The Argus C-Four takes center stage in this promotional video for Argus Cameras. The narrator intones, "It takes three things to make a fine camera . . ." and with that launches into a highly technical and detailed description of every step in the camera-manufacturing process at Argus Cameras of Ann Arbor. Scenes of the scientists and craftsmen creating the Argus C-Four are interwoven with scenes of customers using the camera to take family photos and outdoor shots. The easy-to-use, lightweight Argus cameras revolutionized photography, essentially creating "popular photography." Enjoy this pre-Mad Men video, visit AADL's Argus Camera online exhibit and take a walk over to the Argus Museum for even more Argus history.

27:09 min. c.1953

It is hard to overstate the breadth and speed of the transition to defense manufacturing that occurred in the United States during World War II. America went from building cars to tanks, farm equipment to bazookas, three-piece suits to combat uniforms. Locally, companies like American Broach, Ford Motor and Killins Gravel took on defense contracts and hired thousands of workers to support the "Arsenal of Democracy" that was Michigan in the 1940s. Argus Camera had a unique role, inventing and manufacturing new optical equipment that sighted guns, photographed enemy installations and recorded the war. Argus became one of the largest employers in Washtenaw County, bringing an unprecedented number of women into the skilled labor force and creating a social fabric within the company and the community that would last for generations. This video, produced after World War II, recounts the "miracle of production" that earned Argus several E Awards for excellence in design and manufacture of war-related materiel. The video captures the post-war economic optimism while paying tribute to the soldiers, inventors and labor that became known as the Greatest Generation. Visit AADL's Argus Camera online exhibit or take a walk over to the Argus Museum for even more Argus.

19:11 min.
c. 1945

While he was in town for the 40th anniversary of the John Sinclair Freedom Rally, Wayne Kramer, lead guitarist and co-founder of the seminal Detroit/Ann Arbor band, MC5, sat down to talk with us. Wayne discusses the early years of the band and the influence of jazz, Sinclair, and Detroit culture on their music.

Pun Plamondon was a directionless teen with left-wing leanings when he met John Sinclair, Leni Sinclair, and Gary Grimshaw in Detroit in the mid-1960s. He grew to become the co-founder of the White Panther Party/Rainbow People's Party as well as its Minister of Defense. In that role he found himself on the run as one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Criminals and the subject of a case before the United States Supreme Court.

In June, 1972, then-U.S. District Judge Damon J. Keith of Detroit foiled the Nixon Administration's plan to use the Ann Arbor CIA Conspiracy trial as a test case to acquire Supreme Court sanction for domestic surveillance. Keith's ruling - that the Justice Department's wiretapping was in violation of the 4th amendment - led to a unanimous Supreme Court decision making domestic surveillance illegal…during the same week as the Watergate break-in.

Four generations of Vogels have been giving Ann Arbor what they want and need since 1913, changing the business with the tastes and tempo of life in the town. We talked to David Vogel, the 3rd generation of Vogel's Lock & Safe, who retired and handed over the business to the 4th generation, Rob and Denise Vogel, some years back. Dave has done a lot of research on the family's coming to Ann Arbor area over a hundred years ago and has collected a trove of documents, photos and family stories and shares them with us in this podcast.

Bill Treml spent forty years at the Ann Arbor News working the police beat--"chasing cops and robbers," as he puts it. In that time he saw and reported on many of the stories we remember: the Coed Murders of John Norman Collins, UFO sightings, a bank robbery in Ypsilanti that left one police officer dead. Much of what we remember we remember from what he wrote. We got a chance to talk to Bill about some of those stories and what kept him at it through all those years.

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the infamous Daisy Zick murder, which remains one of the most puzzling unsolved murders in Michigan's history. On a bitterly cold morning in January 1963, Daisy Zick was brutally murdered in her Battle Creek home. No fewer than three witnesses caught a glimpse of the killer, yet today, it remains one of Michigan's most sensational unsolved crimes. The act of pure savagery rocked not only the community but also the Kellogg Company, where she worked. Join us as author Blaine Pardoe (recipient of the 2011 State History Award by the Historical Society of Michigan) discusses this shocking crime and his new book "Murder In Battle Creek: The Mysterious Death Of Daisy Zick." This event includes a book signing and books will be for sale.Blaine offers a new opportunity for readers to help solve this baffling case on its bicentennial. Who were the key suspects? What evidence do the police still have on this five-decades-old cold case? Just how close did this murder come to being solved? Is the killer still alive? These questions and more are masterfully brought to the forefront for true crime fans and armchair detectives. Blaine Pardoe is an award-winning author of numerous books in the science fiction, military nonfiction, true crime, paranormal and business management genres. Raised outside Battle Creek, he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Central Michigan University. He has been a featured speaker at the U.S. National Archives, the United States Navy Museum and the New York Military Affairs Symposium. He currently resides in Virginia outside Washington, D.C.

Henry Ford was born the year of Gettysburg and died two years after the atomic bombs fell - and in that time become the most famous and richest man in America. Richard Snow, acclaimed popular historian and former editor-in-chief of American Heritage Magazine, will discuss Henry Ford and Snow's just-released (May 14) new book "I Invented The Modern Age: The Rise Of Henry Ford," a meticulous and entertaining account of Ford, the Model-T, and the remaking of American industry in the early 20th century. This special event will also include a book signing and books will be for sale.The car made Ford a national hero-- but that's not the end of the story. Ford was driven by a sense of messianic philanthropy, but once he'd achieved his goal he felt fettered by his very success. In Snow's capable hands, Ford is a tragic figure we watch rise and fall. Filled with scene and incident, character and dialogue, Snow's book presents us with the young, unknown, industrious, and altogether resourceful young man rising in the years when people were vying to build the machine that would define the dawning age in America. In many ways his story is well known, but Snow sheds new light onto this fascinating man by viewing him through his greatest creation-- the Model T.Richard Snow worked at American Heritage magazine for nearly four decades and was its editor-in-chief for seventeen years. The author of several books, Snow has also served as a consultant for historical motion pictures --among them "Glory" --and has written for documentaries, including the Burns brothers' "Civil War," and Ric Burns's award-winning PBS film "Coney Island," whose screenplay he wrote. Most recently, he served as a consultant on Ken Burns' World War II series, "The War."

In this episode, AADL speaks with Carol Mull, a local historian of the Underground Railroad. Carol talks about her upcoming book on the Underground Railroad in Michigan and her work with the Michigan Freedom Trail Commission. Mull also discusses some of the gems she found in The Signal of Liberty, a 19th century abolitionist newspaper published in Ann Arbor.