Interview by Leyland DeVito

Joe Zainea is quite literally the father figure of the Majestic Theater center, a conglomeration of two music venues, a restaurant, and a bowling alley that he runs with his two sons. A funny old raconteur, it didn’t take much to get him to sit down with contributor Leyland DeVito and tell some stories about the fall (and rise) of Detroit during the course of his time in the business.

What can you say about living and working in Detroit?

“Cool cities” is what we’ve always strived for down here. I can go back to the 1950’s, when people were abandoning the city and leaving for the suburbs, there were a small quarter of people down here that struggled to keep Detroit alive. The decline culminated in the Eighties. Everybody left town, even the affluent African-Americans… I guess the Reagan economic system “trickled down” to the African-Americans and they did the same thing as anyone else, they left for the suburbs.

So we were left from ’88 to ’94 with downright indigents. Couldn’t make any money with them. Our sons graduated from college, and David told me, “If you want me to work here…” It turned out to be the wisest thing, because he tripled the price of bowling and it offended the indigents and they left. They also hit the Mile roads, by the way. There’s nothing secret about the Mile roads. Everybody aspires to be on a higher and higher Mile road. I call it the “Mile Road Syndrome”.

If racism can kill a city, so can elitism. I live in Detroit, on the border with Grosse Point. Same neighborhood my father and mother built the house in 1919. Our roses are blooming. Our garden is beautiful. The house is built like a brick castle. And guess what? I paid for it 35 years ago. So my peers who moved to Grosse Point wonder, “How do you get to go to Europe twice a year?”

Our value system is all screwed up. I just love my street. It looks beautiful. It doesn’t make any difference how big your house is. What matters is what’s in your heart, your mind, your intellect, and your soul. They have it all backwards.

How long have you been at the helm of the Majestic Theater center?

My dad bought the bowling alley in 1946. I’m not at the helm. I have two sons. My son David is the general manager and my son Joe is the chef, neither of which you could operate this business without. Are they at the helm? I think they are. I do the bookkeeping and the buying and the selling and the hell raising. That’s my duty as a 73 year old.

What improvements have you noticed in your long time here?

It’s you people, the young crowd. They’re breaking away from their parents, their ideology, thinking, “All the things I love are back in Detroit”. The Art Institute, the clubs, the restaurants. They don’t understand, but the young kids do, and that’s who I give credit too. I’ll take the young any day of the week.

I remember when I was 18 I had to lie to my parents to come down here to see the Rock City Festival.

You loved that? We did that. We got a sponsor because we were doing pretty good from bar sales. The beer company that sponsored us is suffering a decline in their business all over, but they’re not suffering a decline in Midtown, Detroit. Business in Midtown is up! But they can’t afford to give us the money to do another show like that. That was a free concert. Pretty nice, wasn’t it? You know where I was during that? I was in Greece and Turkey. It’d be nice to have another one. We still have the name registered.

The Majestic Theater and the Magic Stick upstairs are my favorite venues in the city. You guys book so many great local, national, and international acts. When did this become a place for younger music?

That’s from our sons coming into the business. If I didn’t change, chances are I’d be out of business. I had a nice Lebanese restaurant, it was called “The Gnome Restaurant”, but it wasn’t wide enough appeal to a mass crowd. So my sons came in, they switched it to all American, with some Arabic food, some Mediterranean food. My son Joe learned new techniques of cooking international foods, and then all of a sudden all these young kids start showing up. And where are the people my age at 10 o’clock at night? They’re beddy-bye in the suburbs watching the boob tube and getting ready for bed. And where are their children? They’re not even in the house at 10, they’re going out for dinner. We had to change with the clientele, and that’s simply what made the difference.

What about the history of the Majestic Theater?

Originally it was the largest theater built in the world for the purpose of motion pictures. The architect, C. Howard Crane, went on to build the Fox Theaters around the country and maybe ten more theaters downtown. As they built movie theaters in the suburbs, this place became more of a kung-fu, open-up-all-night, twenty-five-cents-a-ticket place. Then it was closed as a theater and turned to a church. The owner was a notorious preacher, and a fraud, so he got kicked out, and then they turned the theater into a photographic studio to make commercials for the auto industry. Then that whole industry left Detroit for California. The theater was vacant for about 10 years. For a time we rented it to a manufacturer of trophies and silkscreen T-shirts.

When did it become a place for younger music?

We bought the building in 1984 and took the theater and turned it into an underground club. You had to come in through the back door, through the alley. We painted all the walls black, the floor black, and we had 1,000 kids crammed into there just shakin’. We had raves. But the house doesn’t make any money on raves. We decided to go more of a musical route. We brought in Sheryl Crow, Richard Thompson, some hot shows. Upstairs [in the Magic Stick], the White Stripes, Blanche, the Von Bondies, that’s more recently.

That was a turning point. The young people move into the city, buying the lofts, and as they do, their parents are becoming more curious. And then since the Super Bowl, there are 20 new pubs and restaurants. I’d say that that was a turning point too, and that helped.

What’s in the future for the complex?

We put a new roof on the building, so there’s no more water leaking. We just signed a contract for a new air conditioning and ventilation system that we never had before. That’s going to be a huge plus, we have thirteen concerts booked for the summertime. The theater has not had air conditioning. When it was built, the sign said it was “air cooled’. What they did was take huge blocks of ice and put them in the basement, and this great big propeller fan blew across the ice and sent the cool air up to the ceiling, and then it came down, almost like raindrops.

The Majestic Theater also promotes non-musical artists as well. There are always paintings and photographs on the walls. How else does the center promote non-musical artists?

That was my son’s plan in 1992 to change the art on the wall every three to four weeks. We never charge a fee, we just ask when they have the opening they bring responsible spenders to do some bar business. Quite a few of our staff are actors from Wayne State and University of Detroit with their own gigs. Because it’s a restaurant business we make it adjustable for them to go off a do a show and come back because there’s enough of them. Also, I think it adds a nice flair, having an actor wait on you.

For more info on the Majestic Complex located from 4120 to 4140 on Woodward Avenue in Detroit, check out their website here or call (313)833-9700
http://www.majesticdetroit.com/
4120-4140 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI

Leyland DeVito is studying illustration at Detroit's College for Creative Studies. He can be reached at flyingtreemonkey@aol.com.

Joe Zainea photos by Micaela Ruiz.