HARVEY OVSHINSKY: HELPING YOU FIND YOUR BACKYARD STORY

Harvey Ovshinsky
Photo: Marvin Shaouni

Poet James Stevenson once wrote that "Front yards are boring. Backyards tell stories." Harvey Ovshinsky is both an educator and a popular motivational speaker with a life-long passion for helping others find their own 'backyard' story.

Have you ever gone to the movies and said you could write a better script than that? The next round of Harvey’s monthly screenwriters support group, HOW TO WRITE YOUR FIRST MOVIE SCRIPT IN SIX MONTHS, begins in September.

The Detroit News describes Harvey as "one of the country's finest storytellers." His Movie-of-the-Week script, PJ and the Dragon, was represented by Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and optioned by Longbow Productions (A League of Their Own). The New York International Independent Film & Video Festival honored his latest screenplay, The Keyman.

Harvey Ovshinsky Presents Handouts include a script of The Keyman, a complete bibliography of screenwriting books, publications, and contests, plus information about helpful computer formatting software and the latest version of Harvey’s Ten Most Important First Rules of Storytelling.

Each group starts at 7:00 pm and ends at 10 pm. The cost for the six group sessions is $325. Enrollment is limited. Click here for more details

Harvey Ovshinsky Presents three groups that meet at three different venues:

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF GREATER ANN ARBOR meets on the first Monday of every month except for the first session on Tuesday, September 7 and the fifth session on Tuesday, January 4, 2011.

THE GROSSE POINTE WAR MEMORIAL meets on the third Monday of every month starting on September 20.

THE COMMUNITY HOUSE OF BIRMINGHAM meets on the last Monday of every month starting on September 27 and ends on February 28, 2011. The December group meets on January 3.

Contact each of the venues to register. For more information or to book or attend any of Harvey’s speeches, workshops, or presentations, call (734) 996-8011.

Meanwhile, enjoy Harvey’s 6 PART LETTERS TO A YOUNG FILMMAKER

EASTOWN GUTTED BY FIRE AUG 9

Eastown Theater recent photo IS NOW GONE

                                                          

Sadly one of my favorite concert venues is now burned to the ground. I have many memories of sneaking in here under age (knew the bouncers). I found some great sites to share with my readers around the world.

SEE FIRE SHOTS HERE

SEE AFTER FIRE PHOTOS HERE

FROM BUILDINGS OF DETROIT

Note: In light of the Aug. 9 fire that destroyed half the Eastown Theatre complex - and the demolition order that has been issued for the building, BuildingsofDetroit.com is posting this chapter from our book, "Lost Detroit: Stories Behind the Motor City's Majestic Ruins," which is due out Aug. 30. The auditorium of the Eastown is featured on the cover of the book. We'll try to update galleries as fast as we can.

Patrons of the Eastown Theatre went from downing popcorn to downing tabs of LSD. The theater is the last survivor of Detroit’s four major neighborhood movie palaces, but its legacy was made as one of the city’s most notorious drug-infused rock venues.

With the rise of movies and the city’s fortunes in the 1920s, Detroit got a number of palatial movie palaces. And as Detroit continued to sprawl and grow, enterprising theater owners decided to bring the movie palaces to the neighborhoods. The west side got the Grand Riviera. The southwest got the Hollywood. The north got the Uptown. And the east side got the Eastown.

The Eastown opened in a largely residential area on Harper Avenue near Van Dyke at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 1, 1931, with the movie "Sporting Blood," starring Clark Gable. Advertisements in newspapers at the time declared the theater’s opening as the “dawn of a new entertainment era” and invited Detroiters to “thrill to the glory of Detroit’s newest, finest Palace of Happiness.’” The ads also proclaimed the theater’s opening as “the most glorious event in the history of east Detroit.” Business owners and merchants in the neighborhood pitched in by decorating the surrounding streets for the grand opening.

With 2,500 seats, it was comparable in size and elegance to most of the downtown theaters. The Eastown was built solely for “talking pictures,” and when it opened, admission was 15 cents for afternoons, a quarter for evenings and 35 cents for Saturday and Sunday evenings. Children got in any time for a dime. Patrons would get dressed up for a night at the movies, and uniformed ushers would guide them to their seats.

