The Ann Arbor District Library’s LGBTQ+ Walking Tour documents historical locations important to the queer community, pulling from interviews with community members in podcasts like AADL’S Gayest Generation, LGBTQ+ Washtenaw oral histories, and other archival collections. We heard from community members about their favorite hangouts over the decades, including bars, bookstores, and sites of political advancement for LGBTQ+ rights. This tour walks you through important locations, some of which have changed over the years and may no longer exist.

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“Lockard the teacher, the mentor and a griot…[Griot—a member of a class of traveling poets, musicians, (artists) and storytellers who maintain a tradition of oral history in parts of West Africa.]" – Dr. Ed Jackson Jr.

Artist Jon Onye Lockard At Washtenaw Community College, November 7, 1997

Known for his portraits, murals, and his inspirational teaching style, Jon Onye Lockard was a prolific artist, educator, and mentor. He made countless contributions not just in Ann Arbor, but around the globe. Jon is remembered for his unwavering devotion to teaching and promoting the artistic representation of Blackness, rebutting centuries of racist imagery, with a steadfast commitment to social justice and to the broader civil rights movement: 

“Painting throughout his life different depictions of Blackness in its myriad of possibilities brought him great joy … He wanted the world to see how beautiful Blackness was, because growing up at a time when that was not emphasized impacted him to want things to change and be better.” - Elizabeth James, former student and current staff at the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies [D’AAS]

Mural Painting In Midtown Park At Huron & Main Street, November 1973

Today, murals seem almost commonplace. They are found all around town created by a range of artists, executed in many styles. This was not always the case, and in 1982, former student, artist, and professor Mike Mosher wrote: “the majority of murals in schools, institutions and on the street in the Ann Arbor area, when not directly involving Lockard, are the work of students who’ve passed through his classes and influence.” Though many of these early student murals are no longer here, many of his works remain around town. 

“Working in murals demands a sense of consciousness, a sense of the rhythms happening in the community, the country, or the world.” — Jon Onye Lockard

From the Ann Arbor News, May 22, 1981

Locally, Lockard’s murals can be found at University of Michigan’s residence halls and multicultural lounges in South and West Quad. Numerous paintings and a mural honoring legendary Washtenaw Community College [WCC] faculty member Dr. Morris Lawrence Jr. are on WCC’s campus. Nearby universities and museums proudly present his works, such as his renowned mural ‘Continuum' at Wayne State University’s Manoogian Center. His work is collected internationally and can be found in public and private collections.

The Early Years of John Melvin Lockard

John Lockard, 1949 from the Arrow, Eastern High School

“One must know where you came from to know where you are going” – Jon Lockard

Jon Onye Lockard was born as John Melvin Lockard January 25, 1932 in Detroit to Cecil E. Lockard and Lillian Jones. He was the middle child, with an older brother named Cecil E. Lockard, after their father. Cecil Jr. would also become an influential figure in Ann Arbor, working as a photographer for the Ann Arbor News for decades.

John Lockard was born during the Great Depression, came of age at the start of white flight in the Detroit area, and experienced unofficial segregation at the schools he attended in the region. The young Lockard was educated at Eastern High School in Detroit, where he had already begun participating in the arts, sports, and acted as a member of the yearbook staff, graduating in 1949. 

John Lockard, member of Eastern High School's yearbook staff, 1949

After high school, he began working at Ovelton Sign where he experienced harsh working conditions and segregation. He attended Meinzinger School of Art in Detroit and, shortly after, Wayne State University where he would earn his Bachelor’s. Then, he received his Master’s degree at University of Toronto in 1958 before returning to the Detroit area and establishing himself in Ann Arbor.

Jon Onye Lockard: A Great Teacher Emerges

During this period, John dropped the ‘h’ in his name, officially becoming Jon Lockard. Later in the 1960s, a member of his travel group in Nigeria said he should be “Onye Eje/Ije”, which in the Igbo language means “artistic traveler” or “the traveling artist who has many friends,” a name he would adopt, changing his name officially to Jon Onye Lockard.

