 
Larryinflorida
Member
Username: Larryinflorida
Post Number: 224
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Monday, May 21, 2007 - 12:19 am: |    |
Ah, here we go:
What is now WEXL took to the air August 19, 1926 with the calls WAGM. The WEXL ("We Excel") calls were adopted in 1931. The station carved out a niche with local, block-programmed variety programming, including country music aimed at men who migrated from the southern United States to work in Detroit's automobile assembly plants. After a brief flirtation with Top 40, WEXL expanded its country music programming to a 24-hour format in 1963, the first station in metro Detroit to do so. The station was successful for a number of years; a 1966 Billboard magazine poll gave WEXL 86% of the country music audience in Detroit (ed: all 1000, lol)(see http://www.keener13.com/images /billboard070266.gif). However, the station got competition in 1970 when WJBK-AM 1500 flipped from Top 40 to hit-based country as WDEE (now WLQV), and in 1974 WEXL dropped country music in favor of religious programming.
http://www.answers.com/topic/w exl
Thanks, Eastsidedame , I always appreciate proof my brain still works. |
Eastsidedame
Member
Username: Eastsidedame
Post Number: 149
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Monday, May 21, 2007 - 3:09 am: | |
Wow, Larryinflorida! Your gray matter is in top form, all right!
I didn't think you could top that Zolton Ferency reference from another thread, but you just did! Thanks!
BTW, my mom's people were from WV via Italy...Italian hillbillies! Nanna loved Eddy Arnold as much as Mario Lanza. There were/are a lot of Italians in Appalachian coal country.
Where you lived depended a lot on where you worked. Nonno worked at Chrysler-Jefferson Avenue, so we all grew up East Siders. |
Lmichigan
Member
Username: Lmichigan
Post Number: 5533
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, May 21, 2007 - 3:20 am: | |
It would be good to see some good stats on how large this migration was. I've yet to see even an approximate number of how much of Detroit was made up of native born Detroiters, and how much of the population growth was due to Southern transplants. The migration is always spoken of as a large one, but it's spoken of the same way in Chicago and other Midwest cities that received sizable numbers of Southern transplants. |
Larry
Member
Username: Larry
Post Number: 176
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Monday, May 21, 2007 - 11:32 am: | |
Chicago didn't really experience that much immigration from White Southerners until the mid 1950's, so I think Detroit had more than a 20 year headstart.
In regards to the Cass Corridor, how far West of Cass did the Appalachian population settle ? |
Larryinflorida
Member
Username: Larryinflorida
Post Number: 227
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Monday, May 21, 2007 - 1:05 pm: | |
Zolton Ferency sounds like a guy with antennae coming from his fedora.
"BTW, my mom's people were from WV via Italy...Italian hillbillies! Nanna loved Eddy Arnold as much as Mario Lanza. There were/are a lot of Italians in Appalachian coal country. "
That Cornbread Pizza's gotta suck!
As you all may know, when you take a European accent and a hillbilly one, you get some funny dialect going! |
Lmichigan
Member
Username: Lmichigan
Post Number: 5539
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, May 21, 2007 - 4:02 pm: | |
Larry, I'm not just talking about white Southerners, and the migration began much earlier than that. |
Whithorn11446
Member
Username: Whithorn11446
Post Number: 88
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 - 12:09 am: | |
"In regards to the Cass Corridor, how far West of Cass did the Appalachian population settle ?"
