16 July 25 • 2019
jn
continued on page 18
Readers Share Favorite
Memories of the Palace
I
n last week’
s issue, there was a story
about the Palace of Auburn Hills
being set for demolition this fall.
Many people weighed in with what
the building meant to them, includ-
ing friends and family of the late Bill
Davidson and the late Robert “Bob”
Sosnick, who were instrumental in the
development of the Palace.
RIK KOWALL
One of my many memories was work-
ing on Bob and David’
s suite. They
collaborated to make one larger suite
instead of two separate
ones. Bob was like a
proud parent waiting for
delivery of a new child.
Serious as stone but
excited none the less.
David (Hermelin) was
just as excited and always friendly to
my crew and myself. Saying “no more
looking thru heads … I’
ll be looking
over them.
” The suite was impeccable
and only the best materials were used.
Bob stated, “spare no expense.
” They
both wanted a showplace for family,
friends and community. One of the few
projects I was given free rein on, and I
was proud to work for such successful
and distinguished gentlemen.
DAVID M. TECHNER
My favorite memory of the Palace took
place at a playoff game. The Pistons
were up by 7 points with under two
minutes to go. Mr.
Davidson, as he often
did, got up from his
floor seat and proceeded
to exit the arena. The
opposing team (I think
the Pacers) came back
to tie the game. Mr. Davidson sat down
on the aisle in the second row, direct-
ly behind me and my wife, Ilene. A
Palace employee, seeing Mr. Davidson
take the seat, approached him and
asked if he had a ticket for that seat, to
which he said he did not. She firmly
stated policy that he could not sit there
without a ticket. Mr. Davidson politely
apologized and left the seat and fin-
ished watching a very exciting 5-min-
ute overtime game standing on the
railing just short of the exit. I asked the
worker if she had any idea who she just
asked to leave the seat. As I suspected,
she had no idea. The horror in her
face as I told her showed her concern
she would most likely be fired. The
next game she came to my seat and
I told her I was happy to see her. Mr.
Davidson had sought her out through
employment records, summoned her
to the office prior to this game, handed
her a personal note of appreciation for
doing her job and doing it well, and
advised she was receiving a raise and a
bonus in her next check.
JASON A. MILLER
I have several favorite memories of
the Palace, but the one that my son,
Josh, and I will always cherish is when
we met members of the Cleveland
Cavaliers in 2015 on Josh’
s 11th birth-
day. Cavs’
owner Dan
Gilbert arranged for
Josh and a few of his
friends to get locker
room passes to greet the
Cavs when they entered
the locker room follow-
ing the game. Meeting
J.R. Smith and Kyrie Irving was great,
but the look on Josh’
s face when
LeBron James signed a basketball for
him was priceless.
ETHAN DAVIDSON
(SON OF BILL DAVIDSON)
I started working in productions at the
Palace a few months before it opened
to the public. At 18, I was just a few
weeks out of high school.
A terrifying memory was the day I
had to go up onto the
spotlight platforms to
prepare them for open-
ing. Climbing down
the ladder and walking
to the edge of the plat-
form, 90 feet above the
floor, I felt the platform
began to bend. That’
s how we realized
we needed to reinforce the end of the
platform with support cables.
Often times, I worked double shifts,
16 or more hours a day. On those days,
it was easier to sleep in the building
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