Last year when Up in Honey’s Room came out I was in Detroit and went to see Elmore Leonard read and answer questions at a bookstore. It was a lot of fun.

Next spring/summer when Road Dogs comes out I’d like to do it again. Anyone else interested in a road trip to Detroit?

I’d like to put together a tour of some of the locations in the books.

What do you think?

I assume you mean Detroit locations.  It’ll probably end up being you, me, Joel and Dutch, unless MC flies in.  I have visited the locations going back to my Monthly Detroit piece, real and made up.  I always wanted to do an Elmore Leonard map in the style of the famous Raymond Chandler map.  I’ll rename this thread and start outlining the tour.  Just for fun.

The tour would be two days.  The first day would be the long ride up to the Thumb to where Elmore’s literary crime spree began in The Big Bounce.  We’d then double back to Killshot-land, From Port Huron down to Algonac and see the Killshot house and “Wayne’s Chickenshit Inn.”
We’d go through Mt. Clemens and look at the toolshops and over to Rochester where the bad guys shoot the windows out of Mitzlefeld’s Department Store.  We’d then shoot downtown and have lunch at Lafayette Coney Island.  We’d spend the afternoon on a walking tour of EL’s downtown Detroit and maybe even sit in on an arraignment at Frank Murphy Hall of Justice.  Stuff like that.  We’d have a drink at the old Galligan’s (now Tom’s Osyter Bar) across from the RenCen.

The next day, everything else.  Where he lived, key locations from Swag, 52, City Primeval, etc.

OK, John, somebody else pick it up.

Gregg Sutter - 30 July 2008 02:49 PM

The tour would be two days.

Fantastic, Gregg. Of course, my tour will start at the Silver Dollar on Spadina in Toronto, if anyone wants to join me (Barry?) and like the Blackbird I’ll drive to Detroit.

Yeah, the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice would be great and maybe we could get a tour of 1300 Beaubien.

What restaurant was the model for Randy’s in Pagan Babies?

One of the great things about Elmore Leonard is that he’s still writing Detroit so we could even see the fancy new condo Chloe (Kelly?) lives in from Mr. Paradise - a nice look at the ‘new’ Detroit.

Great.

John:

Take a picture of the Silver Dollar sometime and send it along, will ya?

Will do.

boy oh boy
things are starting to heat up
what was the place Juvie & Lynn went on holiday?
Henry’s restaurant in Algonac

What a great idea. Hey, John, if you pay my airfare, I’ll happily come along

All joking aside though, I’m sure it will be a great couple of days….  I now find myself wishing I lived across the ocean.

In the late forties, following the war, my favorite spots for jazz and blues in Detroit were the Flame Show Bar, Sportree’s, and one or two others.  I saw Anita O’Day, Red Allen, J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding.  It was at Sportree’s that I met T-Bone Walker and joined him for drinks later, at an after-hours club.

That is from “Thank God For Robert Johnson” and Sportree’s figures prominently in SWAG.  That was an adverb, wasn’t it?

FROM GREGG Posted: 14 January 2007 01:51 PM

Dutch called a bar, “Sportree’s” and located it on 8 Mile.  The actual “Sportree’s” was called The Music Bar and was located in Paradise Valley (Detroit’s Black Neighborhood, long gone) at 2030 Hastings St.” Raymond “Sportree” Jackson was the proprietor.  He also owned The Aquarium Seafood on Adams and the Tropicana Bar, north of The Music Bar on Hastings

You could always head to Hastings Street and drink a toast—bourbon over crushed ice with a little sugar!

I would love to be there!  That was a !, wasn’t it?

You could always head to Hastings Street and drink a toast—bourbon over crushed ice with a little sugar!

You’d be in the middle of I-75 today.  Hastings Street is long gone.

No pool party at Elmore’s?

No pool party at Elmore’s?

Not unless your name is Steven Tyler.

Gregg Sutter - 30 July 2008 04:01 PM

John:

Take a picture of the Silver Dollar sometime and send it along, will ya?

I didn’t take it, but here’s a good picture of the Waverly. Right next door you can see the Silver Dollar.

I’ll take some interior photos in a couple weeks when I get back from vacation.

Hi, my name’s Kasey and I’m new to the board.
Anyway, I’m interested in the trip.
I’m in Ottawa so I can head to Toronto to see The Silver Dollar and then head to Detroit.

Well_well_well - 31 July 2008 11:50 PM

Hi, my name’s Kasey and I’m new to the board.
Anyway, I’m interested in the trip.
I’m in Ottawa so I can head to Toronto to see The Silver Dollar and then head to Detroit.

Welcome Kasey.

Anyway, if you guys are serious, and we get a good plan in place, I’m in. It’s a long way to travel, but I figure, by next summer, I won’t have had a holiday for 4 years. So, why not?

Great find John on Waverly & Silver Dollar. I’m also down for Elmore Tour ‘09. Maybe we can swing trip around Elmore doing a book signing of Road Dogs in Birmingham, MI. That seems to be a staple of his signings. Some good tour stops in Birmingham from Unknown Man #89. I believe Gregg referenced that recently. I recall reading an interview with Gregg from a while back in which he recounts that scene from UM #89.