The complex was built for the Wisper & Wetsman movie chain, one of the largest independent operators of movie theaters in metro Detroit at the time. It was designed by architect V.J. Waier, who used a blend of classical styles for an interior that was mostly Baroque.

It is his only known surviving work in the city. The building was constructed between 1926 and 1930 and featured a 6-foot-high lit dome in the auditorium with a gold-gilded ceiling. The lobby featured imported marble with a wide, elegant marble stairway flowing into the mezzanine. Like those theaters downtown, the Eastown featured office space and stores, but it also had 35 apartments.

In addition, it had the grand Eastown Ballroom, with large arched windows, a band shell and an oak dance floor. Up to 300 people could dine there on fine linen and elegant china or attend weddings and banquets.

From movie shows to rock shows

The Eastown spent nearly four decades thrilling Detroiters as a movie house until it closed in 1967. But it was far from dead. Around this time, many old movie houses and ballrooms, like the Grande Ballroom and the Michigan Theatre, were being converted into rock venues. The once opulent movie palace was largely stripped of adornment, and its seats were ripped out in order to cram more humanity onto the cement floor. It was in this incarnation that the Eastown became one of the foremost places to see rock ’n’ roll in town — and one of its most notorious concert halls.

On May 29, 1969, the theater reopened with its first rock show, with SRC as the headliner. Among those who would play for $3 to $5 a ticket were the Who, the Kinks, Yes, Fleetwood Mac, the Faces, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, Captain Beefheart, Steppenwolf, King Crimson, James Gang, Rush, J. Geils Band and Joe Walsh.

Among the locals, the MC5, the Stooges, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels and Bob Seger all took its stage. Ted Nugent and The Amboy Dukes recorded their live album "Survival of the Fittest" at the Eastown, and Joe Cocker began his “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” tour there.

The Detroit Free Press quoted rocker Alice Cooper in August 1997 as saying that the Eastown was "the best audience in the world. And I’m not saying that just because you’re writing it down. Any other city, people went home from work to put on their Levis and black leather jackets for a concert. In Detroit they came from work like that. The Eastown — those were pure rock ’n’ roll times."

While the Grande had a hippie vibe, the Eastown was all blue-collar — and it was rough. “I remember stepping over a body that had overdosed in front of the backstage door on my way in to talk to Alice [Cooper],” Bill Gray recalled in the Free Press in 1976. “Decadence was treated casually at the Eastown. I also recall coming back to my car after the show, reaching for an eight-track tape and finding air where the tape deck had been two hours before. That was the Eastown.”

That was the Eastown, “a veritable drug supermarket” and major nuisance for then mayor Roman Gribbs.

A musical dope den
Despite two deaths associated with the Eastown in four months, several drug arrests, twenty violations issued by the Detroit Fire Department and operating without city business licenses for nearly a year, the Eastown kept putting on rock shows. Its capacity was legally 1,727, but some nights it drew crowds of 3,000. In December 1970, Gribbs ordered the Eastown’s licenses pulled, but the theater received court injunctions that kept it alive pending city hearings.

Those hearings weren’t helped by the venue’s track record. Between Sept. 19, 1969, and Dec. 17, 1971, the theater received six violations for overcrowding. It also was no secret that the Eastown was a haven for drugs. Detroit police and city officials knew about it, “but fear that any move to stop the drug traffic will provoke a riot” allowed the thriving, unchecked drug dealing to continue, the Free Press wrote in December 1971.

The final straw came after the Free Press launched a month-long investigation in November 1971 into the Eastown. “More than a dozen dope dealers” operated every weekend “with almost no fear of the management, the theater’s security force or the Detroit police,” the paper wrote that December.

Bob Bageris, then 24 years old, told the Free Press that “the Eastown is not a place for dope. I try to keep dope out.” But the Free Press investigation found that he didn’t do a good job of it. “On three successive nights …

Free Press reporters mingled with the young people patronizing the dealers … watched dozens of sales, and found it a simple matter to buy pills and powder hawked as mescaline, amphetamines, barbiturates, LSD, cocaine and heroin.” The newspaper did lab tests and found that some were the real deal and others were phony: “One batch of purported heroin turned out to be an insoluble substance that could kill anyone who injected it.”

