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EMAIL INBOX
Occasionally I receive emails I feel would be of interest
to our Detroit Memories Newsletter subscribers.
With permission from the authors, I'll publish them.
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Eileen:
The vintage police car featured in the March 2010 Newsletter was in the Woodward Cruise last summer. I was "pulled over" by this very car on Woodward near 12 Mile Rd. for driving my '59 Bonneville at a rather "high rate" of speed. Fortunately, the cop (in a vintage uniform) just gave me a warning, although I did try and talk him into chasing me for at least a mile or two for to give the people sitting in their lawn chairs along Woodward a trill!
Don Weston
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Hi Eileen:
My dad, Bruno Jaworski, was a big band musician and member of Bud Guest's
"Guest House" on WJR. Tragically, he was killed in the ballroom fire at
Edgewater Amusement Park in 1954. I am the youngest of his six children.
I have been searching for Danny Taylor for many years. He was on WXYZ radio
from 1964-1967. No one seems to recall his real name or where he went. This would be a great question for your terrific web site.
Best regards,
Lee Alan
Eileen: Does anyone know? If you do, please email me.
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Detroit Salt Mines by Nolan Ross
Hi Eileen,
I am the daughter of Nolan Ross, an editorial artist and cartoonist forthe Detroit Free Press starting in the '70s. He illustrated a lot of the Detroit magazine and TV Guide covers, and he also had a comic strip in the magazine for several years. He attended - and later taught at - The Center for Creative Studies. His work can be seen at www.thecartoonsofnolanross.com
Tara Gatscher
Tampa FL
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Eileen:
There's a newly released book from Acadia Press titled
"Warren" -- a history of the city of Warren MI where
many of us former Detroiters now live. The author is
Martha Ruth Burczyk.*
Madelyn (Alter) Zamora
Warren Historical Commission
(Regina '68 Grad)
P.S. I look forward to the Newsletter every month and
forward it to my brothers in Virginia, Ohio and New Jersey.
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* Warren resident Martha Ruth Burczyk has a graduate degree in historic preservation and works with local municipalities on preservation research and writing, educational programs, Underground Railroad presentations, and interior architecture
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A LIFE REMEMBERED
RON BANKS
DRAMATICS FOUNDER
Singer Ron Banks (second from right),
a founding member of R&B group the
Dramatics, died Thursday, March 4 at
his Detroit home of a reported heart
attack. He was 58. He graduated from
Detroit Northern High before founding
The Dramatics were best-known for
"Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get" and
"In the Rain."
APRIL CONTEST
Two former Detroit disk jockeys had national hit records
Detroit broadcasting history is rich with character and characters.
It began atop the Penobscot Building on October 23, 1946, when WWDT shot a signal to the convention center, part of a "New Postwar Products Exposition."
WWJ-TV offered scheduled programming in June 1947, and WXYZ-TV and WJBK-TV jumped in a year later. The medium has influenced the city's personality and social agenda ever since.
Soupy Sales turned getting a pie in the face into an art form. Mort Neff celebrated the state's outdoor charms. George Pierrot showed Detroiters the world.
Other beloved personalities include: Milky the Clown, Ed McKenzie, Sonny Eliot, John Kelly, Marilyn Turner, Robin Seymour, Bill Bonds, Dick Westerkamp, Jingles, Bill Kennedy, Lou Gordon, Captain Jolly, Johnny Ginger, Auntie Dee, and many more.
Release date is April 26, 2010.
$21.99
<<< Pre-order now.
SHARE YOUR MEMORIES
WITH OVER 940 MEMBERS!.
GEORGETTE VERBIT
Warren MI
"In appreciation to Detroit Memories for offering us the opportunity
QUESTION: I bowled on Beat The Champ in the mid-70's against PBA Champion Norm Meyers at Fiesta Lanes in Westland. Chuck Walby was a host and I don't remember who the other host was.
Does the TV station have these past shows available on video?
Thanks for your time.
Bill Heffner
Quincy MI
ED'S ANSWER: Sorry to say that there are no Beat The Champ videotapes that have survived. When the Ampex VRX-100 videotape machine was introduced in 1956, it was pitched to local TV stations as a way to time shift their local programming.
Before the invention of videotape, a show like Beat the Champ would air live. The camera crew and technical people would have to load up their truck with equipment and set it up every time the show aired. With videotape, a station could record a handful of shows in one day, and air them whenever they wanted to.
In 1959, a one-hour reel of blank Ampex tape cost $271.00. Each tape came with a log sheet, numbered from one to twenty five. The practice was to erase the tape and use it again for another program. When the tape was used 25 times, it was discarded. No thought was ever given to archiving programs. Even NBC erased the first ten years of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show.
Another issue was space. A one-hour reel of Ampex 2” Quad videotape is wound on a 12-½ inch aluminum reel. Tape, reel and storage box weighed about 12.2 pounds. If CKLW had decided to save just one year of Bozo shows, they would have filled a room, floor to ceiling, 9’ x 9’ x 8’ tall. That’s a lot of Bozo!
A few examples of old local Detroit TV have survived, usually snuck out the back door by a station employee or fished out of the trash. But for the most part, the old local programming that we remember is gone forever.
EDGEWATER PARK
Facebook photo by Malena Fryar
THE CARTOONS OF NOLAN ROSS
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