Larry,
Basically, west of the the Lodge freeway into the neighborhood north of Tiger Stadium called Briggs, but south of Grand River. The Briggs neighborhood had a good number of houses. Cass, Second, and Third were full of apartments, hotels, and bars. In a lot of cases back in the day if someone was able to get out of the Cass Corridor the destination "jackpot" could be Brightmoor on the far west side, John R and State Fair around the Fairgrounds, E. Jefferson and St. Jean near Chrysler, Hazel Park, downriver, decent neighborhood in Southwest Detroit. Also, a good number of Southern migrants lived in housing projects called Parkside(E.Warren and Conner) and Herman Gardens(Southfield and Joy Rd.) Both of those housing projects were in middle class areas. If someone was not so lucky or choose not to leave it could mean life in the Cass Corridor, or Briggs for decades. |
Irish_mafia
Member
Username: Irish_mafia
Post Number: 902
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 - 12:54 pm: | |
Hillbillies were pretty prominent just across Mack from Grosse Pointe City. There used to be a nickname for the area... acn't remember it. |
Xphillipjrx
Member
Username: Xphillipjrx
Post Number: 147
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 - 1:53 pm: | |
FWIW Michigan's season opener is against Appalachian State on Sept 1. |
Terryh
Member
Username: Terryh
Post Number: 294
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 - 6:00 pm: | |
The Neighborhood near the old Tiger stadium and the casino on Grand River had a large southern migrant population. I stopped at a watering hole (ordered a soda) in the neighborhood and found out there are still some working class-poor whites. A country duo from Kentucky named the York Brothers migrated to Detroit and recorded a songs titled "Hamtramck Mama" and "Highland Park girl" |
Jman
Member
Username: Jman
Post Number: 56
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 - 10:19 pm: | |
I still have the 45 of Highland Park Girl and Hamtramck Mama recorded in the mid-50s. Why I kept it is beyond me. |
Kathinozarks
Member
Username: Kathinozarks
Post Number: 535
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 - 11:51 pm: | |
That 45 would probably be of interest to lots of people. Is it good?
Please, everyone rent "Songcatcher". It's a movie (2000 limited release, Sundance award winner and others) starring Aidan Quinn and Janet McTeer. Takes place first quarter of the 20th century in Appalachia.
Traditional music of the area and it's origins is the theme and Taj Mahal and Iris Dement have small parts. Also, Pat Carroll plays a truly convincing mountain matriarch. Go to IMDb on the web and you can get more info. This is such a cool movie that will have you falling in love with Appalachia and the people who inhabit that part of the United States. |
Terryh
Member
Username: Terryh
Post Number: 296
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - 4:42 pm: | |
Want to sell it jman? |
Jman
Member
Username: Jman
Post Number: 57
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - 5:45 pm: | |
No, I think I will keep it. I lived in Highland Park from 1940 to 1961 when I moved to Detroit.
It's a used record that I have never played. I picked it up at a used record store on Woodward in the 60's. |
Newport1128
Member
Username: Newport1128
Post Number: 11
Registered: 05-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - 7:53 pm: | |
East Jefferson anywhere from downtown to the Grosse Pointe border had lots of emigrants from the South. Many of them worked at UniRoyal, Budd Wheel, Zenith Carburetor, Chrysler Jefferson Plant, Packard, Huck and all the smaller factories in the area. There were a lot of cheap hotels and a bar in almost every block. I remember a song by Bobby Bare (country singer) from the mid-Sixties called "Detroit City", and one line tells the whole story: "By day I make the cars, by night I make the bars". |
Ventura67
Member
Username: Ventura67
Post Number: 126
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - 8:46 pm: | |
Didn't Johnny Cash come up from KY in '49 and work in the Cadillac plant building himself a car one piece at a time with parts he'd sneak in his lunch box everyday for like 26 years?
Musta been a sweet ride!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =59H4S-a8Wj4
(Message edited by ventura67 on May 23, 2007) |
Larry
Member
Username: Larry
Post Number: 177
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - 9:20 pm: | |
I remember the episode on the Andy Griffith Show called "Convicts At Large" where the businessman O'Malley tells Andy "The sun gettin to you ? I told you last week I was goin ta Deee-Troit". |
Larryinflorida
Member
Username: Larryinflorida
Post Number: 263
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - 9:46 pm: | |
That's quite a lunchbox to get that big-block into! lol |
Eastsidedame
Member
Username: Eastsidedame
Post Number: 157
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - 11:20 pm: | |
There was a great country music scene in the 40s and 50s in Detroit. One 45 RPM my babysitter used to have is by Ray Taylor & The Alabama Pals, "My Hamtramck Baby".
I never thought I'd hear it again until I found a web site with obscure country and rockabilly CD compilations, most with local or regional acts.
