Gladys Knight & The Pips
I heard it through the grapevine
Aretha …Chain of fools
A&M COLLISION
TOTAL PERFORMANCE
Remember to check out Total Performance for all of your training needs. Jim Kielbaso is highly experienced, an excellent motivator and has tremendous knowledge. He can do it all from offseason football workouts to injury rehab to personal running mechanics. Jim can be reached at Total Performance Training Center in Wixom at 248-669-9818.
BELLA VITA
When anywhere near 12 Mile and Middlebelt…stop at Bella Vita for delicious pizza, chicken, subs and more. It is a locally owned business and the owners are friendly and on-site. There is a nice wine shoppe next door…Bella Vino for all of your party needs. It is located next to Jeans Hardware directly across 12 Mile from Farmington Hills Harrison High School. Stop in before or after a game or on your way to a picnic!!
Hard to believe that 45 years has passed since the murders of MLK and RFK.
The summer of 1968 was one of both tragedy & joy (1968 Detroit Tigers)
The Tigers’ role in healing a city
The 1968 baseball season occurred in a year of upheaval. The Tet Offensive earlier in the year increased opposition to the Vietnam War. The City of Detroit had suffered through one of the worst riots in American history during the summer of 1967. Less than a week before Opening Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, triggering civil unrest in 60 American cities. The assassination of Robert Kennedy followed in June. And in late August, the Tigers played a series in Chicago, as Chicago police had violent confrontations with thousands of anti-war protesters during the Democratic National Convention. Yet, through the summer of 1968, the people of Detroit were united by their passion for the Tigers and the calming radio voice of Tigers broadcaster, Ernie Harwell. When the Tigers won the World Series, the headline in the Detroit Free Press read: “WE WIN!” The headline told the story. Amidst all the turmoil, the people of Detroit came together behind their baseball team.
Tigers Win the Series
In a column published on October 11, 1968, Detroit’s senior baseball writer, Joe Falls, described the impact of the Tigers championship on the city.
My
town, as you know, had the worst riot in our nation’s history in the summer of
1967, and it left scars which may never fully heal. . . . And so, as 1968
dawned and we all started thinking ahead to the hot summer nights in Detroit,
the mood of our city was taut. It was apprehensive. . . . But then something
started happening in the middle of 1968. You could pull up to a light at the
corner of Clairmount and 12th, which was the hub of last year’s riot, and the
guy in the next car would have his radio turned up: ‘ …. McLain looks in for
the sign, he’s set — here’s the pitch’ … It was a year when an entire
community, an entire city, was caught up in a wild, wonderful frenzy.
Even the Governor of Michigan, George Romney, credited the Tigers with helping calm the city. In a letter to owner John Fetzer, Romney wrote: “The deepest meaning of this victory extends beyond the sports pages, radio broadcasts, and the telecasts that have consumed our attention for several months. This championship occurred when all of us in Detroit and Michigan needed a great lift. At a time of unusual tensions, when many good men lost their perspective toward others, the Tigers set an example of what human relations should really be.”[
Otis Redding
Mason Williams
Joes Feliciano Summer 1968
Jose Feliciano at World Series of 1968
Herb Alpert
A&M COLLISION
TOTAL PERFORMANCE
Remember to check out Total Performance for all of your training needs. Jim Kielbaso is highly experienced, an excellent motivator and has tremendous knowledge. He can do it all from offseason football workouts to injury rehab to personal running mechanics. Jim can be reached at Total Performance Training Center in Wixom at 248-669-9818.
BELLA VITA
When anywhere near 12 Mile and Middlebelt…stop at Bella Vita for delicious pizza, chicken, subs and more. It is a locally owned business and the owners are friendly and on-site. There is a nice wine shoppe next door…Bella Vino for all of your party needs. It is located next to Jeans Hardware directly across 12 Mile from Farmington Hills Harrison High School. Stop in before or after a game or on your way to a picnic!!
Remember to check out Total Performance for all of your training needs. Jim Kielbaso is highly experienced, an excellent motivator and has tremendous knowledge. He can do it all from offseason football workouts to injury rehab to personal running mechanics. Jim can be reached at Total Performance Training Center in Wixom at 248-669-9818.
BELLA VITA
When anywhere near 12 Mile and Middlebelt…stop at Bella Vita for delicious pizza, chicken, subs and more. It is a locally owned business and the owners are friendly and on-site. There is a nice wine shoppe next door…Bella Vino for all of your party needs. It is located next to Jeans Hardware directly across 12 Mile from Farmington Hills Harrison High School. Stop in before or after a game or on your way to a picnic!!
Motown diva Mary Wells was more than just one of Motown’s most sultriest vocalists, she was also the label’s first real star to emerge from the label. A star that dimmed prematurely after Wells left during the success of “My Guy”, the song now a signature staple for Wells and sixties music in general. However, she kept on with her career before illness stilled her beautiful voice.
Born into humble beginnings in Detroit on May 13, 1943, Wells was one of three children born to a single mother who worked odds and ends to keep her struggling family fed. At the age of two, young Mary contracted spinal meningitis and struggled to overcome near blindness, deafness and near-paralysis, all of which she overcame as the illness failed to end her life. By the time she was in her teens, Mary was already performing in nightclubs and talent showcases when in 1960, she felt confident to reach Motown president Berry Gordy and presented him with a song she said she’d written for R&B legend Jackie Wilson. However upon hearing the song, Gordy figured Wells could release it. In late 1960, “Bye Bye Baby” was released and quickly shot Wells to local stardom becoming an R&B hit. After another hit (“I Don’t Want to Take a Chance”) and an uncharted third single, Wells teamed up with Miracles front man Smokey Robinson to create a mixture of pop-soul that would define Motown Records in the years to come.
