JFK, Coors, Golf: Flint's Trailblazer Leo Seide #20006

Arthur Busch 0:52

Hello, Radio Free Flip and your host, Arthur Bush. And today we have a fabulous show. We have a great, great businessman and pioneer in many ways. His name is Leo Saidi. And I am really honored and delighted that Leo would take time to speak with us. So welcome, Leo Saidi. How are you today?

SPEAKER_03 1:15

Hi, hi, Arthur. It's nice of you to call. And I am in the assisted living facility down in Charlotte.

Arthur Busch 1:23

Leo, uh, you spent your whole life in Flint, so you have a bird's eye view of many changes over the years in the Flint community. And I hope for the short time that we have, we can share uh some of your thoughts about how Flint's changed and some of the things that made Flint a great place for you to raise your family and to be a business. Let's start right there. Let's start right there. What is your claim to fame, Leo Seidi?

SPEAKER_03 1:54

My claim to fame. Well, one thing I remember is that Tom Mercy called me the grandfather of golf and flint. I remember that one. It was fun, it was important, and it started golf and flint.

unknown 2:08

I think it was in 1957, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

It was a beer in the backyard on a Sunday. And I said I got a free ticket to forget what it was, St. Louis or someplace for a golf trip, but he at least sent me a bus ticket. The more we talked, the more we drank. We said we Flint's never had big big time golf. We should do something about big time golf or Flint. I said, Well, Carly is doing a story out and Frank and we had fishing and remodeling it to open up in the spring. And I said, Maybe they'd have maybe they bring their their Kierman here. They had the third largest fundraiser in golf. That was thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars.

Arthur Busch 2:56

That's how much you had to pay.

SPEAKER_03 2:58

No, that that's what the first prize was in those days. Maybe then that I don't remember. Yeah, the winner was Paul Harney, he won like twelve thousand something dollars. But I think that the interesting part of the story might be for you was when I called the Carly Brewery on a Monday morning to say, yeah, I got a great idea. I knew the executive vice president, he was a nice guy, and I said, Bob, I said, You're a sponsor of big time golf. Flint has never had big time golf. If you brought that tournament to Flint, your brewery is opening up pretty quick, and you'd be a hero.

Arthur Busch 3:38

What year was this, Leo?

SPEAKER_03 3:39

That's I think it was 57, I think it was.

Arthur Busch 3:42

And then it was hosted at Flint Golf Club?

SPEAKER_03 3:45

Well, we looked around at the the various clubs and and Flint looked like the best opportunity. So after I called them, they called me back an hour later and said it wasn't a bad idea. So so they came to town and we cruised the three courses and they selected Flint. It was Atlas, Flint, and I forgot where else I don't remember. And that therein lays the reasons, I guess, again, because it was such a success that the Buick guys at the Flint Golf Club saw the success that it was and decided to bring the and Warwick just opened up its golf course. And they brought the uh Buick Open they didn't have and they started it in Flint. Warwick must have been 58, I guess.

unknown 4:40

And so the rest is history, but they called me the grandfather of golf of golf.

Arthur Busch 4:46

Oh, the grandfather of golf.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

In fact, they got an article somewhere about it.

Arthur Busch 4:54

Then then how did how did Jerry Rideout get to be the father of the Buick Open, but you got to be the grandfather?

SPEAKER_03 5:01

Well, I was the father because I started the year before and they saw the success, and that and that's when they picked up uh the Buick. Oh, you were the Carling Open. I was there. I was a Carling distributor.

Arthur Busch 5:15

The Carling Open comes to Flint, and Flint hadn't seen anything like that, and it's hosted at the Flint Golf Club, which is located off of Atherton Road. That was before Harry Barrett came along. We interviewed Harry Barrett.

SPEAKER_03 5:28

I really am not trying to Roger Van Dyke in those days was the pro, bring over the assistant, but Harry moved in there around that.

unknown 5:36

I don't know.

Arthur Busch 5:37

He's been around forever. Yeah, the mid-sixties he came in. That sounds right. So Leo, you lived in the neighborhood of the Flint Golf Club at one point.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

Yeah, we moved there must have been the 60s, I guess we moved there. Chicken remembers these things, but I don't. We built a house and we're off of uh movie right near the golf club, and we enjoyed it very much.

Arthur Busch 6:01

I was talking many years ago, and I heard this story, and I didn't hear it from the horse's mouth until quite a number of years later. I heard this story that at one point the Flint Golf Club, as many of these golf courses of their time, including the Detroit Club and others, didn't allow blacks or Jewish people or even women to play or belong to the club.

SPEAKER_03 6:29

So that that was true.

unknown 6:30

Yeah, that was true at the time, but that didn't bother me because I knew a bunch of people who were there.

