Investments and savvy efforts by Phil Giles and Arthur Braggs, developers from Detroit and Saginaw, brought leading entertainers to Idlewild. The Flamingo, Paradise, and El Morocco nightclubs featured national, regional, and local performers. These included Jackie Williams, The Four Tops, Aretha Franklin, Sarah Vaughan, as well as other musicians, comedians, chorus girls, and singers.

Tours of Idlewild were made possible by excursions from Grand Rapids, Detroit, Chicago, and other Midwestern cities. The Pere Marquette Railway also enabled broader access, bringing new residents and visitors from Indiana, St. Louis, and Cleveland. At a more local scale, a shuttle car service made the 15-mile trip between Idlewild and Woodland Park, especially for those seeking a quieter retreat.

The vibrant entertainment scene drew a diverse crowd, both black and white patrons who found a haven for interracial mingling. Off-season, some of the entertainers performed on the road throughout other cities in North America, including Montreal, Toronto, New York and Kansas City. This elevated Idlewild into a major entertainment center and contributed to its economic success as a resort community.

With the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the subsequent loss of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway service to Baldwin, Idlewild experienced an inevitable decline. Locally and at the state level, efforts to revitalize the area have been pursued since the 1970s. This included a successful nomination and designation for Idlewild on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, followed by a historic boundary expansion in 2015. The Idlewild Historic & Cultural Center was opened in 2019 to continue telling the story and Idlewild, and summer events and festivals continue to bring new vitality and awareness to the community.

Concerted efforts remain underway to steward the community by year-round residents, fourth- and fifth-generation Idlewilders, seasonal visitors, and newcomers.e