In 1962, the duo collaborated on the single, “The One Who Really Loves You”. The song shot to the top ten of the pop charts and quickly spawned two follow-ups, “You Beat Me to the Punch” (which was Motown’s first Grammy nomination in the best Rhythm & Blues Recording category) and the #1 hit “Two Lovers”, the latter single sending Wells to pop stardom. The 19-year-old Wells’ vocals, championed by Robinson, showcased a deep sense of serenity and sultriness that made her one of Motown’s first prominent figures. Throughout 1963, Wells’ fame grew due to touring as a headliner on the Motortown Revue performances and to recordings such as “Laughing Boy”, “What’s So Easy for Two Is So Hard for One” and “You Lost the Sweetest Boy”, the latter composed for Wells by the team of Holland-Dozier-Holland. Wells also cut a live album and a series of duets with Marvin Gaye later issued as Together. That same year, an album that was to be released was shelved for unknown reasons but was later issued as the album, Vintage Stock.
In 1964, Motown issued the blockbuster hit, “My Guy”, which rose up to number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 becoming just the third number-one hit by a Motown artist and the first number-one under the Motown subsidiary. The song also took charge in England where it peaked at number-five. Wells’ success had briefly eclipsed that of the Beatles, who would later hail Wells as “their favorite American female singer”. The same time “My Guy” became running to the top of the charts, Motown put out Wells’ and Marvin Gaye’s first duet album, Together. Featuring the double-sided hits “Once Upon a Time” and “What’s the Matter with You Baby”, the album peaked at the top fifty and became Marvin Gaye’s first charted album as wells as one of Wells’ last to chart this high – her highest-charted album was to come (Mary Wells Sings My Guy peaked at number six on the strength of “My Guy”). However, despite this incredible year of accomplishments, Wells was restless. She was tired of what she says of being mistreated and mismanaged with no royalties coming in for her. She argued to Motown president Berry Gordy over the direction of her career and felt, with her ex-husband Herman Griffin’s request, that she should leave the label that had built her into a star. Despite counter-suing lawsuits between Wells and Motown, the singer’s argument that she had signed with the label when she was underage gave judges the right to rule in favor of Wells leaving Motown. The label gave her a stiff settlement and agreed to let her go. At the age of 21, Wells left Motown and signed with 20th Century Fox. Just a few weeks later, “My Guy” hit #1.
Later in 1964, Wells agreed on an offer to join the Beatles on a UK tour with Wells as its opening act further establishing their point of the singer being their favorite “American sweetheart”. Wells was a hit in England and to celebrate one of her biggest accomplishments, she recorded the tribute album, Love Songs to the Beatles, one of two albums Wells recorded for 20th Century Fox Records. The first album, 1965′s self-titled Mary Wells included the successive hit singles “Ain’t It the Truth” (#45 pop), “Stop Taking Me for Granted” (#88 pop), “Use Your Head” (#34 pop, #13 R&B) and “Never, Never Leave Me” (#54 pop, #15 R&B). Despite her singles’ success, Wells’ albums began to falter on the charts after her release from Motown. Despite offers to receive a movie contract in earnest of her ambitious new deal with her company, the film deal proved to be a bust. To make matters worse, in 1965, the 22-year-old singer failed ill to tuberculosis canceling a string of engagements and events only making things worse for her after leaving Motown. After recovering, Wells decided to leave 20th Century Fox eventually settling with Atco Records, a subsidiary of R&B powerhouse label Atlantic Records.
In early 1966, Wells released the album, The Two Sides of Mary Wells, and released what became her final top ten R&B hit with “Dear Lover” (#6 R&B, #51 pop). However, despite that success, Wells struggled with other singles and her tenure with Atco was much less successful than her 20th Century Fox tenure. In 1967, Wells left Atco for Jubilee Records. That same year, the star married her second husband, musician Cecil Womack. It would be Womack, the brother of famed R&B star Bobby Womack, that convinced Wells to establish more control in her career and for the first time since she first auditioned for Berry Gordy, she was writing her own songs. One of them, “The Doctor”, would become a modest hit reaching #65 pop and #22 R&B in 1968. The parent album, Servin’ Up Some Soul, showed a grittier and earthier element in Wells’ music that hadn’t been there in a while since she teamed up with Smokey Robinson. However, like her other deals, her tenure with Jubilee was complicated and short-lived. By 1970, struggling with her declining career and becoming the mother of three, Wells abruptly retired from performing and left Jubilee Records.
Between 1971 and 1974, Wells would record some singles for Reprise Records, which included productions from Wells’ brother-in-law Bobby. Family matters would get complicated in 1977 when after divorcing Cecil after 10 years of marriage, she wounded up carrying Cecil and Bobby’s brother Curtis’ baby, her fourth. She also adopted three other children from late brother-in-law Harry Womack’s children giving her a total of seven children to raise. Dealing with struggles, Wells tried to keep it together. Smoking two packs a day of Menthol cigarettes and dealing with troubling affairs, Wells had had enough. In 1980, she separated from the Womack family completely and began raising her children as a single mother. That year, she finally convinced herself to end her retirement from performing. After signing a deal with CBS/Epic Records in 1981, she was convinced to make a comeback to the music scene that had drastically changed since Wells’ last studio album over thirteen years ago.
Recording songs by Greg Perry and the talented Mizell brothers Larry and Fonce, Wells recorded a mixture of funk jams and R&B ballads and titled it In and Out of Love. Released in the fall of 1981, the album yielded the dance-floor classic, “Gigolo”. With a feverish funk production, high-octane vocals by Wells (she even recorded two rap verses!), the song eventually hit #2 on Billboard’s disco chart. Its success eventually landed Wells on her first TV appearance in years performing on Soul Train in 1982. With the increasing rise of Motown nostalgia, Wells was convinced to return fully to performing and began recording two cover albums that would be released in 1982 and 1983, the latter album including four new tracks had a new-wave approach to them. In 1983, Wells reunited with Motown Records during the label’s 25th anniversary special. Recording several singles and one more album in 1990 for Motorcity Records, Wells kept up a frenetic performing schedule. However in 1990, the 47-year-old was stunned when during a routine check in the hospital, doctors discovered that she had cancer in the larynx. After immediately going into treatment, Wells’ finances, already a problem because of Wells’ declining success, was completely wiped out by her illness. Treatment on her cancer led to her voice being reduced to a whisper forcing her into a retirement 30 years after her career started in Motown. Wells, always the survivor, talked about her battle with cancer and opened up to the houses of Congress to find cure in cancer treatment. In 1990 and 1991, tributes were given out to Wells and money donations came from fans such as Bruce Springsteen and Natalie Cole to old friends such as Dionne Warwick and Diana Ross. However, by spring 1992, the cancer returned and she was diagnosed also with pneumonia. The 49-year-old struggled to survive in her hospital bed but relapsed into a coma.
