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

