“Jimmy Mack! Jimmy Mack!! When are you Coming Back? My Jimmy Mack! (Release 1967 – #10 in US peak charts, #1 US R & B, #21UK) was the hit Motown tune I heard on the phone while waiting to speak to Annette Beard-Helton. An original Vandella. I had met the Original Vandellas […]
David Clements
The flyer for the 45th Anniversary of the Heavenly Stars of Detroit is reminiscent of the large posters that gospel music promoters used to staple and nail to telephone poles and wooden walls around Detroit. A national gospel act – The Brooklyn Allstars – will headline the show. This group has been performing since 1950 […]
Mateen Cleave, Flint native and a favorite athlete, met me at Berston Field House on Saginaw Street to assist in location scouting for an upcoming music video for his friend Jon Connor, rapper and producer. Guerilla Hollywood Productions flies in from L.A. next week to shoot. Berston is the home to nearly every African-American athlete […]
Green exterior paint sales had a brief boom-now fading. Last I read, the City of Detroit had over 200 green beacons of hope. Medical marijuana dispensaries. This new business life in Detroit is coming off rapid growth, now that the City is beginning to monitor and regulate the location of stores established […]
Bikers for Christ are looking for new members. Detroit Renegades are staked out on W. 8 Mile between Woodward and John R St. with their own outdoor advertising display signaling their presence. Sin City Deciples and Satan’s Sidekick Motorcycle Clubs of Detroit are rumored to be looking for new members. […]
“When we bought this building in 2001, all the buildings on Michigan Avenue were occupied, even with a bad economy”. Now they are nearly all empty or gone. For 15 years Angel and Gladys Cancel have kept Angel’s Place Restaurant open, serving food from their home, Puerto Rico. The interior is very basic, with homeland […]
I have never seen a more patriotic business on a summer day. In the clean morning light, the business vibrantly calls for recognition in Detroit. Flags flying, green grass, flowers, and layers of security. “You never know who may just walk right in and try to rob me”. He has permits for multiple guns and […]
Talking Shops: Detroit Commercial Folk Art is now available in paperback from Amazon and Wayne State University Press. Photographer David Clements captures a gloriously funky array of Detroit’s urban folk art”…Detroit Free Press. I have selected 10 images from the 135 photo publication for review. All photos are ephemera. Painted to attract business, warn off […]
THE STAGING AREA on Woodward Ave. in the Detroit Culture Center began to fill early in the morning with a wide variety of marching bands, floats, clowns, horses, all in a festive mood on this grey damp day. Sousaphone players brought up the rear of the massive Marysville High School Band numbering over 175 members. […]
Editor’s Note: This interview was written in October of 2015. Lottie passed away on Feb. 29, 2020. You can read more about it here. Now age 85, Lottie The Body Graves maintains a loving home with her current husband. She invited me to sit at the kitchen table. Spread out were PR photo images. “Pick out […]