Ann Arbor Stories | Ann Arbor District Library

By Ann Arbor District Library

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What's Ann Arbor Stories | Ann Arbor District Library about?

Ann Arbor Stories features sometimes well known and sometimes obscure short tales from Ann Arbor's past. Everything from music, money, and murder, to the extraordinary people and events that have shaped Ann Arbor since 1824.

Ann Arbor Stories is presented by Richard Retyi and Brian Peters, in partnership with the Ann Arbor District Library.

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Ann Arbor Stories | Ann Arbor District Library episodes:

04.12.2018
#47 Ann Arbor Stories: The Billboard Bandits
The shrill, biting staccato whine of a chain saw pierces the cold, night air. Thud. Another billboard falls to the ground along a highway in southern Michigan. An estimated 167 billboards in all—cut, chopped, and chainsawed, along highways throughout Michigan, mostly...
03.01.2018
#46 Ann Arbor Stories: The Battle of Ann Arbor
Four nights of rioting, dozens of injuries to cops and citizens, and more than 70 arrests—it was an event The Detroit Free Press dubbed “The Battle of Ann Arbor”. What sparked this violence and how did the insane scene play out...
02.08.2018
#45 Ann Arbor Stories: Highway Snipers
There wasn't a lot of traffic on M-14 on that last day of August 1981. It was 3am. Semi trucks bound for points in Michigan and throughout the Midwest, cars carrying people headed to work, cars taking people home after long...
10.12.2017
#44 Ann Arbor Stories: Professor Foxy Truesport
This is the story of Thomas Clarkson Trueblood—the first golf coach at the University of Michigan, one of the most respected orators in the world during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and noted professor --- of lovemaking. Get to...
09.28.2017
#43 Ann Arbor Stories: How the Hippies Almost Killed Football
In 1970, one man tried to stop the University of Michigan and Michigan State from playing their annual football game. And he kind of had an argument. A story of rock music, drugs, sex, love-ins, college football and judicial precedent...
09.14.2017
#42 Ann Arbor Stories: The Chameleon
You're going to hear a story about a man. It may seem too good and too weird to be true, but trust me—what you are about to hear is 100% real. This is the story of William Douglas Street, better...
08.31.2017
#41 Ann Arbor Stories: Skyscrapers
Skyscraper is such an elegant word. Two decades after it was first used in print to describe Chicago's tall-building craze, Ann Arbor had its first skyscraper—the seven-story Glazier Building. Twenty years later, the 10-story First National Building went up. This...
08.17.2017
#40 Ann Arbor Stories: Train Crashes
Ann Arbor has a rich history of railroads and trains. So so much rich history. This is not that story. This is a story of the most spectacular train crashes in Ann Arbor's history. Listener Warning: Contain references to train crashes,...
08.03.2017
#39 Ann Arbor Stories: We Had a Zoo
Bears. Bobcats. Badgers. Red foxes. Raccoons. And a wolverine. Once upon a time they watched from campus with their predatory eyes as students at the University of Michigan, townies, and delicious delicious children walked past. Their territory on the corner near...
07.20.2017
#38 Ann Arbor Stories: Top 10 Astronauts
There are enough amazing Ann Arbor astronauts to create a top 10 list, so that's what we did. Men with righter than right stuff, pilots and scientists and world record holders who broke the outer limits of the atmosphere, touched...
07.13.2017
#37 Ann Arbor Stories: MAILBAG #1
Each episode of Ann Arbor Stories ends with our email address: [email protected] and an ask to you, our great listeners, for feedback, story ideas or shockingly personal questions. We personally answer each email, but some of these questions are too...
07.06.2017
#36 Ann Arbor Stories: Housewife Flies Around the World
The woman the papers called "the pretty Michigan housewife" had never left the United States before planning her 1967 flight around the world. Not in a modern jet, but in a 30-year-old plane that had 14 previous owners, one crash...
06.28.2017
#35 Ann Arbor Stories: Walking Tour #1
This first Ann Arbor Stories walking tour is intended to be listened to while actually exploring a few city blocks in downtown Ann Arbor. It takes listeners from the corner of Huron and Fourth, outside the Embassy Hotel all the...
06.22.2017
#34 Ann Arbor Stories: The Music Mobile
You can’t talk about the amazing life of Geraldine Seeback without talking about the Music Mobile, but you better not talk about the Music Mobile and gloss over the amazing life of Geraldine Seeback. Two stories in one! The story...
06.08.2017
