Monday, August 24, 2009

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

FYI: I just removed an earlier post on the new IRS building and the old Regent Theater because I had the wrong location of the Regent. It was on the opposite side of Saginaw Street from the proposed IRS building. Further proof you can't trust blogs! Thanks to readers for pointing out the error.

10 comments:

  1. How could you have known? You're just a kid ;-)

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  2. I just finished a conversation with my son regarding those locations and the proximity to St.Mikes. I'm old,but my memory is of working at Teachout cleaners when I was fifteen, in the rug plant. Twelve hundred block of N.Sag. Walking south to the Regent Record store and getting my 45 rpms. Came back to the computer to see; "Wrong,wrong,wrong!" and was vindicated. Don't scare me like that.LOL unclebuck

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  3. The Regent Theatre was located at 906 N. Saginaw Street where the ill-fated Windmill Place was built. You can look up at Google Maps and get the street view of what is there today.

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  4. The building that is being torn down was a small time concert hall. I even have a suspicion that it was the site of the historic White Panther Party that took place in 1969

    http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6808


    It was attended by Bill Ayers (aka: Obama's community organizer buddy). And two other wild women who were eventually pardoned by Pres Clinton for suspicious behavior (ie" terrorist Style Behavior) during the rambunctious late 60's and early 70's. Can anyone confirm that?

    I also think the MC5 played there... it was not attended by their manager John Sinclair (he was serving a 10 year jail sentence for selling 2 joints to an undercover Ann Arbor police officer). He was subsequently released when John Lennon wrote the song John Sinclair and all hell broke loose!!!

    Ann Arbor quickly passed a local ordinance making it a $35 ticket if caught with less than 2 joints of weed!! The ordinance is still in effect.

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  5. The Giant Ball Room on N.Saginaw< I believe, was the 1969 gathering spot for counter culture groups to discuss organizational activities which included SDS, Bill Ayers? some panthers, Mark Rudd, Tom Hayden, Diana Oughton,Terry Robbins,Bernadine Dohrn and some local boys and girls. The Weatherman faction labeled the meeting, the "National War Council" It was cold that night....unclebuck

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  6. PS> to first comment: I think the violation in Ann Arbor brought a five dollar misdemeanor at one time..John Sinclair was from M.M.s hometown of Davison. He was the head of the Rainbow people in Ann Arbor. unclebuck

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  7. Incorrect. You're thinking of Globe Theater.

    http://www.waterwinterwonderland.com/location.asp?ID=865&type=5

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  8. so was the new IRS site the location of the War Council Meeting?? Or was it the former Globe Theatre or the former Giant Theatre. I guess my point is, Flint had 26 theatres at one time. After this one gets razed, besides for the Capitol Theatre, that is all she wrote for Flint Theatres. Hasta La Vista Baby!

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  9. The site for the gathering of the militant groups, was the Giant Ballroom on N. Saginaw. Way north of the proposed Fed. building and on the opposite side (east)of the street. It was near Sacred Heart. Many of the leaders were housed there the last week in December,1969. There may have been a White Panther meeting further south in another building,at another time, but I don't recall it. The one I am aware of, was of a national organizational rally. Bill Ayers did address the gathering along with many other leaders of different groups. unclebuck

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  10. PS> Bernardine Dohrn and Kathy Boudin may have been the two women who were released by Clinton. unclebuck

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.