Once Upon A Time In Lansing is a true story that features a financial crisis, a pandemic, immigrants at the border, a rise in extremism, a creative entrepreneur changing transport, ecological disruption, labor unrest, war, and issues of race, equity, and justice. But this is not a story about 2021. This story begins in 1896 and ends in 1970. At its center are two Lansing men, a bank, and a family that stands in for others in Lansing, Michigan. One of the men is R.E. Olds, whose accomplishments included two automobile companies and a National bank. The other is Joseph W. Gleason, the businessman appointed receiver of Olds' bank in 1934. Soon after his appointment, Gleason came into conflict with men who ran companies with assets and collateral frozen at the bank. There was a battle for control, and Lansing residents stood to be impacted by its outcome. Everyone in the account is real. Everything in it happened. The story recounts epic hardships, muted joys, the actions of powerful corporate leaders, private efforts, and those of elected and appointed officials to keep a growing crisis from spiraling out of control, a nascent labor movement, the onset of the second world war, and its aftermath. Drawn from news articles, New Deal history, conversations with the 90-year-old son of Gleason's only heir, and other sources, Once Upon A Time In Lansing shows how actions of "men and women of their time" reverberate into ours.