Arthur Busch 6:40

Jim Murray is a former president of the club.

SPEAKER_03 6:43

He was a banker. Yeah, he became a nice guy, and he was friendly to our kids. And growing up, his daughter and my daughter ran together and became buddies. And I felt I shouldn't hold back then. So they, of course, they wanted. So I put it together with the people at the Fleet Golf Club. At that time, I think the president of the club was Tom Gleason, a Volkswagen guy. And so I knew all of them, and I didn't want to hold back, and I ran with them often at social events, but I never was a member of the club because I didn't have views. But you know, I've been I don't want to get hang up and stuff like that. And so I put it together, but they did ask me to join uh years a few years later. I think I don't remember when, but they did. And I was honored by that phone call, and so I didn't know what the hell to do, so I called my rabbi and I said, Rabbi, what the hell do I do? I said, He said, Guys asked me to join. They don't have Jews over there. And he said, Well, listen, if they want you, you go. He said, and maybe this thing will open up and we'll have a different relationship. And so I called up my buddy No Horn. He was active, that came a nice guy and lived down the street, our kids were friendly. So I said to uh, I think it was Murray, I think, I said, Listen, if you'll take two of us together, it'll make it easier on me. So they agreed to do that. You know, it was nice. People were very nice to me, and I have no quarrel ever, ever, ever.

Arthur Busch 8:07

In your own humble way, broke a barrier at uh the most in my mind, the most prestigious club in uh Yeah, we were it was a lovely club, and it was an honor to be asked, but uh that that issue was uh one that was a little troublesome, but I did want to be the token.

SPEAKER_03 8:27

I just wanted to be a person there, and so they agreed to take milk at the same time.

Arthur Busch 8:32

And how many both how many years did you stay at that club?

SPEAKER_03 8:37

Oh, I was there until I left town, which was not easy. I left town about two years now, I guess. And I'm living in North Carolina in Charlotte, a blue made community where my son is south of me 25 minutes at a gorgeous home. So and my granddaughter is north of me about the same.

Arthur Busch 8:55

You would have been at the Flint Golf Club for about 50 years.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

I was thinking I've forgotten it's been so long, but I I've guessed it uh for the people and I've signed to hear that ain't too busy, but that's I guess that's golf clubs around the nation.

unknown 9:11

Things have changed.

Arthur Busch 9:12

Nobody's playing golf clubs.

unknown 9:13

But I had a great time with that tournament. One of the things I want to tell you about before we forget, I had a phone call from some a beer distributor down in St. Louis or somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

He said it was a kid on tour, he said he's coming to Flint for his first event.

unknown 9:29

They can feel welcome. I said, sure. What's his name? He said Arnold Palmer. I said, never heard of him. He said, Oh, he's a nice kid, they gotta feel welcome.

SPEAKER_03 9:38

He came to town to practice race all by himself.

Arthur Busch 9:41

Didn't you?

SPEAKER_03 9:42

I took movies of him and we had a nice relationship for a few days, so it's great.

Arthur Busch 9:47

You brought Arnold Palmer to Flint, is what you're saying.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

No, I didn't. The tournament did. I see. The tournament brought Arnold. But it was his first event on Pro Tour within Flint. Okay. That's what happened.

unknown 9:59

And so there was a bunch of pros that I met along the way. In fact, I had a periscope. Remember the old style periscope, you look over crowd? Right. I had a periscope with everybody's name on it.

SPEAKER_03 10:12

Yeah, you know, Dom Pit Shoe Hall and all the guys from that are terrible tempered Tommy Boltz, and I I don't remember all of them, but they were on uh side by my periscope.

unknown 10:24

So many years ago I gave it to golf club, it's it's disappeared.

SPEAKER_03 10:30

But I thought I'd never I'm gonna die soon, and so I gave it to them, and uh nobody knows where the hell it is. Well Leo's service is there was Leo's.

Arthur Busch 10:41

Leo, uh that's a wonderful, that's a wonderful memory. But Leo Saidi had a lot to contribute to Tennessee County and to the Flint area, and I want to know more about that because uh even though I've known you for a long time and uh went to school with your children, and even amazingly, uh when I served on the faculty at the uh School of Business at Michigan State University, I actually had your son David as a student. Well I'm not sure he deserved it or not, because he was a playboy, but I think kid always He was a great kid. And uh he was, he was.

SPEAKER_03 11:24

And he he was a great back memory when you say you're gonna say I remember that now.

Arthur Busch 11:32

David was a good student, so and and he has uh a personality uh like his dad and his mother. So I want to ask you a couple other questions. You went into the sure you went into the beer business in Flint. When what year was that?