In November 1964, Lockard celebrated the grand opening of the Ann Arbor Art Center, (of no relation to the current Ann Arbor Art Center–which was, at the time, the Ann Arbor Art Association) his first studio at 215 S. Fourth Ave. During this time he was working “nine days a week” in Ann Arbor, but he still lived in Detroit. He would move to Ann Arbor by 1971, around the same time his studio moved into the old Ann Arbor Railroad Depot building at 416 S. Ashley.

From the Huron Valley Ad-Visor, September 1, 1965

In 1968, advocacy from Black scholars and students worked to include Black Studies programs and push for higher enrollment of Black students, a movement that was gaining traction across the country. The Daily reported in 1969 that the LSA program would begin offering an Afro-American Studies major. 

Black Artist's Festival Advertisement, Michigan Daily, November 13, 1969

At the University of Michigan, Jon quickly found himself inhabiting several roles: supporting the Black Action Movement, and participating in the first annual Black Artist's Festival in 1969. The following year he co-founded the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies (Renamed D’AAS in 2011) as an interdisciplinary program that would focus on histories that had been ignored—or worse, taught with factual inaccuracy by other history departments. Elizabeth James reflects on the personal significance of this change: “The History of Art department wasn't offering courses in [the African diaspora] at that time, so I checked with the then-Center for Afroamerican and African Studies. Jon Lockard was teaching a survey course on the arts of Africa. It was an amazing experience that transformed my life.” 

In December 1969, Lockard was brought on at WCC as part of the newly founded Black Studies Program. In 1970, Lockard would organize the first show of Black students’ works in an outdoor exhibit, while the campus expanded programs for Black students through the Black Studies Program and the creation of the WCC Black Student Union. 

Lockard continued to teach at both universities for 40 years. His former students fondly remember that he would make sure to play music before and after each of his classes. Elizabeth James remembers: “He always played music before and after his classes began, setting the scene for the lessons to be learned each day. He deeply believed in developing critical thinking skills so that you would remain curious about the world around you.”

Lockard’s reputation for being a “difficult” teacher is also fondly remembered by students. He would not let students get away with lack of participation, and he thereby enriched their educational experiences. Former colleague Bamidele Agbasegbe-Demerson says, "you had to always raise questions because it was through raising questions that you interrogated the subject. You came to some decisions and ultimately, hopefully an understanding.” Mike Mosher recalls that he would not just let students “do their own thing,” that “his classes were dedicated to learning to represent the human figure accurately … you had to demonstrate skill in drawing a model in a full range of values with a single black or brown Conte crayon.”

In addition to his teaching in formal university settings, Jon co-founded organizations such as Our Own Thing, where he offered his knowledge to students participating in scholarship programs. He was a co-founder and acted as Associate Director of the Society for the Study of African American Culture and Aesthetics, and in 1983 was elected president of the African American arts organization National Conference of Artists (NCA). 

'Our Own Thing' Helps Students Study In Arts, from the Ann Arbor News, September 18, 1971

Lockard’s former student and working artist Earl Jackson remembers a trip Lockard led for the NCA to Dakar, Senegal, noting the profound influence it had on his artistic direction. Lockard emphasized the importance of color in his teachings, focusing on the differences in meanings associated with colors across cultures. Lockard’s work participated in a dialogue of artworks by members of the African diaspora, which led to the creation of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s-70s, a movement of art toward an “African American aesthetic” that Lockard helped develop throughout his career along with contemporaries and friends such as Bing Davis. 

In line with his mission to promote an African and African American aesthetic in his work, Jon found inspiration in words and concepts throughout history. Sankofa, for example, was one of Lockard’s most revered philosophies. As he interpreted it, “there is wisdom in learning from the past and one’s roots, to ensure a strong future moving forward.” Lockard used this term repeatedly throughout his career: as the title of his show “Sankofa”, originally aired on Barden Cable Television of Detroit from, and as the title of his biweekly journal. In 2000, the Center for Afroamerican Studies named a gallery for Lockard that launched with an inaugural exhibit titled “Looking Back but Seeing Ahead: Sankofa and Creativity.”

