26 | MARCH 28 • 2024 
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A

re you an Ed Asner 
fan? Ed was an 
Ashkenazi Jew and 
seven-time prime time Emmy 
Award-winner by the time he 
passed away in 2021. One of his 
little-known accomplishments 
is that he inadvertently made 
a shidduch for a Huntington 
Woods couple.
In the 1970s, Ed played Lou 
Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore 
Show … and Lou’s backstory 

was that he had worked for the 
Detroit Free Press. 
At the same time and a few 
states away, a certain “Martin 
F. Kohn,
” originally from 
Brooklyn, really did work for 
the Detroit Free Press.
“One day, my colleagues and 
I learned that Ed was coming to 
Windsor to do a performance,
” 
Marty explained. “Great 
publicity! We wrote to him, and 
he invited us to meet him for 

dinner at Carl’s Chop House on 
Grand River.
”
That’s how a bunch of Free 
Press reporters had dinner with 
“their colleague” Ed Asner/Lou 
Grant in December 1978. Of 
course, they wanted photos 
of the occasion, so one asked 
a photographer friend, Andy 
Sacks, to join them. 
Now, Andy’s sister Laura 
Sacks chimed in. 
“This took place on the 

first night of Chanukah, close 
to Andy’s birthday,
” Laura 
explained. “My family and 
I always came together to 
celebrate both at the same time. 
But now it’s all complicated 
because Andy’s taking pictures 
at the Chop House.
”
Long story short, Laura and 
her parents decided to go to the 
Chop House, too. 
“My parents and I walk 
into this very nice restaurant, 
holding a ton of presents, and 
I run over to say hello to Andy 
who’s sitting at a long table with 
the Free Press people,
” Laura 
continued. 
Ed said to Laura, “I hear 
you’re a social worker and you 
save the world.
”
“Well, that wasn’t exactly 
true,
” said Laura. “I’m a 
psychotherapist, not a social 
worker. It was also the end 
of the work week, and I was 
exhausted. So I told him, ‘It’s 
way too late in the day for me 
to take that kind of bull,
’ and 
went to sit with my parents.
”
Well, Ed hadn’t meant any 
harm and apologetically ran 
over to Laura and French 
kissed her.
“In front of my father!” 
laughed Laura, who turned 
to her father, sure he was 
going to rescue her, but Ed 
said something in Yiddish 
and the next thing anyone 
knew, Ed and Mr. Sacks were 
chatting away in the mame- 
loshen. “Suddenly they’re best 
buddies!”
Eventually Ed went back to 
“his colleagues” and later, Andy 
pulled over Laura to introduce 
her to everyone.
“I was still in a snarky mood,
” 

All Because 
of Ed Asner!

ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

OUR COMMUNITY
HOW WE MET

LEFT: In a 1978 photo, Ed Asner 
(center) goofs off with Free Press 
staffers Mike Duffy (seated) and 
Laura Berman and Marty kohn.