Arts & Entertainment

THE BEST OF EVERYTHING

Rolling Back The Decades

The movies, music, bistros and bars that so intrigued us in our youth.

N

otes of the Mystery Memories
Junkie:
"Years ago, those who didn't
work on Saturday afternoons had a choice
of great things to do in Motown. We hopped
a bus to travel downtown for a movie plus
stage show at the Fox or Michigan theaters.
"Lunching in the Statler Hotel Terrace
Room was always a treat. Frame's Tea
Room, Greenfield's Cafeteria or the Brass
Rails were just a few alternatives.
"The real bargain was Top's where you
could get a hamburger for 60 cents or a salad
for 15 cents. If you felt like splurging, a filet
mignon was $1.10.
"Movies were part of the fantasyland of
the wartime years and teenagers were big
fans. Rebecca won an Oscar for best produc-
tion. And who can forget Casablanca. Others
that I love win-
ning Oscars were
How Green Was
My Valley, Mrs.
Miniver, Going
My Way, The
Lost Weekend,
The Best Years of
Our Lives and All
The King's Men.
"Television
was in its
infancy. Milton Berle was the first big-name
comedian to appear on TV Red Buttons was
a promising young comedian. Sid Caesar
combined pantomime, satire, mimicry and
gags. Ed Wynn made a comeback in televi-
sion. Other greats were Red Skelton, Sam
Levenson, Jackie Gleason, Imogene Coca,
Martha Raye, Victor Borge, Art Carney,
Mollie Goldberg, Lucille Ball, Phil Silvers and
Ernie Kovacs.
"Besides watching movies and TV, teen-
agers gathered at the homes of whomever
was throwing the best party. Friday night

girls clubs were excuses to
raincoats. Boys wore sloppy
invite boys to dance.
trousers, loafers and dangling
"The music industry
shirttails.
boomed. Kids danced to
"Drive-in movies were
Tliner's Tune, `Juke Box
popular pastimes. Gertrude
Saturday Night,"I Hear a
Berg brought The Goldbergs to
Rhapsody' and 'Green Eyes'.
television. Molly Goldberg, the
"Record companies sold 10
Jewish mother, started her show
times as many songs as they
by leaning out the window and
had a decade earlier. Two years
calling, 'Enter whoever'. And 'If
later, the industry got another
it's nobody, I'll call back'.
boost when tough plastic
"Kids were watching Howdy
45-rpm and long-playing
Doody on TV. Pepsi Cola hit the
33-rpm records made the
spot and `Chiquita Banana' sung
brittle old 78s obsolete.
to a calypso beat, was a product booster.
"Frank Sinatra stormed onto the scene
"Couples frequented such memorable
crooning romantic ballads that had bobby-
dining spots as Little Harry's, Golden Lion,
sockers squealing with ecstasy. He was a
Mayfield Chop House, Red Kemp's, Frank
screaming success with the Tommy Dorsey
Gagen's, Book-Casino, Hungarian Village,
band singing tunes like Tools Rush In',
Berman's Chop House, London Chop House
`White Christmas' and 'Night and Day'.
and Caucus Club.
"Sophisticated teenagers lived it up at
"Still going strong is Mario's on Second,
places like Wonder Bar, Bowery, Flame
Detroit, where once you could get a lobster
Show Bar and Elmwood Casino in Windsor. dinner for $3.50.
"And, of course, an evening on the town
"People born in the 1940s were before
wouldn't be complete without a midnight
frozen foods, credit cards, television, air
snack at Darbys, a never-again-duplicated
conditioners, dishwashers, fast foods, FM
Detroit landmark restaurant.
radio, pizzas and instant coffee. They hit
"Other popular spots
the scene when there were
were Alamo, Robin Hood,
5 and 10-cent stores, and
Brothers Deli, Hedge's
Sanders ice cream cones, a
Wigwam, Chidwah Tea
phone call, a streetcar or a
Room, Topinka's, Big Bear,
bottle of pop cost a nickel.
Pontchartrain Wine Cellars
Outer space was the back
and Rathskellers.
of the Riviera Theater.
"Eastwood Park was a
"Saturday matinees at
favorite for teens who danced Mario's on Second
the Avalon and Dexter the-
under the stars to Benny
aters were well-attended,
Goodman, Harry James, Glen Miller, Jimmy
and for a penny kids could buy enough
Dorsey and Artie Shaw.
candy to last through the cartoons, serials,
"The overwhelming urge of teenagers
news and feature films. Parents got free
was to be like every other teenager. Girls
dishes.
dressed alike in baggy, rolled-up blue jeans,
"Today, when native Detroiters still here
sloppy shirts, porkpie hats and pell-mell
or living elsewhere around the country get

together, their favorite pastime is traveling
back in time and recalling the pleasures of
being young."
KNOWING OF my penchant for per-
sons of the same culture heading kitchens
at ethnic restaurants, a reader writes how
sorry she was to hear that the executive
chef at Uptown Parthenon on Orchard
Lake Road in Crosswinds Plaza, West
Bloomfield, was not Greek ... I went there
to find out for myself and discovered that
there was no change at all, supposedly just
another case of mistaken identity.
Executive Chef Vasilis Kocibelli has been
at Uptown Parthenon nine years after a
year at the Greektown restaurant of its co-
owner, Polyvios Panagopolous
Vasilis
and wife Maria prepare all the dishes.
On another note, popular Tony
Hadjisofroniou, one of the managers
when Uptown Parthenon opened in 1998,
is back at Uptown Parthenon ... He was
there almost 10 years.
WHAT HAS BECOME one of the more
eagerly-awaited restaurant openings is
that of the new Steven Lelli's Lelli's Inn
... Definite date is still not yet known, but
expectations are for it to open around the
middle of October on 12 Mile at Copper
Creek between Halsted and Haggerty,
Farmington Hills.
MEMBERS OF Tau Epsilon Phi (TEP)
look back at their fun years at Wayne State
University while visiting a different res-
taurant each month ... Wally Caplan, Dick
Smith, Jerry Hoffman, Bob Niskar, Ron
Sherr, Leonard Borman, Denny Chaffin,
Herb Morrison and Dennis Green.
CONGRATS ... To Hope "Cookie"
Chimoff on her birthday ... To Sam and
Dorothy Essick on their 62nd anniversary. ❑

Danny's e-mail address is

dannyraskin@sbcglobal.net.

PC-57Te.`

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