 
Jazzstage
Member
Username: Jazzstage
Post Number: 148
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 7:00 pm: |    |
I grew up at 7 and Kelly and used to go to LC pizzeria. They had the first projector that I ever saw. It was about as big as one of those little kids pools. They used to show old Charlie Chaplin movies. My family used to go and watch them. The place was decorated in white Stucco with Italian magazine pages pressed into the paint. I remember being fascinated watching the guy spin the dough as a kid. The pizzeria was still there last I looked but it is now a generic take out place.
Does anyone know about the locations of the original pizzerias. I only know of that one and the one of 8.5 and Harper in SCS. They both looked identical and both had cars drive through them during the late 70's.
I also remember a little Caesars that was modeled after Chuck E Cheese except it had a pianist and banjo player that played old tunes from the early part of the century like "I want a girl just like the girl who married dear old dad." It was so cool to hear live music as a little kid. I have no idea where that is but I assume we drove to the suburbs.
(Message edited by jazzstage on October 29, 2007) |
Nighternock
Member
Username: Nighternock
Post Number: 31
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 7:53 pm: | |
My family used to go to the 8.5 & Harper location and my memories are about identical to your memories. The projector, the men spinning the dough, my parents drinking pitchers of beer while us kids watched the films. Good times. |
Rrl
Member
Username: Rrl
Post Number: 921
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 8:01 pm: | |
Same here, we used to go to the Harper location too (corner of Hawthorne I think). Fond memories of the old pizza parlor. Somehow, the pizza always tasted better in that place. And for us kids, it was a pitcher of coke. Since we didn't get soda much as kids, that was always a treat. Funny how you remember and appreciate the little things. |
Patrick
Member
Username: Patrick
Post Number: 5088
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 8:06 pm: | |
There used to be one on Nine Mile in East Detroit, I think near McDonalds. It might still be there, but it was old back when i was a kid and I am not that old.
Does anyone remember how good LC pizza used to be? It was actually made with quality and care and now its a piece of cardboard covered in ketchup. |
Evelethcdenver
Member
Username: Evelethcdenver
Post Number: 114
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 8:27 pm: | |
I believe that the one on Warwick and Grand River was very similiar. Sit down eating with a large screen projector. Eventually, they converted it to take out only. Never was the same after that. |
Ed_golick
Member
Username: Ed_golick
Post Number: 844
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 8:40 pm: | |
The very first Little Caesars Restaurant was on Cherry Hill Road in Garden City. CKLW-TV's Hercules appeared at the grand opening. |
65memories
Member
Username: 65memories
Post Number: 477
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 8:42 pm: | |
Eve's right...the Warwick/Grand River LC was very similar and a good dining experience for the entire family...it changed about 1980 to a carry-out and lost its warm atmosphere. |
Thnk2mch
Member
Username: Thnk2mch
Post Number: 1047
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 8:42 pm: | |
The first Little Ceasars was at Cherry Hill and Venoy in Garden City, and is still there. |
Thnk2mch
Member
Username: Thnk2mch
Post Number: 1048
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 8:44 pm: | |
oops! - Ed is quicker than a speeding bullet! |
Douglasm
Member
Username: Douglasm
Post Number: 955
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 9:20 pm: | |
Memory (a questionable thing at times) says there was one on East 9 Mile in Ferndale just west of the GTW tracks, or about across from Luxury Lanes. |
Catman_dude
Member
Username: Catman_dude
Post Number: 249
Registered: 03-2006
| | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 10:01 pm: | |
I remember a dine-in Little Caesar restaurant on the corner of Joy and Merriman Roads in Westland, oh, way back in the early 70s. |
Vetalalumni
Member
Username: Vetalalumni
Post Number: 781
Registered: 05-2007
| | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 10:31 pm: | |
As already mentioned, the Rosedale Park LC (Warwick/GR) was very nice and popular during the mid to late 70s. Other tasty pizza establishments nearby were Vio's (Fenkell near old Irving Theatre) and Pizza Hut (GR/Burt). There was a Dominos in this area as well, but the location escapes me at the moment. |
Gazhekwe
Member
Username: Gazhekwe
Post Number: 917
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 10:53 pm: | |
I seem to remember one on Wayne Road in Westland where they had sing alongs. They would project the song on the screen and there would be a ball that bounced over the word to let you know how long to hold the note. They served beer, too, and you had to be 21 to get in. This was in the late 60s. I think the place is still there, but of course, no singalong. |
Tammypio
Member
Username: Tammypio
Post Number: 160
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 11:32 pm: | |
There was a dine-in Little Caesars in Hamtramck when I was in high school and early college (late 70s early 80s). It was a fairly nice restaurant with more than pizza being served.
