Counter Culture Warriors
At first glance, these look like concert posters from the acid-tripping, free-loving, anti-war San Francisco of the 1960s, right? Look again. Believe it or not, they're from Detroit.
Check the dates. The top one, with the Sea Gull, is from October 7, 1966. That's the day LSD became federally criminalized. That evening, while the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band played a now-legendary show at Bill Graham's Fillmore in San Francisco, the kids in Detroit were having their minds blown at 'a dance concert in the San Francisco style' at the Grande Ballroom by a local band, MC-5.
The middle poster is from April 30th, 1967, advertising a Love-In on Belle Isle. That's months before San Francisco's legendary 'Summer of Love' made Haight Ashbury a mecca for hippies everywhere.
Clearly, there was a thriving counter culture scene in Detroit concurrent with that of San Francisco's. One could argue that musically, Detroit was even a bit more progressive: While the San Francisco Sound tended to center around electrified versions of old blues and country-folk songs, the MC-5, with its stripped-down sound and anti-establishment lyrics, are now widely credited as being among the primary sperm donors of what became punk rock.
All three posters are the work of Gary Grimshaw. A Viet Nam vet, Gary came home to Detroit, joined the anti-war movement, and became the primary poster and light show artist for Detroit's psychedelic Grande Ballroom from 1966 to 1969. He worked as an art director for CREEM, the Detroit-based bastion of rock journalism whose editors had an ongoing feud with their counterparts at San Francisco's Rolling Stone magazine over the soul of rock music.
The bottom poster is for another MC-5 show at a club called The See, on Woodward Ave. near the campus of Wayne State, Detroit's equivalent to San Francisco State.
The date of the show is June 23, 1967. Exactly one month later, the halcyon days of Detroit's psychedelic scene would end.
Check the dates. The top one, with the Sea Gull, is from October 7, 1966. That's the day LSD became federally criminalized. That evening, while the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band played a now-legendary show at Bill Graham's Fillmore in San Francisco, the kids in Detroit were having their minds blown at 'a dance concert in the San Francisco style' at the Grande Ballroom by a local band, MC-5.
The middle poster is from April 30th, 1967, advertising a Love-In on Belle Isle. That's months before San Francisco's legendary 'Summer of Love' made Haight Ashbury a mecca for hippies everywhere.
Clearly, there was a thriving counter culture scene in Detroit concurrent with that of San Francisco's. One could argue that musically, Detroit was even a bit more progressive: While the San Francisco Sound tended to center around electrified versions of old blues and country-folk songs, the MC-5, with its stripped-down sound and anti-establishment lyrics, are now widely credited as being among the primary sperm donors of what became punk rock.
All three posters are the work of Gary Grimshaw. A Viet Nam vet, Gary came home to Detroit, joined the anti-war movement, and became the primary poster and light show artist for Detroit's psychedelic Grande Ballroom from 1966 to 1969. He worked as an art director for CREEM, the Detroit-based bastion of rock journalism whose editors had an ongoing feud with their counterparts at San Francisco's Rolling Stone magazine over the soul of rock music.
The bottom poster is for another MC-5 show at a club called The See, on Woodward Ave. near the campus of Wayne State, Detroit's equivalent to San Francisco State.
The date of the show is June 23, 1967. Exactly one month later, the halcyon days of Detroit's psychedelic scene would end.
A City in Flames
San Francisco, 1906
Detroit, 1967
In the early morning hours of July 23, 1967, a raid by Detroit police on a Blind Pig triggered five days of rioting that left 43 dead and 2000 buildings destroyed by looting and fire.
I was in Detroit that Sunday, a six-year-old kid attending a double header between the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers. My Dad wanted me to see Mickey Mantle play before he hung up his cleats. Near the end of the opening game, we could see smoke starting to rise in the distance beyond Tiger Stadium. A rumor spread through the crowd that it was no ordinary fire. We left before the second game.
By that evening, all hell had broken loose in Detroit. The Epicenter was just west of Tiger Stadium. Neither Detroit PD or Michigan National Guards could quell the unrest. In an unprecedented move, the Insurrection Act of 1807 was used to allow LBJ to send federal troops from the 82nd Airborne to occupy an American city.