Angry residents and parents insisted that the city step in, and Mayor Roman Gribbs yanked the licenses that month, citing violations of city health and safety codes. A week later, a federal judge declined to overturn Gribbs’s order, and the Eastown stayed closed.

The concert hall would briefly reopen under new management for a handful of shows spread out over a couple of months in 1973. Gribbs approved of its reopening at the time but withdrew his support that June following a flurry of protests from neighborhood groups and a survey of residents showing that 80 percent opposed the venue reopening its doors. Lizz Haskell, president of a neighborhood improvement association, told the Detroit News in May 1973 that Eastown patrons would park in their driveways or on their lawns and “sometimes ran through the streets without any clothes on.”

“This community is no place to be staging a rock concert,” Haskell told the News that July. “This theater is bringing nothing but crime and drugs into our community.”

Eastown Productions Inc. carried on without a license but under the belief that it would get one, citing a letter from Gribbs saying that its license was approved. Joe Walsh and REO Speedwagon did the reopening honors on July 19, 1973, before nearly 3,000 fans. About 50 protesters picketed as “the sweet, pungent smell of marijuana and popcorn and sweat mixed with the blaring rock music and shouts,” the Free Press reported at the time. There were several minor shoving incidents between concertgoers and demonstrators, and several people reported their tires slashed. Meanwhile, four youths suffering from drug overdoses were taken to a hospital. The city wound up denying the permits, and the battle returned to the courtroom, where a judge ruled that the Eastown could be closed.

New name, same bad luck

In late 1975 or early 1976, the Eastown was renamed the Showcase Theatre and reopened as a play, music and jazz hall with 2,000 seats reinstalled. High school friends Chris Jaszczak, Gary MacDonald and Mike Jeanguenat — all under 30 at the time — were one-time Eastown regulars who loved the theater but were newcomers to the entertainment business. Jaszczak told the Free Press in 1976: “We are the children of white flight from Detroit. Now we are coming back and we all live in the Showcase neighborhood. We have more than a business interest — we live there.”

Ravi Shankar, Tom Waits and Pat Metheny played there during this era, as did the Godfather of Soul. James Brown brought his sweaty, high-octane stage show for fourteen gigs in six days at the Showcase in December 1976 during his “Body Heat” tour. When Brown allegedly wouldn’t pay the Showcase for rent, the venue refused to give him back his $50,000 worth of equipment, and a temporary court order was issued. Brown eventually paid up, Jaszczak noted. After about a year and a half, Jaszczak said he’d had enough, and he went to work at a different venue. “The gangs in the neighborhood were awful,” recalled Jaszczak, now 62 and living in downtown Detroit. “When we went out to change the marquee, we’d have to send two people out there or else they’d steal the letters and try to sell them back to us…We’d do a show and patrons would come out and all their tires would be gone.”

The owner of the theater, Forester Hill Management, took out classified ads looking for a theater company to become a tenant. Charles Reed answered the call, and the Detroit Center for the Performing Arts started staging professional theater, children’s plays, educational plays and free acting workshops. Despite the Eastown’s less-than-desirable location, Reed told the Free Press in 1985, “I think there’s room for good theater everywhere.”

At its high point, the DCPA entertained 30,000 people a year with its adult and youth theaters, according to the organization. “To work there was incredible,” said actor Daniel Jaroslaw, now 60 and living in Pepin, Wis. “At night, the theater would speak to you with creaks and groans. It was just so cavernous.”

While the building may have been sound, it still looked vacant and condemned and was filled with rubble and debris. In the mid-’90s, the DCPA planned to spend $2 million to $6 million restoring the plasterwork and updating the ballroom and backstage area and mechanical and electrical systems. But those plans were dependent solely on fund-raising, grants and contributions, and “Detroit was really taking a beating in the arts” at the time,

Jaroslaw said. The plan included conducting children’s theaters, plays, workshops and musicals for low-income youths and renting the theater out for shows. In return for their lessons, students were to contribute their time, helping out with ushering, selling concessions and cleaning up. But the project foundered, and the Eastown closed again.