I fondly remember having to add on the additional 18% gratuity to the bill for having large crowds dining together at the big tables a couple of times. LOL...one would never think of that at a Little Caesars of today! |
56packman
Member
Username: 56packman
Post Number: 1857
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 11:59 pm: | |
The old time(60s) pizza parlors were modeled after a west coast chain K/A "Shakeys" they featured pianists that wore the striped shirts and bowler hats and played ragtime/stride piano and occasionally showed silent comedy shorts on a screen. Zubok's on Greenfield in Dearborn also did this.
I played at a pizza parlor in Pontiac (although that area is now considered Auburn Hills) that took that idea large--we had the pipe organ out of the Birmingham theater crammed at one end and played just about anything people asked for. Sold a lot of pizza there.
Growing up in NW Detroit we had a little Caesars on 7 mile between Evergreen and Lahser, replete with the fiberglass statue that spun. That location was about two doors down from a Zukin's rib shack, their sign had a rack of ribs that rotated on a spit.
Then there was the Norge village sign.
OK-it's either too late for me or I'm turning into the rambling old man a little prematurely. |
Gistok
Member
Username: Gistok
Post Number: 5595
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 12:14 am: | |
I miss the Little Caesar's Pizza Stations... I've been jonzing for a Big Deal Veal for a long time...  |
Larryinflorida
Member
Username: Larryinflorida
Post Number: 1038
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 12:28 am: | |
There was a Shakey's on 8 mile near Hoover, I believe, in the 70's.
I ate the original Little Caesars in Garden City and also sampled the original Dominoes, when they were VW bugs with dominoes on them delivering to the quads in Ann Arbor in the late 60's.
I'd say they both changed the recipe a little since then! |
Ericdetfan
Member
Username: Ericdetfan
Post Number: 218
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 12:32 am: | |
The one on Wayne rd is a "Family Fun Center" now..they are like a chuckie cheese, cept for older kids. There is also one of these in Southgate on Eureka. |
Reddog289
Member
Username: Reddog289
Post Number: 32
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 2:48 am: | |
LC,S did taste better then, i grew up at cherry hill & venoy, it was little caesars pizza treat, which was a treat, wayne & cherry hill was a sit down with the big wood tables & stools, had a big screen where i heard they would show your softball games. then it became chuck e cheese, now its caesarland. funny thing one of my first jobs was to help my cousin take down the stools at that place before they would open for the day, heck we got a pizza & a pitcher of coke, i had to sit at the bar of course had to watch the bud clydsedales go round & round, good deal for a 8yr old. |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 6735
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 2:51 am: | |
The LC classic pizzarias are almost gone, but Caesarland Family Fun Pizzaria is still in business. |
Reddog289
Member
Username: Reddog289
Post Number: 33
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 2:56 am: | |
packman was there an LC on the westside of evergreen, i remember the one a couple of blocks east of evergreen, now i think of it LC,s had little pizzas like english muffin size, they were pretty good. |
Flyingj
Member
Username: Flyingj
Post Number: 36
Registered: 08-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 3:53 am: | |
56packman, Shakey's is still out here, their mojo potatoes & stuff are so MSG laden tho... I do think Little Ceasar's back in the day were better-for being so reknown as a pizza HQ hotbed none of the good pie places went national(Dino's is long gone but I got a Hungry Howie's 5 minutes away?) My bro went to "The Organ Grinder" all the time, his friends nicknamed "The Sex Organ Grinder"(can I work blue?) |
56packman
Member
Username: 56packman
Post Number: 1859
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 7:27 am: | |
Reddog--Well, It's been almost 40 years since I lived there, it could have been east of Evergreen. we did most of our weekly business in the strip west of Evergreen (the 7-Ever shopping center) Shopper's fair groceries, Cunninghams on the corner, Epps, a cool toy store, first and last clothing stores, our family eye doctor was there, kresge's.
