The Detroit History Podcast

Before radio, TV, and the internet magician Harry Houdini was described as the world's first rock star. So when he died in Detroit after a performance here in 1926, people around the world took note. We unspool Houdini's death, and his various Detroit connections. That includes his 1906 leap off the Belle Isle Bridge. Veteran newsman Joe Donovan, a serious student of history, recreates that jump i...

The Anchor Bar, situated on the western end of downtown Detroit, was once one of the country's best-known newspaper bars. As one of the city's most notorious watering holes, it was also the site of a federal raid because the feds thought one of its patrons was running a $15 million-a-year bookie operation (uh, it did have four telephones). After 60 years, the place has just changed ownership. We l...

Henry Ford's Dearborn Independent published a series of anti-Semitic articles in the 1920s. They gained wide traction, were translated into several languages and gathered in a four-volume series, The International Jew. Nearly 100 years later, The Dearborn Historian, an obscure quarterly publication, released a story examining this anti-Semitic propaganda. Dearborn's mayor mothballed the issue, and...

In the season finale of The Detroit History Podcast, we partnered with The Detroit Historical Museum to talk about the 1968 World Series between the Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals. The Detroit Tigers had Denny McLain, with his 31 victories that season, an accomplishment that will probably never be equaled. The Cardinals had Bob Gibson, who finished the season with a 1.12 ERA. Set again...

If Detroit was a sound, what would that sound be? Although some would say Motown, others say that sound would be Techno music. In this episode of The Detroit History Podcast we explain the birth of Techno in the 1980s, why its popular around the world -- particularly Berlin... and why it's as relevant now as it was when it came to the world's attention three decades ago. We also talk about how thr...

Metro Detroit boasts the largest local concentration of Arabs in North America, many of which settled in Dearborn. We trace that migration back more than a century. We follow how Ford's $5 day brought many immigrants here, to how chaos in the Middle East drove many families out of their country and to southeast Michigan. Special thanks to the Arab American National Museum for its contributions. 

In this episode of The Detroit History Podcast, we unravel the election and downfall of Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanagh and how he was one of the first mayors to engage Detroit's African-American community. We also discuss how the 1967 Detroit civil disturbance and an ill-advised run for the U.S. Senate put a damper on his previously-rising political career. 

The Detroit Red Wings in the 1950s were authentic fire on ice, racking up four Stanley Cups in six years. The team gave birth to "The Production Line" and the first woman team president of a major sports franchise, Marguerite Norris. An historic moment in sports history. We interview Ted Lindsay to uncover what drove the team.

It was one of the city's darkest moments and the panic would shortly spread across the country. Michigan Governor William Comstock closed Detroit's banks on Valentine's Day, 1933. Henry Ford was asked to bail out the banks, Ford said he thought the crash would have to come: "the general effect would be that everyone would have to get to work a little sooner; that it might be a very good thing."

This job no longer exists: the television horror movie host. They were local celebrities, and pillars of local pop culture. Here in Detroit, we had Sir Graves Ghastly and Morgus, among others. In our upcoming episode, The Detroit History Podcast interviews Ron Sweed (The Ghoul), who explains how The Ghoul came to be. And, why the firecrackers? He used to blow up everything from toys to pierogies. 

This edition of the Detroit History Podcast tells the story of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's amazing leap in the 1920s, from B-list band to Carnegie Hall  in 10 years . Conductor Ossip Gabrilowitsch directed the effort..The players in this drama include Mark Twain, Horace Dodge, Pope Pius XII. And, oh, Orchestra Hall went up in less than five months. 

In this episode of The Detroit History Podcast, we hear a rare recording of a confrontation between Coleman A. Young and a congressional committee in 1952. Many people pleaded their Fifth Amendment rights when the House of Un-American Activities Committee came to town looking for Reds. But a young labor organizer, Coleman Young, gave better than he got, telling his inquisitors: "you have me mixed...

The Beatles came to Detroit twice, once in 1964 and again in 1966, both times at Olympia Stadium. We'll hear the screams when the Fab Four took the stage at Olympia. We'll also hear two eastsiders talk about Beatlemania. And what about those jellybeans?