Sixty years ago, a geodesic dome rose behind Southfield's Northland Center and briefly became one of Michigan's biggest teen hangouts, a non-alcohol dance club called the Mummp that booked a young Bob Seger and let 1,600 teenagers pack the floor on a given night. Now the people who remember dancing there as kids are gathering again, six decades later, to mark the anniversary.
According to The Detroit News, the Mummp occupied a geodesic dome at Northland Center in 1967, built on the site of the former Northland Playhouse along J.L. Hudson Drive south of Nine Mile. The club regularly hosted rock acts of the era including the Amboy Dukes, Endless Chain, Jagged Edge, Gino Washington, Suzi Quatro & The Pleasure Seekers, the Woolies and Bob Seger. With room for 1,600 people, the Mummp had a reputation for being more disciplined than its Detroit rival, the Grande Ballroom, per the same report.
The club's origin story, as recounted by Michigan Rock and Roll Legends, starts with founder Hy Weinstein, who planned to rent a geodesic dome from the Northland Corporation for the venture. His oldest daughter, Cheryl Weinstein, reportedly looked at the structure and said it resembled a mump, her own term for a pimple. Weinstein ran with it, naming the club the Mummp by adding an extra M to her word.
A Club Built to Outlast Michigan Winters
Weinstein and Bernie Adelson installed heating and air conditioning inside the tent-like structure, according to the same account, meaning the Mummp could operate all year round rather than shutting down once the weather turned. Weinstein also designed a revolving stage so that as one band wrapped its set, the next act could already be set up and ready to go, keeping the music moving without dead air between performances. The stage itself was dressed with dayglow-colored strips on one side and dayglow paint on the other, giving the lighting crew plenty to work with under blacklight.
That lighting crew included Weinstein's own sons. Todd Weinstein, along with his younger brother, Lee, ran the venue's light shows, per Michigan Rock and Roll Legends. The Mummp catered specifically to young adults between the ages of 16 and 21, and it never served alcohol, keeping its focus squarely on music and dancing rather than nightlife in the adult sense.
The Unofficial Opening Night and the Record Crowd That Followed
The club's unofficial opening fell on a Saturday night, December 10, 1966, according to Michigan Rock and Roll Legends, with the Jagged Edge, the Tidal Waves, Gino Washington, Tim Tam and the Shy Guys performing for the crowd. Days later, the Mummp held its official grand opening from December 15 through December 18, 1966, an event that drew an estimated 1,600 teens through the doors.
How long the Mummp actually lasted depends on which account you read. The Detroit News reports the club closed after one year when its lease was not renewed, while Michigan Rock and Roll Legends describes it as having operated for just under two years. A separate history from The Jewish News states simply that the club closed after the 1967 Detroit riots. Whatever the precise timeline, the venue's run was brief, and its imprint on the local music scene outlasted it by decades, per The Detroit News.
Why the Mummp Mattered Beyond Southfield
The Mummp was part of a much larger wave. Teen dance clubs across the state doubled as a marketing tool for disc jockeys looking to push new records, and The Alpena News reports that more than 55 such clubs operated across Michigan's Lower Peninsula during the mid-1960s. Up north, the Alpena Armory ran as a teen dance club from the mid-1960s into the early 1970s, with host DJ Bill Eberline, a gymnasium dance floor ringed by an upper balcony, and $2.50 admission at the door, according to the same report. Admission at the Mummp ran a comparable $1.50 to $2.50, per The Detroit News.
Northland Center itself, where the Mummp's dome once stood, was located at Eight Mile Road and the Lodge Freeway in Southfield, according to the City of Southfield. The mall has long since been shuttered, but the memory of the dome and the bands that played inside it has clearly stuck with the people who were there as teenagers.
Fans Reunite in Keego Harbor This Weekend
Those who remember the Mummp, including Hy Weinstein's son Todd Weinstein, are set to gather for the club's 60th anniversary Saturday night at a bar in Keego Harbor, The Detroit News reports. For a generation of metro Detroit teenagers who once spent weekend nights under that glowing dome watching Bob Seger or Suzi Quatro take the revolving stage, it is a chance to swap stories about a venue that, however briefly it lasted, left a mark on Michigan's teen club era.
