Maurice Dressing

Madame's Nightshirt

Mrs. Peperium

One cannot live in the metropolitan area of Detroit and be immune to the truly glamorous stories of what was known as 'Hudson's'. Hudson's was the J. L. Hudson store in downtown Detroit. (This would have been when there was a downtown in Detroit.)  The 49 acres large flagship store had 25 stories of world class shopping were no purchase was too big or too small.  As a result it sold everything from grand pianos to a spool of thread.  Hudson's had only one other rival in the entire United States, Macy's on 34th Street in NYC. 

In the store's heyday (40's and 50's) Mr. P's late mother was on the staff at Hudson's as an artist. Among her many responsibilities were drawing the models in the latest fashions for the weekly full page newspaper advertisements.  (Again this was back in the days when the Detroit newspapers still had home delivery.)  She also created floor and window displays. At Christmas, well that's when Hudson's put her enormous talent to full use. She illustrated the annual "Christmas Carol" children books that were mailed to the homes of Hudson private account holders.  Plus she designed "Toyland" - the entire floor given given over for the annual the Visit from Santa.  According to memories of children that visited her annual creation, she did make a truly magical place.  It was the J.L. Hudson company in 1924 that gave Detroit its famous annual Thanksgiving parade. Like its parade counterpart in NYC, the Hudson Thanksgiving parade ended with Santa (on his float) pulling up to the store and going inside where he would be in residence at Toyland for the next month. (Again, this was back in the days when the federal government did not run the private sector. Back then businesses were allowed to generate as much profit as possible and generated it in ways that benefited the quality of life in Detroit far better than any federal government plan or UAW strike ever has.)  Hudson's sponsorship of the parade continued until 1979.

Sadly, the visits to Santa in Toyland basically ended in the late 70's when a father who was waiting in line outside the store (the lines where that long back then) was stabbed to death by a, for a lack of better words, murderous crook -in front of all the children waiting to see Santa, including his own.

By the time I moved to Detroit in late 1988, Hudson's flagship store had been shuttered for 5 years. Ideas about what to do with the empty building kicked around the corrupt City Hall for years while the final assault on Hudson's took place - thieves stripped the building of anything and everything they could sell. Finally in 1998, City Hall decided for the revitalization of the City of Detroit to knock it down and redevelop the land.  Hudson's splendid 102-year history in Detroit came to an end.

While Hudson's in Detroit may be gone, there is something from it, that is not - The Maurice Salad.  By 1953, the Hudson's had within its 25 stories of shopping 5 different restaurants to serve its shoppers.  These restaurants, if you can believe it, served 14,000 meals a day.  This was at a time when the Hudson store, if you can believe it, employed 12,000 people (including 500 home delivery drivers with a fleet of 300 delivery vans) and made 100,000 sales per day.  The Maurice Salad was on the menu at Hudson's for more than 50 years.  When you taste the Maurice Dressing you understand why.

J. L. Hudson's Maurice Salad

(serves 6-8)

2 tsp. white vinegar

1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp. onion juice (grate onion with fine grater)

1 1/2 tsp. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. dijon mustard

1/4 tsp. dry mustard

1 cup mayonnaise

2 tbspns. chopped fresh parsley

1 hard cooked egg, finely chopped

salt to taste

14 oz. ham, cut into strips

14 oz cooked turkey breast

14 oz Swiss cheese

1/2 cup slivered sweet gerkins

1 head Iceberg lettuce, shredded

12-16 pimento stuffed olives

Combine the first 6 dressing ingredients and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add remaining dressing ingredients and mix well.  Combine the ham, turkey, cheese and pickles together in a large bowl.  Toss together with the dressing.  Divide lettuce among the plates, top with salad and garnish each plate with 2 olives.  Serve with fresh bread.

Maurice Salad has been on the Peperium summer dinner menu since the earliest days of our marriage. It is a perfect hot weather meal.  Also, Maurice dressing is wonderful on cold poached salmon, shrimp, or lobster. 

 Hudson's today (the flat white part).

For more than 10 years the City of Detroit has been incapable of redeveloping the city block where Hudson's made millions upon millions in spite of a Great Depression, two World Wars and the Sixties generation.

Yesterday, the City of Detroit felled another giant from its past :  the historic Navin Field, (also known as Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium).  From 1912 until 1999 it had been the home of the Detroit Tigers.

For 10 years the City was unable to figure out what to do with the old ball park where Ty Cobb and all the other greats played.  The next to go will probably be the old train station.

It must be hard for the rest of the country to understand how beautiful the City of Detroit once was.  In the 1920's it was our fourth largest city and its reputation was that it offered the most gracious living.

.

Comments

[Mr. WAC]

One of my favorite websites chronicles the decay of Detroit in pictures, images which are unbelievable to those who have never seen full-on urban decay- abandoned factories, abandoned private buildings, abandoned skyscrapers(!).

http://www.detroityes.com/home.htm

While the people who run the site really care about the state of their city, they are not without a sense of humor. The sad, sick joke of the site is the promotion of a new tourism hook for Detroit: "Come see the ruins."

[Crackie]

Mrs. P, Sometime when you are out my way I will have to show you my son's architectural thesis on the Michigan Central Station. He had ideas for finding an alternate use for it, although I expect Implosionworld.com will be its next stop.
I thought your reference to 25 stories HAD to be a typo, but a quick Google check shows that you are right on the money with that one. Getting people onto the fourth floor of a downtown mall is usually impossible--I marvel at the ability of the J.L. Hudson folks to get shoppers to go up that many floors. What on earth did they have on that top floor?

[Mrs. Peperium]

Mr. WAC, thank you. My first visit to Detroit was in the summer of '67 -about a month before the riots. We were on a family trip and stayed at the Book Cadillac for several days. When the bellmen/doormen were getting all of our luggage and whatnot into the family Country Squire - enough for 2 adults/5 kids...my brother and I played with his Matchbox cars under the chairs in the lobby. When they called us to board, we scrambled so fast - I left his blue (Ford?) tractor there under the chair. I can still see -in my mind- the doormen/bellmen waving goodbye to us as we drove off to our next destination - Montreal. It was about an hour later my brother discovered his missing tractor and a great howl went up. I responded with the onset of car sickness...I was rather famous for random bouts of car sickness when traveling with my family....gee, wonder why?....anyhoo, do you know in Canada they did not sell blue (Ford?) tractor Matchboxes. Only kelly green -which suggests to me he got a John Deer as a replacement.

Anyhoo, I landed 4 extra tickets to see the Pope (in NYC) last year which required me to go downtown to turn them back in at the Archdiocese so they could give them to others. Had zero clue the Archdiocese is just about next door to the old Book Cadillac which at the time was under renovation to be reopened for the first time in a few decades - no Catholic pun intended. I was shocked to see how it had all changed from my memory. I recalled a bustling city...

Crackie, what was on the top floor? The floor next to Heaven in a profit oriented business? Why that would've been ladies lingerie, wouldn't it?

[Mr. WAC]

You are correct. My Father lost a blue Ford tractor once, though it was the real thing, in the bottom of a lake worse, it belonged to his father-in-law. Unlike your brother, though, it was recovered. Indeed, I worked with the same tractor, doing the same job, 17 years later. We also used a Ford at the Boy Scout camp that employed me in my teenage in West Virginia. So, yes, your brother lost a Ford in Detroit.

As a boy, and a country boy at that, I can help those interested identify the major tractor tinctures: Blue=Ford, Green=John Deere, Yellow=Caterpillar, Red=International Harvester.