The Detroit Hall of Lesser Fame

[Wheels]

Marilyn Turner... BIG blond hair!

Dennie [[go to jail) McClain...

You have to mention Jack Kelly and Bill Bonds with Marilyn Turner.

[Downriviera]

Al Sobotka of ice resurfacing and octopi removal fame.

[rajdet]

I LOVED George Pierrot, he gave me the travel bug.

[G-DDT]

Check out page 3 of this thread! Bubba Helms [[an early precursor to many tacky photobombers-you know the ones!-who dip in pictures at funerals or selfie themselves at train wrecks and buildings burning)-just found out about that guy in a 1985 Detroit Monthly Magazine. Also, it is chilling to see Alan Almond and Marcus Belgrave on that page, seeing as they both passed away this year. I never saw either as being "B listers".

[Hermod]

Uncle Jack Erie with Cousin Clem on WEXL [[Royal Oak)

[G-DDT]

Gotta throw Mel Farr into the mix.

As someone pointed out 15 seconds into it, did he really say what it sounded like?

[douglasm]

Joel Sebastian and J. Michael Wilson, two DJ's that left Detroit for greener pastures. Joel to Chicago, J. Michael....along with Rodney The Rodent....to CHUM in Toronto.

[Dbest]

Add James Robertson...

[Oddz313]

Royce da 5'9
J Dilla
White boy rick
Butch Jones
Mazaratti Rick
Gil Hill

[prokopowicz]

Dick Vitale

[G-DDT]

Man! this is one creepy Twilight Zone of a Death Note thread. Just a day after I post Mel Farr, he dies, too. Guess this can be chalked up to that "they go in threes" theory.

[xdet]

Okay, my uncle worked for United Airlines and would run across some celebrities at times, like 'The Lady of Charm'
Edythe Fern Melrose, better known as the "Lady of Charm."


From The Detroit News:
"Another movie hostess was Edythe Fern Melrose, better known as the "Lady of Charm." She started her career in the 1920s as the first woman to manage a radio station. During the 1940s she hosted the "Lady of Charm" show, which moved to TV as a cooking and talk show with topics for women. It ran from 1948 until 1960.


In 1948, she built her "House O' Charm" on the shore of Lake St Clair. It was the first home to be built for testing all the products before she recommended them. Later, she added "The Charm Kitchen" which aired daily, and "House O' Fashion," a weekly show."

[xdet]

And going way back again, Harry Jarkey. I only knew of him as a result of his being a neighbor in East Detroit. He died recently at over 100 years of age. He was good friends with another Detroit area unknown- Amos Jacobs...okay who knows he wasn't a 'B' lister when he changed his name to....Danny Thomas. An interview with Harry- https://youtu.be/Xz4o5OyDKYQ
A page of old Detroit talent- http://www.detroitkidshow.com/jarkey.htm
And Harry-

[black gold man]

Was Fred Trost listed.
What about Fred Bear

[black gold man]

RIP John Greenwood http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...716-story.html

n his Chevrolet Impala SS 409, a young John Greenwood sliced through Detroit's dark hours along Woodward Avenue — a street known in the 1960s for street racing. After more lightweight vehicles zipped past him during such a contest, Greenwood bought a Corvette.
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Those initial Michigan nights were a platform off of which Greenwood dove into professional racing, ditching the streets in favor of the racetrack: the 12-hour Sebring, 24-hour Daytona, the Le Mans. He won championships and he promoted several races.
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"His fascination was mechanically with making the cars go fast more so than wanting notoriety from driving them," said his brother Burt Greenwood. "He wasn't one of those guys that is rabidly competitive. He would always make the statement, 'I want to make the car easy.'"
John Greenwood, 70, died July 7, of complications due to late-stage cancer.
"Well the car has to want to do it or I don't want to do it," Greenwood might have responded to the idea of his own bravery.


Greenwood, who built a golf cart at age 9, started his own business in tandem with his racing career. He initially sold engines, later expanding to sell aerodynamic parts for street cars, meant to imitate the vehicles of the racetrack.
"Racing became adjunct to business, and a means of showing off what you build," said Burt Greenwood. "He built his own engines. Anything mechanical, the guy just got on. He was more comfortable in the mechanical world."
On the track, Greenwood might've been found near his car, which was painted red, white and blue, wearing an American-flag jacket, hat or helmet.
"We just kind of felt like we were representing us," said Burt Greenwood. "It was an American car. Foreign sports cars dominated the classes in SCCA racing and Corvettes are in that part in the class where American cars are most dominant."
Greenwood's introduction to the Corvette came before he was 13 years old, when he spent his afternoons at the GM Tech Center, where his father had been an executive. On Saturdays, Greenwood tagged along with his dad while he got his haircut, then marveled at the show cars and street cars at the center.
Born in Indiana among seven siblings, Greenwood's early experience on the track came at a school in Waterford Hills. He eventually moved to Florida in 1974, lured by the races.
In Sanford, he continued his business at Greenwood Automotive Performance, Burt Greenwood said.
Greenwood was known to dress casually. He typically wore a baseball hat and sported a mustache. He was quiet, and when he wasn't participating in races, he was watching them. He listened to country music, including Taylor Swift in recent years. He watched action and the Hallmark Channel, too.
Ultimately, his racing career was tempered with his humility:
"He loved God and he was a decent-hearted gentleman."
In addition to his brother Burt Greenwood of Altamonte Springs, John Greenwood is survived by sons Tim Greenwood of Sorrento and Joe Greenwood of Apopka; sisters Lesley West of Denver, Chris Couture of Phoenix and Mary Greenwood of Dawsonville, Ga.; and four grandchildren.
Loomis Family Funeral Home, Apopka, handled arrangements

