Grandma's House - 19624 Moross, Detroit, MI 48224

This is my grandmother's house.  The embedded images are from the 70's.

Who says you can't go back?

Jon DeLorean 10th Deathaversary and Death Hag Sticker of the Day March 19, 2015

John DeLorean 

January 6, 1929 - March 19, 2005

John DeLorean created this legendary stainless steel sports car.

He was also largely responsible for the creation of my dream muscle car, the GTO.

This one belongs to Rodney Bingenheimer.  He's absolutely worthy of looking up.

The DeLorean car became legendary when it was featured in the Back to the Future films.

DeLorean died of a stroke at the Overlook Hospital in Summit New Jersey.  He was 80 years old.

John was embalmed and shipped back to Detroit to the Desmond Funeral Home. 

My brother Rick went to the visitation,  "He was wearing blue jeans and a black leather motorcycle jacket.  He looked pretty cool."  Rick also took these amazing photograph of the DeLorean's lined up outside in the snow.

The funeral home made sure no one touched him or took pictures.  It was a jam packed visitation.  I heard a rumor that one cell phone casket pic was taken, but I haven't seen it.  There was a private family funeral the next day.

John DeLoreanwas cremated and buried with military honors in White Chapel Cemetery.

Rad (that's the word the kids are using today, right?) DeLorean Products are available at DMOCO

The Lone Pine Mall was in reality the 

Back to the Future - in Griffith Park!

The Fire at the Helin Mansion AND Throwback Thursday

When I was a kid, I used to love to go fishing.  Myself and a friend would get up at 5am and ride our bikes a few miles to Lake St. Clair, hop a fence and sit there for hours listening to a transistor radio and getting nothing.

I didn't want to use an alarm clock (too loud) so I would tie a string to my finger and a bolt on the other end of the string.  I hung the bold outside my 2nd floor window and John would wake me up by pulling the string.  I haven't thought about that in years until just now.  It's weird, the stuff you remember.

Maybe we'd catch a perch or a carp... maybe a sheephead.  Vile.

Oh look, girl caught a fish.

When we were bored we would walk around the cement break-wall around the lake and look at the beautiful mansions of Windmill Pointe Road.  Some of these houses put Beverly Hills to shame.

One day we met a guy who introduced himself to us as Randy Helin.  He made fishing lures.  He took us to a work room/gardner's shed (remember, this was when you could still trust people) and showed us a few things he was working on.  He treated us like humans, not like kids.  It's a great memory.

I learned later on that Randy was the son of Charles Helin, of the Helin Fishing Tackle Company.

 Charles Helin 

Image from Helin Tackle Collector

I found the black and white photographs of the Helin mansion on the Detroit Yes forum.

March 18, 1978, the Helin Mansion was torched by an arsonist.

Richard Tucker, a veteran firefighter, was killed as a result of the horrific fire.

I've always been obsessed with the horrible and tragic.  My pal Geoff and I took a bike ride up to the mansion to watch it being destroyed.   The ruins were spectacular.

 I brought along my Super 8 movie camera (silent) and shot this video.  Forgive the terrible quality.

The next day when I was delivering The Detroit News on my paper route, I opened the paper and saw the photo of the ruins.  Then I noticed the person in the center of the picture.   That's me.
My pal Geoff is to the right.

 I ran home to show my parents, leaving my bike behind.  It got ripped off. 

Ahh, Detroit.  We had a lot of laughs.

Charles Helin died in 1979.

Rita Bell of Prize Movie - Detroit Icon Findadeath Update

Rita Bell

June 16, 1925 - December 9, 2003

She was a Detroit television icon. 

She was singing with big bands when a television executive met her at a gig and offered her the job as the first female weather caster.

She also appeared once in the western Big Valley.  Listen, in Detroit that was huge.  (I remember we had a traffic helicopter reporter named Jo Jo Shutty McGregor who had A LINE in an episode of Barnaby Jones.  The channel did special commercials for that shit.)