"My Hamtramck Baby" along with "Clocking My Card", is on the CD called Rockabilly Hoodlums, Vol. 1, Collector 4438 from Roots & Rhythm, an excellent music source if you don't like the same old stuff, BTW:
http://www.rootsandrhythm.com/roots/VINTAGE%20ROCK/vintagerock_various_coll2.htm
There is another set of "various artist" collections called "Detroit in the 50s". They're classified by the web site as "western swing" and has such titles as "Shotgun Wedding" and "Honeymoon In The Mountains".
http://shopping.msn.com/noresults/shp/?text=Detroit+in+the+50s%2c+Various+Artists
Whoo-weee, y'all! |
Larry
Member
Username: Larry
Post Number: 179
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Friday, May 25, 2007 - 4:40 pm: | |
Ray Bennett, Homer Martin and Chester "Moon" Mullins were influential union leaders in Detroit during the 30's, who were Southern transplants often referred to as Hillbillies. |
Larry
Member
Username: Larry
Post Number: 190
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, June 09, 2007 - 9:05 pm: | |
I read in one article about the 1943 riot, that the DPD had alot of Southern born officers in the 40's. Does anyone know if that's true ? |
Livernoisyard
Member
Username: Livernoisyard
Post Number: 3299
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, June 09, 2007 - 9:40 pm: | |
Why is it that much of what is considered Appalachian is treated negatively in Detroit? My personal favorite music genre is Southern Appalachian banjo (or fiddle) music--more often called clawhammer, frailing, or simply old time string band music. I have been picking that particular pre-bluegrass, 5-string banjo style for some four+ decades, although I only lived near the Appalachians for about two years--in the Piedmont in Petersburg VA.
These particular fiddle tunes made up much of then modern music during the early days of radio broadcasting.
(Message edited by Livernoisyard on June 09, 2007) |
Larry
Member
Username: Larry
Post Number: 192
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, June 09, 2007 - 10:30 pm: | |
I don't look at Appalachians in a negative way at all. In fact I play 5 String Banjo, though I'm more into Irish Folk and some Blues. Yeah, I know the Tenor Banjo is alot more common in Irish Folk, but the 5 String works as well. Still, I like listening to Bluegrass. |
Newport1128
Member
Username: Newport1128
Post Number: 52
Registered: 05-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, June 10, 2007 - 12:35 pm: | |
My parents came from the Allegheny mountains in western Maryland (part of the Appalachians), and many of my ancestors were coal miners, I use this as a preface to saying that a negative stereotype has long been attached to southerners in general and "hillbillies" in particular. Maybe it's a prejudice left over from the Civil War, who knows? Just like any minority group, some were lazy and didn't keep up their homes, but most worked hard and were good neighbors.
Television shows like "The Beverley Hillbillies" and the more recent "Redneck" genre hasn't done a lot to help the image of southerners. One thing you have to say about us, which is not true of many minority groups: we aren't afraid to poke fun at ourselves. |
Pam
Member
Username: Pam
Post Number: 1794
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, June 10, 2007 - 4:37 pm: | |
quote:Still, I like listening to Bluegrass.
Me too. |
Eastsidedame
Member
Username: Eastsidedame
Post Number: 182
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 - 1:54 pm: | |
"Why is it that much of what is considered Appalachian is treated negatively in Detroit?"
Depends on who(m) you're talking to. With many, it's that tired old song, Racism. Among others, I don't see it.
Also: love, love, love Bluegrass, too. Any CD suggestions for beginners? |
Johnlodge
Member
Username: Johnlodge
Post Number: 974
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 - 2:07 pm: | |
For beginners? How about the Oh Brother, Where Art Though soundtrack. That's pretty easy to get into, what with the modern production quality and such. |
Pam
Member
Username: Pam
Post Number: 2022
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 - 4:35 pm: | |
quote:Any CD suggestions for beginners?
