Harris [Harry] Machus’s parents Hans and Katherine established a bakery shop in East Lansing, Michigan in 1911and handed it over to their son and his wife Elaine in the 1930s.

When America was drawn into WWII, Elaine kept the business going while Harry served. A war hero – he escaped twice from the Germans and earned a Purple Heart and a Silver Star for bravery – he turned the family business into an award-winning and nationally ranked catering empire on his return to civvy street. The chain had 16 restaurants and several bakeries at its height.

This stylish matchbook cover was from his flagship restaurant, Machus Red Fox in Oakland’s Bloomfield Township. As noted on the cover, the establishment offered ‘gracious dining without extravagance,’ and was a go-to place for special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries.

Much to Harry’s dismay, however, the Red Fox gained notoriety as the place where former Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa was last seen.

On the afternoon of his disappearance on July 30, 1975, Hoffa arrived at the Machus Red Fox for a 2pm meeting with alleged Detroit mob enforcer Anthony ‘Tony Jack’ Giacalone and New Jersey mob figure Anthony ‘Tony Pro’ Provenzano.

The mob figures never turned up and Hoffa phoned his wife to say he would be home by 4pm. Some witnesses saw him waiting in the parking lot before a maroon car, a Mercury Marquis, arrived with several men inside. Hoffa got in and was never seen again.

The car was traced to Giacalone’s son, and a strand of Hoffa’s hair was found in the car. Despite extensive investigations, the riddle of the trade unionist, said to have become involved with organized crime, remained unsolved. His body was never found and Hoffa was declared dead in absentia in 1982.

The notoriety attached to Machus Red Fox displeased the respected restaurateur but there was nothing he could do about it.

‘It just drove him nuts,’ said Harry’s son, Robert. ‘He thought people would think he was running a place for gangsters. ‘My father was a very old-fashioned, very focused, very straitlaced kind of guy.’

The restaurant continued business until 1996 and was replaced by a steakhouse.

Harry was president of the National Restaurant Association for ten years  as well as president of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce. He also received the First Citizen of Birmingham Award. He died in 2001.

The infamous Hoffa case has been the subject of many books and some films, including Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman (2019).

This is a matchbook cover so there is no interior menu.