SPEAKER_03 11:46

Before the war started, so it had to be like the 40s sometime, and my dad was in the business, he was a bootlegger before that. He used to bring whiskey across the river and from Windot to Detroit. My uncle, he lived in the Flint Tavern Hotel, he drove a yellow pack of convertible and carried a gun.

unknown 12:06

I remember him. I was like four or five years old then. But that was the dry days.

SPEAKER_03 12:12

The country went wet, I'd end up with a ball business and then the beer fence. And he became a distributor for old brew beer and a bunch of others. And so I started in the late 40s and I became the largest seller of war bonds in the county because when I when they want a beer in their dry days, it was tough to get beer, but they would come in to buy beer, and he'd say to them, oh C de Leo. I go to that, they would buy warbonds, and then I would then I would say, I go ahead, good beer. So that's what it happened.

Arthur Busch 12:48

My younger listeners need need to understand what a war bond is. That's that was you bought a bond that helped to contribute to the defense of the United States at that time, correct? That's right, that's right, yeah. And Leo Leo, you grew that beer business quite an incredible endeavor.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

Well, it grew to Saginaw, BC, Midland, uh, Owasso, and Saginaw, and had a hundred and I don't know how many, 120 teachers, I think.

unknown 13:22

I forgot. What brand were you selling? Well, I was in the course business with Miller's in Owasso and at various brands.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

I was the youngest kid that's active in the uh I got a good story for you, Arthur, if you're looking for stories today.

Arthur Busch 13:38

Well, I'm gonna listen to any story any story you have to tell, I'm willing to listen. But let me uh finish.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

Well, I I got one that I think is very important.

Arthur Busch 13:46

Okay, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 13:48

The 1960s, my friend was Governor John Swaite, a nice kid, double FPC.

unknown 13:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

We had a lot in common that we ran together, you know, as best he could. But he said to me, Well, I was president of the state association at the time as I was a young kid. I became the president. We became friendly, and you know, I was one night in his office in the legislature session, and I say to him, John, you can't raise the beer tax, you'll kill my industry.

unknown 14:16

He turns his over the secretary, and he says, Cut the beer and raise the cigarettes. And so it happened within a half hour, and he went back in and it was done. We were part-tame legislators then, not the full-time guys. And what was amazing to me, Arthur was downtown, was full of bars and restaurants and retail shops, and now they're full of uh offices. Yeah. Part-tame legislators are now full-time. Yes, they made it.

Arthur Busch 14:56

Now, Leo, did you ever get involved? Did you ever get involved in the John F. Kennedy campaign?

SPEAKER_03 15:02

Oh, sure, sure. We went uh we were involved and it was fun. We were invited to the inauguration with the governor, and we had a great time over there. And I can my memory was it snowed like the dickens, and they didn't have they didn't have snow clouds those days in Washington, so the National Guard was out with snow shovels that day, shoving the snow.

unknown 15:23

They go sticky in their beautiful gown and glasses to the ball.

Arthur Busch 15:27

So you and your wife went you and your wife went dancing in Washington and and celebrated. Oh yes.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

She met uh celebrities, uh, David Brickley, and he just loved it.

unknown 15:38

It was a great, great thing. Arthur, my memories go to so many places that you know I I wanted to finish the story on John Swansa because he deserves it. Okay, go ahead. He is a one he was a one tremor, and he said to me one day we had a we had a monthly board meeting around the state, and I was sharing the meeting. So he says to me, You're going up to the upper bench, so he said, and I said, Yeah, go to he said, I want you to go to Newberry, the Metal Institute, and don't tell him I said, and I want you to walk through it.

SPEAKER_03 16:08

So I go with lightning, my friend the barkeetter from uh the Durant Hotel, and he drives me then. We go up to Newberry, we have our board meeting. I say, okay, guys, we're going to the Bell Institution.

unknown 16:21

They said, we ain't going. So I forced about six of them to go. And we said we walked through the metal institution. They took us through, and it was a sad mess.

SPEAKER_03 16:30

So the guy said, the guide says, You want to see the children's ward? I said, Certainly. The rest of them said, hell no, and they walked off on me. And so the lightning and I went through the children's ward, and some little guy at the end says to Lightning, take me home, Daddy. And Jesus, he woke up over that. I got back to Flint, and I called the governor, gave him a report. He said, Thanks very much. A couple months later, three buses went from Coldwater, where it was hospital, to Pontiac, to La Pier. And I think that was it. Channel 12 did a documentary, The Wind is Rising. It won an award. It raised money for middle institutions. What gets me is it happened on my watch, and I thought, boy, that's wireless.

unknown 17:20

But the sadness is all those planes are closed.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

Or are those people on the street or somewhere?