Lovely Rita was best known for her morning movie show, Prize Movie.  When television went from black and white to color, The hostess introduced over 6000 movies in the show's 21-year-run, making her Detroit Royalty.

I became a fan of Al Hirt because she used Cotton Candy for her theme song.

In one of the most beloved segments of her show, Rita would phone people and ask them to identify a song she which she played a snippet of.

The prizes ranged from cash ($7 to the winner, if they flubbed it, it would go in the pot for the next call) to electric can openers.

Back in the early 70's, a pal of mine and I had a thing for making prank phone calls.  Once, before my voice changed, I got my portable record player out and phoned some random man from the phone book.  I pretended to be Rita.  Honest.  I played a song and told the guy he would win a Speed Queen Washer and Dryer.  He was terrific and played along.  I don't remember if he guessed it right.

After Rita's show was cancelled to make way for the new wave of morning programming (think AM Detroit, AM Chicago AM etc, or Phil Donahue...) Rita retired and moved with her husband Jerome Hanson to San Diego.  Jerome was a retired reporter from the Detroit Free Press.  According to some reports Rita became a media consultant, I've also heard she was selling real estate.

Either way, this is where she lived.

This is also where she died.  The Bell tolled for Rita on Tuesday December 9.

Colon cancer

She was 78

Her husband must have been ex-military.

A memorial mass was held and Rita is inurned in the Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego.

Her shit got auctioned.  I am so jealous.

Trivia:

Rita's Favorite Movie:  Gone with the Wind

Least Favorite:  House of Women

RIP Rita.  You made taking school sick days, (or fake sick days) a bit more fun.

and Flo, she don't know...

 A few bricks from the Brewster Projects in Detroit where that skinny bitch from The Supremes grew up.

A new addition to our Museum!

photo nicked from Curbed Detroit

Thanks to my buddy Jeff Lockhart for being on the scene for us!

Six Million Dollar Dearly Departed Tour

While watching an episode of the Six Million Dollar Man today, as you do, I found this particular frame of Steve Austin running through a random parking lot.

Well, not so random.  This is in Hollywood, where the W Hotel now stands.

But 10 years ago, it looked like this.

Oh wait, this is Dawn, Portrait of a Teenage Runaway.  I watched that yesterday.

Here the parking lot in the Six Million Dollar Man

Here is one of the original publicity shots I did for Dearly Departed Tours 10 Years Ago.

Coincidence??  I think not.

Did I ever tell you about the conversation I had with Lee Majors?

Back around 1998 I spent some time with him.  When I told him I was from Detroit, he responded, "My parents were killed and are buried in Detroit."  

Weird conversation starter, but terrific guy.

When in Hollywood, visit 

Friday Night Ruin Porn

For a couple of yearsI worked as a projectionist at the Madison Theater in downtown Detroit.

Gone.

New Addition to the Dearly Departed Tours Museum

Another sad addition to the Museum in Dearly Departed Tours

HELL, UPSIDE DOWN - New Year's Eve

Tomorrow night we will say "SEE YA" to 2014.  Troy and I traditionally ring in the New Year by watching the film The Poseidon Adventure.  Not that Kurt Russell shit, but the REAL one with Shelley Winters, Stella Stevens, Red Buttons, Gene Hackman and and and...

This film was the first PG I had ever seen.  It was showing near my house at the old Civic Theater in Detroit.   Gratuitous ruin porn picture.

If you are considering something low-key to ring in 2015, do what we do.  At about 11:30pm grab your dvd of the Original 1972 version of The Poseidon Adventure and hit play and PAUSE immediately.  At exactly 11:35 and 6 seconds hit PLAY immediately.

Pour your non-alchoholic apple shit, try to keep your eyes open until midnight and ring it in with Shelley and the gang.

Works perfectly.

Full Theatrical Trailer

One of my favorite celebrity encounters was meeting Ernie Orsatti, the stuntman who fell onto the glass window. This is certainly one of the most iconic stunts in movie history.

Earworm of the day: