Toast of the Town: The Life and Times of Sunnie Wilson

I was there. The stories are all true, Sunnie was exactly that: "sunnie", always a smile and ever dapper, he was the consumate host. The Mark Twain Hotel was a great place to meet the most famous jazz musicians in informal settings while they lounged or rehearsed. As a young, white broadcast engineer traveling with a national jazz radio program, I must say the Hotel was more like a home away from home than a Hotel. I stayed in room 38. Good times. Great book.

and Sunnie Wilson lived up to that motto by giving back generously to the black community. His motto might also have been "a bed and good meal for every musician" because he owned and operated the Mark Twain Hotel expressly for that purpose. BB King, Dizzy Gillespie,Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and many more stayed there. Sunnie also ran several show bars in Detroit's "northern" Paradise Valley. The book contains hundreds of stories having to do with musicians whose names are very common today. He was also very influencial in the political climate of the 1930 and 1940s in Detroit, and provides much insite into those times. Some of his greatest successes occured in the rich entertainment district that centered around John R, where today the Detroit Medical Center sits. To understand the history, you have to read the book, almost nothing remains of what was sometimes called the "near eastside ghetto". A great read. It reads like a novel, but leaves you with hard facts that easily pop up in conversation, and give perspective into the future.