Arthur Busch 17:27

That's the sadness out there. As you know, Leo. That's my best story. And I'd like to tell the people because the younger people that are listening to this might get a kick out of it. We I hope so. And when I was in college, we could drink in Michigan at the age of 18. Right. And I didn't drink beer. But when I got to college, all the kids down there were talking about this beer, and it was called Coors Beer. And the problem with getting Coors Beer to Michigan was it was not pasteurized. So they couldn't pick a beer that could be kept long enough to travel from Golden Colorado to Michigan. And so every once in a while somebody would go to Colorado and bring back this beer, and it was a great, it was a great prize. And then comes along and then comes along this guy, this pioneer, and his name was Leo Seidi. Tell us that story of how Coors Beer got to Genesee County.

SPEAKER_03 18:27

I remember it well, Arthur. It was a he did pasteurize the beer in the end, but I decided that we should have it. And I contacted the Coors Brewery, and Bill's Coors himself, the owner, came to Flint. We had a big contour reception at the Genesee Tower building, what they call that club.

Arthur Busch 18:48

University Club. The University Club.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

Yeah. We had a big lunch in there for him. Everybody greeted him warmly, and it was a nice thing, and we had that kickoff, of course. But organized labor didn't like it.

unknown 19:02

So I had a host of friends there. I went to school with Jack Wagner, and you know, these were guys I knew from all my life.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

And I had the brand, and so it was uh it was boycotted a bit and had an effect, but we made a pretty good splash with it. Ultimately, they had a Labor Day parade down Main Street every year, and they asked me to march to the parade with one of my beer trucks. Well, I took big beer truck and all my you know, my boys that were dressed up nicely, and I took Chickie. I said the two biggest guys they had not used to stand on both sides or any trouble, get her to hang out of there. And so we started down the street and we were cheered, and and it worked out nicely, but it was a bit of a battle in between.

Arthur Busch 19:48

Well, let's talk about Chicky for a minute. Where did you meet her?

SPEAKER_03 19:51

Chicky was uh my dad had the Vogue stores, and I saw her in the Bunker Bob's restaurant. Who the heck is that?

Arthur Busch 19:58

What's the name of the restaurant? What was what was the name of it?

SPEAKER_03 20:04

The Vogue, downtown Flint. No, I know it's in the corner, across the Isters on the corner.

Arthur Busch 20:09

Her family owned the Vogue, which most people listening to say.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

They owned the Vogue and it was a it was a thriving big uh department store. And in fact, her dad used to have the new cars, which were a big deal. He put a new Buicker Chevrolet in the window every time the new bottles came out. The opening of the car dealerships uh cars new cars in the fall of year was a big deal. Right. LG was my closest friend, and he always he just died this last year.

Arthur Busch 20:38

Downtown at that point was quite a thriving place, and the Vogue was ring center of all that action, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_03 20:45

Oh, it was, yeah. We ended up buying the Istra building and and put it together, but they read it, yeah, but I'm told by it now, they read it again. So I think that was drive-out by your folks out there.

Arthur Busch 20:58

Well, no, but I want to ask you a few more questions. Don't get away so fast. Now you you obviously have seen a lot of changes in Flint in Genesee County uh in your lifetime. And what I'd like to know is what is it about Flint that makes it such a special place? What is it about Flint that made you a successful business person? What is it about Flint that allowed you to have such a good life?

SPEAKER_03 21:24

So, Arthur, I'm glad you asked that question because it's important to me. What is my relationship? I lived in the North End. I went to Dorothy High School. My I had a mixed group of friends, black and white. I call I didn't cultivate them, but I they were friends of mine. And we played ball together, and we ran together. And Taylor, Paul Taylor used to have a liquor store over at the moment. He was serious pulled up after our giants. And so I had nothing to do. I was single in those days, and I just got out of there. I don't want to go to college and what else I heard alcoholic in my head telling the remote to be a truck driver.

Arthur Busch 22:11

You quit college to be a you quit college to be a truck driver?

SPEAKER_03 22:16

I never remember what you were talking about for three years.

Arthur Busch 22:33

Where were you where were you at? Tell me what you like the people have fled to know and those that have left to know. Attorneys and pioneering attorneys and areas, particularly in the civil rights moment in the 50s and 60s, and participated with Dr. King and uh were really quite ended his career as an administrative law judge. But I really appreciate the time that you've spent. I hope that your wife makes a quick recovery. I hope you uh enjoy your time with your family and with your son David and others, and uh we look forward to seeing you come back to Flint in the near future. Thank you, David. Thank you, Roger. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

Have you heard the news? Carrying the crows coming home to roost. Over at the left, you know something and wrong. Take the children and run. It's the last two days. We don't trust.