Midnight Special Now Open at New Location

Its fiery nature intact, Midnight Special reopened last week, nine months after the independent bookstore was forced to leave its longtime location on the Santa Monica Promenade.

The store, which had been driven out by rising rent, has undergone some cosmetic changes. Its new location is lighter, airier and bigger than the crowded Promenade space; the aisles are wider, and the carpet is new.

And the store seems more committed than ever to fulfilling what it calls its mission -- to present books and ideas to change the world, and in a distinctly left-wing fashion.

The familiar camouflage-green shelves, moved by a cadre of customer-volunteers, boast the same mix of popular and obscure book titles, as well as juxtapositions that are classic Midnight Special.

A declassified history of the Iran-Contra scandal perches on a shelf not far from the New Jerusalem Bible. Pocket-size copies of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution share counter space with guerrilla artist Robbie Conal’s work mocking members of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The store, which began as a cooperative in 1970, had been on the Promenade almost 20 years, paying under-market rent for its 5,000-square-foot space. But in February, the landlord said he could no longer cut the bookshop a deal. The space has since become a Benetton clothing store.

Late Thursday, as soon as Midnight Special had obtained its last permit from the city of Santa Monica, 5,000 customers got the word that the store had reopened.

“We are finally open,” said the note from the staff. “We hope to see all of you as soon as you can get here.”

Judging from the steady stream of customers that flowed through 1450 2nd St. on Saturday, that was welcome news to anxious devotees.

“It’s amazing,” said employee Olin Tezcatkipoca. “People come here with really great attitudes.”

Trevor Walton of Santa Monica strode through the doors as employees unpacked books. He quickly praised the store’s mix of literature, culture and politics.

“I’m just glad you’re open,” he told the employees. “So I thought I’d come in and check you out.”

Walton said he has spent the last nine months “trying to avoid Borders,” the chain store down the street from the old location. Midnight Special “is fearless in its opinions, and that seems important right now,” said Walton, 47. “And that needs to be supported.”

In the cooking aisle, Craig Thomasian lingered as he thumbed through books with a friend. The 30-year-old Pasadena resident said he had been waiting for the reopening.

“I’d walked by here a bunch of times,” he said, “but the date had changed or passed.”

Saturday, he said, “we were down here to eat, and saw that they were open. I was happy to see they’d made it.”

Midnight Special owner Margie Ghiz attributed the long delay in the reopening to a variety of problems. She said she had learned that contractors, landlords and the city were better equipped to deal with so-called big-box developers than small independent businesses.

“If you say every day is costing $500, $600, they’re going to laugh. That’s meaningless to them. For us, that’s the difference between paying for two weeks of medical insurance or the light bill. It’s huge to us.”

“Every day was digging us deeper and deeper,” she said. “But here we are, and we’ll fight it through. It’s been a hard, long ordeal.”

Ghiz praised her employees, who have remained with the store despite the delays. Every member of the staff is returning, she said, having filled the months-long gap by working odd jobs, helping to raise money for the store and collecting unemployment.

Customers, she said, have been equally loyal. In the last month, almost 1,000 of them have volunteered, helping to move stock, dust shelves and even do carpentry.

Ghiz said she is both optimistic and anxious about the next few months and what they will mean for the store. “It may be a hard transition -- it may be overwhelming,” she said. “But even if we don’t make it, it’s a success.”

Bill Glass, who has worked at the store almost 10 years, had only bright thoughts for Midnight Special’s future. He was relearning the keys at the cash register Saturday, greeting people as they came in.

“There’s a bonding here you don’t find at other bookstores,” he said.

A customer entered the shop and made a beeline for the front counter. “You finally made it back to life,” he told Glass.

Glass smiled. “We’re here and hope to be here for a while,” he said.