New book highlights little known celebrity ties to the city of Detroit

A new book released last month highlights various celebrities and their unique connects with the city of Detroit.

Titled “Motor City Famous: Celebrity Homes, Graves, and Little-known Locales,” the book from author Steve Platto features 113 lesser-known notable people with Detroit connections, from Lucille Ball and Robin Williams to Christie Brinkley and John Hughes.

Platto told WDET he had always had an interest in genealogy, history and celebrities. What started as a research project on his family history soon turned into a sort of scavenger hunt for celebrity connections to the city of Detroit.

“I was watching this Robin Williams documentary called ‘Come Inside My Mind,’ and in it, it had mentioned that he had gone to [Detroit] Country Day,” he said.

After some digging around online, Platto came across the Bloomfield Historical Society, which listed a 40-room mansion on the corner of Opdyke and Woodward in Bloomfield Hills. It was originally owned by a man named Theodore McManus, and after a few sales, was purchased by Robin Williams’ family.

Platto found out that unfortunately the home burned down some time in the ’80s, so he couldn’t visit, but some piece of the home remained.

”If you were to go there, there’s a stone wall that goes all around that corner of Opdyke and Woodward, and that was the original stone wall that surrounded the house when it was first built,” he said.

Platto posted this information on his Facebook page and garnered a bunch of interest. So, he went looking for more celebrities. Fans of his posts suggested he turn his findings into a book. And so, he did.

“It just kind of snowballed, and before I knew it, I had like…113 different people that came out of Detroit.”

The book includes well-known connections like Eminem, Stevie Wonder, and Tim Allen. But also some more obscure connections, like Jack Kerouac.

Platto said he wanted the book to be more than just a list of names and addresses.

“I wanted to actually track down what that tie was, where that house was, what the address was, any little back story that had to do with the tie to Detroit. So kind of putting on the Sherlock Holmes hat and finding out all these different things was really kind of the fun part of it,” he said.

Not every discovery made it into the book, however.

“There was a couple, actually, that I found out about after the manuscript was turned in,” Platto said. “I found out Snoop Dogg lived here for a couple of years in 1986 and 1987 and he worked the breakfast shift over at the McDonald’s over on Greenfield and Eight Mile.”

Platto will be signing books at Dearborn Music from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7.

Use the media player above to hear the full interview.