I think you are right--LCs would have been east of Evergreen.
(Message edited by 56packman on October 30, 2007) |
The_ed
Member
Username: The_ed
Post Number: 446
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 10:58 am: | |
ALL - There's a place called Jerusalem Pizza @ 26025 Greenfield Rd in Southfield (248) 552-0088
They have the best kosher pizza (no pork products) |
Jazzstage
Member
Username: Jazzstage
Post Number: 152
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 9:57 pm: | |
8 and Hoover. That sounds about right. The description of the pianist is right. I remember that is was a father son team. I wish I knew who they were because it was so important for me at the time. I used to hang on the rail for a few songs just listening and asking questions. I bet it was a drag for the musicians unless they liked kids. |
56packman
Member
Username: 56packman
Post Number: 1863
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 10:24 pm: | |
Jazzstage--was the father/son piano team father "Honky tonk Henry?" |
Thecarl
Member
Username: Thecarl
Post Number: 1105
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 11:54 pm: | |
is it true? i heard mike ilitch, as a youngster, was relentless in peddling his pizzas throughout the neighborhood where he grew up. someone told me he was everpresent, trying to make a buck, a real hustler and entrepreneur. |
Dave70
Member
Username: Dave70
Post Number: 21
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 8:50 am: | |
Hehe, I remember the 7 & Kelly Little Caesars but I saw only cartoons on the movie screen. ;)
Yes I think the food was better back then too, it was pretty good into the later 80s at least. I used to get an order of crazy bread and share it with my guitar teacher down the street at Amato Music. I had some crazy bread recently and it really was lame. |
Carolcb
Member
Username: Carolcb
Post Number: 2371
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 9:06 am: | |
Does anyone remember Tigers coming and sitting in front of the building and signing autographs? This would be late 60's early 70's????? |
Imhere
Member
Username: Imhere
Post Number: 36
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 12:30 pm: | |
I remember the 7 & Kelly LC as well. I forgot all about the Charlie Chaplin movies though. Good Times.
Getting a Pizza - Pizza was a special treat and we always went and picked it up at the store. |
Catman_dude
Member
Username: Catman_dude
Post Number: 252
Registered: 03-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 1:43 pm: | |
Does anyone remember the lyrics the the song in the Little Caesars pizza TV commercials that ran constantly during the 1970s?
The camera panned from left to right real kids singing the song in one of their "Shakeys" type of restaurants...."Little Casesars pizza, it's my favorite treat...Little Caesars pizza, " "nobody loves Little Caesars pizza like a kiiiiiiiiid..." |
Jazzstage
Member
Username: Jazzstage
Post Number: 153
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 2:53 pm: | |
Catman,
Is it "Little Caesars Pizza the one that gives you more."
That is all I can remember. Matt Michaels wrote that song. He was one of the best things that ever happened to WSU's music program.
56-I was only 8 or so at the time. But you are probably right. Are they still performing?
Dave-who was your teacher at Amato? I took lessons there for a bit with Bart Fiore. Bart played guitar with Johnny Trudell for a time. He was a great guy. He passed away a few years ago I understand. |
Msuscorpio
Member
Username: Msuscorpio
Post Number: 38
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 3:10 pm: | |
I'm only 27, but its funny that I look back on the days when Little Caesers was "pizza pizza" and they came on that long piece of cardboard wrapped in paper, as the good 'ole days |
56packman
Member
Username: 56packman
Post Number: 1869
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 4:29 pm: | |
Jazzstage--the Father, Henry passed away about 6 years ago, the son still plays around town, occasionally at the Dakota Inn. Good friends of mine going back a long time. |
Thnk2mch
Member
Username: Thnk2mch
Post Number: 1050
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 5:24 pm: | |
quote:Does anyone remember Tigers coming and sitting in front of the building and signing autographs? This would be late 60's early 70's?????
