38 January 24 • 2019
jn

continued from page 37

entrepreneur

porter with the Lansing State Jour-
nal and, later, the Detroit News. 
At the News, my editor said, 
“Danny, whatever you learned in 
college, forget it. Th
 is is the new 
school for you.
” He was right. It 
was like night and day.
In 1942, I was 23 years old and 
working at the News midnight to 
eight in the morning. My beat was 
Downtown Detroit. Phil Slomovitz 
called me and said he was starting 
a new Jewish paper and would I 
like to be his associate editor? I 
didn’
t know Phil at the time, but 
he had probably heard of me from 
someone. 
I didn’
t accept the job as associ-
ate editor because, at fi
 rst, I didn’
t 
want to leave my other job. I said 
I’
d help out. I wrote a column 
called the Jewish Youth’
s Listening 
Post. Th
 e Jewish News took off
 
with the fi
 rst issue. Soon, I left
 the 
Detroit News when Phil off
 ered 
me a terrifi
 c deal. I did all kinds 
of writing, sold advertising and 
helped out in many other ways.
During World War II, I used 
to do a lot of work with the boys 
in service. Th
 ey would send me 
letters, and I would send letters 
to a lot of them. One of them, 
Bobby Shan, dropped a bomb 
on Germany that said, “From 
Danny Raskin to Hitler.” We put 

the picture in the paper. I also 
worked with the USO. I sang and 
danced. And I helped sell a lot 
of War Bonds and got a citation 
from the War Department.

How did you start writing 
about restaurants?
Aft
 er the Jewish News moved from 
its original Downtown location 
at the Penobscot Building to the 
David Stott Building nearby, I had 
lunch on Griswold Street at a place 
called Seros. Th
 ey used to give me 
a loaf of bread with brisket of beef. 
I like to dunk and, man, was it 
delicious!
I wrote something about it in 
the paper. Phil said, “How about 
writing a restaurant column?” So, 
in addition to my Listening Post 
column, I began writing Th
 e Best 
of Everything about restaurants. In 
1986, they were incorporated into 
one column.
People ask me about my writing 
style … you know, using ellipses 
… I thought it up on my own … 
And I’
ve been doing that for more 
than 70 years!

I hear you briefly were in the 
recording business.
In the ’
50s, a fellow came to 
town named Carlos Valadez. His 
girlfriend was Virginia Hill, Bugsy 

“I enjoyed the days then, and I enjoy 
the days today. It’
s a good ride. 
I try to have a lot of fun.”

— DANNY RASKIN

Danny receives an award from David Blatt (left) and Jeffrey Cohen of the Michigan 
Jewish Sports Foundation.

100 years young!

continued on page 40

M