The curtain closes

In the mid- to late 1990s, the Eastown became an infamous site of raves attended by hundreds of people. While in ragged shape, the theater still clung to much of its past grandeur. Its exotic chandeliers still dangled from the ceiling, and beautiful tapestries still framed the stage. Its electric blue seats were still there, albeit musty and moldy. Then it was taken over by a church group, which housed some of its members in the complex’s apartments. The church tried several times to sell the theater, starting about 2004, for $2 million. The price was cut in half in late 2009.

The building was abandoned and quickly took a turn for the worse. In recent years, a fire gutted the apartments in the complex. Decorative plaster lies in heaps everywhere, though there are still spots where the building’s original luster shines. The paint has worn from the proscenium arch in places. Likewise, busts of women on the walls, once beautiful coppers and gold, are now plain white, if still intact at all. The walls in the auditorium have been washed away from a faulty roof. The electric blue paint that had been slapped on the balcony is still there, even though big chunks of the balcony are not, having succumbed to water damage. The chandeliers and railings are gone, too, as are the moldy seats.

Yet despite the devastation, the dome of the auditorium almost looks brand-new, painted as vividly as the day it was applied — a bright spot that belies a fate that is anything but.

In the early morning hours of Aug. 9, 2010, a fire destroyed the apartments in the complex, reducing half the building to nothing but rubble. An emergency demolition notice was posted on the building the following day. It seems unlikely that the city will go to the lengths required to safely demolish the burned-out apartments and save the theater. The neighborhood is among the most dangerous in Detroit, and the money required to revive the Eastown Theatre means the grand movie palace on the East Side will almost certainly fall to the wreckers.

Did arsonists burn the Eastown Theatre?

FOR ELVIS.....

What do you say about Elvis? He was my father figure for my whole life. I guess it was because my father looked so much like him. My father had a southern drawl and played boogie woogie on the piano. He was 6'4 and had that dark wavy hair. His hair was naturally dark though Elvis dyed his dark.   

 In the late 80's I produced a traveling convention show around the US and worked in Memphis right before Christmas every year. I dragged my young staff to visit Graceland every year. They groused about going because they were young and he wasn't "cool" to them then. But now years later when I see one of my old staff kids they always bring up how lucky they were to see Elvis's home and the surrounding landmarks like Sun Records I made them go there too! Little bitty place.

 

Here is a picture of Elvis's jumpsuits. As you can see they used to just hang there and were out in the open. You could touch them if you really wanted to. Now I hear they are behind glass and displayed better. The air would destroy them and they need to be protected.
 

This is just like the cool watch I got at the souvenir shop across the street along with my "Teddy" Bear sweat shirt and Elvis ash trays!
 

One of my favorite stories I tell about going to Graceland is about Ruby the tour tram driver. I stayed on the tram one time as I had seen the tour so many times. As I was chatting with the driver, Ruby. She asked me what Graceland really looked like inside. She had been driving this tour bus for 15 years and never once went inside... ah people! One time I was with the show in Chicago and had a security manager there who used to do security for Elvis. 

He had the cool gold TCB (taking care of business) necklace that Elvis gave to people he liked. I go to put it on and wear it for a day. sigh....

My favorite room at Graceland was the living room. I really liked the custom built white couch. It was like 15 feet long and extra deep. At 5'8 your feet would stick straight out if you sat with your back against the pillows. 
 

My second favorite room is the gold records giant hallway. Man he had a ton of gold and platinum records! Take a virtual tour of Graceland!
 

Hall of gold and platinum records

My personal favorites:

Top 5 Elvis songs

Viva Las Vegas

Kentucky Rain

Little Sister

I Beg of You

Devil in Disguise

MEET MICHAEL ERLEWINE AT THE ANN ARBOR LIBRARY

Michael Erlewine, the award-winning archivist of popular culture, who founded and built the largest music review database in the world, All-Music Guide, has written a fascinating new book that chronicles the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival.

The first Ann Arbor Blues Festivals, in 1969 and 1970, brought together the greatest selection of blues performers and helped bring modern blues music to a wider audience.

Never before had such a far-reaching list of performers been assembled. These ground breaking festivals were the seed that grew into the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, which was continued annually for many years.

Michael's New Book is "Blues in Black & White: The Landmark Ann Arbor Blues Festivals"

get your copy above

Many of my readers will already know that Michael was a founding member of the famed band The Prime Movers

Oh and young Iggy was their drummer.... :)

So come to the main Ann Arbor Library 343 South Fifth Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 this Thursday 7-9 pm in the main room! We'll be there!