#33 Ann Arbor Stories: Dirty Rotten Founders
Rugged pioneers John Allen and Elisha Rumsey founded Ann Arbor in 1824 and named their new town Ann Arbor because, 1.) Both of their wives had "Ann" in their names and, 2.) The wives frequently relaxed and chatted under a...
05.25.2017
#32 Ann Arbor Stories: Dam Arbor
The Huron River travels 130 miles from White Lake Township in Oakland County all the way down to Lake Erie - meandering through Dexter, Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Belleville, Flat Rock, and Rockwood. Since Ann Arbor's founding, the river has been...
05.11.2017
#31 Ann Arbor Stories: The Dictator Comes to Town
Ann Arbor loves hosting dignitaries, celebrities and heads of state like any other Midwestern city. In 1966, Ann Arbor had the pleasure of hosting newly-elected Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos and his lovely wife Imelda. He wasn't a dictator yet. Hadn't...
04.27.2017
#30 Ann Arbor Stories: The Embassy Hotel
If you've seen the Embassy Hotel since 1951, you'll know it doesn't look like anything special. It's wrapped in dull grey siding and the signs on the side of the building are old, and its clientele probably wouldn’t be welcomed...
04.13.2017
#29 Ann Arbor Stories: Public Animal No. 1
Dozens of cities tried - hundreds of lawmen failed. Ann Arbor was the only place in the world that could cage punk rock’s most anarchic, violent and revolting personality. Think Iggy Pop crossed with Charles Manson - the crossed with...
03.30.2017
#28 Ann Arbor Stories: The Blind Pig
On February 23, 2017, Swisher Commercial listed the Blind Pig and 8-Ball Saloon for sale. 6,970 square feet, two stories, two half baths, no bedrooms, and no list price. Best offer only. Liquor license included. The origins of the building,...
03.16.2017
#27 Ann Arbor Stories: The Torch Murders
In the pre-dawn hours in August 1931, a farmer in Ypsilanti reported a car on fire at the edge of his property. When police and firefighters arrived and extinguished the flames, they found a grisly scene that shocked the state....
03.02.2017
#26 Ann Arbor Stories: Henry Ford's Enforcer
The most powerful person ever to live in Ann Arbor was Harry Bennett—Henry Ford's right hand man, union buster and general enforcer. Bennett lived behind the walls of Bennett's Castle at 5668 Geddes Road, where he ran the Ford Motor...
02.16.2017
#25 Ann Arbor Stories: The Red Light District
There was a time in Ann Arbor’s not-so-distant past when a part of town was widely known as the red light district. Adult bookstores, topless massage parlors, prostitutes, hoodlums, and bums—all just blocks from City Hall and Ann Arbor police...
02.02.2017
#24 Ann Arbor Stories: Proud History of Punching Nazis in the Face
Police spotted the Nazis in their rented U-Haul at the edge of the city around 11 am— two hours before anyone expected them to arrive. Fifteen members of the S.S. Action Group out of Westland—sitting three in the front and...
01.19.2017
#23 Ann Arbor Stories: The Clairvoyant Physician
In a time of spirits, specters, and the people who could contact them - Daniel B. Kellogg fit right in. The good doctor could diagnose you in person or halfway across the country—see inside you and prescribe the perfect cure—despite...
01.05.2017
#22 Ann Arbor Stories: For All the Marbles
That spring in 1936, seven years into the Great Depression, the entire city of Ann Arbor, age 14 and under, lost their marbles over the biggest sporting event the city had ever known. Hundreds of kids battled for 26 coveted...
12.22.2016
#21 Ann Arbor Stories: Our Own Santa's Helper
Most of Santa’s helpers are great people - guys and gals - and, as it turns out, Ann Arbor used to have one of the best. Our Santa’s helper was so good that four U.S. presidents praised his work. As...
11.10.2016
#20 Ann Arbor Stories: JFK Slept Here: The Presidential Special
George Washington never slept here. Neither did Abraham Lincoln or Andrew Jackson or George W. Bush. Of the 43 men who have served as President of the United States since 2016, we’re confident 17 Commanders in Chief have set foot...
10.27.2016
#19 Ann Arbor Stories: A Very Dixboro Ghost Story
Listener discretion advised. When Martha Crawford stepped out of her carriage and set foot in the Village of Dixboro in 1835, no one could have predicted her eventual fate, or that she'd be the origin of Dixboro's first creepy ghost...
10.13.2016
#18 Ann Arbor Stories: Riot at the Star Theater
On St. Patrick’s Day, 1908, The Star was the site of the largest riot in Ann Arbor’s history. Why did an isolated beatdown incite 3,000 students and townies to destroy one of Ann Arbor's few theaters at the time? Music...
09.29.2016
#17 Ann Arbor Stories: Ann Arbor Mallet Murders