A Case for the Inseparability of Art & Politics

In 1983, a year after an unsuccessful lawsuit against the Ann Arbor Street Fair, Lockard spoke with Susan Nisbett of the Ann Arbor News. She wrote: “Lockard expressed a desire to talk about art, rather than politics,” followed by the statement: “In the broadest sense, however, to talk about the one with Lockard is to talk about the other.” Lockard’s artistic philosophy and choice of subject matter from the beginning was focused on Black and African American representation. He knew that his works were provocative and made white audience members uncomfortable at times, but that above all else “art has a responsibility to tell the truth.”

From the Michigan Daily, June 16, 1982

In his early career, Jon Lockard was known as a traveling portraitist, having attended the yearly show at the Ann Arbor Street Fair since its founding. His on-site portrait work was so popular it was known to have drawn large crowds, with art fair organizers strategically placing Lockard’s booth to draw visitors to the far reaches of the event. Though Lockard had by all accounts been a cherished member of the annual art fairs, a legal battle erupted when in 1982, the Ann Arbor Street Fair Jury rejected Lockard as a participant for the first time in 22 years. The rejection of Lockard’s application was based on charges of exhibiting “commercially printed prints” and works by other artists. Lockard did in fact exhibit the work of another artist: a student who had reproduced Lockard’s works as stained glass “faithfully transcribing” from Lockard’s original paintings. 

An ad hoc committee was quickly formed in support of Lockard after his rejection from the fair. The Committee for Salvation of the Human Experience in the Visual Arts (SHEVA) members included Bob Medellin, Leslie Kamil (then Kamil-Miller), and Bamidele Agbasegbe-Demerson. The art fair at the time noted that this was a routine experience for veteran exhibitors, one that would continue to amplify in the following years. Lockard and his committee, however, weren’t the only ones to push back. Carolyn Kilpatrick, a democrat from Detroit at the time and House majority whip, commented in support of Lockard and his cause along with the mayor of Ypsilanti and many Ann Arbor residents. Critics pointed out that in a typical fair of 300 exhibitors, it was estimated that a maximum of four artists were Black each year.

A New York-based law firm, the Center for Constitutional Rights, founded by William Kuntsler also found the case to be worthwhile, and lawyer Mike Gombiner made a case that the jury had violated the artist’s due process freedom of expression on the basis of racial discrimination. Though the case was unsuccessful for Lockard's reinstatement in the fair, it had a lasting impact, and not only on the jurying process. After the case was dismissed, the Art Fair’s lawyer James Erady responded that procedures for jurying were under review. Leslie Kamil notes that “the beauty of the case is that it created the need and the requirement for art fairs to have standards and screening criteria.” Change was introduced locally when City Councilman Larry Hunter proposed that the Art Fair Jury annually submit its findings to the City Council for review ‘to make a public matter public’, but also for the nation as a whole, raising awareness on the potential for bias and discrimination in jurying processes. 

The Later Years: Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial & Continuing Legacy

Artist, Jon Lockard's Studio Door With Message About Martin Luther King Jr.'s Death, April 1968
When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 1968, Lockard placed a sign on 215 S. Fourth Ave studio: “Closed due to the death of a friend Dr. Martin Luther King.” Nearly twenty years later in 1996, Jon Lockard was chosen as one of five African American men to advise on the creation of a national monument honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Senior Art Advisor for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. 

Lockard worked alongside Dr. Ed Jackson as the Executive Architect and Taubman College Professor Emeritus of Architecture James Chaffers Jr. to select an artist to produce the statue, which would be unveiled in 2011 in Washington D.C.’s National Mall. 

