Zooming through history along the creative corridor

For almost a century, Detroiters have led the nation in some forms of art, technology, architecture, music and media. Veteran observers cite stellar moments that put the city and the region on the map. While each generation puts its particular stamp, others have delivered the postage FOB Detroit.

Christina Lovio-George, CEO of Lovio George Inc., sums up its historical significance: “We appreciate those who came before, those who have worked with little recognition or money to assure Detroit’s creative spirit is never snuffed out. Any time I meet someone involved in this effort, I say, ‘Wow, what a heart.’ ”

Take a jog through the creative corridor from the 1950s forward.

Fifties — A roaring post-WWII auto industry reached far and wide for creative talent. Nine of 10 of America’s biggest advertisers were for domestic car brands. Among the stakeholders were Henry Jamison “Jam” Handy, Max Gail, Elmore Leonard and H.B. Stubbs, who put show business into auto culture. First, Handy trained WWII fighter pilots with films and simulators, launching the Jam Handy Organization in the ’50s to train sales managers at Chevrolet dealerships. At one time he owned most of East Grand Boulevard and led the nation in production of industrial films. Max Gail, founder of Gail & Rice Inc. in Southfield, introduced bands, comedians and live models to auto shows and manufacturing celebrations. The talented team of H.B Stubbs Cos. in Warren created elaborate automotive road shows, called Motorama, with cars, theatrical sets and stars on tour. Members of photography studios, advertising agencies, industrial filmmakers and illustrators clustered at the Normandy Bar on Grand Boulevard to trade tales of success and failure.

Sixties — Detroit loomed large on the architectural front in the 1960s with the opening of Cobo Hall and Cobo Arena on the Detroit River and the 78-acre Lafayette Park rising east of downtown, with acclaimed German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designing the towers and town houses. The art scene included the fabled Cass Corridor tribe of artisans who drank at Cobb’s Corner and danced to a different drummer. Young people flocked to the Grande Ballroom on Grand River to hear the MC5, Frost and the Rationals perform amplified rock while Berry Gordy of Motown produced a contagious rhythm and blues with the Marvelettes, Temptations and Edwin Starr among other stars. Auto designers from Detroit introduced pony cars and muscle cars to an emerging audience of affluent owners. Advertisers such as BBDO helped Dodge develop a youth appeal with the Dodge Rebellion. The Roostertail hosted dance parties and offered window seats to hydroplane races on the river, while jazz lovers sought Baker’s Keyboard Lounge.

Seventies — While legions of people migrated from cities to the suburbs, upstart singles and couples populated vintage neighborhoods like East English Village and Palmer Park, along with the newer Lafayette Park. Upstart downtown shopkeeper Emily Gail pioneered the slogan “Say Nice Things about Detroit” and initiated fun runs around town. Urban neighborhoods hosted art fairs as a showcase for local music and artistic talent, a way to bring regional patrons back to the city. A thriving music scene included P’Jazz concerts on the patio of the former Pontchartrain Hotel, and ethnic festivals on the riverfront with music, costumes, dance and food. Henry Ford II, auto baron, provided the vision and seed capital for architect John Portman’s Renaissance Center, now owned by General Motors Corp. Rebel tunes, played on a new band of FM radio stations, included world-class musicians Bob Seger, Suzi Quatro and Ted Nugent, while Motown stars Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross crossed the charts with mega-hits. With gritty music set to the pace of an assembly line, a new form of commercials emerged, set to music by enduring sound studios: Yessian in Royal Oak and Ron Rose in Southfield. An anthem perhaps was Seeger’s “Feel Like a Number.”

