Before radio, TV, and the internet magician Harry Houdini was described as the world's first rock star. So when he died in Detroit after a performance here in 1926, people around the world took note. We unspool Houdini's death, and his various Detroit connections. That includes his 1906 leap off the Belle Isle Bridge. Veteran newsman Joe Donovan, a serious student of history, recreates that jump in classic CKLW 20/20 new style. We also talk with magicians Ming Louie, Michael Belitsos, and Ron Carnell, pop culture expert Tim Caldwell, and reporter Steve Neavling. 

Season 2, Episode 3- The Last Days Of Harry Houdini

The Detroit History Podcast returns for Season Six with a menu of programs as diverse as wrestling, bebop jazz, and a failed automobile. We'll look at the life of The Sheik, who threw fire and terrorized fellow grapplers during his wrestling career, which peaked in the 1960s and beyond. We saw something different on the road while we prepped for Season Six: an Edsel, which was the biggest flop in automotive history when it was introduced in 1957. We wanted to know: how could the smart people at Ford Motor Company fail in such a big way? We'll hear about the Bluebird Inn, a west side jazz club where Miles Davis played in 1953 and 1954. And we'll explain how the Detroit Institute of Arts grew in the 1920s, acquiring priceless Van Gogh paintings at a time when nobody knew who he was. New episodes drop every Sunday night at 8.

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The Sheik (real name: Edward Farhat) was the most feared bad guy in Detroit wrestling during the 1960s and 1970s. He threw fire. He cut his opponent. He bit them, often winning with his “camel clutch.” His business model was simple: to behave in such a vile manner that people would pay money to watch him battle at air-conditioned Cobo Arena. We look at The Sheik’s impact on the world of wrestling, and how some of his innovations are being copied two decades after his death. And we have a bonus track: a poem by Mark James Andrews about The Sheik’s “good guy” nemesis, Bobo Brazil.

Season 6, Episode 1- The Sheik and Big Time Wrestling

It's been 5 years since the Detroit History Podcast originally released their podcast on the 1957 NFL champion Detroit Lions. Much has changed with Lions brass in the past few years, and it has finally led to post-season success in the Motor City. The Detroit History Podcast revisits the improbable run the 1957 team made to the championship, a run that was led by a first year coach and a backup quarterback. Was grit always in the Lions DNA?  Managing editor Eric Kiska shares an updated essay on what has led to the Lions recent post-season success. 

The 1957 NFL Champion Detroit Lions Revisited

Ketamine has found wide uses since the 1960s: As a painkiller, an anesthetic, a street drug consumed at raves, and -- now -- considered by many to be an exciting new treatment for depression. We explore how ketamine was developed here in Detroit, at the Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company, with help from a Wayne State University chemistry professor, and later tested at the now-closed Lafayette Clinic facility in Detroit. Credit to: The BBC and The Tim Ferriss Show.

Season 5 Finale- The Development of PCP and Ketamine

Broadcaster Fran Harris's life was a lifetime of firsts. She was the first woman newscaster in Detroit radio during World War II, persuading her bosses at WWJ to abandon its "guys only" tradition. And when television came along in Detroit on Channel 4 in 1946, she was on the air for that, too. When she retired from the station in 1974, some 200 women showed up at her goodbye party, grateful to Harris for the barriers she broke. We have a tape of a 1989 Harris interview, and talk with Michigan State University professor emerita Sue Carter. Former Channel 4 newswoman Betty Carrier Newman describes life in the newsroom when she arrived in 1969.

Season 5, Episode 9- Fran Harris, The First Female Newscaster in Michigan

A longstanding community called Mexicantown on Detroit's southwest side has persevered for around a century. The area of restaurants, shops, and bakeries anchors a key ethnic community in Detroit. For many, the journey here was prompted by a search for jobs. We explore the rise of the community, and the decline when Depression-era policies due to racism sent many Mexican-Americans packing for Mexico. We talk with Maria Elena Rodriguez and Elena Herrada and explore how this neighborhood came to be. 

Season 2, Episode 3- The Last Days Of Harry Houdini

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