Jon Onye Lockard & James Chaffers, September 7, 1998

Lockard worked on various aspects of the project, from planning to fundraising to construction. The group worked on determining the monuments’ final location, had a design competition and then selected the sculptor, Lei Yixin, a Chinese artist who was the best of the best of artists working in granite globally. Lockard went with members of the committee to China to see a mockup of the statue and offer comments on changes. Leslie Kamil accompanied Lockard, and recalls that he and others in the group had a tense discussion about what expression Martin Luther King Jr. should have, ultimately dissuading the artist from his original design that portrayed King as a “warrior.” Dr. Ed Jackson Jr. remembers Jon throughout the process as “my rock, my defender, my linebacker”, additionally noting that his project marked “the first time a group of African Americans have attempted to build a memorial of this scale on the national mall” and faced national scrutiny. 

"It's only a journey when you have a destination." – Jon Lockard

Portrait of Jon Lockard, date unknown

Jon Onye Lockard died March 24, 2015 in Ann Arbor and is buried at Washtenong Memorial Park and Mausoleum. His legacy continues with his three children, his works of art and murals, his students, and Lockard’s Visions of Destiny (DBA), now protected by the Jon Onye Lockard Foundation. His students, colleagues, and family remember him fondly, with a nod toward his lasting impact on their lives and the lives of others through his questioning nature and unending passion for teaching. Elizabeth James wrote: “I can't think of a time when he didn't ask some question that would leave you pondering the answer. He was a griot and a visionary all at once.” 

Bamidele Agbasegbe-Demerson remembers that Jon, while he was a professor and academic, was ultimately a “Ph.B,” a play on “Ph.D., the Doctor of Philosophy. But John would say that he is a Ph.B., a practicing human being.” This approach to life, “embodies in some ways the totality of all the different hats that he wore … whatever he did. He always strived to be a human being, a practicing human being, a Ph.B.” Today, Lockard’s legacy continues to influence new generations with his vast contributions to the art world and civil rights, which beg audiences to continue asking questions and seeking answers, but most of all creating a dialogue with one another.

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“A beautiful girl, with a voice that is feminine, and actions that are alluringly girlish, she sets the hearts of her audience aflame as she has done in former productions,” wrote the Michigan Daily in its review of the Michigan Union Opera’s 1923 show Cotton Stockings. That beautiful girl was played by Lionel Ames, who would go on to a successful career in vaudeville as a female impersonator.

Michigan Union Opera

Michigan Union Opera performers, 1914. Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library.
The Michigan Union began as an all-male student organization in 1904 with the goal of creating a space on campus to foster feelings of unity. In 1907, the group purchased the State Street home of professor Thomas Cooley, eventually tearing it down to build the Union in its present location in 1919. The new union included a pool, bowling alley, barbershop, billiards room, and more, but all these amenities required capital. 

The Michigan Union’s first Opera, Michigenda, was staged at the Whitney Theater on Main Street in 1908. Profits from ticket sales went toward funding the group's future home. The Union’s gender segregation meant that all of the parts in their productions were played by men. The tradition of theatrical cross-dressing goes back to at least the Ancient Greeks and was common in the time of Shakespeare. The Opera wasn’t alone in its choice; counterparts at other colleges also featured all-male casts, including the University of Wisconsin Madison’s Haresfoot Club, Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the Princeton Triangle Club, and many more. 

“Opera” was a bit of a misnomer. The shows were original musical comedies written and composed by students. The quality of the productions increased with the arrival of experienced Broadway director E. Mortimer Shuter in 1919. Costumes were designed and created by the legendary Lester of Chicago and dancers were instructed by Shuter’s fellow Broadway alum Roy Hoyer (who would later establish his own dance studio in Nickels Arcade). During the 1920s, up to 500 students tried out each year for the chance to be part of the cast, chorus, committees, and orchestra. Throughout the Opera’s history its participants included future notables such as presidential candidate Thomas Dewey and Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon. At the behest of Fielding Yost, it became tradition for football players to fill out the female chorus line.