The Father of Bluegrass-the Early Years 1940-47- Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys
The Essential Flatt & Scruggs
Back Porch Bluegrass- The Dillards |
Rfban
Member
Username: Rfban
Post Number: 117
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 - 4:48 pm: | |
Read "Crabgrass Frontier." Good book; explains alot. |
Margaret
Member
Username: Margaret
Post Number: 32
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007 - 6:32 pm: | |
well, it's been a while since the last post here, but I wanted to add this story: as a kid on the east side of Detroit, we had quite a few "hillbilly" neighbors...many of whom ended up being really good friends. for us, their ways were just different...as a kid I remember thinking it was "weird" the way they would lie on their backyard grass on a blanket...cuz we always sat in lawn chairs ... now I think, wow, we were the weird ones! but as a kid, and for many adults too: I think that it's just a matter of a different culture seeming strange, that's all. know what I mean? Our neighbors were from Tennessee and Kentucky, and they ate their watermelon in lengthwise shells...one of them could not read or write yet he was the finest carpenter we'd ever seen. we loved them. and yet I did, like I said, as a kid, find their ways "weird" just because they differed from us. wow, what it must have been like for them during those Detroit winters! what a shock, don't you think? I hope someone reads this and responds... |
Newport1128
Member
Username: Newport1128
Post Number: 82
Registered: 05-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 4:00 pm: | |
There's the old joke about the southern family who moved to Michigan from Appalachia. Just after they moved in, their neighbors invited them over for a backyard barbeque. The youngest boy said to his mother, "Hey Momma, these Michigan people sure is strange. They eat outside and go to the bathroom inside." |
Zulu_warrior
Member
Username: Zulu_warrior
Post Number: 3217
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, August 06, 2007 - 8:11 am: | |
Hardliners numbers are off by 1, The Black migration from 1930-1980 |
Karl_jr
Member
Username: Karl_jr
Post Number: 58
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Monday, August 06, 2007 - 9:57 am: | |
Ray Taylor & The Alabama Pals - man that brings back some memories. He owned a country bar at the corner of milwaukee and brush in the 70's. They were quite a show, my best friends step father was Ernie Brown played there with a guy named Doyle Starnes the group was called "Ernest Brown and his Travlin' Padners'" along with "Gene Nitz and his West Virginia Ramblers" |
Pam
Member
Username: Pam
Post Number: 2282
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, August 11, 2007 - 8:37 pm: | |
Check out the Grand Ole Opry webcast:
http://www.wsmonline.com/ |
Jazzstage
Member
Username: Jazzstage
Post Number: 44
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, August 12, 2007 - 10:55 am: | |
Eastsidedame was talking about "Italian hillbillies" and it reminded me of Fred Scott (Giovanni Dominico Scafone Jr.) Although Fred wasn't born in the south, he was a huge fan of Hank Williams and Elvis.
From Wikepedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J ack_Scott_%28singer%29
Jack Scott (born Giovanni Dominico Scafone Jr., January 24, 1936, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada) is an American singer and songwriter. He was the first white national rock 'n' roll star to come out of Detroit.
When he was ten, his family moved across the river to Hazel Park, Michigan, a Detroit suburb. Taught to play the guitar by his father, he pursued a singing career and recording as 'Jack Scott.' After waxing two good-selling local hits for ABC-Paramount Records in 1957, he switched to the Carlton record label and had a double-sided national hit in 1958 with "Leroy"/"My True Love". Later in 1958, "With Your Love" reached the Top 40.
He served in the U.S. Army during most of 1959, just after "Goodbye Baby" made the Top Ten.
At the beginning of 1960, Scott again changed record labels, this time to Top Rank. He then recorded two Billboard Hot 100 hits -- "What In the World's Come Over You" and "Burning Bridges" made it to the Top Five.
Scott is still actively singing and touring today.
External links
* www.rockabillyhall.com/JackSco tt.html
* www.history-of-rock.com/jack_s cott.htm
You can hear more info about him here:
http://jazzstageproductions.co m/djs/?p=12 |
Vetalalumni
Member
Username: Vetalalumni
Post Number: 573
Registered: 05-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - 1:26 am: | |
There will be a large influx of Appalachians to the Detroit and Ann Arbor areas on Saturday, September 1st. An official welcoming event will be held starting at noon at 1201 South Main Street in Ann Arbor. |
Johnnie_sue_bridges
Member
Username: Johnnie_sue_bridges
Post Number: 31
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, January 30, 2009 - 9:39 am: | |
I am a local Michigan author. My family came to Detroit in the late 60s right after the riots. I have written a book on the account of our journey north, entitled Shadows And Scars. My birthplace is Middlesboro, Kentucky. That beautiful city is so very rich in it's history. The town is actually nestled in a crater formed by an asteroid. Cumberland Gap is only a few miles away. The Pinnacle is astounding with its breathtaking view overlooking Middlesboro and the Tri-State area.
God Bless
Johnnie Sue Bridges
www.johnniesuebridges.com |
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