I do. I stood in line in the parking lot on Wayne and Cherryhill in Westland and got Mark Fidrych's autograph. Late 70's. |
Caldogven
Member
Username: Caldogven
Post Number: 128
Registered: 05-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 6:56 pm: | |
Jazzstage
I went to Barbour Intermediate in the early fifties with a John Trudell who played trumpet, could that be the same John you mentioned? |
6nois
Member
Username: 6nois
Post Number: 555
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 7:05 pm: | |
I don't recommend eating fresh LC, so I could hardly advise you to eat it from yesterday. |
Jazzstage
Member
Username: Jazzstage
Post Number: 154
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 8:27 pm: | |
Caldogven,
It most probably is. He has run one of the most successful society big bands around. They have all the best gigs locked down from the society dances to
the vegas review type shows to playing behind the big names. Google him and you will probably find a million articles about the band. |
Mama_jackson
Member
Username: Mama_jackson
Post Number: 246
Registered: 06-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 8:36 pm: | |
I wish the old Little Caeser's pizzeria was still open that we had here in the south end of Flint. They used to have the best pizza, live bands and beer! It was fun to go there.
I really can't stand the stuff they are calling pizza now. 10 pepperonis, too much sauce, a leather tough crust, and really skimpy cheese. Doesn't matter if you special order or not. Can't fix their crust.
AND-they are going to raise the price of the Hot and Ready pizza. I plan on ordering my pizzas somewhere else in the near future. We get the hot and ready's for the kids. |
Lefty2
Member
Username: Lefty2
Post Number: 557
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 9:07 pm: | |
yesterday's pizza used to be better
they have a great hockey team |
Dave70
Member
Username: Dave70
Post Number: 22
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, November 01, 2007 - 8:22 am: | |
Hey Jazzstage,
My guitar teacher back then was Alex Rogowski. |
Carolcb
Member
Username: Carolcb
Post Number: 2401
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, November 01, 2007 - 8:33 am: | |
Thanks Thnk2mch, I cannot remember exactly, but I am sure one of them was Lolich when I was at the one like 15 houses from my house. How cool. |
Oliverdouglas
Member
Username: Oliverdouglas
Post Number: 154
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, November 01, 2007 - 10:56 am: | |
Catman_dude: the dine-in pizzaria at Joy and Merriman was a Dino's. There was a small dine -in Little Ceasar's (really just a carry-out with three or four booths) on Merriman just north of Ann Arbor Trail from at least the mid-sixties. Saw Cap'n Jolly there. Also got free kites there every spring. |
Catman_dude
Member
Username: Catman_dude
Post Number: 253
Registered: 03-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, November 01, 2007 - 11:20 am: | |
A Dino's??? Coulda sworn it was a LC. I'm talking about way back in 1970.
