Soupy Sales and the Detroit Experience


Book Description

When Soupy Sales left Detroit in 1960 after seven years on WXYZ TV, he was the highest-paid local television personality and one of the most well-known and loved celebrities in town. His daytime television programs in the early morning and noontime had an enormous and devoted following. The latter, Lunch with Soupy Sales, was nationally syndicated on ABC on Saturday, starting in the fall of 1959. His late evening program, Soupyâ (TM)s On, featured everything from renowned jazz artists to pop singers to satirical skits. While he would achieve more celebrity status in Los Angeles and New York during the 1960s, the template for the puppet characters, comedy routines, and zany sketches had been set in Detroit. This study of the content and context of Soupyâ (TM)s time on WXYZ TV provides important insights into key threads of popular culture in the 1950s, including the role of television and its impact on the family and children, the influence of Cold War and consumerist ideology, Jewish-inflected humor, and jazz, especially as a component of the Detroit socio-cultural history in this period. All of these seemingly disparate topics, however, lead back to identifying the manufacturing of a television personality at a particular moment in time and in a specific location. Beyond the network of Soupy fans, anyone interested in how a television personality achieves local and national prominence should consider reading this book. Also, those who want to understand the role of the media and popular culture in the 1950s will be enlightened, and even entertained, by this exploration of Soupy Salesâ (TM) Detroit experience.




The Mayor's Daughter


Book Description

A "Mayors Daughter" shines a spotlight on history of ordinary people from the greatest generation. The memories of Therese Christman generates a dynamic story which is birthed in the great depression and then accelerates to the greatest overflow of prosperity the world has ever known. A daughters memories, a father of fame and a renowned internationally known priest combine to bring a trilogy of a true story of a Michigan city, of a culture and of a society that was fashioned by grace to greatness through hard work, resilience of spirit, sacrifice of self and above all, a vision with leadership. Up from a small Midwestern community, came these two men, who by divine intervention found themselves in the broader stretch of community fame, social prominence and a cultural revolution. This story becomes compelling because it captures the amazing transformation of a community by one man's leadership. And the ultimate salvation of a society by another man's influence through eloquent radio broadcasting. This translates to special people with greatness of vision, motivated by love and that inner call that brings a profound change to the societies in which great men and women live. Henceforth the book ... "the Mayors Daughter." Finally, this book, through the memories of a daughter, rehearses historyin the City of Royal Oak, Michigan that now includes one of the top medical centers in the world - and all because of one man's vision and leadership. Moreover the freedom of the American culture, in part, is derived from a Catholic priest who dared to speak out against the evils of communism and the social depression that it causes. The memories of a daughter, form a trilogy to reveal history in some of its greatest triumphs. This book is a must read.




Beloved Sisters and Loving Friends


Book Description

Rebecca Primus was the daughter of a prominent black Connecticut family who was sent south during Reconstruction by the Hartford Freedmen's Aid Society to teach newly freed slaves. Addie Brown was a domestic servant in Connecticut and New York City--as well as Rebecca's best friend and romantic companion. These two spirited, intelligent women wrote letters in this astonishing, historically priceless volume. Beloved Sisters and Loving Friends breaks the long silence surrounding the lives of black women in America and reveals an amazing world until now unknown. "I have today put my second class into the third Reader," wrote Rebecca from the school in Maryland's Eastern Shore that was later to bear her name. "I hear the President Johnson expect to be in Hartford the 26th," exclaimed Addie. "I wish some of them present him with a ball through his head." Shared passion, ambitions, frustrations, politics, gossip, all the fascinating minutiae of daily life, give these unique letters extraordinary flavor and richness--and offer us an unprecedented piece of American history.







School of Music, Theatre & Dance (University of Michigan) Publications


Book Description

Includes miscellaneous newsletters (Music at Michigan, Michigan Muse), bulletins, catalogs, programs, brochures, articles, calendars, histories, and posters.




School of Music Programs


Book Description







Hopes and Expectations


Book Description

Describes in rich detail African American daily life among free blacks in the North in the 1860s. Based on a treasure trove of more than two hundred personal letters written in the 1860s, Hopes and Expectations tells the story of three young African Americans in the North. Living on Maryland’s eastern shore, schoolteacher Rebecca Primus sent “home weeklies” to her parents in Hartford and also corresponded with friend Addie Brown, a domestic worker back home. Addie wrote voluminously to Rebecca, lamenting their separation and describing her struggle to achieve a semblance of security and stability. Around the same time, Rebecca’s brother, Nelson, began writing home about his new life in Boston, as he set out to make a name and a career for himself as an artist. The letters describe their daily lives and touch on race, class, gender, religion, and politics, offering rare entry into individual black lives at that time. Through extensive archival research, Barbara J. Beeching also shows how the story of the Primus family intersects with changes over time in Hartford’s black community and the country. Newspapers and census tracts, as well as probate, land, court, and vital records help her trace an arc of local black fortunes between 1830 and 1880. Seeking full equality, blacks sought refinement and respectability through home ownership, literacy, and social gains. One of the many paradoxes Beeching uncovers is that just as the Civil War was tearing the nation apart, a recognizable black middle class was emerging in Hartford. It is a story of individuals, family, and community, of expectation and disappointment, loss and endurance, change and continuity. “This is a powerful book and a truly important story. Beeching provides a richly detailed survey of life in Connecticut, the political and racial climates at various historical moments, and the web of intraracial and interracial networks that informed the Primus family experiences. Multifaceted and thoroughly absorbing, Hopes and Expectations will reintroduce people to a New England that they thought they knew.” — Lois Brown, author of Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins: Black Daughter of the Revolution




Divining, a Memoir in Trees


Book Description

Essays exploring the intimate yet universal intersection of one human life with trees. A 2024 selection by the Sierra Club, Wisconsin Chapter Book Club Finalist for the Midwest Book Awards! In sixteen essays, each named after a species of tree, Maureen Dunphy explores the nature of human-arboreal relationships, and how each of these trees has—literally—served as a friend, a confidante, or a place to rest. The depth and diversity of these relationships are revealed through essays that are both intimate and universal, moving and informative. While Dunphy's relationships with trees are unique and personal, her work reveals the deep-rooted complexity that connects all of humanity to our staunch, upright companions in life, the members of the "Standing Nation." Beyond providing oxygen, food, and shelter, trees can be sites of emotional refuge, sources of intellectual enrichment, and a boon to physical, mental, and spiritual health. With essays, such as "Stairway to Heaven: The American Sycamore" and "Rocky Mountain High: The Colorado Pinyon," Dunphy gives readers many ways to reimagine our relationships with nature and self. Within reflections of her personal experience, she skillfully integrates scientific facts to achieve a balance of passion and practicality. While technology, screens, and the stress of the modern world directs our attention elsewhere, Dunphy brings the reader back to the trees right outside our windows.