On July 26, 1992, the strain of Wells’ cancer and a weakened immune system finally forced her heart to give out. And a voice that was one of the most beautiful to emerge out of the sixties was stilled forever. Mary Esther Wells died of pneumonia and cancer-related complications at the tender age of just forty-nine. Her death stunned the Motown family putting an end to an early era of the classic sounds of the label. Despite her difficulties after leaving Motown, Wells managed to handle everything with a smile. She never complained and always was humble even in success. For music listeners who love Motown and grew up in the sixties, Wells’ soothing voice fit the soundtrack of people’s lives and more than fifteen years later, they’re still proclaiming Wells to be “their girl”.
Mary with Marvin Gaye
Mary
A&M COLLISION
TOTAL PERFORMANCE
Remember to check out Total Performance for all of your training needs. Jim Kielbaso is highly experienced, an excellent motivator and has tremendous knowledge. He can do it all from offseason football workouts to injury rehab to personal running mechanics. Jim can be reached at Total Performance Training Center in Wixom at 248-669-9818.
BELLA VITA
When anywhere near 12 Mile and Middlebelt…stop at Bella Vita for delicious pizza, chicken, subs and more. It is a locally owned business and the owners are friendly and on-site. There is a nice wine shoppe next door…Bella Vino for all of your party needs. It is located next to Jeans Hardware directly across 12 Mile from Farmington Hills Harrison High School. Stop in before or after a game or on your way to a picnic!!
Remember to check out Total Performance for all of your training needs. Jim Kielbaso is highly experienced, an excellent motivator and has tremendous knowledge. He can do it all from offseason football workouts to injury rehab to personal running mechanics. Jim can be reached at Total Performance Training Center in Wixom at 248-669-9818.
BELLA VITA
When anywhere near 12 Mile and Middlebelt…stop at Bella Vita for delicious pizza, chicken, subs and more. It is a locally owned business and the owners are friendly and on-site. There is a nice wine shoppe next door…Bella Vino for all of your party needs. It is located next to Jeans Hardware directly across 12 Mile from Farmington Hills Harrison High School. Stop in before or after a game or on your way to a picnic!!
A flag celebrating the Detroit Tigers, who made it to the World Series in 1934 for the first time in 25 years, is hung on the side of the store. Ultimately the Tigers lost the series to the St. Louis Cardinals. (Detroit News Archives)
Here is legendary Stanley Clarkes Schools Days
There used to be Downtown Detroit Days…
For good measure here is Ann Arbors Mayer Hawthorne…
Eliot seen in July 1979 outside of The Detroit News. Detroit News Photo Archive
Marvin “Sonny” Eliot was the pilot of a B-24 that was shot down during a bombing mission over Germany during the war and he was captured. He spent 18 months in the Stalagluft I prison camp.
“The bell has ‘ring-a-ding-a-dined'” for legendary weatherman Sonny Eliot.
The wacky broadcaster — who became an icon during a 63-year career on Detroit television and radio — was 91.
According to WWJ-AM (950) — the radio station he called home for decades, from 1947 to 2010 — Eliot died at his Farmington Hills home with family by his side. His family made the announcement Friday morning.
For six decades, Eliot delighted listeners — and TV viewers on the Evening News Association’s WWJ-TV, now WDIV-TV — with an unrelenting barrage of quips, funny noises, unusual city names and groaners.
More borscht-belt comedian than meteorologist, he delighted in coining new words (rainy, foggy conditions were “froggy”) and giving the weather in far-flung locales whose names he willfully mispronounced.
His broadcasts were a collection of accents, funny noises, cornball humor and analogies from Mars. Somewhere in there was the forecast.
He went on long tangents unrelated to the weather and lapsed into a foreign language when telling the temperature in that country.
Whatever it took to get a chuckle.
“Sonny just oozed personality,” said Matt Friedman, a Farmington Hills marketing executive who had worked with Eliot at WWJ. “He was the same in person as he was on the radio. He was hysterical.”
Long before Doppler radar and blow-dried anchors, TV news in Detroit was populated by outsized characters such as Eliot.
He loved to combine words, scribbling his inventions on the weatherboard. Snow and fog were “snog.” Sunny and mild were “smild.”
Then there were his goofy expressions.
A lousy day was as pleasant as diaper rash. A town was so small it would take two to make a colon. Never put off until tomorrow what you can ignore altogether.
And there were those favorite bits telling the temperature in distant countries, in the native language.
Eliot would get the actual temperature in Buenos Aires from the wire services on the air and then say “It’s 85 degrees, ochenta y cinco, in Buenos Aires,” in flawless Spanish.
“It’s all about research, robbery and stealth,” he once said about his broadcasts.
Eliot’s early years
Born Marvin Eliot Schlossberg in Detroit in 1920, Eliot grew up on Hastings Street, the youngest child of Latvian immigrants Jacob and Jeanette Schlossberg, who owned a hardware store in Detroit.
The year of his birth was always a matter of conjecture because he was forever shaving years off his age.
Eliot wanted to be an actor, which didn’t surprise anyone aware of his hambone.
While attending Wayne State University, he had small roles in school and professional plays and on national radio programs made in Detroit, such as “The Lone Ranger” and “The Green Hornet.”
He even acted in a German POW camp.
He was the pilot of a B-24 bomber nicknamed Doodley Squat that was shot down over Germany during World War II.
It was poor planning to be captured by the folks you just bombed, he later joked.
During 14 months at Stalag Luft I, he wrote and acted in skits and musicals to entertain the other prisoners.
“I worked up some comedy to entertain the guys,” he said in a 1980 interview. “How could I miss? I had a captive audience.”
A weatherman is born
After returning from the war, he tried to make it on Broadway but failed.
Meanwhile, in 1946, a new medium had arrived in Detroit. WWJ-TV became the first TV station in Michigan.
Eliot got a bit part on a children’s TV show involving puppets, “Let’s See Willy Dooit.”
He was willing to do just about anything to expand his presence on TV, pleading with bosses, auditioning for various roles, taking whatever was offered.
When the TV station was looking for a weatherman in 1956, Eliot jumped at it.
He had little knowledge of meteorology. What he did have was a love of English and shtick.
“Meteorology is just two weeks behind a farmer with arthritis,” he said years later.
During the first three months, his broadcasts were straight, dry recitations of temperatures and weather conditions.
One day, he told TV viewers that it was 55 degrees in Las Vegas.
“Ten the hard way,” someone said off camera, using the craps term.
Crew members laughed. The boss didn’t get mad. And a career was born.
After that, Eliot did whatever he could to get yucks during his four minutes of airtime.
“His reputation for using humor during his weather stint on TV came about by accident,” said Tim Kiska, associate professor at the University of Michigan/Dearborn and author of the book “From Soupy to Nuts: A History of Detroit TV.”
“He made an offhanded remark, which made the anchorman laugh off camera. After that, he started working more and more humor into his broadcasts. During the 1960s, Sonny was the most popular and most recognized personality in Detroit television.”
Eliot also had a serious side.
“Most people only knew the Sonny Eliot personality from TV and radio,” said Kiska, a former reporter for The Detroit News and Free Press. “But the other Sonny was a serious intellectual and very well-read. He could discuss any topic. He also had an amazing grasp of the technical end of broadcasting, both radio and TV.
“When he would give you tips, it was like getting a guitar lesson from Eric Clapton.”
Eliot also tried to give the forecast as quickly as possible to allow more time for his wacky demeanor.
He dispensed safety tips, warning motorists to look out for children, especially if the youngsters were driving.
Former first lady Barbara Bush once listened to Eliot while on hold waiting to be interviewed by the station. All she could talk about during the interview was that crazy weatherman.
“His career was beyond stunning,” Kiska said. “He started TV in the 1940s and finished on radio in 2010; that’s seven decades in the business for goodness sakes. Nobody ever had a career like that and nobody ever will.”
An award winner
Eliot garnered a number of awards, rewards and honors including citations from the American Legion and the American Meteorological Society, the Toastmaster International Award and the Michigan Association of Broadcasters Excellence Award for Broadcast personality.
He was inducted into the Michigan Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in 2005.
When Eliot was elected to the Michigan Broadcasting Hall of Fame, his boss at WWJ-AM said the electors had no choice.
“It wouldn’t be a Hall of Fame without him,” said Rich Homberg, who now is president of Detroit Public Television. “Sonny is the Michigan history of TV and radio.”
In early days, Eliot’s local fame grew as he hosted the TV station’s yearly coverage of the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
He also was host of “At the Zoo,” a TV children’s program, for 17 years.
When people visited the Detroit Zoo, one of the first things they did was look for Eliot.
For six decades, people looking for the weather or a chuckle did the same thing.
In one his final interviews before retiring in September 2010, Eliot was asked to summarize his career: “As the late Jimmy Stewart said, ‘it’s been a wonderful life.’ I have no complaints.”
“The bell has ‘ring-a-ding-a-dined'” for legendary weatherman Sonny Eliot.
The wacky broadcaster — who became an icon during a 63-year career on Detroit television and radio — was 91.
According to WWJ-AM (950) — the radio station he called home for decades, from 1947 to 2010 — Eliot died at his Farmington Hills home with family by his side. His family made the announcement Friday morning.
For six decades, Eliot delighted listeners — and TV viewers on the Evening News Association’s WWJ-TV, now WDIV-TV — with an unrelenting barrage of quips, funny noises, unusual city names and groaners.
More borscht-belt comedian than meteorologist, he delighted in coining new words (rainy, foggy conditions were “froggy”) and giving the weather in far-flung locales whose names he willfully mispronounced.
His broadcasts were a collection of accents, funny noises, cornball humor and analogies from Mars. Somewhere in there was the forecast.
He went on long tangents unrelated to the weather and lapsed into a foreign language when telling the temperature in that country.
Whatever it took to get a chuckle.
“Sonny just oozed personality,” said Matt Friedman, a Farmington Hills marketing executive who had worked with Eliot at WWJ. “He was the same in person as he was on the radio. He was hysterical.”
Long before Doppler radar and blow-dried anchors, TV news in Detroit was populated by outsized characters such as Eliot.
He loved to combine words, scribbling his inventions on the weatherboard. Snow and fog were “snog.” Sunny and mild were “smild.”
Then there were his goofy expressions.
A lousy day was as pleasant as diaper rash. A town was so small it would take two to make a colon. Never put off until tomorrow what you can ignore altogether.
And there were those favorite bits telling the temperature in distant countries, in the native language.
Eliot would get the actual temperature in Buenos Aires from the wire services on the air and then say “It’s 85 degrees, ochenta y cinco, in Buenos Aires,” in flawless Spanish.
“It’s all about research, robbery and stealth,” he once said about his broadcasts.
Eliot’s early years
Born Marvin Eliot Schlossberg in Detroit in 1920, Eliot grew up on Hastings Street, the youngest child of Latvian immigrants Jacob and Jeanette Schlossberg, who owned a hardware store in Detroit.
The year of his birth was always a matter of conjecture because he was forever shaving years off his age.
Eliot wanted to be an actor, which didn’t surprise anyone aware of his hambone.
While attending Wayne State University, he had small roles in school and professional plays and on national radio programs made in Detroit, such as “The Lone Ranger” and “The Green Hornet.”
He even acted in a German POW camp.
He was the pilot of a B-24 bomber nicknamed Doodley Squat that was shot down over Germany during World War II.