THE SEATBELTS ROCKED THE HOUSE LAST NIGHT!

 

Greg Upshur unbelievable lead singer of the Seatbelts!

Well folks what night it was! It was crowded and all three bands were fantastic. I went at the invitation of Skid Marx and Greg Upshur. Didn't now what to expect. I have heard great things about Cinecyde and Choking Susan so I was looking forward to seeing them... they did not disappoint.

I have to say that I had a horrible time filming as my camera kept going off focus and the stage lighting was all on the left side of the stage. Luckily I got some really great still shots for the night. Thankfully Greg's son Alex just sent me a great video! If he sends more I'll post them!

THANK YOU ALEX BEAUTIFUL JOB

Alex Upshur Photography and Video

 Bad ass Bass Man Skid Marx my dear friend

Skid was having SUCH a great time and night! I have seen him play many times and have never seen him play better or look so full of joy. I was so happy for him as The Seat Belts were "the Kings!" Quote from the MADHATTER himself.

RETRO:KIMMER LOVES THE GODFATHER!

My prized autographed Al Pacino Godfather Photo

Everyone that knows me is highly aware of my ever growing mobster fascination. It all started with Mario Puzo's unbelievable book The Godfather which came out in 1969...

James Caan was gorgeous!

Mario Puzo was born October 15, 1920, in "Hell's Kitchen" on Manhattan's (NY) West Side and, following military service in World War II, attended New York's New School for Social Research and Columbia University. His best-known novel, The Godfather, was preceded by two critically acclaimed novels, The Dark Arena and The Fortunate Pilgrim. 
 

 OMG young Robert Deniro!

In 1978, he published Fools Die, followed by The Sicilian (1984) and The Fourth K (1991). Mario Puzo has also written several screenplays, including Earthquake, Superman, and all three Godfather movies, for which he received two Academy Awards®. Mario passed away July 2, 1999, at his home in Bay Shore, Long Island. His novel Omerta was released a year later. He is survived by his companion of 20 years, Carol Gino, and five children. Mario's website is HERE

This book set the world on fire! Everyone speculated of who the real mobsters might be or if the character of Johnny Fontane was really Frank Sinatra. Denied by all but yet very similar...

Though I adore both Godfather I and II films the book is must read because there is so much more character depth and storyline. I read that book in like 7th grade with a flashlight in my bed as I couldn't stop reading!

Then in 1972 came the first Godfather Film which I stupidly saw at a drive in with a blind date that kept trying to chat while I wanted to WATCH the movie!! So the next day I went to a real theater with a girlfriend and watched it again without being bothered.

My true crush in the beginning of the film was James Caan's portrayal of Sonny Corleone. My what hunky guy... Especially loved it when they had him in a tank shirt with suspenders. James Caan had the most fantastic shoulders!

Sonny talking to Michael after the cop beat him

The Godfather really had very little cursing in it, at least in English :) But from the very first scene until the end I was completely addicted to this movie and book too. But man did I hate Diane Keaton in the role of Kay Adams! YUCK all she did was whine and all along she knew his family history and yet pretended to be so above it. Nothing against Diane just hated that character. See full cast and crew HERE
At the end of the film I switched crushes to Al Pacino. I sent away for a photo and they sent me one! FREE Knew I liked AL and his staff!

Here is a treat some of the scenes that were deleted...

Robert Deniro in GF 2

The film starts with Deniro as young Vito Corleone escaping Sicily and growing up in New York to be the Don. The film then jumps to Michael Corleone in Vegas which I found totally distracting. Though I loved the film, I heard the director Francis Ford Coppola needed money for Apocalypse Now so he release a set of both Godfather movies in time sequence. Great idea! So I tracked down The Godfather the Complete Epic 1902-1959 vhs set on Ebay which cost me $60! I still have it and still watch it religiously. It has all the deleted scenes in it and flows better in my humble fan's opinion. I love it and would grab it if I had to flee my home! Now you can get one from my Amazon Store cheaper!

THE HISTORY OF THE MUSIC VIDEO FROM THE 1960'S UNTIL 2010

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