Mccarch Member Username: Mccarch
Post Number: 100 Registered: 12-2003
| Posted on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 5:51 pm: | |
I've a postcard of the interior of this restaurant/bar c. 1950s. Quite a nice looking place, it was on the north side of McNichols/Six Mile between Third & Pontchartrain. Anyone have any actual memories of the place? (To the best of my knowledge, the building is long gone.) (Message edited by Mccarch on January 17, 2007) |
3rdworldcity Member Username: 3rdworldcity
Post Number: 416 Registered: 01-2005
| Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 11:08 am: | |
Down the street from Petco's (related thread.) Remember the place but not patronizing it. Remember Menjo's, same neighborhood? Started out as a nightclub (actually, a "supper club") and I heard it eventually became Detroit's first gay bar. Probably long gone by now. |
Artistic Member Username: Artistic
Post Number: 32 Registered: 09-2006
| Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 11:33 am: | |
Menjos is still an active gay bar |
Cambrian Member Username: Cambrian
Post Number: 511 Registered: 08-2006
| Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 11:50 am: | |
I've got an old Matchbook from Menjo's pre gay bar days. |
56packman Member Username: 56packman
Post Number: 914 Registered: 12-2005
| Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 1:47 pm: | |
Does anyone have a picture of the "Sax club" on McNichols, west of Pontchartrain (on the south side). My piano came from there. |
Schoolcraft Member Username: Schoolcraft
Post Number: 82 Registered: 07-2005
| Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 1:58 pm: | |
Bookies 870. Dont get me started.Please tell me its still standing. |
Al_t_publican Member Username: Al_t_publican
Post Number: 134 Registered: 06-2004
| Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 2:24 pm: | |
I'm thinking of a place I hung out at from 1972-74ish called the Aorta that was on the north side of W. McNichols on the first block west of Woodward. It was sort of a rock and roll hang out then on the straight side. |
3rdworldcity Member Username: 3rdworldcity
Post Number: 418 Registered: 01-2005
| Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 2:31 pm: | |
Ah, the Sax Club. What a joint. It was purchased, as I recall, by Les Bingaman in the 50's. He tended bar. Bingaman was an all-pro tackle for the Lions for 5 or 6 years and as I recall had a heart attack and died at the club. He was by far, at that time, the heaviest pro-football player, weighing in at 300 ponds. Not very tall. Immovable when he was playing. |
Pam Member Username: Pam
Post Number: 903 Registered: 11-2005
| Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 2:39 pm: | |
quote:Bookies 870. Dont get me started.Please tell me its still standing This says it burned down: http://www.bookiesclub870.com/ history.html |
Gary Member Username: Gary
Post Number: 198 Registered: 02-2004
| Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 4:14 pm: | |
The Sax Club was on W. McNichols between Baylis and Inverness. I don't know much about it in the days when Les Bingaman owned it, but in the early 60s, it became one of the first (maybe THE first) topless clubs in Detroit. it remained open under various owners into the 80s. Those other bars that were mentioned (the Aorta, Menjos, Bookies/Frank Gagen's) were all further east on McNichols. Those joints were jumpin' every Friday and Saturday night during the 70s and 80s with a crazy mix of gays, yuppies, punk rockers, new wavers, and bikers. That whole strip along McNichols was probably only a half mile or less from Hamilton/Ponchartrain to Woodward, but there was a whole lot going on for such a small, concentrated area. (Message edited by gary on January 18, 2007) |
Jjw Member Username: Jjw
Post Number: 229 Registered: 10-2005
| Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 4:48 pm: | |
I am pretty sure that Bookies was at one time called Gagens--it was a very well-known Jewish super club ( i think Barbra Streisand actually performed there back when she first started out)-Anyway-Gagens or bookies burned down quite a few years ago. Not sure what is there now. There was another place on the corner called Dons Beef and ALe or something like that. --Anyone have an update on that place? |
56packman Member Username: 56packman
Post Number: 916 Registered: 12-2005
| Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 10:39 pm: | |
Bookies was "Frank Gagens"--it had very art-moderne tall-skinny letters spelling out that name over the front canopy. |
Spaceboykelly Member Username: Spaceboykelly
Post Number: 194 Registered: 04-2005
| Posted on Friday, January 19, 2007 - 8:58 am: | |
Jjw, please email me at newwave_popstar@hotmail.com |
Ha_asfan Member Username: Ha_asfan
Post Number: 89 Registered: 06-2006
| Posted on Friday, January 19, 2007 - 6:54 pm: | |
My parents went to Frank Gagan's Supper Club in the 30's and 40's and I was there every Friday and Saturday night in the 70's when it was simply known as Gagan's. I think some of the best bad drag ever offered came out of Gagan's. Tiffany Middlesex, Sally From the Alley, Betty Clark, Trisha Trash,....they really were marvelous. It was always fun watching the "curious suburbanites" come through with their spouses then see the husbands without their wives the next week. At some point, it became known as Bookies Club 870, Bookies, for short. That was really the height of wonderful old gay Detroit when Palmer Park and Six Mile, along with Hamilton's antique row was in full throttle. Gagan's, Bookies, whatever...was the best source for whatever type of drug you wanted in the 70's....for a good time with fun people, nothing beat it. Don's Beef and Ale became The Cove. The Cove functioned as a small restaurant and hugely popular after hours club for some years. I worked there for a year or so as an afterhours server... (Message edited by ha_asfan on January 19, 2007) |