It was poor planning to be captured by the folks you just bombed, he later joked.
During 14 months at Stalag Luft I, he wrote and acted in skits and musicals to entertain the other prisoners.
“I worked up some comedy to entertain the guys,” he said in a 1980 interview. “How could I miss? I had a captive audience.”
A weatherman is born
After returning from the war, he tried to make it on Broadway but failed.
Meanwhile, in 1946, a new medium had arrived in Detroit. WWJ-TV became the first TV station in Michigan.
Eliot got a bit part on a children’s TV show involving puppets, “Let’s See Willy Dooit.”
He was willing to do just about anything to expand his presence on TV, pleading with bosses, auditioning for various roles, taking whatever was offered.
When the TV station was looking for a weatherman in 1956, Eliot jumped at it.
He had little knowledge of meteorology. What he did have was a love of English and shtick.
“Meteorology is just two weeks behind a farmer with arthritis,” he said years later.
During the first three months, his broadcasts were straight, dry recitations of temperatures and weather conditions.
One day, he told TV viewers that it was 55 degrees in Las Vegas.
“Ten the hard way,” someone said off camera, using the craps term.
Crew members laughed. The boss didn’t get mad. And a career was born.
After that, Eliot did whatever he could to get yucks during his four minutes of airtime.
“His reputation for using humor during his weather stint on TV came about by accident,” said Tim Kiska, associate professor at the University of Michigan/Dearborn and author of the book “From Soupy to Nuts: A History of Detroit TV.”
“He made an offhanded remark, which made the anchorman laugh off camera. After that, he started working more and more humor into his broadcasts. During the 1960s, Sonny was the most popular and most recognized personality in Detroit television.”
Eliot also had a serious side.
“Most people only knew the Sonny Eliot personality from TV and radio,” said Kiska, a former reporter for The Detroit News and Free Press. “But the other Sonny was a serious intellectual and very well-read. He could discuss any topic. He also had an amazing grasp of the technical end of broadcasting, both radio and TV.
“When he would give you tips, it was like getting a guitar lesson from Eric Clapton.”
Eliot also tried to give the forecast as quickly as possible to allow more time for his wacky demeanor.
He dispensed safety tips, warning motorists to look out for children, especially if the youngsters were driving.
Former first lady Barbara Bush once listened to Eliot while on hold waiting to be interviewed by the station. All she could talk about during the interview was that crazy weatherman.
“His career was beyond stunning,” Kiska said. “He started TV in the 1940s and finished on radio in 2010; that’s seven decades in the business for goodness sakes. Nobody ever had a career like that and nobody ever will.”
An award winner
Eliot garnered a number of awards, rewards and honors including citations from the American Legion and the American Meteorological Society, the Toastmaster International Award and the Michigan Association of Broadcasters Excellence Award for Broadcast personality.
He was inducted into the Michigan Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in 2005.
When Eliot was elected to the Michigan Broadcasting Hall of Fame, his boss at WWJ-AM said the electors had no choice.
“It wouldn’t be a Hall of Fame without him,” said Rich Homberg, who now is president of Detroit Public Television. “Sonny is the Michigan history of TV and radio.”
In early days, Eliot’s local fame grew as he hosted the TV station’s yearly coverage of the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
He also was host of “At the Zoo,” a TV children’s program, for 17 years.
When people visited the Detroit Zoo, one of the first things they did was look for Eliot.
For six decades, people looking for the weather or a chuckle did the same thing.
In one his final interviews before retiring in September 2010, Eliot was asked to summarize his career: “As the late Jimmy Stewart said, ‘it’s been a wonderful life.’ I have no complaints.”
Remember to check out Total Performance for all of your training needs. Jim Kielbaso is highly experienced, an excellent motivator and has tremendous knowledge. He can do it all from offseason football workouts to injury rehab to personal running mechanics. Jim can be reached at Total Performance Training Center in Wixom at 248-669-9818.
BELLA VITA
When anywhere near 12 Mile and Middlebelt…stop at Bella Vita for delicious pizza, chicken, subs and more. It is a locally owned business and the owners are friendly and on-site. There is a nice wine shoppe next door…Bella Vino for all of your party needs. It is located next to Jeans Hardware directly across 12 Mile from Farmington Hills Harrison High School. Stop in before or after a game or on your way to a picnic!!
San Francisco — They have MVP and Cy Young trophies. They have batting titles and home run titles and RBI titles and enough All-Star appearances to load the pages of recent history.
The Tigers have accomplished plenty, and it means plenty. It only means everything if they take the last step. They need to win this now, after all they’ve spent financially, physically and emotionally.
The Tigers have been here before, but not really. The team that opens the World Series tonight against the Giants is almost entirely different than the group that lost the 2006 World Series. Heck, it’s considerably different than the team that lost in last year’s playoffs.
These Tigers are star-heavy favorites, desperate to deliver Detroit’s first World Series title since 1984. Just getting here isn’t the point anymore, not that it ever was. But when you have Miguel Cabrera in a Triple Crown season and Prince Fielder in his prime and the best pitcher in the game in Justin Verlander, you don’t tiptoe into baseball’s grand classic.
It’s different this time. It’s less fanciful, less frightful, and much more urgent.
“That (favorite’s tag) is more for reading material than anything else,” Jim Leyland said. “We’re not dumb, we do learn from the past. Even though a lot of people thought we just became fat cats in 2006 and said, ‘Oh well, we’re in it, what’s the difference,’ that wasn’t it at all.”
Not that it really matters because only three players from the ’06 Tigers — Verlander, Omar Infante, Ramon Santiago — are on this team. But Leyland and management adjusted to another lengthy layoff after an ALCS sweep, working out daily at Comerica Park, thanks to good weather.
And now their pitching staff looks sufficiently primed, starting with Verlander, naturally. He opens Game 1 with loads of rest, while the Giants counter with revived lefty Barry Zito, who didn’t even make the postseason roster two years ago when the Giants won the World Series. It should be an early advantage for the Tigers because Verlander is on yet another mission, and it’s not a mission of mercy. He’s different this time, translating regular-season dominance into postseason success.
