This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
Paradise Valley: Gone But [[continued on next page]] Hastings Street Opera! Boy, it´s all down on Hastings Street... Yes. Yes. Anything can happen on Hastings Street.- Detroit Count, "Hastings Street Opera." It was through Paradise Valley that we were able to spring from this ghetto. - Sunnie Wilson By DEBORAH HAWKINS Paradise Valley, wich harbored one of Detroit´s largest entertainment districts, means many things to many different people. Not only was the Valley a hot nightspot, but a significant origin of Black progress. The most Blacks living in Detroit in the late 30´s and early 40´s, the Valley is a pleasant memory of days when they could sit in a cool bar after a monotonous day in the factory, with drink in hand, and lose themselves in the uplifting beat of jazz or relate to the sorrowful groans of the blues. The Valley, roughly bounded by Hastings, Brush, Gratiot and Vernor Highway, was a unique entertainment district from the 1920´s to the mid-1950´s. Such well-known musicians as John Lee Hooker (who recorded "Boogie Chillen"), Bobo Jenkins (who later created a political blues) and Louie Jordan´s Tympany Five got their start in the Valley. The Valley also served as a one-night stand for many obscure entertainers. Such was the case of "One String Sam," a street musician who recorded a couple of tunes for Joe Van Battle´s record shop, and disappeared. But the Valley is best known for featuring the musical giants - Dinah Washington, Lionel Hampton, Jimmy Luncefor, Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington, and Count Basie. Since Black en- tertainers were not allowed in many of the white-owned hotels, theses entertainers would often stay at the Carlton Plaza or the Norwood hotel. This was a special treat for many regular patrons because often, after the Duke of Dinah Washington had finished their acts at the Greystone, they would engage in many im- promptu jazz sessions at the Valley´s bars and nightclubs. Paul Oliver, a leading scholar of Black folk music described Hastings St. in the Valley for Detroit Magazine: "On this unlovely but colorful street were situated the bars and joints where the men could burn their spending change after working hours and listen to the blues singers and guitarists and pianists demonstrate their new bass figures, exchange rythmns and verses and carve each other in musical com- petition." Christopher Littlejohn was a teenager when the Valley was at its height. He worked in one of the corner drugstores in the Valley and was in awe of the tremendous activity on the streets an in the bars. "It was in the Valley that I skipped school for the first time," recalled Littlejohn. To some, the Valley was a cultural melting pot where Blacks and whites mingled in bars. To others, the Valley was a valuable start for Black businessmen. Tom Briscoe, a frequent patron of the Valley in its heyday and now an employee of the Detroit public schools, said the Valley was significant for all the businesses were owned and run by Blacks. "Those who lived during this time didn´t realize the significance of the Valley, with Black businessmen keeping money within the community," Said Briscoe. Briscoe said established Black businessmen in the Valley would extend loans to other potential Black businessmen who could not obtain a bank loan. In addition to extending loans, the businessmen aided community organizations and provided training and leadership to young people. Briscoe cited Jap Sneed, owner of the former Three Sixes, as one of these benevolent Black businessmen. Sneed helped build the neighborhood´s YMCA and served on the Brewster Athletic Board. Food baskets were often given to the needy and the nearby Phyllis Wheatley Home and St. Matthew´s church always counted on the local businessmen for donations, as did the NAACP and the Urban League. "It was the Black businessmen who kept the streets safe," said Briscoe. "There was no fear of getting mugged or beaten up. Violent crime was unheard of in the Valley." "They talk about Black power now," said Briscoe. "These businessmen prac- ticed Black power then." Indeed, the businessmen gave an autonomy to the Valley that was rare among most entertainment areas. The bar owners took care of their patrons, as was wit- nessed when Buffalo Bill James went to the police station after every raid to clear things up. Meanwhile, his patrons were back at the club playing the numbers. "Mayors" of Paradise Valley were elected almost every year by the populace another symbol of the valley´s autonomy. Mayors, like Chester Rentie, Roy Lightfoot, Reuben Patton and Don Walters, were responsible for staging charity drives and finding jobs for the unem- ployed. The Michigan Chronicle, wich was located in the Valley at this time, later established the mayoral elections as a Valley in- stitution. Although crime was low in the Valley, several policemen walked their beats in this area. Briscoe remembers some of the more colorful officers - like "Blondie" Hayes, who was respected but feared in the Valley, and Mrs. Walker, whose job was to check the bars for minors. "She could give a mean back slap," recalled Briscoe, laughing. But the autonomy and the glory of the Valley started to diminish in the 1950´s. By 1960, when the Chrysler freeway sliced into Hastings St., the Valley was already on its way down. There are several theories for the decline of Paradise Valley. One is that the 1943 riot, together with the repeal of the Covenant act (wich per- mitted discrimination in housing), prompted Blacks to move from the Valley area to other parts of the city. The Valley lost a lot of patronage because Black started new entertainment areas in their own neighborhoods and did not frequente the Valley nightclubs as much. Briscoe points to the migration of a new group of Blacks from the South following World War II as another reason for the Valley´s fall in popularity. "This new group of Blacks did not experience the Valley in its prime and consequently were not interested in keeping ir alive," said Briscoe. "Also, these Blacks were not restricted to living on the near-eastside as were Blacks in earlier times. So they started nightclubs in their own neigborhoods on the wets- side," he said. Another possibility for the loss of interest in the Valley´s nightlife was the development of the "Motown" sound in the late 1950´s and early 1960´s. Motown brought to Detroit an organized, cosmopolitan, sleek sound which sharply contrasted with the local, simple sound of the early "urban" blues and jazz. Whereas the musicians in the Valley´s club wore work clothes or simple suits, the Motown artists wore flashy, heavily ornamented costumes. Whereas the Valley´s en- tertainers sang about the simple, more universal problems of life - being lonely, jilted, drunk or overworked -Motown´s stars dealt with much more rebellious and political themes, reflecting the mood of the 1960´s. As the Valley was absorbed by Stroh´s Brewery, Hudson´s and the freeway, the proprietors either stayed or went out of business.