Old Detroit Bars

[Fury13]

The Willis Show Bar building [[Third and Willis, SE corner) was for sale a short time ago for something like $500,000. It's owned by a florist in Birmingham, or was at that time. It would be cool to see that reopen... it's one of the few remaining old streamline moderne bar buildings with an enameled-porcelain exterior [[now painted over). Architecturally, it's very similar to the long-gone Flame Show Bar.

[drjeff]

Took the folks to Gold Dollar for they 45th wedding anniversary, had a blast, this be in, oh, 1998 I reckon, and they had that hot waitress there too, place was very smokey. Dad has millions of stories having lived downtown in the 50's & 60's and playing pool in all those bars. Jumbo's is another sweet place and fine establishment where the beer was always cold and most times - free. I think it closed now.

I haven't been in Jumbo's myself but I drive by there often and it is still open. The building even got a new coat of green paint recently.

[EastsideAl]

Jumbo's is still very much open. The last survivor of the once-infamous Third Ave. strip, although as indicated above it's a pretty different place from the old days.

Sweetheart had those old high-backed bar stools from the '70s that you used to see around town. Allowed you to almost hide in the bar. The place always seemed to smell vaguely of vomit though.

[EastsideAl]

The Willis Show Bar building [[Third and Willis, SE corner) was for sale a short time ago for something like $500,000. It's owned by a florist in Birmingham, or was at that time. It would be cool to see that reopen... it's one of the few remaining old streamline moderne bar buildings with an enameled-porcelain exterior [[now painted over). Architecturally, it's very similar to the long-gone Flame Show Bar.

The Willis was the last place in town I think that had an old-style "exotics" show like the Flame and other black-and-tan venues in town used to have. It was pretty threadbare and down at the heels by the time I caught it in the late '70s, but they still had an ancient Redd Foxx style dirty joke telling comic, and a pretty damn funky organist who tried his best to rock the joint from to console of his B-3. However, everyone in there was either sleeping in a stupor of some sort, or sporadically heckling the rest of the "entertainment" because they were impatiently awaiting the strippers, who all seemed to be about 45 years old or more and had lived hard lives on their way to that age.

[EastsideAl]

An addendum:

A few years later I was in a language class with a woman of a certain age who projected an impressive and rather regal bearing, and who, as it turned out, had once worked as an "exotic" and toured much of the country and the world in the company of some great jazz musicians. She had been a featured dancer at the Flame, and indeed her name appears on the Flame marquee on the cover of the Arcadia book "The Birth of the Detroit Sound, 1940-1964."

I drove her home a few times to save her a cold, damp wait on the bus, and along the way heard some of her stories of going to Japan with JC Heard's band, hanging out with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, etc. When I asked her about the Willis Show Bar she crinkled up her nose and said, "Honey, I never played there, that place was like a toilet."

[Bodybagging]

I thought Joe the owner had been Shot and killed thus the demise of The Sweetheart Bar, I know That the previous owner of Jumbos, Robby died when his TransAm flipped over on 75 back in the 90's. I remember hearing stories of how Jumbos USED to be compared to how it was in the 90s, when I would stop in from time to time.
Sidenote* a couple of interesting or maybe not so interesting facts about Charlottes lounge.
1. it can be seen in the opening clips of Beverly Hills Cop, My old friend Rabbit ,is sitting outside as they drive by.
2.The owner Joe, was a cmbat pilot in World War 2 , he flew P-38s
3.There was a one armed Chinese man that could out shoot anyone in a game of pool.

[RickBeall]

I love bar stories.

[1KielsonDrive]

I love bar stories.

I'm with you on this one, Rick. Keep 'em coming.

[Fury13]

Seems that the Third St. strip was once pretty lively. It would interesting to add a reopened Third St. Saloon, as well as a rehabbed Anderson's Garden and Willis Show Bar... without the former incarnations' illegal activities, of course.

[dookie joe]

Bodybag, I probably know you, since I, too, grew up in the Corridor during the 70s. I knew Rabbit very well; I understand he's moved out of the Corridor, which officially marks the neighborhood's demise, since Rabbit WAS the Cass Corridor.

I also knew his brothers and sisters -- Ronnie, Bugs, Murphy, Dootsie, and the entire Burgess clan -- along with Rabbit's adoptive father, Pete. Let's just say that Rabbit turned out differently than his siblings!

As far as bar stories go, there are a million of 'em. The Charlotte Lounge used to be called the Gaiety Bar, where a lot of thugs went. Basically that crowd would bounce from one bar to the other until someone did something to get them banned for a few months. At any given time, they'd hang out at Sabbs, the Corner Pub [[which used to be the Red Dog), the Penguin, etc.

And, of course, after hours everyone went to Andy Coon's blind pig. Believe it or not, I talked to a guy not long ago who said Andy is still alive. That's hard to believe, since the man has been 80 years old for the past 30 years!!!

I was a kid of about 14-15 hanging out in these bars with people whose mugshots can now be found on the OTIS offender website. It's a wonder I didn't end up in prison with them. Luck, I guess.

One of my favorite stories happened after I'd moved out of the Corridor. I was shooting pool in the old Park-Henry Bar with a friend from SW Detroit. As I was leaning over the pool table lining up my shot, I saw a man standing at the other end of the table, holding a pair of used men's underwear, smiling at me. My initial fleeting thought was that the man was gay and trying to pick me up; then it dawned on me that he was trying to sell the underwear to me.