But as the game’s quirks repeatedly show, it’s never as simple as matching up the rosters and lining up the stars. Ask the Rangers, who lost the past two World Series, then were drummed in the wildcard round this year.
Favored but wary
All the spectacular individual performances wouldn’t necessarily be wasted if the Tigers didn’t win it all, but they’d be assigned a humbler place in history. Most odds and experts favor the Tigers, who just swept the Yankees, while the Giants rallied and won a Game 7 after trailing the Cardinals three games to one. In fact, the Giants have won six straight elimination games this postseason, which shows they know how to find danger — and find their way out.
The Giants do prefer things the difficult way, apparently. They hit the fewest home runs in the majors, but have a terrific road record. In the narrow view, this is Tigers power versus Giants pluck, sizzle versus spunk, although it’s worth noting the Giants actually won 94 games to the Tigers’ 88.
“We’re definitely playing our best baseball, but it’s always tough to play a team that never gives up,” centerfielder Austin Jackson said shortly after the Tigers arrived Tuesday. “They’re able to come back at any time, at any point in a game. They showed they weren’t done when people thought they were done. We’ve had our struggles and been able to do the same thing.”
The opponent sort of looks the same as the Cardinals in ’06. San Francisco is a spirited bunch putting pieces back together, and rebounding again and again. The Giants have done it with rejuvenated pitchers such as Zito and Tim Lincecum, and resurrected scrappers such as Marco Scutaro.
They’ve been rolling in front of their loud, giddy crowd at AT&T Park, outscoring the Cardinals by an astonishing 20-1 the last three games. And the Tigers still have their standard concerns, the ones that surfaced during an unsteady regular season — defense, the bullpen, the hitting.
Seasoned crew
Leyland doesn’t know how he’ll use closer Jose Valverde, and it’ll be interesting to see if Delmon Young can continue the hot streak that landed him the ALCS MVP. But the Tigers have experience everywhere it matters, from the deep, powerful starting rotation, to the front office in Dave Dombrowski, to the manager, to 83-year-old owner Mike Ilitch. It’s not necessarily a one-shot deal because the Tigers have a talented core, but the longer you wait, the tougher it gets.
“I don’t know if we’re the favorite, because they’ve been playing the last couple games and we’ve been off for about five days,” said catcher Gerald Laird, who won the World Series with St. Louis last season. “Honestly, there’s no clear-cut favorite in my eyes. But if our pitching does what it’s capable of doing like it did last series, I like our chances.”
A lot of people like their chances. It’s the Tigers’ opportunity to go from gaudy oddity to worthy champion, and they won’t get many better chances than this.
Series: Best-of-seven format, tonight-Thursday and Wednesday, Oct. 31-Thursday, Nov. 1, AT&T Park; Saturday-Monday, Comerica Park First pitch: All games 8:07 p.m. TV/radio: All games on Fox/WXYT Series probables: Tonight — RHP Justin Verlander (3-0, 0.74 ERA) vs. LHP Barry Zito (1-0, 1.74). Thursday — LHP Doug Fister (0-0, 1.35) vs. LHP Madison Bumgarner (0-2, 11.25). Saturday — RHP Ryan Vogelsong (2-0, 1.42) vs. RHP Anibal Sanchez (1-1, 1.35). Sunday — RHP Matt Cain (2-2, 3.52) vs. RHP Max Scherzer (1-0, 0.82). Monday* — Matchups to be determined. Wednesday, Oct. 31* — Matchups to be determined. Thursday, Nov. 1* — Matchups to be determined
Check out this Phil Coke Interview
A&M COLLISION
TOTAL PERFORMANCE
Remember to check out Total Performance for all of your training needs. Jim Kielbaso is highly experienced, an excellent motivator and has tremendous knowledge. He can do it all from offseason football workouts to injury rehab to personal running mechanics. Jim can be reached at Total Performance Training Center in Wixom at 248-669-9818.
BELLA VITA
When anywhere near 12 Mile and Middlebelt…stop at Bella Vita for delicious pizza, chicken, subs and more. It is a locally owned business and the owners are friendly and on-site. There is a nice wine shoppe next door…Bella Vino for all of your party needs. It is located next to Jeans Hardware directly across 12 Mile from Farmington Hills Harrison High School. Stop in before or after a game or on your way to a picnic!!
All American DT at Iowa-2nd in Heisman Trophy vote to John David Crow in 1957
Outland Trophy Winner-1957
Lead Iowa to their 1st Rose Bowl
College Football HOF-1991
Detroit Lion All Pro—12 year career
Alex Karras on MNF 1976
Schlitz Malt Liquor
On Match Game
Faygo
MONGO!!!
Drafted out of Iowa in 1958, the defensive tackle was listed at 6-feet-2 and 248 pounds, small by today’s standards (Ndamukong Suh is 6-4, 307) – and he wore glasses.
• First- or second-team all-pro every year during the 1960s, except for one.
• 1963: Suspended, along with Green Bay running back Paul Hornung, for one season for gambling on NFL games. (Hornung elected to Hall of Fame in 1986; Karras hasn’t been.)
• Missed one game in 12 pro seasons, ending in 1970.
• Lost his last Lions game by the oddest of scores, 5-0, to Dallas in the first round of the ’70 playoffs.
• Reported to training camp in 1971 but was released by his old pal and then-Lions coach Joe Schmidt; playing career over at age 35
• Took up professional wrestling before he signed with the Lions and returned to it when suspended for the 1963 season. Memorable bouts included ones with Dick the Bruiser.
• Part owner of the Lindell AC , a sports bar in downtown Detroit.—MUST READ this NYT article…
October 8, 2012
Amid Newfound Glory, Echoes of Old Detroit
By BILL MORRIS
For more than a century, the city of Detroit has been driven by a pair of powerful but erratic engines: cars and sports. Detroiters are no strangers to the sorrows these engines can bring: layoffs, factory shutdowns, losing streaks, even winless seasons. Yet, many Detroiters are feeling giddy these days. The auto industry has come roaring back from the brink of ruin, and the Tigers are back in the playoffs for the second straight year — routine stuff in the Bronx, perhaps, but something that hasn’t happened in the Motor City since the 1930s.
