Carlean Gill’s Idlewild saga goes far beyond her becoming a young showgirl during some of the final 1950s and 1960s years at the historic black resort community, performing before a cavalcade of stars the likes of Della Reese, The Four Tops, Temptations, Brooke Benton, Etta James and Jackie Wilson.
It’s also the story of her later career as the owner and operator of one of Saginaw’s most prominent African American enterprises during those times, the Saginaw Beauty Academy and Saginaw Barber College.
And it tells how Nichole Braggs Harris – daughter of Carlean and Arthur Braggs, creator of The Arthur Braggs Idlewild Revue — was nurtured into a loving child who now promotes Idlewild stories and tradition with the same enthusiasm as her mother.
So what’s up with Carlean nowadays? She has stayed with Nikki (Arthur Hill High, 1993), a regional sales manager for Mercedes Benz, for the past decade, now in suburban Dallas, TX doting on her twin grandchildren Myles and Sophia, 4 years old.
Her life became far fuller than she may have imagined back when she graduated from Detroit’s Lincoln High School in 1957. She was feeling aimless, working as a switchboard operator downtown on Woodward Avenue and taking classes in typing and shorthand to become a secretary, which was what young single black women were “supposed” to do at the time.
Then a friend informed her of a audition for The Arthur Braggs Idlewild Revue, which began in 1950s and 1960s in an isolated northwest Michigan town of Idlewild, formed around 1912 as an original summer fun getaway for high-rolling black elites from across the Midwest. She made the grade. With an on-site cottage room in the wooded clearing, a nice salary and off-season tours on the so-called “chittlin’ circuit, Carlean was an onstage showgirl. The showgirls were the Fiesta Dolls, consisting of 36 people. The showgirls walked around in the beautiful Vegas style costumes.
End of Idlewild
Suddenly came the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and it’s reverse impact. Previous all-white vacation resorts were forced to integrate, and places like Idlewild slowly died, similar to baseball’s Negro Leagues a generation earlier after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.
She figured her next step should be to parlay her experience in beauty and fashion. She planted roots in Saginaw, first with studies at All-American Beauty School, then opening Carlean’s Beauty Salon on Janes Street, followed by Saginaw Beauty Academy and Saginaw Barber College. In the early 1990s Carlean also was instrumental in opening Natura Beauty School in Zimbabwe, Africa. She was also a founding member of SAMBA — Saginaw African American Business Association and Combo, a Michigan small business association.
It was during those years that Carlean gave birth to Nichole, while joining Arthur Braggs in his final pursuit, horse breeding and racing, based on a farm out on East Road, in Saginaw. The threesome eventually would travel the national horse racing circuit.
“We spent every Saturday together,” Nikki recalls. “My father was always tender and loving and nurturing.”
Carlean recalls the final day in 1982 when Arthur Braggs, approaching his 70th birthday, suffered a fatal heart attack during a race day at a track in Waterford, West Virginia.
“Everyone afterward was coming by the hotel room,” she says, “and my little daughter was managing it all, seven years old. She was strong for me and I had to be strong for her.”
Life goes on
Things back in Saginaw, especially the horses, never were the same. Carlean eventually pivoted to what she knew best, cosmetology, and decided her best bet was to put all her efforts in pursuing her dreams and not the dreams of Arthur. In 1984 she went on to win the National Hair weaving Championship in Austin, Texas and in 1996 in Honolulu, Hawaii and from there on hair weaving became her specialty.
Reflecting over her 50-plus years in Saginaw, Carlean is grateful. She enjoyed every single customer and then student.
“It was never work, I loved each and every day,” she recalls. “My greatest life’s joy is re-connecting with an old client or seeing one of my former students. I wanted to provide our community with a way to be entrepreneurs and to have self-sufficient careers, it’s been my greatest life’s joy.”
Today, mother and daughter continue organizing and conducting Idlewild educational events — Carlean at the Saginaw Castle Museum, at Western Michigan in Kalamazoo, Michigan and at Ferris State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Carlean has also spent her retired years traveling the globe with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and working major US disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. Both she and Nikki enjoyed traveling the world and credit travel to helping increase their sense of community.
Now Carlean is settling in to quiet family times down south with Nikki, son-in-love Tracy and the twins.
“I have been able to share everything with them,” Carlean says.