The Michigan Daily, December 5, 1922
During its heyday in the 1920s the opera’s costs soared in tandem with their growing tour and its revenues. The show hit its peak right as Lionel was a student and its star.

In and Out & Cotton Stockings

Lionel’s participation began his sophomore year when he was cast as a chorus girl. The spotlight came a year later when he took on the leading role of Wilhelmina in 1922’s In and Out. The show revolved around multiple love affairs and a fish out of water story as “simple little Dutch girl” Wilhelmina is Americanized by a group of New Yorkers and eventually marries their leader, Jimmy. 

In and Out completed the Opera’s longest tour to date, with shows in Toledo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville, Bay City, Flint, Saginaw, Port Huron, and three performances in Detroit, not to mention Ann Arbor. Lionel received rave reviews, with the Michigan Daily describing him as gaining “the lion’s share of the honors,” as "he displays admirable dramatic ability, and sings love ballads in a voice rich with melody.” Lionel’s Wilhelmina was featured in four of the musical numbers, including the solo song “Gee! It Must Be Wonderful.”

The Mimes, as the Opera was nicknamed, had fun concocting publicity stories to sell their shows. One piece created by the organization, presumably to be distributed by local papers as the tour approached, juxtaposed Lionel's backstage presence with his role in the show:

“‘Blast this hooking-up-the-back stuff, you couldn’t pay me to be a woman as a steady thing!’ Yes folks, its with the assistance of such language as this that Wilhelmina, the delectable, bewitching, pulchritudinous, Wilhelmina, feminine lead in the University of Michigan Union opera, “In and Out,” gets all prettied up to the business of being beautiful.”

1923 University of Michigan Yearbook page featuring In and Out performers

The Michigan Daily, December 1, 1923
The Opera hit its peak with 1923’s Cotton Stockings, and Lionel once again played the lead. Originally titled Cotton Stockings: Never Made a Man Look Twice, the subtitle was dropped after alumni objected and the Senate Committee on Student Affairs expressed their disapproval. Of course, this hubbub only helped the show’s publicity.

A significant part of the performance's appeal came as a display for elaborate and new fashions. Once again, costumes were created by Lester of Chicago and Lionel alone underwent eight complete wardrobe changes throughout the show.

The tour was even grander than the one completed the year before with a total of fifteen shows, the most significant taking place at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Broadening the Opera's reach required extensive advertising. Lionel, in his “gayest and finest feminine garb,” posed in a Packard car alongside the show’s male lead for car advertisements that would be used across the country. The show’s slogan declared “Our Handsomest Girls are Men” and photos of the players were printed in advertisements nationally.

The narrative of Cotton Stockings involved a series of romantic entanglements. Lionel played Susan, a poor maid to an artist. She falls in love with a young author, but he is bewitched by the temptress Nedda. To win his attention Susan attends a ball in an elaborate gown and introduces her newly glamorous self as Suzanne. The Michigan Daily’s review notes that in the end the romantic pair were “allowed the privilege of the customary kiss.” 

Promotion for the Michigan Union Opera, circa 1923. Lionel appears on the left, right, lower center, and upper right. Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library.
The tour received rave reviews throughout its run, many of which foregrounded the cross-dressing. “Boys will be boys. Especially college boys. But when they put on gorgeous gowns, bobbed wigs, rouge and lip stick, they will be ‘girls’ and even a tired business man would have difficulty in detecting the indifference [sic],” wrote Philadelphia’s Public Ledger. The Washington Herald proclaimed, “The University of Michigan shipped in its excellent assortment of amateur Julian Eltinges at the President theater last night, and for a full three hours of a campus made opera, manly muscles and bulging backs threatened to burst gauze shoulder straps.” 

The Mimes once again had fun creating buzz around the show. This time they concocted the story that Lionel’s beauty was of such value that “to guard against any injury to his pretty arms and legs, either during rehearsals or while on the road, Ames has insured his limbs for $25,000.” 

Publicity for Cotton Stockings, 1923
Vaudeville 

The Michigan Daily noted the heightened promotion for Lionel, concluding, “this talk of representing the university is mere box-office piffle. The main function of this year's Opera is to present Lionel E. Ames to the vaudeville managers of New York City, and with this in mind he is being pushed to the limit. There is no question that Ames is uniquely talented. He has form, beautiful ankles, graceful arms, a stunning back, and if he can overcome certain cutesy mannerisms he ought to be highly successful in his chosen field.”

Reporting Lionel's Marriage, 1924
Lionel followed through on this prediction, leaving for New York after graduation to take classes in “stage dancing and technique” with Ned Wayburn, the main choreographer for Ziegfeld Follies. The Ann Arbor News reported that Lionel had been offered a number of professional stage roles during his studies, but had declined them in order to complete his schooling. Prior to departing Ann Arbor, 22-year-old Lionel married local 19-year-old Beulah Brown on April 24, 1924. Less than a year later, the two welcomed their first and only child together, Lionel E. Ames Jr., who was born on February 2, 1925.

Press from Lionel’s early career in vaudeville emphasized his archetypal American family and masculinity. Lionel had begun to use the name Lionel “Mike” Ames during his college career, but a new nickname, “Iron Mike” was introduced to further highlight Lionel’s manliness. The promotional narrative underscored stereotypically male traits including his engineering degree (or, in a different telling, his "dreams of becoming a big business man"), participation in varsity athletics, and a job as a truck driver. Noting, “Of course, Mike never really liked dressing up like a girl and dancing on the stage. And every spare minute he devoted to studying electrical engineering.”

In this telling of events, Beulah is described as gaining an interest in “Mike” after seeing him on stage. “When she was introduced to Mike, they looked at each other – and instantly fell in love!” The couple is said to have moved back to his hometown of Bay City, where Lionel provided for them by driving a truck. They were frugal, but when they found out they were going to have a baby it was clear that Lionel's truck driving wasn't going to be enough. Lionel is supposed to have deeply considered his options before proposing going back to the stage despite Beulah’s objection, “But you don’t like the stage, and none of your family have ever been actors!” 

It makes for persuasive publicity but, of course, much of it is fabricated. A 1927 interview with the Battle Creek Moon-Journal seems to present a more truthful tale. It recounts that Lionel did start as an engineering student, but during his Junior year he switched to studying dramatics. While he does seem to have driven a truck professionally, based on his studies in New York and chosen major it's clear that Lionel always intended to be on the stage. There is no mention of any varsity athletics in Lionel’s Senior yearbook. Even the mention of a lack of actors in the family is false. Lionel’s father, Delbert “Dell” Ames listed his occupation on Lionel's Michigan birth record as “actor.”

The promotional piece (see below) goes on to describe Lionel’s relationship with Beulah wherein she is credited with putting hard work and skill into creating costumes for his act (although other articles also mention Lionel’s continued use of the Opera's costumer, Lester of Chicago). In the Battle Creek interview Lionel highlights her impact, “My act would certainly flop without Shorty along to make me up and get me hooked up in the proper places.” Beulah reportedly toured with Lionel while they left their son in Bay City. 

The seemingly more truthful interview and fanciful publicity piece align in their continued assertion of his masculinity. Lionel tells the Journal, “It’s all more or less a joke, you know, this matter of putting on skirts and while I take my impersonations seriously enough while I’m in character, I certainly don’t like people to get the idea that I crochet for a pastime or anything like that. It just occurred to me as another way to earn my living.”

Publicity for Lionel "Iron Mike" Ames' vaudeville career, 1925
Early reviews of Lionel “Mike” Ames in trade publications provide insight into the twenty-five minute act’s content. In 1926 Billboard described Lionel beginning in typical male attire to provide a brief talk about his background as a student and then show a short film in which he caricatures types of female actresses. The reviewer notes, “Tho the gowns in the short picture were beautiful, and the makeup most realistic, they are all surpassed, nevertheless, by the numbers in the offering that followed. It would take a woman reviewer to do justice to the descriptions of various gowns. All a poor masculine writer can say is that they were gorgeous – and then some!”