To top it off, the star of this year’s Tigers is a slugger named Miguel Cabrera, who led the American League in home runs, batting average and runs batted in, a trifecta last accomplished nearly half a century ago by Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox, and by only a handful of others in the history of the game.
The team plays in a sparkling downtown park that was built a dozen years ago and named, to the dismay of many purists, after a bank. More than three million fans have passed through its turnstiles so far this year, and it’s a safe bet that many of them don’t remember or have managed to forget the team’s previous home, a great sooty iceberg built in 1912 just west of downtown. Tiger Stadium is gone to dust now, memories of it growing dimmer every time Cabrera whacks another ball over the outfield wall at Comerica Park.
But 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. It was in an unexceptional-looking brick building a few blocks from Tiger Stadium, but it became a legend, a place where the famous rubbed elbows with the unknown.
It was first opened in 1949 in the no-star Lindell Hotel by Meleti Butsicaris. In the 1950s, a regular customer suggested putting signed photographs of athletes on the walls. He even showed Butsicaris and his sons, Johnny and Jimmy, how to cut a baseball bat in half lengthwise, the better to screw it into the wall. Soon other bats and baseballs, hockey sticks and pucks were added, along with the jerseys of local gods like Al Kaline, Norm Cash, Gordie Howe and Dave Bing, a Pistons star who is now the mayor of Detroit. But the maraschino cherry on the memorabilia was surely Lions linebacker Wayne Walker’s jockstrap, which was fastened to a plaque in a prominent place on the barnacled walls. The customer who came up with the original suggestion about hanging the signed photographs was a Yankees infielder named Billy Martin.
After relocating to the corner of Michigan and Cass Avenues in 1963, the Butsicaris family added “A.C.” to the name at the suggestion of a local sports columnist and repeat customer named Doc Greene — a wry swipe at the swells who patronized the nearby Detroit Athletic Club. The Lindell A.C.’s burgers were out of this world, there were three television sets, and the place was always jumping. Jimmy Butsicaris installed himself at the corner of the bar every night, where he could keep one eye on the door and one on the cash register. “He didn’t want to have any seepage,” the owner of a nearby bar says. “And he wanted to know everybody who walked in that door — cop or robber, friend or foe.” For foes, Jimmy kept a set of brass knuckles in his pocket.
In 1963, Pete Rozelle, the commissioner of the N.F.L., suspended Paul Hornung, the golden boy of the Green Bay Packers, and Lions defensive lineman Alex Karras for gambling on games in the Lindell A.C. Rozelle also ordered Karras to divest himself of his one-third interest in the saloon. Hornung was contrite; Karras was outraged. The scandal was excellent for the Butsicarises’s business.
To work out his anger, Karras took up professional wrestling during his suspension. One night, he and a future opponent, Dick the Bruiser, went at each other inside the Lindell A.C., an epic brawl that left the place — and Karras — in tatters.
Six years later, Martin, then manager of the Minnesota Twins, got into a dispute inside the Lindell A.C. with one of his own pitchers, burly Dave Boswell, a 20-game winner that year. Though Martin was giving away several inches and many more pounds, they took their differences into the alley behind the bar. When it was over, Boswell’s face required 20 stitches while Martin’s needed just seven. Apparently impressed by Martin’s way of handling his pitching staff, the Tigers hired him two years later, and he led the team to the division title in 1972.
But perhaps the thing that truly set the Lindell A.C. apart — and the thing that reveals just how different its world was from the world we live in today — was the way professional athletes and other celebrities, from Mickey Mantle to Milton Berle to Andre the Giant, mingled with ordinary fans.
Terry Foster had a ringside seat for this cultural shift. His mother, Roxanne, worked at the Lindell A.C. for 20 years, and Foster, now 53, worked there as a cook while attending Cass Tech, then tended bar during college. “I remember going in after a Tigers game and seeing Willie Horton, Earl Wilson and Gates Brown sitting next to fans, having a beer and a burger, just talking to the fans,” says Foster, who writes a sports column for The Detroit News and hosts a radio sports show. “It was almost like they’d just gotten off the third shift at G.M. Players from all the visiting teams came into the Lindell A.C., and there wasn’t all this fawning. They were one of the fellas. Today, I see athletes at parties, and they’re roped off in their private area with their ladies. That doesn’t do it for me.”
The ballplayers back then, of course, often had little choice. Most of them had to work jobs during the off-season because they weren’t multimillionaires who breathed their own ether, safely shielded from hoi polloi. It was a time of greater intimacy, rougher edges and, yes, more excess. It was also more colorful, more vivid, in many ways more alive than our high-dollar, heart-smart, smoke-free, sanitized times.
Vaughn Derderian Sr., who runs the Anchor Bar in downtown Detroit, agrees with Foster. “The players don’t hang out anymore,” says Derderian, 65, whose family has been in the bar business since the 1920s. “The reason is because they’re a little smarter — and they’re making a whole lot more money. They don’t want to get hassled by the fans. The Lindell A.C. was one of the last places where that contact happened.”
It had stopped happening by the time the bar closed for good in 2002. Four years later, the building was demolished to make way for a bus station.
“To call it legendary is an understatement,” Derderian adds. “It was the first sports bar in the country. Now there’s one on every corner.”
There’s a big one on the corner of Woodward Avenue and Montcalm Street, across the street from Comerica Park. It’s called the Hockeytown Cafe. It has 45 TVs, including 30 63-inch plasma sets, and its walls are plastered with sports memorabilia.
There are only three things missing. Actual athletes mingling with the customers. A tough little Greek guy sitting at the corner of the bar with a set of brass knuckles in his pocket. And Wayne Walker’s jockstrap high on the wall.
