Comments on: Dort Mall; Flint, Michigan

By: David Stone

David Stone — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:00:07 +0000

March 1 2010

I read with great interest of all the comments posted on the Dort Mall. I worked in the Yankee store in 1965. I remember when the drive-in was there and disappointed when I couldn’t get to the last movie shown-Hatari before it was torn down.
Al Rosenthal wasthe Yankee store manager, Harry Mays and Carl Doty where assistant managers. I remember when we expanded to the outside with lawn and garden because of Franks Nursery competition.
The new Yankee stores, in my opinion, where the best designed stores then and would still hold-up today if they were still in operation. I also worked in the Davison Yankee store. It was a split store (They were separated by other stores) with softlines run by Harold Demarr, the overall manager and I ran the hardline store at the end. I left for a few years as a sale rep and then visited all Michigan Yankee stores plus other retail chains. After Our company left Michigan, I went to work at the Ballenger store-Westgate Yankees, and (I Can’t remember there first names) Realumuto was manager, Doty’s son was assistant, me and eventually Harry Mays. Although sales were falling we still were shocked when Al Natanson the District Manager told us one late bleak November morning in 1974, that Yankees were going out of business. There is nothing worse than working for a store going out of business. Joe Megdell , the founder and president who sold out in 1967 was very upset over 2000 total employees were going to lose there jobs and remarked he would never had sold out if that was ever to happen.
If any former Yankee store alumni from those three stores I worked in -please free to e-mail me.

By: Maggie

Maggie — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:44:13 +0000

What was the name of the buffet style restaurant located in what is now the Small Mall – I used to take my sons there when they were small – they are now in their early thirties

By: BILL

BILL — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:59:25 +0000

I worked at Star Bros. restraunt in the late 70’s it’s still there. Good food and quiet now days, i remember when the mall was hoppin! Midnight madness at the theater and the disco down stairs, their was a head shop that sold electric bongs and an upscale womens store THE VOUGE that sold furs. Once a buffet style restraunt was in there. Curtis Mathes TV store, royal coney acress the street and jimmy lums was next to ponderosa. Baker college was next door. Pier 1 and empire lounge just a block away, 2 bowling allys a block away, embers, trevies pizza, and the phaze 5, all gone…….damn.

By: Big Johns

Big Johns — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:43:25 +0000

How about Big Johns, awesome steak and onion
My parents owned Knapp shoes on Dort Hwy
next to Murrays auto in from of the small mall

By: JR Harrison

JR Harrison — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:04:46 +0000

@TenPoundHammer (Bobby),

Lum’s, better known as Jimmy Lum’s, was on Dort somewhere near Lipponcott I believe – close to Contos.

By: TenPoundHammer (Bobby)

TenPoundHammer (Bobby) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:20:50 +0000

Hmm. Where was the Lum’s? I know where the Bonanza was, it was still open into the late 80s.

By: Dave Rodgers

Dave Rodgers — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:18:16 +0000

@Mike Carr,
I recently acquired a large item reported to be from this collection of Mr. Perani’s in Flint, Mich. I am trying to find out more about the items origin and when it may have been acquired for this collection. If you have any suggestions, or can guide me to a source of information, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanking you in advance.
Dave Rodgers

By: Disco Donna

Disco Donna — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:25:18 +0000

I used to live across the street and remember the Small Mall well. I would love to be able to go down there and revisit “The Light” so Saturday Night Fever with the light up dance floor, wonder if the dance floor is still there? I remember Mr. David’s hair place and knew some people that went to school there. There used to be a ladies nighty place (Raquels) near the south end where there was like a hallway towards the back with stores.I had forgotten about Circus Time. I remember Perry’s there for a long time, I kind of worked across the street at Drugs and Things down from Big Johns and old Hamady’s warehouse, across the street Franks Beauty and barber. What about Lum’s restaurant and Bonaza down form Slenderform, Frank’s Nursery and the Cinema. Rock a rolla records, think the 11th Frame? is still there.

By: E. Willson

E. Willson — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:55:12 +0000

I saw the Superman 3 in this theater. So it was still showing films in 1983. Sears Surplus store was open and so was Perry Drugs. At the north end, where Big Lots is now, there was a “Chuck E. Cheese type” kids pizza place called, I think “Circus Time”. Mr. Perani had the sign with clown on it re-installed a few years ago. There was also a cosmetology school in the basement known as Mr. David’s. I like to stop in to Star Brothers Coney when I’m nearby, it’s like a timecapsule. It’s very retro and the diner food is great! My friend worked for Perani and told me that the theater is now filled with shelves of hockey equipment waiting to be sold. Perani’s (the mall owners) is one of the country’s largest catalog hockey supply stores, so they must be doing some upkeep. And one last thing, the stairs that led to “The Light” are now covered by a large aquarium by the front door. I was told that the bar was intact when they stuffed it with hockey equipment.

By: Rubber Stamps

Rubber Stamps — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:28:08 +0000

Sad sad sad.