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Bouncehoper (talk | contribs) m →The height of popularity (1920s – 1964): most do not know this middle name |
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In a 2017 interview, local businessman John O. Meeks recalled the past. "At its high point, between the '40s and early '60s, nearly 30,000 folks would descend on here in the summer. Hundreds of black-owned businesses thrived. This place was hopping ... We had a roller-skating rink for the kids, our own fire department and a post office".<ref>https://nypost.com/2017/06/11/the-abandoned-black-eden-is-prepared-for-a-comeback/</ref> Other sources indicate 25,000 visitors as a more common number during peak times in summer.<ref>https://www.freep.com/story/news/columnists/john-carlisle/2014/11/30/idlewild-michigan-hard-times/19668773/</ref>
Many African American entertainers of the period performed in Idlewild, particularly at the Paradise Club managed by Arthur Braggs. (The Flamingo Club, managed by Phil Giles, had lesser-known entertainers, although [[LaVern Baker]] and Detroit’s "Queen of the Blues", [[Alberta Adams]], did perform there.)<ref>https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/idlewild-michigan-1912/</ref><ref>https://www.freep.com/story/news/columnists/john-carlisle/2014/11/30/idlewild-michigan-hard-times/19668773/</ref> The list included [[Della Reese]], [[Al Hibbler]], [[Bill Doggett]], [[Jackie Wilson]], [[T-Bone Walker]], [[George Kirby]], [[The Four Tops]], [[Roy Hamilton]], [[Brook Benton]], [[Choker Campbell]], [[Lottie Graves|Lottie "the Body" Graves]], [[the Rhythm Kings]], [[Sarah Vaughan]], [[Cab Calloway]], [[Louis Armstrong]], [[Dinah Washington]], [[B.B. King]], [[Aretha Franklin]], [[Fats Waller]], and [[Billy Eckstein]]. Many other performers, entertained both Idlewilders and white citizens in neighboring [[Lake County, Michigan|Lake County]] townships throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. Arthur Braggs produced singers, dancers, showgirls, and entertainers who performed in the Fiesta Room at the Paradise Club from May to September, starting in summer 1950, helping Idlewild become the "Summer Apollo of Michigan".
The Paradise Club showgirls and chorus girls, with guest entertainers, performed not only in Idlewild but also on the road in the off-season as the Arthur Braggs Idlewild Revue. The appeared in cities such as Montreal, Toronto, Boston, Kansas City, Chicago and to New York; in Manhattan, the group performed at the [[Apollo Theater]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Idlewild: The Rise, Decline, and Rebirth of a Unique African American Resort Town |author=Ronald J. Stephens |publisher=University of Michigan Press |date=2013 |isbn=9780472035908 |url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=uYXVAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA189 }}</ref> Braggs' show helped Idlewild become a major entertainment center and contributed to the financial prosperity of the area.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/arthur-braggs-idlewild-revue-idlewild-michigan-1954-1964/ |date=3 March 2014 |title=The Arthur Braggs Idlewild Revue (1954-1964) |page=157 |author=Ronald J. Stephens |website=Black Past |access-date=20 February 2019}}</ref>
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