Minneapolis Star Tribune, August 22, 1926
The favorable review continued by emphasizing that Mike’s talent went beyond just wardrobe, but to “his mannerisms and bearing and makeup in general.” The only detraction was that “his voice is kind of weak, yet, withal, carries the semblance of femininity and the songs are all very well sold.” The review ends by declaring that the show “has all the ingredients of a big-time turn.”

Variety’s review from 1925 is more mixed. “He flashes some dazzling costumes…a capital novelty turn with his college antecedents making a good publicity angle,” but his introductory talk “is supposed to be laugh-getting but is humorous only in intent.” Regardless, they conclude, “Ames has unquestionable talent in his field and will get on in show business.” 

By 1927 “Mike” was presenting a show entitled Fascinating Feminine Fancies. It contained a similar structure to his previous act, but reviews noted an emphasis on comparing femininity and masculinity. Billboard criticized this choice, “the former Lionel Mike Ames is now billed as just “Mike” Ames and punctuates his delightful feminine type delineations with ill-paced patter of the brusque “man among men” type and even assumes a revolting clumsiness just to convince those that might not know it that he is just acting when he sports frills and high heels.” It asserts, “his determination to play that part of the audience that dislike effeminate men is ill-advised.”

Later reviews appear to tire of Mike’s performance. By 1931 Billboard states, “Act too long and often tedious, Ames offering nothing new after the first number. Wears charming gowns and warbles in a strained falsetto voice, but needs more versatility to hold interest.” Two months later, Billboard again faults the attempts at manliness, “Ames’ work is pretty close to perfect and would be that if he desisted from giving vent to that repulsive laugh in order to prove his masculinity.”

The last advertisement that could be found for Lionel “Mike” Ames appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer in March of 1934. Soon thereafter Lionel’s personal life went through major changes.

After the Stage

Beulah’s involvement in the show and accompaniment on tours seemed to connote a productive partnership. In 1930 the couple reported living together in Queens, but five years later Beulah filed for divorce. She listed the cause as “non-support.” Ten days after the separation was granted she remarried in Detroit. 

That same year, Lionel was back in Bay City working as a “theatrical producer” according to the city’s directory. When he registered for the draft in 1942, he was employed at the Book-Cadillac Hotel in Detroit. The Book-Cadillac hosted live entertainment and it is possible Lionel put his experience in vaudeville to use in his new profession. One review of Lionel’s stage show had even quipped that he had a “natural method of salesmanship.” His career was put on hold when he served as a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy during WWII. 

Lionel himself appears to have remarried twice. Once to Marie Marcelle Ames around the time of WWII, but they were divorced by 1944 when she remarried. By 1950 he was 47 and now wedded to Kathryn E. Ames, 31. They shared two children, Carole, who was six at the time, and Michael, who was one. The family called West Palm Beach, Florida home. There, Lionel continued in the hotel business as a sales manager and estimated that he worked 90 hours a week in 1950. 

Lionel’s time in the spotlight had ended, and with it his name ceased to appear in print. On May 5, 1986 he passed away in Palm Beach, Florida. His obituary made no mention of his stage career, but detailed his continued work in the hotel business in Southeast Florida. 

The Michigan Union Opera’s popularity ebbed and flowed through the years. The organization eventually became the Michigan Union Shows Ko-Eds, more commonly known as MUSKET, which still exists today.

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In this episode, AADL Talks To Robin and Jamie Agnew, owners of Aunt Agatha’s, their specialty mystery bookstore. The business began in Ann Arbor in 1992, and operated as a brick and mortar for 26 years before moving online in August 2018. Robin and Jamie talk about their experiences working in the store, their favorite memories here in town, and discuss some of the changes in the mystery book genre and bookselling business over the years.

Find more about Aunt Agatha's in our archival collections.