The LC at Merriman and AATrail had one of the first rotating Caesar on top. |
Reddog289
Member
Username: Reddog289
Post Number: 38
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, November 02, 2007 - 1:21 am: | |
joy&merriman, where benny,s pizza is now, like there pizza better then lc,s. i remember the free kites. still eat LC,s cause its food. |
Reddog289
Member
Username: Reddog289
Post Number: 44
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, November 04, 2007 - 1:11 am: | |
as if i ain,t got nothin better to do, i,ve been keeping my eye out looking for little caesars. the one at ford&lilly in canton has the rotating ceasar, gr&warwick take out,looked busy. i,ll go to the original monday. on vacation to hell with the healthy diet. |
Michmeister
Member
Username: Michmeister
Post Number: 258
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, November 04, 2007 - 4:49 am: | |
I worked at the LC on Greenfield next to the party store, purely carryout, in the late seventies earning two bucks an hour. What a dive! Had a lot of fun though, and never went home hungry  . |
Taj920
Member
Username: Taj920
Post Number: 264
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, November 04, 2007 - 9:34 am: | |
Little Caesar's was jammed on Halloween night at both Mack stores. People lined up out the door, walking out with four or five $5 pizzas. |
Postbop
Member
Username: Postbop
Post Number: 16
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, November 04, 2007 - 8:12 pm: | |
The Little Caesars's (8.5 and Harper in SCS) was actually in Harper Woods on the I-94 service drive/Harper just south of old 8 mile (Hollywood St.). I used to love to go there as a kid because of the video games. It had such an atypical look to it and was always dark inside. It closed in 1986 and was demolished a few years later and an office building was erected.
It is funny that Mr.C's, who most eastsiders know for having good pizza also, built a carwash right across the street from where Little Caesars was. |
Jazzstage
Member
Username: Jazzstage
Post Number: 157
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, November 04, 2007 - 8:46 pm: | |
You are right. PB. I studied music at Callioto's music/Bart's Music Stop right next store to it.
Speaking of Mr. C's, did you ever go to the original on Morang? The place was bustling with people buying party trays and other things. As a kid, they seemed to be as big as our kitchen table. Somehow I remember them being $10. Crazy..... |
Alfie1a
Member
Username: Alfie1a
Post Number: 2
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 1:04 pm: | |
The Little Ceasars restaraunt on Grand River in Rosedale Park was really cool. Many times when we were sittin around wondering what to do, my friends and I went there for the delicious pizza, pitchers of beer and watch the old movies. Hey Mr. Ilitch, why is your pizza half as good as it was then? but, in order to support the Wings and Tigers, I still get the crappy $5 pizzas which must be eaten right away. if allowed to cool, you might just as well be eating the box. |
Tarkus
Member
Username: Tarkus
Post Number: 424
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 1:51 pm: | |
Jazz, the original Mr. C's was on E. Warren. The Morang store was the second. |
Jazzstage
Member
Username: Jazzstage
Post Number: 161
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 4:24 pm: | |
Everything I thought I knew is wrong. Thank goodness for you guys. if I am this mixed up now, I hope this forum is around when I really start losing it! |
Ericdetfan
Member
Username: Ericdetfan
Post Number: 228
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 6:15 pm: | |
Back in the early 90's, Caesarland was "Little Caesears Family Fun Pizzaria". They used to have these weird tunnels that you could crawl through on two levels. The tunnels had buttons that you could press that would turn lights on and off, make sounds, and do other neat things. As the years went by the buttons stopped working and never got fixed. Eventually, they changed it over to the suspended plastic tunnels like in Chuckie Cheese. Too, bad I really had fun crawling around in them. I rather doubt that I would fit anymore though. lol |
Reddog289
Member
Username: Reddog289
Post Number: 64
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 - 3:10 am: | |
you know i miss old pizza huts too, seems like alot of them are gone also. and why does the LC,S at the joe taste better then at comerica park? |
Unclefrank
Member
Username: Unclefrank
Post Number: 115
Registered: 03-2006
| | Posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 - 6:37 am: | |
I don't remember Little Ceasars pizza being this bad. Perhaps my memory sucks. |
Defendbrooklyn
Member
Username: Defendbrooklyn
Post Number: 532
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 - 9:43 am: | |
I like LC. However the $5 hot n ready pizza is never cooked. They should change their motto to hot and almost ready. |
Broken_main
Member
Username: Broken_main
Post Number: 1347
Registered: 06-2005
| | Posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 - 9:59 am: | |
I remember when I was a younger lad, I would win LC coupons for getting starts with the Detroit News. The pizza was waaaaay better then than it is now. The cheese was better and it was always stringy when you pull the slices apart. My mother and I had LC a record 37 straight days. I loved it that much. |