Listener discretion advised. This episode contains content that might not be suitable for all listeners. It does have the word murder in the title. Why did three teenagers from good homes bash nurse Pauline Campbell's brains out of her head one...
09.15.2016
#16 Ann Arbor Stories: The Girls in the Band
Being a member of the University of Michigan Marching Band is hard work. Not only do you need to be a great musician, but you need to be able to march in tight formation, high-step and run around a football...
09.01.2016
#15 Ann Arbor Stories: The Pig Bowl
1969 was a rough year in Ann Arbor. So the city cops and the county cops decided to play a full-contact game of football to raise money for Christmas presents for needy kids. They called it The Pig Bowl. Music by...
08.18.2016
#14 Ann Arbor Stories: The Naked Mile
What began as a fun way to celebrate the last day of classes transformed into an internationally live-streamed event. Crowds of 10,000 or more shouting, cheering, pushing and watching 1,000 coed runners in the buff take part in the University...
08.04.2016
#13 Ann Arbor Stories: A Brief History of Poop
Ann Arborites haven't always pooped in their pristine flush toilets and private privvys, no sir m'am. Things were gross and disgusting for a long time. Learn about the arrival of the earth closet, the sealing of the privvy vaults, and...
07.21.2016
#12 Ann Arbor Stories: The Ballad of Shakey Jake
Legendary streetsman, bluesman and raconteur, Shakey Jake told so many tales to so many people that sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between fact and fiction. We do our best in this episode of Ann Arbor Stories. Music by Ben...
07.07.2016
#11 Ann Arbor Stories: The Great Meteorite Heist
It's a story 50,000 years old. Sort of. A 60-pound meteorite is stolen from the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. There are no signs of a break-in. No clues to follow. No video cameras to catch the robbers...
06.23.2016
#10 Ann Arbor Stories: Ann Arbor Invents the Cubicle
The cubicle. The three-walled cliche, surface to which so many Hang In There kitty cat posters are affixed, was invented in Ann Arbor. That’s right - the yoke around the neck of white collar workers everywhere was conceived and birthed...
06.09.2016
#9 Ann Arbor Stories: It's Lovely to Die Together
(This episode is for mature audiences only) The two girls were peculiar, even for Ann Arbor in 1971. They looked college aged, maybe they were hippies. Nothing outwardly weird, but something definitely strange. They stood a few feet apart, face...
05.26.2016
#8 Ann Arbor Stories: The Suicide Sub Comes to Ann Arbor
See 38 and a half tons ... 81 feet of fanatical fiendishness. See one of the ships in which two of our enemies volunteer to accept death in order to blow up their objectives. See this Japanese suicide submarine and...
05.12.2016
#7 Ann Arbor Stories: The Legendary Weed Contest of 1975
The Legendary Weed Contest of 1975 wasn’t just any contest. It was more than just a sweepstakes where the grand prize winner received one full-scale pound of Columbian smoking marijuana. It was a statement. A call to revolution. A brilliant...
04.28.2016
#6 Ann Arbor Stories: Ghost in the Attic
For a town as old as Ann Arbor, it has surprisingly few ghost stories. But in the late 1950s, the congregation of the First Methodist Church in Ann Arbor was pretty convinced they had a spirit on their hands. Caretakers...
04.14.2016
#5 Ann Arbor Stories: Ann Arbor's Oldest Gay Bar
It started on April 30, 1949, when Cupid Bar rebranded itself as The Flame Bar, turning a popular downtown student watering hole into a slightly more popular downtown student watering hole. Almost 50 years later, The Flame would close, shuttering...
03.31.2016
#4 Ann Arbor Stories: The Birth of Iggy Pop
Muskegon claims him because he was born there. Ypsi claims him because, for most of his childhood, he lived in a trailer park on the outskirts of town. But it’s Ann Arbor - along with cocaine, meth, acid, booze, pills,...
03.17.2016
#3 Ann Arbor Stories: Martian Madness
On the night of March 20,1966, Frank Mannor’s six dogs started barking like they’d never done before. He went outside to shut them up and that’s when he saw what he saw. Something flying through the night sky. At...
03.10.2016
#2 Ann Arbor Stories: Death of a Policeman
Crime was never a big problem in Ann Arbor in 1935. There were occasional break-ins, robberies, stolen vehicles, assaults, a riot or protest or two, but Prohibition was over and the gangsters and bootleggers had moved on. An Ann Arbor...
03.03.2016
#1 Ann Arbor Stories: A Buck Twenty-Five
In 1824, John Allen of New York and Elisha Rumsey of Connecticut bought up 640 acres of prime Michigan land, paying $1.25 per acre. Those 640 acres, purchased in a tiny federal land office in Detroit, would become known as...