I got annoyed and said something to the effect of "Hell no, I don't want to buy a pair of used underwear, get out of here." It would make for a better story to say the underwear was stained, but they weren't -- but they also were most certainly not new; just a dingy pair of tighty-whities.

After I told the man I didn't want what he was selling, he skulked out of the bar. I told my buddy, "Man, I wish I would've asked how much he wanted for them, just for curiosity's sake." What's the market price for one pair of used men's underwear? A dollar would be too much; a quarter, maybe?

Another guy in the same bar tried to sell me a box full of odds and ends that included a coat hanger, a used wallet and -- I swear to God -- a half-full jar of peanut butter. He wanted a buck for the whole inventory. I told him no thanks.

It was hard growing up in the 48201 zip code, which at the time was the nation's poorest. But now that I'm an adult, I wouldn't have it any other way. You learned a lot growing up there, and the Corridor will be with me until the day I die.

[dookie joe]

Does anyone here remember the taxi dancing place above the Sassy Cat Theater? As an 8-year-old kid, my friend and I broke in there -- not to steal anything, but just because.

Also, did anyone from the Corridor know about the peephole at the back of the Sassy Cat? My little brother found it while walking our dog. There was a cubby hole in the alley which led to the theater's rarely-used rear exit. Someone had carved an opening in the space where the two wood doors met, and you could look in and see the screen, only a few feet away. It was quite an education for a prepubescent snot-nosed kid!

[dookie joe]

Elmers Bar, is or was located,where Honest Johns is today. What about the Red Dog?

Actually, I think Honest John's is where the old Selden Bar used to be. It's half the old Selden Bar and half the Selden BBQ -- I think. Elmer's was nearby, though.

The Red Dog, which later became the Corner Pub, was at the corner of 3rd and Selden.

[Jimg]

Hey Eastside, is that lady [[Rosita?) associated with the Flame still alive?

[RickBeall]

Dookie Joe wrote:
>>the taxi dancing place above the Sassy Cat Theater

Wow! That's an interesting detail!! During what years was that done?

[EastsideAl]

Dookie Joe wrote:
>>the taxi dancing place above the Sassy Cat Theater

Wow! That's an interesting detail!! During what years was that done?

Are you talking about the Artison Studios [[dime-a-dance)? It was there into the late '70s.

[EastsideAl]

Hey Eastside, is that lady [[Rosita?) associated with the Flame still alive?

I have no idea. I knew her almost 25 years ago now. She lived on Dexter a few blocks north of the Boulevard.

[Bodybagging]

Dookie Joe, I can Believe that you most likely know me, and if not me, my mother for sure.
Ive been sitting here for a few days trying to remember Andy Coons name, I cannot believe he is still alive, and surprised about Rabbit as well. I was a lil younger than Murphy and knew them all, in fact can even recall some of the elders as well, Franky and Johnny.
I vaguely remember the Penquin Bar, and definitely remember the Peep Hole behind the SassyCat, it was a right of passage, Im not sure how I came about it but can remember being there with a friend or two from time to time.

[softailrider]

Anybody remember the topless shoe shine place? I'm pretty sure it was on 3rd, a block or two down from Jumbo's. When CAY was mayor, it was a wild part of the city. Then they put a casino to the west and a stadium to the east, it was never the same after that.

[econ expat]

Anybody remember the topless shoe shine place? it was a wild part of the city. Then they put a casino to the west and a stadium to the east, it was never the same after that.

Gentrified

Some boast about living in the corridor NOW.

Real estate prices forced out those who found refuge in the corridor during hard times.

[terryh]

Does anyone here remember the taxi dancing place above the Sassy Cat Theater? As an 8-year-old kid, my friend and I broke in there -- not to steal anything, but just because.

Also, did anyone from the Corridor know about the peephole at the back of the Sassy Cat? My little brother found it while walking our dog. There was a cubby hole in the alley which led to the theater's rarely-used rear exit. Someone had carved an opening in the space where the two wood doors met, and you could look in and see the screen, only a few feet away. It was quite an education for a prepubescent snot-nosed kid!

Youre my kind of guy dookie lol...weren't there strippers that worked the stage and audience? I read about the taxi dancing place in an article awhile back...

[terryh]

ahh the memories we have.....memories....mysty morning melancholy memories......

[RickBeall]

I'd love to hear more about the taxi-dancing. That is the kind of thing I would like to write a song about [[I'm an amateur musician). Where did you see the article on taxi dancing? Its hard to believe it survived on into the late 1970's.

[terryh]

I'd love to hear more about the taxi-dancing. That is the kind of thing I would like to write a song about [[I'm an amateur musician). Where did you see the article on taxi dancing? Its hard to believe it survived on into the late 1970's.

I can't recall which periodical I read the article in Rick. Just do a Google search...

[pgn421]

Dookie- Do you remember Motown Coney Island? 3rd and Selden?Wolfman?

[Bodybagging]

DookieJoe do you remember, CURLY, He was a Homeless Wino down in the corridor during the 70s, used to wear shirts for pants, I seen him thrown out of Sabbs on a 100 occasions.
Although everyone was always mean to him, I can remember How sad everyone was when they found him froze to death in a old car behinds Freds keyshop.
How about the White Grove? I wonder if Freida Still owns it after all of these years.