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#30 Ann Arbor Stories: The Embassy Hotel
If you've seen the Embassy Hotel since 1951, you'll know it doesn't look like anything special. It's wrapped in dull grey siding and the signs on the side of the building are old, and its clientele probably wouldn’t be welcomed with open arms at too many other Ann Arbor hotels. But the Embassy is special. It's been a haven for people down on their luck since the Great Depression. It survived when so many other hotels in that area didn't. And it was once blessed by His Holiness, Baba Hardev Singh Ji. Take some time to get to know this historic diamond in the rough.
Music by Hollow & Akimbo
Parental Listener Warning: This episode contains brief references to prostitution, the Great Depression, and the problem of homelessness in America.
See photos of the Embassy Hotel building and learn more in the AADL Old News archives.
Media
#29 Ann Arbor Stories: Public Animal No. 1
Dozens of cities tried - hundreds of lawmen failed. Ann Arbor was the only place in the world that could cage punk rock’s most anarchic, violent and revolting personality. Think Iggy Pop crossed with Charles Manson - the crossed with Charles Manson - the voice of Randy Macho Man Savage with enough of a connection with serial killer John Wayne Gacy to develop a father-son bond. Public animal number one. The man, the infamous legend: GG Allin.
Music by GG Allin.
Parental Listener Warning:This episode is definitely rated R and is not suitable for most people, let alone little ones. It contains swear words (even the big ones) and contains references to poo, throwing poo, eating poo, violence, torture, drug use, blood, suicide, and Peoria, Illinois.
Learn more about this story in the AADL Old News archives.
Media
#28 Ann Arbor Stories: The Blind Pig
On February 23, 2017, Swisher Commercial listed the Blind Pig and 8-Ball Saloon for sale. 6,970 square feet, two stories, two half baths, no bedrooms, and no list price. Best offer only. Liquor license included. The origins of the building, the Blind Pig and how this isn't the first time Ann Arbor has freaked out about the future of the Pig.
Music by Lightning Love.
Parental Listener Warning: This episode contains references to alcohol, topless go-go dancers, Soundgarden, and blues music.
Learn more about this story in the AADL Old News archives.
Media
#27 Ann Arbor Stories: The Torch Murders
In the pre-dawn hours in August 1931, a farmer in Ypsilanti reported a car on fire at the edge of his property. When police and firefighters arrived and extinguished the flames, they found a grisly scene that shocked the state. Four bodies, burned nearly beyond recognition, were found inside the vehicle, which was intentionally set on fire.
They called them the Torch Murders, and the entire story—from the crime itself to the manhunt that apprehended the killers to the insane criminal proceedings, would forever change law enforcement and the justice system in the state.
For more on the the Torch Murders, visit oldnews.aadl.org.
Media
#26 Ann Arbor Stories: Henry Ford's Enforcer
The most powerful person ever to live in Ann Arbor was Harry Bennett—Henry Ford's right hand man, union buster and general enforcer. Bennett lived behind the walls of Bennett's Castle at 5668 Geddes Road, where he ran the Ford Motor Company security division by fear and intimidation. He employed murderers, gangsters, and bad men of all types, and he was a signature away from becoming the president of Ford so many years ago. This is his story.
Music by Chris Bathgate
Media
#25 Ann Arbor Stories: The Red Light District
There was a time in Ann Arbor’s not-so-distant past when a part of town was widely known as the red light district. Adult bookstores, topless massage parlors, prostitutes, hoodlums, and bums—all just blocks from City Hall and Ann Arbor police headquarters. Cops were raiding massage parlors every few months, rounding up a dozen massage workers at a time, but the arrests never made a dent. Crackdowns on prostitutes and the johns who solicited them didn’t make much impact either. The red light district regenerated. Persisted. Grew stronger.
How did Ann Arbor become home to this kind of brazen adult fare?
Music by FAWNN
Learn more in the AADL Old News Archives.
Media
Perfect Pies & Tarts
Watch Keegan C. Rodgers, Head Baker at the People's Food Co-Op, lead a hands-on workshop on how to make the perfect pie dough.
Learn the difference between pies and tarts, understand the different fillings and crusts for pies and tarts, and understand how to blind bake a pie shell.
This event was co-sponsored by the People's Food Co-Op.
Media
#24 Ann Arbor Stories: Proud History of Punching Nazis in the Face
Police spotted the Nazis in their rented U-Haul at the edge of the city around 11 am— two hours before anyone expected them to arrive. Fifteen members of the S.S. Action Group out of Westland—sitting three in the front and 12 in the back, riot shields and jackboots bouncing over every pothole.
It was March 20, 1982, and a crowd of 2,000 anti-Nazi demonstrators were about to show the world what Ann Arbor thought of their Aryan visitors.
Music by Diego and the Dissidents.
Learn more about this story in the AADL Old News Archives.
Media
#23 Ann Arbor Stories: The Clairvoyant Physician
In a time of spirits, specters, and the people who could contact them - Daniel B. Kellogg fit right in. The good doctor could diagnose you in person or halfway across the country—see inside you and prescribe the perfect cure—despite having no formal medical training. He needed only his keen sense of the spirit world and the ghosts of two medicine men to help with long distance cases. This is the story of Ann Arbor's clairvoyant physician and the family empire he built right in Lower Town.
Music by Hollow & Akimbo.
Special thanks to Katie Reeves for suggesting this topic, and our enduring thanks to the Ann Arbor District Library archives staff for providing many of our research materials.
Learn more about this story in the Old News archives.
Media
#22 Ann Arbor Stories: For All the Marbles
That spring in 1936, seven years into the Great Depression, the entire city of Ann Arbor, age 14 and under, lost their marbles over the biggest sporting event the city had ever known. Hundreds of kids battled for 26 coveted spots in a tournament that could determine their futures. It was the 1936 Ann Arbor Daily News Marbles Tournament, pitting the best shooters in the best schools in the city against each other for an all expenses paid trip to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to compete in the Western Finals. The champion of the west would punch his or her ticket to the National Marbles Tournament on the Jersey Shore, and a chance at marbles immortality.
Music by Stepdad.
Learn more about this story in the Old News archives.