Those living on the city's west side hopped on a streetcar or hoofed it to its large blade marquee and dance the night away doing the Bunny Hug, the Turkey Trot and the Grizzly Bear. The Grande, on Grand River at Joy, was the place for young Detroiters to go. The neighborhood was a predominately Jewish enclave in the 1930s and '40s. Grant Department Stores, Beverly's and a drugstore. Its ground floor had several retail tenants, such as W.T. The dance floor held 1,500 dancers and was one of the largest in the city. The building was designed in the Moorish Deco style and contained storefront space on the first floor and on the second a ballroom with Moorish arches featuring a floor on springs that gave dancers the feeling of floating.
It is arguably the birthplace of punk and hard-driving rock, where bands like The MC5 and The Stooges cut their chops and became legends. Davis, the Grande started off as a place Detroiters would go to dance and listen to jazz and big band sounds, but it would later achieve immortal status in the annals of music history as a rock venue.
Agree for dance hall entrepreneurs Edward J.
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