What's Ann Arbor Stories | Ann Arbor District Library about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Ann Arbor Stories | Ann Arbor District Library episodes:

#47 Ann Arbor Stories: The Billboard Bandits

#46 Ann Arbor Stories: The Battle of Ann Arbor

#45 Ann Arbor Stories: Highway Snipers

#44 Ann Arbor Stories: Professor Foxy Truesport

#43 Ann Arbor Stories: How the Hippies Almost Killed Football

#42 Ann Arbor Stories: The Chameleon

#41 Ann Arbor Stories: Skyscrapers

#40 Ann Arbor Stories: Train Crashes

#39 Ann Arbor Stories: We Had a Zoo

#38 Ann Arbor Stories: Top 10 Astronauts

#37 Ann Arbor Stories: MAILBAG #1

#36 Ann Arbor Stories: Housewife Flies Around the World

#35 Ann Arbor Stories: Walking Tour #1

#34 Ann Arbor Stories: The Music Mobile

#33 Ann Arbor Stories: Dirty Rotten Founders

#32 Ann Arbor Stories: Dam Arbor

#31 Ann Arbor Stories: The Dictator Comes to Town

#30 Ann Arbor Stories: The Embassy Hotel

#29 Ann Arbor Stories: Public Animal No. 1

#28 Ann Arbor Stories: The Blind Pig

#27 Ann Arbor Stories: The Torch Murders

#26 Ann Arbor Stories: Henry Ford's Enforcer

#25 Ann Arbor Stories: The Red Light District

#24 Ann Arbor Stories: Proud History of Punching Nazis in the Face

#23 Ann Arbor Stories: The Clairvoyant Physician

#22 Ann Arbor Stories: For All the Marbles

#21 Ann Arbor Stories: Our Own Santa's Helper

#20 Ann Arbor Stories: JFK Slept Here: The Presidential Special

#19 Ann Arbor Stories: A Very Dixboro Ghost Story

#18 Ann Arbor Stories: Riot at the Star Theater

#17 Ann Arbor Stories: Ann Arbor Mallet Murders

#16 Ann Arbor Stories: The Girls in the Band

#15 Ann Arbor Stories: The Pig Bowl

#14 Ann Arbor Stories: The Naked Mile

#13 Ann Arbor Stories: A Brief History of Poop

#12 Ann Arbor Stories: The Ballad of Shakey Jake

#11 Ann Arbor Stories: The Great Meteorite Heist

#10 Ann Arbor Stories: Ann Arbor Invents the Cubicle

#9 Ann Arbor Stories: It's Lovely to Die Together

#8 Ann Arbor Stories: The Suicide Sub Comes to Ann Arbor

#7 Ann Arbor Stories: The Legendary Weed Contest of 1975

#6 Ann Arbor Stories: Ghost in the Attic

#5 Ann Arbor Stories: Ann Arbor's Oldest Gay Bar

#4 Ann Arbor Stories: The Birth of Iggy Pop

#3 Ann Arbor Stories: Martian Madness

#2 Ann Arbor Stories: Death of a Policeman

#1 Ann Arbor Stories: A Buck Twenty-Five