Midnight Special flipped its first page 34 years ago
DOWNTOWN — More than three decades after it opened and just a year after it was driven off the Third Street Promenade, the Midnight Special Bookstore will soon close for good, according to its embattled owner, Margie Ghiz.
Ghiz’s left-leaning, independent bookstore — opened 34 years ago by activists in Venice — was forced off the Promenade last March by escalating rents. After an eight-month delay, Ghiz opened a new Midnight Special store on Second Street.
On Friday, Ghiz blamed that wait and City Hall bureaucracy for the store’s seemingly imminent demise.
“Last year, well over 1,000 of you gave us so much money, so much of your time and so much heart, to make sure we could reopen after eight months ‘in storage,’” Ghiz wrote in a message to customers. “Unfortunately, the delay was too great and our debts grew with the delays. Only local outlets of major chains can afford the losses that come with opening stores; even though our sales were steadily growing, it was not fast enough to keep us going until we could sustain ourselves.
“Therefore, it is with so much sadness and even much anger, that we announce we are closing the Midnight Special Bookstore.”
On Friday, Ghiz was reluctant to discuss the store’s closing, adding the decision was still too recent and emotions running too high. In her message to customers, she expressed gratitude to the loyal customers who have made Midnight Special a hangout for intellectuals and hub for a variety of community events.
“We know how much you have given to us; we want you to know how hard we tried and how long we worked to keep our doors open. We also want you to know how sincerely we will miss your comments, complaints, support, events, books, small talk, jokes, ideas; you have been our community, our daily life, for 34 years.”
The Midnight Special is expected to close in four or five weeks. Ghiz said she hopes to unload her entire inventory through a sale beginning today.
The closing of its doors will mark the end of the independent bookstore begun 34 years ago by civil rights activists in Venice and moved to Santa Monica in the early 1980s. By the end of its first year, two of its founders had been jailed for refusing to give the FBI the names of friends and customers who were attending anti-Vietnam War meetings.
It seemed fitting, then, that in her Friday message to customers, Ghiz reminded the Midnight Special loyal to carry on in that spirit.
“These are amazing times we live in, both at home and all over the world,” she wrote. “They are as exciting as they are tragic, because we in this country who have such great responsibility, have also a great opportunity to open minds and accelerate change; and, maybe, even begin to close down an unjust and oppressive system.
“Nothing will die when the Midnight Special closes it doors, because all of you and our staff of the last 34 years and today — Ruben, Rolando, Erin, Bill, Lorraine, Olin, Daniel, Jason and Jim — are the life of the Midnight Special, and each one of us is part of a much larger voice that cannot be silenced.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 8, 2004. Read the original PDF.