Eighties — Throngs of creative engineers joined automotive companies to meet an alphabet soup full of mandates for CAFE, MVSS and NHTSA, which they met with alphabet cars like K, J and X. Some jobs vanished to technology as robotics firms pioneered software for welding and inspecting vehicles. Yet new jobs emerged in research and technology studios for global suppliers and automakers. Expansion at the Center for Creative Studies (now College for Creative Studies) helped refine Detroit as the epicenter of car photography and design. Chrysler, emerging from bankruptcy, pioneered the minivan, changing forever the way moms shuttle children to school. Preservationists rejoiced over the saving of Orchestra Hall, the Fox Theatre and the Gem Theatre, while urban enthusiasts saw international bands and a juried art show come to the Woodward corridor, thanks to the reformatted University Cultural Center Association and its internationally acclaimed Festival of the Arts. In the film industry, zany Birmingham filmmaker Sam Raimi creates “Evil Dead” and leads a genre of horror films. Cobo Hall underwent a massive renovation, and the Detroit Auto Dealers Association seized the opportunity to showcase the North American International Auto Show in Detroit as an international media event. The glitterati of the region strutted out in spectacular form for the world’s largest prom, the Charity Preview. Thanks to art patron Irene Walt, the People Mover stations downtown contained giant murals by Pewabic Pottery and artist Charles McGee.

Nineties — Three guys from the western suburbs with electric vision — Derek May, Kevin Saunderson and Juan Atkins — took a new form of music popular at raves and smoke-filled clubs and elevated it to a Memorial Day weekend techno festival in Hart Plaza. It drew more than a million visitors. The gallery scene escalated thanks to artisans Niagra of C-POP Gallery, George N’Namdi of N’Namdi Gallery and Sherry Washington of Sherry Washington Gallery who captured the grit and greatness of the Motor City. Comerica Bank lent its name and funding to the TasteFest (now Cityfest) in the New Center. The Winans and the Clark Sisters take gospel music mainstream with concert tours, while garage-rock bands move from placid suburbs to pop charts led by the sizzling White Stripes, Von Bondies and Detroit Cobras. An economic boom fueled by SUVs and computer software firms began massive and well-subsidized plans to bring back the Super Bowl, initiated a Detroit 300 international celebration and filled in the old Kern block with a new park and office complex. Ismael Ahmed, then director of ACCESS in Dearborn and a world-music radio host, initiated Concert of Colors at Chene Park to showcase talent from Africa, Saudi Arabia, East Asia and elsewhere. Along several corridors, throngs of motor enthusiasts enjoyed auto cruising, including the granddaddy of mega-sized spectacles, the Woodward Dream Cruise that grows larger each year.

2000s — A new motto, “I am Detroit,” arises with the Detroit 300, a riverfront extravaganza with 800 different happenings, including a parade of tall ships, a re-enactment of Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac’s landing and a concert with Stevie Wonder. Civic enthusiasts Christina Lovio-George and Karen Batchelor laid the groundwork for the emerging corridor with the formation of CreateDetroit, a dialog for retaining and recruiting young talent. Sports fans filed into the all-new Comerica Park and Ford Field, which had an array of new tap rooms to whet their whistles. New loft buildings emerged in downtown Detroit and inner ring suburbs while the Cass Corridor, rebranded as Midtown, became a 24-7 community of galleries, museums, apartments and retailers. Three young urbanites who met while trying to save the Book Cadillac from destruction formed Detroit Synergy, a free-wheeling group that sponsors bicycle rides, concerts, preservation protests, bar meet-ups and other activities. Civic and corporate leaders led by Roger Penske hosted the Super Bowl in early 2006 and Winter Blast, an outdoor festival of massive proportions near the newly erected Compuware building. Upstart artists making everything from beeswax candles to blown glass began hosting an annual People’s Art Festival inside the post industrial 2.2 million-square-foot factory named the Russell Industrial Center. A green movement unites young people to help dredge the Rouge River, demonstrate against the Detroit incinerator, design a nature center to help sustain the Detroit River Wildlife Refuge in Wyandotte and Ecorse, and volunteer to clear greenways on former railroad beds around the region. Civic partners and creative enthusiasts forge a bond to build a sustainable city through “Detroit Make it Here.”

Christina Lovio-George, CEO of Lovio George Inc.; Brian Pastoria, co-owner of Harmonie Park; Maud Lyon, director of the Cultural Alliance; Glenn Campbell, retired BBDO public relations director and editor of www.autowriters.com; and Marty Habalewski, vice president of AutoCom Associates of Bloomfield Hills, contributed to this roundup.