[black gold man]

Ivan Crawford

http://www.datsun.org/fairlady/Feb2009.htm

[G-DDT]

Anyone touch upon Lisa Frank? If so, I hope you had your insulin injection ready.

[G-DDT]

Alan Canty

[Mosie Ledbetter]

Morghus [[of "Morghus Presents' fame)
Lee Allen - 'The Horn"

[Jimaz]

Morghus [[of "Morghus Presents' fame)...

Morgus The Magnificent had more of a New Orleans presence than Detroit but he did appear in Detroit. He played the role of a mad scientist in a kid's show that played spooky movies. He'd allude to a secret organization that kids could join if they were sufficiently willing to become educated in the sciences. It was kind of a demented lure to get kids to do well in school.

He was ugly as sin by design but extremely creative.

[RickBeall]

Hard drinking midget, Captain Boblo!

[G-DDT]

I hold in my hand here a list....of Detroit personalities who definitely fit the bill for being infamous scoundrels. Now, while the Detroit area has it's hits and it's one-hit wonders, we've cranked out some that make us slap an ashamed palm over our wincing faces.

Now, while I can mention celebrities that many talk ill of here and elsewhere [[like Diana Ross, Ted Nugent, or even Madonna-because she sort of distanced herself from any connections to us), and I would never consider guys like Iggy Pop, Jerry Vile, or the transplanted [[now deceased) Dee Dee Ramone anywhere near being close to this list-so, I'll just stick to some ones who consciously had to act like d*cks:

G.G. Allin
Charlie LeDuff
Matty Moroun
Dr. Jack Kevorkian [[should've stuck to painting, Jack-at least, you are a hit in
Watertown, MA where the bombers were facing off with Feds)
Harry [[Taco) Bowman
Detroit News Reporter, Susan Agar
Jim Kiertzner [[yeah, starting off news reports about guys who like to run over geese with
puns like "goose bumps" ain't cutting it, Jimbo.)
Ty Cobb
I.C.P.
Lawrence Delisle
William J. H. Traynor
Jack Van Impe [[remember that film he did with John Hagee and the "Bishop" T. D. Jakes
that had Gary Busey, Howie Mandel, and Margot "I was in Playboy" Kidder playing
folks fighting the Anti-Christ who was enslaving folks with giant, clunky virtual reality
helmets-like the kind you'd see in Johnny Mnemonic or that S.N.L. commercial making fun of
books available in virtual reality helmet form?---of course, you don't.)
Donald Lobsinger
Harry Bennett
Walter Budzyn & Larry Nevers [[or Ronald Ebens & Michael Nitz, for that matter)
Mike Cox
Fr. Coughlin
Detroit World Outreach Pimp, Ben Gibert
J. Frank Norris
That guy who built all those cars on that marshy farmland-you know the guy, had a
friend named Orville. C'mon! you know the guy! He had an axe in every room-I think
his name was Biff.
GM Fall Gal, Mary Barra
That guy who breaks into an elderly woman's house, beats her up, and then says
"Ohhh, well I didn't know it was Rosa Parks."
Harry Belcher
L. Brooks Patterson
Any popular club monopoly magnate who tries to sabotage other clubs nights before
their opening night.
Anyone involved with the Russian mafia and date rape drug trafficking/usage.

[Lowell]

G-DDT what a great rogues gallery!

Today's Lesser Hall of Fame nominee, non-rogue that I know of, is Pastor Spencer T. Ellis, Citadel in Detroit.

He earns nomination based on this billboard currently on Grand River in Redford area.


And a little snippet of his style. [phrase]hah! [phrase]hah! [phrase]hah! [phrase]hah!...
https://youtu.be/TqQ1hJWwbPc

[jlnascar]

alright I made it to the end and two entries I have are not on the list. Sports broadcaster Don Shane and Bob Allison from Bowling for Dollars

[G-DDT]

Speaking of pimps....my brother reminded me to mention DIY strip club owner Jay Thunderbolt.