News by Susan Whitall

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Damon Harris of the Temptations

Otis "Damon" Harris, a former member of the Motown group The Temptations, has died of prostate cancer. He was 62.

Harris performed The Temptations from 1971 to 1975 and sang on hits including "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" and "Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are)."

Read more in The Detroit News by Susan Whitall

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Donald Byrd, jazz trumpeter, Cass Tech grad

Jazz musician Donald Byrd, a leading hard-bop trumpeter of the 1950s who collaborated on dozens of albums with top artists of his time and later enjoyed commercial success with hit jazz-funk fusion records such as "Black Byrd," has died. He was 80.

Byrd, who was also a pioneer in jazz education, graduated from Cass Tech and Wayne State University.

Read more in The Detroit News

COMMENT:
From Gloria Taylor of West Coast Detroit Skaters in California:
"Donald inspired thousands of Detroit roller skaters to choreographed skating routines and steps at various skating rinks in the Detroit metro area. While I was in college, I choreographed modern dance numbers to his jazz songs. My cousin William played with Donald in the 1950's and 1960's. His music will live on for eternity."
 

 

"Searching for Sugar Man" wins Oscar for best documentary feature

Purchase this video on Amazon

A Detroit legend just got a little more legendary.

“Searching for Sugar Man,” a movie about the strange but true story of mercurial Motor City singer-songwriter Rodriguez, took home the best documentary Oscar at Sunday’s ceremony.

The movie, made by Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul, tells the amazing story of how Rodriguez, whose early 1970s albums never caught fire in America, became a music superstar in apartheid South Africa.

Read more in The Detroit News by Adam Graham

The Amazing Story of Detroit's own "Rodriquez"

"Searching for Sugar Man"

WATCH THE TRAILER

The extraordinary story of a talented and philosophical Detroit musician who spent his life working in construction while struggling to bring up his three daughters, and the mind-boggling mutual discoveries in 1997: for him, that he was more famous than the Rolling Stones in South Africa, and for South African fans (who believed him to be dead), that he was alive.

Website:

http://sugarman.org/

 

Rodriquez recently appeared on the 

Jeff Probst Show. 

WATCH THE CLIP

Lee Dixon Remembers Detroit

Lee Dixon is a frequent and valued contributor to the Detroit Memories Discussion Group. Here is an excerpt from one of his recent posts:

I first performed at age 9 in various places around the Detroit area, including Bob-Lo Moonlight Cruises, and later with various bands and recording artists. And they weren't all black. Most came in to my family's music shop/store over the years. But yes, black musicians in those days didn't feel like they had really been to the real "scene" in Detroit until they had visited our shop at least once. It was the buzz back then.
 
My uncle and dad ran Detroit Music Shop Inc. and later Wayne U. Music Shop, Inc. This was on Detroit's east side originally in a large converted garage in a residential area and then in a commercial storefront on East Jefferson. My uncle, Cecil Dixon, invented, patented and built the specially-bent flute (it got higher octaves) that was played by Thomas Beans Bowles on Motown recordings, including Stevie Wonder's "Fingertips." (By the way, Beans ran the band for a while at the Flame Show Bar and we supplied instruments and repairs to musicians working there.) We sold and repaired all musical instruments. My uncle was known as "The Wizard" and could repair virtually any musical instrument and often made them play even better. It was nothing to have what are now-famous musicians and music people in our store. 

My uncle also repaired many of the big organs around Detroit back then in
theaters and big churches. AND we serviced the instruments for the Detroit Board of Education and school system during the 1950s and 1960s, as well as many others.

We sold to everyone from John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Ray Charles to Yusef Lateef, Roland Kirk, Sonny Stitt, Candy Johnson, Beans Bowles, James Jamerson AND the Funk Brothers, Dorothy Ashby and countless others. I met most of these people lots of times.

Wild cars would be parked in front of the shop. Cadillacs, Lincolns, Jaguars. I vividly remember one musician who drove a British MG sports car in
the early 1950s (and THAT was WAY ahead). He had the 1950s beatnik look down pat with the sunglasses, beret and the goatee. I remember him taking the time to explain to me that "M.G." stood for "Morris Garages" and I never forgot that. I started reading up on European sports cars after that. I knew them all by the time I was five or six. One guy would come over and sit in our backyard with an easel and a canvas "painting jazz art" he called it.

You'd never know it today since that store and my folks are forgotten in history circles, but people came from as far away as Europe just to meet my uncle and have their instruments serviced at out shop. But we were always kind of like an underground operation I guess. The business was largely word-of-mouth among musicians and we were not like most commercial shops. BUT... we sold guitars by the bushelful. (I still have one I got through the store in 1956.) Same for saxophones. I believe we were the first Fender-Rhodes electric piano dealer back when those were like science fiction! We also sold lots of wild electronic gadgets for musicians. My dad sold the first tape recorder in Michigan. We even did our own chrome and brass plating. This was THE place for musicians for many years. We even had a special and rare electronic machine that singers and musicians would come in to test out their voices and horns and pitches. Those were some times. We were one of Detroit's best-kept musical secrets during the 1950s and 1960s.

Leon "Lee" Dixon
Davis CA
St. Catherine HS 1965


SUBSCRIBERS:  YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME
 

Where was this Sunoco Gas Station?

Jim Morrow, a Detroit Memories subscriber,
sent this photo he'd found on this website.

He was curious to know where this Sunoco was located.
I posted it on the Detroit Memories Facebook page
and asked for help.
The second post came from Michael Meredith,
who, we believe, got it spot-on.

See what you think: Google Street View.

 

SUBSCRIBERS:  YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME 

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Detroit Memories Supporters
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Historic Photos of J.L. Hudson

VIEW THE GALLERY

Lindell A.C.: Echoes of Old Detroit

Detroiters tend to have a deep, quirky sense of pride, and more than a few of them will tell you that there’s a bygone relic even more worthy of mourning than Tiger Stadium. Or the downtown J. L. Hudson department store. Or Cass Tech High School, whose alumni roster includes John DeLorean, Lily Tomlin and Diana Ross. That other place was a bar called the Lindell A.C.
 

READ THE ARTICLE