Unlike San Francisco in 1906, Detroit's destruction was man-made, self-inflicted. While San Francisco quickly rose Phoenix-like from the ashes of the Great Earthquake and Fire, Detroit quickly fell into a decline from which it has yet to recover. Those that could afford to fled the city for the suburbs. Business left, people left, the tax base eroded, and schools and infrastructure crumbled. Forty years later, the smallest victories in the fight to rebuild Detroit and its image are celebrated.
Man In Flames
Clint Eastwood, San Francisco 1975
Clint Eastwood, Detroit 2008
Dirty Harry's no longer keeping the streets of San Francisco safe. He's now dealing with punks in Detroit. Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino was shot in Detroit. It's one of a growing number of Hollywood feature films that are being shot in Metro Detroit as part of Michigan’s film-tax incentive — which rebates up to 42 percent of production-related expenses.
Free Parking
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Belle Isle, Detroit
Great cities have great parks. Detroit's Belle Isle Park is an island in middle of the Detroit River, just east of the RenCen about a mile. It was planned by Frederick Law Olmsted in the 1880s. At 982 acres, it's just 40 acres smaller than Golden Gate Park, and contains many of the same features: a large greenhouse and botanical garden, a museum, a golf course, the Detroit Yacht Club, and a Zoo. In the summer, the ball diamonds are home to the Detroit Advertising Softball League.
Crumb and Creem
CREEM Magazine was founded in Detroit's Cass Corridor in 1969, two years after Jann Wenner's Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco. The second issue of CREEM featured a cover illustrated by R. Crumb, who'd arrived in San Francisco two years earlier and quickly made a name for himself with his Zap comics. With editors like Lester Bangs at the helm, CREEM kept up the harshest rock criticism throughout the '70s and 80s, at times making Rolling Stone look like a sell-out to Hollywood and the music industry.
Victorian Architecture
While San Francisco is famous for its Painted Ladies, there's no shortage of Victorian Architecture in Detroit. The three examples shown here are all houses I lived in when I was working at Campbell-Ewald from 1984-1986.
When I first came to Detroit, I found a room for rent in this house on Canfield, west of Woodward Ave and a few blocks south of the campus of Wayne State University. It's in the Cass Corridor, Detroit's Tenderloin.
West Canfield, Detroit
I rented this house on Parker in the West Village, on the east side of Detroit near the Belle Isle Bridge. It's called West Village because it's just west of Indian Village. The house is directly across the street from the 100 year-old clay courts of the Indian Village Tennis Club.
West Village, Detroit
I rented the entire third floor, the ballroom floor, of this Indian Village Victorian for $85 a month.
Indian Village, Detroit
As a Victorian, it's an unusual house for Indian Village, where most of the large, stately homes were built from around 1905 to 1915. Making them technically, Edwardian.
Here's a map to give you some perspective on where Indian Village is located relative to the RenCen:
When I first came to Detroit, I found a room for rent in this house on Canfield, west of Woodward Ave and a few blocks south of the campus of Wayne State University. It's in the Cass Corridor, Detroit's Tenderloin.
West Canfield, Detroit
I rented this house on Parker in the West Village, on the east side of Detroit near the Belle Isle Bridge. It's called West Village because it's just west of Indian Village. The house is directly across the street from the 100 year-old clay courts of the Indian Village Tennis Club.
West Village, Detroit
I rented the entire third floor, the ballroom floor, of this Indian Village Victorian for $85 a month.
Indian Village, Detroit
As a Victorian, it's an unusual house for Indian Village, where most of the large, stately homes were built from around 1905 to 1915. Making them technically, Edwardian.
Here's a map to give you some perspective on where Indian Village is located relative to the RenCen:
Hands Across The Water
Bay Bridge, San Francisco-Oakland
Ambassador Bridge, Detroit-Windsor
People who live in the Bay Area are justifiably sentimental about their bridges. Michiganders share similar feelings about the Ambassador, Blue Water and Mackinaw Bridges. The photo above of the Ambassador Bridge is a lesson in the geography of Detroit. It's looking south from the Detroit side of the river into Windsor, Ontario. At Detroit, the United States is north of Canada.
Speaker Series
One way for you to share the cultures of the two cities is to host a speakers series. Individuals with some unique perspective on Detroit, and/or its relation to San Franscisco, could speak at the agency in either city.
Some of the people I've written about in this blog, like the psychedelic/hot-rod poster artists Gary Grimshaw and Stanley Mouse, are possible choices.
