What they were thinking : reflections on Michigan difference-makers : a memoir

Author

Bill Haney

Call Number

• H 920 H237 (CEN)

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Publication Information

Ortonville, MI : MB Books ; Dexter, Michigan : in collaboration with Seattle Book Company, [2014]

Physical Description

xix, 292 pages ; 24 cm

Summary

Not all of them set out to change the world, but some of them managed to do just that. Not even legendary announcer Ernie Harwell knew the intrigue that lead to his brutal and disastrous dismissal--the full story is presented here for the first time. How did the coolest-of-cool novelist Elmore "Dutch" Leonard find his voice and create those just-off-center bad guys and capture that street-smart dialogue? Haney takes readers inside the minds of these and more than a dozen other notable Michigan figures, people like Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the zealot who elevated the issue of assisted suicide. And Academy Award-winning Sue Marx, automotive genius Ed Cole, the three visionary men who built the Palace and the championship Pistons, and many more men and women who made a difference. Haney reveals the motivations and the passions of people--some prominent, some scarcely known--who made decisions and took actions that had impacts that reverberated far beyond the state's borders.--Publisher's description.

Notes

First published in the United States by MB Books, in collaboration with Seattle Book Company. MB Books, a unit of MB Communications (Ortonville, MI)

Contents

• Be cool : Elmore "Dutch" Leonard finds his voice
• Talkin' baseball : Ernie Harwell, the voice of the Tigers ; Charlie Gehringer, the silent second baseman
• Appointment with Dr. Death : Jack Kevorkian : a zealot en route to martyrdom
• Listening, learning and leading : Denise Ilitch : in quest of excellence
• Striking at kings and tyrants : Lt. Milo Radulovich : the victim who changed history, with Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joe McCarthy
• "On the other end of my line" : J.P. McCarthy rides the Great Lakes radio waves
• From a Brownie to an Oscar : Sue Marx : telling timeless stories with film
• Storming the Palace : Joe Dumars, Tom Wilson, Bill Davidson : layups, leadership and legacies
• Around the world in eighty years : George Pierrot devours Detroit
• The man who got the lead out of Detroit : Ed Cole's Corvettes, Corvairs and catalytic converters
• Steering the ship of state on stormy seas : Jennifer Granholm's blueprint for a diversified, dynamic Michigan
• Doves, hawks, and the raven in the storm : Carl Oglesby : national insecurity and the old new left
• Mining for gold in the rust belt : Ron Monchak takes the road less traveled out of Madison Avenue
• The inferno at Michigan & Trumbull : Ernie Harwell writes two swan songs.