Samuel Royalty “Roy” LILLIE, son of Isaac Spencer “Ike” LILLIE and Florence ROYALTY, played in important roll in this collection of old photographs. It was very likely his mother Florence who saved most of the older photographs while Roy added to the collection with his own portraits. His son Lynn Vance LILLIE was the last owner of the collection before it was saved from the trash.
In this photograph we see Roy posing with a bottle of liquor at Brazell’s Bar in Detroit, Michigan in 1939.
Roy and his business partner Russell (King) HEATH bought the “saloon” around 1939 for $1,000, “liquor license & all.” King, as he was known to Roy, was a switch-man for the steam railroad in 1930, as was Roy. In 1942 at the time of the World War II registration draft Heath was working for Golda Kline as a bartender. He died in 1944.
Buying Brazell’s Bar did not make bar-tending a full time job for Roy. He had changed from working as a switch-man with the railroad in 1930 to working for the steel mill as a by 1940. In 1942 on his WW II card his employer was the Great Lakes Steel Co. in Ecorse, Michigan. He would remain with this employer until retirement as we will see next week.
S.R. Lillie & Russell (King) Heath
Detroit Mich. Brazell’s Bar
Taken 1939 Bot (sic) Saloon for $1,000.00
Liquor Lic & all.
Other photographs of Samuel Royalty LILLIE:
#53 Samuel Royalty “Roy” LILLIE 1895-1979 (young Roy)
#54 Samuel Royalty “Roy” LILLIE 1895-1979 (in uniform)
#55 Samuel Royalty “Roy” LILLIE 1895-1979 (portrait with hat)
#56 Samuel Royalty “Roy” LILLIE 1895-1979 (in uniform with rifle)
#57 Samuel Royalty “Roy” LILLIE 1895-1979 (barber staff)
#58 Samuel Royalty “Roy” LILLIE 1895-1979 (Liberty trucks)
#59 Samuel Royalty “Roy” LILLIE 1895-1979 (in New Orleans)
#61 Bartender and Owner of Brazell’s Bar in Detroit
More about this collection, how it came to be in my possession,
and links to previous posts in the series can be found here.
© 2016, copyright Cathy Meder-Dempsey. All rights reserved.
My Uncle Roy dragged me to various places in Detroit when I visited one summer. I remember he called a certain section “Hunk Town” because Hungarians clustered there. They self identified with that name, and I’ll bet the bar he dragged me to was that one in the picture. I was probably 14 or so at the time and didn’t/wasn’t writing anything down and dating it.
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Thank you Joe. I searched the internet and found one newspaper article about a person who had died and was seen at the bar. I don’t have a subscription and could only view the text. But it was proof that the bar existed in the 1940s.
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Wonderful photo—so classic!
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Thank you Amy. Like a movie set 🙂
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