Gary Grimshaw, Detroit
Stanley Mouse, Detroit native, San Francisco icon
Another is Tyree Guyton. He's the founder of Detroit's Heidelberg Project.
Tyree Guyton, Detroit
The Heidelberg Project began in 1986 when Tyree Guyton and his grandfather Sam Mackey started painting houses in Detroit’s McDougall-Hunt neighborhood, which began to fall apart after the riots of 1967.
Guyton and Mackey painted the abandoned houses in bright colors and decorated them with salvaged items.
The Heidelberg Project faced threats of demolition twice since it was started, but Tyree Guyton and his supporters filed a civil lawsuit against the City of Detroit and managed to protect it.
In the process, they transformed Heidelberg Street from one of the city’s most dangerous places, into a unique artistic venue that sees more than 270,000 visitors every year.
About 10 years ago while attending the Detroit Auto Show, I took a bunch of Mercedes-Benz clients from Germany to see the Heidelberg Project. They were left speechless.
Some of the people I've written about in this blog, like the psychedelic/hot-rod poster artists Gary Grimshaw and Stanley Mouse, are possible choices.
Gary Grimshaw, Detroit
Stanley Mouse, Detroit native, San Francisco icon
Another is Tyree Guyton. He's the founder of Detroit's Heidelberg Project.
Tyree Guyton, Detroit
The Heidelberg Project began in 1986 when Tyree Guyton and his grandfather Sam Mackey started painting houses in Detroit’s McDougall-Hunt neighborhood, which began to fall apart after the riots of 1967.
Guyton and Mackey painted the abandoned houses in bright colors and decorated them with salvaged items.
The Heidelberg Project faced threats of demolition twice since it was started, but Tyree Guyton and his supporters filed a civil lawsuit against the City of Detroit and managed to protect it.
In the process, they transformed Heidelberg Street from one of the city’s most dangerous places, into a unique artistic venue that sees more than 270,000 visitors every year.
About 10 years ago while attending the Detroit Auto Show, I took a bunch of Mercedes-Benz clients from Germany to see the Heidelberg Project. They were left speechless.
Personal Connection
Whether I join you on this adventure or not, my heart is with you in your desire to build a close connection between what you've created in San Francisco and what you hope to build in Detroit.
I'm from an old Detroit family. There's a middle school named for my great grandfather about a mile from the RenCen. He was Superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools from 1900 to 1930, a pioneer of adult education in America, and one of the founders of Wayne State University.
His daughter, my grandmother, moved as a newlywed from Detroit to San Francisco in 1928 with my grandfather, who was a young banker sent west to open the San Francisco branch of a Detroit bank. On the day of October 24, 1929, he came home early from work, telling my grandmother that Wall Street had just crashed. Shortly after, he was ordered to close the San Francisco office. After moving to the Los Angeles branch, my grandfather returned to Detroit in early 1933 to oversee the restructuring of the city's banking system after it collapsed, causing what was euphemistically referred to as 'The Bank Holiday.'
Detroit recovered, became the Arsenal of Democracy, and my grandparents lived happily as Detroiters until 1955, when my grandfather became Treasurer of Oberlin College. But I always sensed they looked back at their too-brief time in San Francisco with some regret.
Detroit and San Francisco are two great cities. What you're about to do will hopefully make them each even greater.
I'm from an old Detroit family. There's a middle school named for my great grandfather about a mile from the RenCen. He was Superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools from 1900 to 1930, a pioneer of adult education in America, and one of the founders of Wayne State University.
His daughter, my grandmother, moved as a newlywed from Detroit to San Francisco in 1928 with my grandfather, who was a young banker sent west to open the San Francisco branch of a Detroit bank. On the day of October 24, 1929, he came home early from work, telling my grandmother that Wall Street had just crashed. Shortly after, he was ordered to close the San Francisco office. After moving to the Los Angeles branch, my grandfather returned to Detroit in early 1933 to oversee the restructuring of the city's banking system after it collapsed, causing what was euphemistically referred to as 'The Bank Holiday.'
Detroit recovered, became the Arsenal of Democracy, and my grandparents lived happily as Detroiters until 1955, when my grandfather became Treasurer of Oberlin College. But I always sensed they looked back at their too-brief time in San Francisco with some regret.
Detroit and San Francisco are two great cities. What you're about to do will hopefully make them each even greater.
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