Bill Morris grew up in Detroit in the 1950s and ’60s. He is the author of the novels “Motor City” and “All Souls’ Day,” and has finished another, “Vic #43,” set during the 1967 Detroit riot and the Tigers’ 1968 championship season.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: October 10, 2012
Because of an editing error, a picture credit with an article on Tuesday about Lindell A.C., a famous bar near Tigers Stadium in Detroit that closed in 2002, misidentified the photographer. The picture of memorabilia on the wall of the bar was taken by John T. Greilick of The Detroit News, not J. Kyle Keener of The Detroit Free Press.
• In 1968, he and teammates played themselves in “Paper Lion,” the movie version of George Plimpton’s book in which Plimpton tried out with the Lions.
• Starting in 1970, displayed a dry sense of humor and gained notoriety during repeat appearances on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”
• Played Mongo in Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles” in 1974.
• Color commentator on “Monday Night Football,” 1974-76.
• Played George Zaharias opposite Susan Clark in the TV movie “Babe” (1975), the story of Babe Didrickson.
• Karras and Clark married in 1980.
• Starred in the TV sitcom “Webster” with Clark and Emmanuel Lewis, 1983-89.
• Hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 1985.
• Returned to Detroit in 2003 for the 40th anniversary of the publication of “Paper Lion,” appearing with, among others, Plimpton, Schmidt, Lem Barney, Ron Kramer, Mike Lucci and Earl Morrall. But the loudest cheers at Ford Field were for the famed Fearsome Foursome defensive line of Karras, Roger Brown, Darris McCord and Sam Williams.
A&M COLLISION
TOTAL PERFORMANCE
Remember to check out Total Performance for all of your training needs. Jim Kielbaso is highly experienced, an excellent motivator and has tremendous knowledge. He can do it all from offseason football workouts to injury rehab to personal running mechanics. Jim can be reached at Total Performance Training Center in Wixom at 248-669-9818.
BELLA VITA
When anywhere near 12 Mile and Middlebelt…stop at Bella Vita for delicious pizza, chicken, subs and more. It is a locally owned business and the owners are friendly and on-site. There is a nice wine shoppe next door…Bella Vino for all of your party needs. It is located next to Jeans Hardware directly across 12 Mile from Farmington Hills Harrison High School. Stop in before or after a game or on your way to a picnic!!
Lynch had been the Wings’ public-address announcer since 1985, the same year he received the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award from the Hockey Hall of Fame for outstanding contributions as a hockey broadcaster. (David Guralnick / The Detroit News)
Red Wings announcer Bud Lynch is helped down the carpet by Detroit Red Wings’ Nicklas Lidstrom during a pre-game ceremony honoring Lynch for his 60 years with the team in 2009. (David Guralnick / The Detroit News)
You couldn’t tell a story poking fun at Budd Lynch without Budd coming back with a better one.
He loved to laugh — the older he became, the louder and more distinctive that goose-honk was — and he loved to laugh at himself.
Lynch, who died Tuesday morning at 95, lost his right arm in France six weeks after D-Day. Back home, first in his native Ontario and then in Detroit, he happily answered to “lefty” or “the one-armed bandit,” nicknames he at least embraced if he didn’t introduce them in the first place.
Even the judge jabbed him when he became a U.S. citizen in 1950.
The Detroit Red Wings’ former publicist, former broadcaster and eternal public address announcer figured that if he was earning a living and raising kids here, he should vote and pledge allegiance here, too. He showed up at the courthouse with some family members and a bunch of friends, prepared to be solemn on such an august occasion, but then His Honor peered down from the bench.
“We will dispense,” the judge told the clerk, “with raising his right arm.”
Budd had a house in Wyandotte, and I’m in Oakland County, but I’d see him at least once a year, at the Budd Lynch Celebrity Golf Classic on Grosse Ile. It’s a benefit for the Guidance Center in Southgate, and before the 23rd annual installment in June, someone crunched the numbers and realized it had just crossed the $1 million mark.
In tribute, the charity surprised him at a pre-event party with an announcement: it had established the Budd Lynch Endowment Fund for Children. His six daughters haven’t said yet where they would like memorial donations to go, but if you’re inclined to support his work with kids, you can make out a check to the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan and send it to the Guidance Center, Development Department, 13101 Allen Road, Southgate, MI 48195.
Budd wasn’t just a name on the title. The planning committee has a meeting Thursday, and marketing director Al Sebastian says it’ll feel strange to not have him there.
Every year, Budd would help hustle up celebrities and auction items and gifts for the kids who came to a golf clinic before the outing. It’s amazing how many goodies you can fit in the trunk of a Lincoln Town Car. Into his 90s, he’d play a few holes, swinging right-handed clubs backhand and then switching to a left-handed putter.
He’d taught himself to be darned good at the game; on his best day years ago, when he shot an 82 at Plum Hollow Country Club in Southfield, he beat Gordie Howe.
“Gordie was so steamed he wouldn’t talk to me,” he said, but at the golf outing, Budd talked to everyone. First with his late wife, Thelma, and then with his longtime girlfriend, Nancy Tuinier, he’d hold court in the grillroom or on a cart, offering welcomes and thanks.
The outing next summer will be a memorial, Sebastian said, a chance for everyone to imagine Budd’s laugh and picture him in his Izod sweater with the right sleeve pinned down.
He’d shake hands, left to left, and somehow he always made it feel like that absent arm was pulling you close.
Remember to check out Total Performance for all of your training needs. Jim Kielbaso is highly experienced, an excellent motivator and has tremendous knowledge. He can do it all from offseason football workouts to injury rehab to personal running mechanics. Jim can be reached at Total Performance Training Center in Wixom at 248-669-9818.
BELLA VITA
When anywhere near 12 Mile and Middlebelt…stop at Bella Vita for delicious pizza, chicken, subs and more. It is a locally owned business and the owners are friendly and on-site. There is a nice wine shoppe next door…Bella Vino for all of your party needs. It is located next to Jeans Hardware directly across 12 Mile from Farmington Hills Harrison High School. Stop in before or after a game or on your way to a picnic!!
Coach Billy Slobin 
