Madhatter wasn’t his real name, of course: Stanley Zillifro seemed somehow too ordinary a moniker for his outsized, mid-1960s counter-culture persona. Growing up in Hamtramck, he emceed hundreds of rock and roll shows at Detroit’s historic Eastown and Cinderella theaters and the Grande Ballroom. He was a fixture during the mid-1970s and 1980s at the Chances R/Second Chance and Nectarine Ballroom nightclubs in Ann Arbor, where he had a hand in nearly every aspect of music presentation.

In the 1970s, Zillifro was the onstage host and all-round muscle for the Second Chance/Nectarine Ballroom nightclub in Ann Arbor (now the Necto). Owner John Carver says Zillifro might have looked like a laid-back hippie, but as a former wrestler, he could enforce the backstage guest list physically, if necessary.

Stanley T. Madhatter legendary Rock n Roll Emcee from Detroit and the the rest of the world........