January 24 • 2019 37
jn
Danny, you’
ve been writing your Jewish News column
every week since you were a young adult. Tell me a
story from even before that period.
When I was born, we lived at Hastings and Brady
in Detroit. Th
en, we moved to Dover Court
apartments near Pingree and 12th Street. We lived
right behind the Cream of Michigan restaurant,
where members of the Purple Gang hung out in the
mid-’
30s.
Th
e Purple boys I knew when I was a teen were
in their 20s, and they were wonderful fellows —
with me they were. And they were very dedicated
to defending Jews.
One day, I was sitting at the Cream with a couple
of Purple boys and a little kid came running in, cry-
ing. He said he was selling newspapers in front of
the Cream and a truckload of non-Jewish boys said
a dirty word to his sister and she ran away. Th
ey
started running aft
er her and were going to hit her.
So, the Purple boys said they were going to take
a ride. I was about 15 and one said, “Raskin, come
with us.
” I said, “No way.
” Th
ey said, “C’
mon, take
a ride.
” We got in the car and one of them said to
Johnny from the Cream, “Hold my banana pie.
”
Evidently, this anti-Semitism had happened be-
fore. Th
e Purple boys knew exactly where to go —
in another part of town, in back of a bar. Th
e boys
caught this one guy. Th
ey put a gun in his mouth
and he turned even whiter than he was. Th
e gun
goes “click” … but nothing happened.
Th
ey then warned the guy that the next time he
and his friends came around 12th Street, there was
going to be a bullet in the gun. And the guy ran.
So we went back to the Cream and started eating
banana cream pie. I asked what would they have
done if there happened to be a bullet in the gun?
Th
ey said there never was. It was just a scare tactic.
How did you get into journalism?
I had written a column as a teenager for the Center
News at the old Jewish Center on Hazelwood. I
went to High School of Commerce in Detroit,
where I learned typing. Aft
er that, I went to Detroit
Institute of Technology for a year to fi
nd out a few
things about journalism. Th
en I worked as a re-
Danny Raskin:
A Love of Food,
Writing and Life
DAVID SACHS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
100 years young!
continued on page 38
J
ewish News
columnist Danny
Raskin celebrated
his 100th birthday Jan.
23. He also celebrates
an incredible 76 years of
entertaining and informing
readers on a weekly basis.
Here, Danny talks about
his long career chronicling
life in ever-changing Jewish
Detroit.
TOP: In 1943, with JN
reader Ruthe Shapiro.
BOTTOM: Dapper Danny
looking cool on a hot
day at a Tigers game
at Briggs Stadium
08 PM