"Detroit is happening" Willie Horton 1967

[CassTechGrad]

I’ve never seen or heard of this commercial clip before, from 1967. This is the Detroit Tigers great Willie Horton talking about how fabulous living in Detroit is with Motown singers Supremes [[minus Diana) backing him!!

http://www.mcrfb.com/files/commerica...0Happening.MP3

[401don]

Always important not to release your summer job opportunities record just before a riot breaks out.

[EastsideAl]

Well now, that's a fun find. A real time capsule of the attempt by many people to try to keep a light, fluffy lid on things, even as tensions rose.

On a side note, I've often heard a story about how Willie [[my favorite Tiger in those days) went out on 12th St. on the first day of the riot, perhaps in his uniform, to try to calm things down. Anyone happen to know if there's any confirmation or evidence that this story is actually true?

[401don]

Well now, that's a fun find. A real time capsule of the attempt by many people to try to keep a light, fluffy lid on things, even as tensions rose.

On a side note, I've often heard a story about how Willie [[my favorite Tiger in those days) went out on 12th St. on the first day of the riot, perhaps in his uniform, to try to calm things down. Anyone happen to know if there's any confirmation or evidence that this story is actually true?

Definitely happened. He talks about standing on the roof of a car in full uniform trying to get people to listen to him in his book, "The People's Champion". You should pick it up. I got to meet him when he was autographing copies at Comerica a few yrs. ago. He also mentions a similar incident in 1975. Coleman Young came to his nightclub, Club 23, and asked him to go and talk to a mob of about 700 who had gathered at an intersection after a boy was shot. He says the boy had actually robbed his wife's car twice previously.

[Beech Cricker]

On a side note, I've often heard a story about how Willie [[my favorite Tiger in those days) went out on 12th St. on the first day of the riot, perhaps in his uniform, to try to calm things down. Anyone happen to know if there's any confirmation or evidence that this story is actually true?

I posed this same question at this site some time ago. If memory serves it wasn't received all that well, as in "How can you question Willie?" Alas, it seems Willie is the only "witness" to his being in the midst of the riots. I've yet to find an account from someone else that was there.