DetroitSince 1958

We are named for the spray a hydroplane throws. On this river since 1958

A history in photographs from the Schoenith family collection

Almost none of this has been online before. The photographs are the family's own, scanned from prints in boxes. Everything stated here is sourced. Eight chapters, and not one of them is long.

  1. IThe name is water at speed1950
  2. IIThe Gold Cup Came First1955
  3. IIIBuilt where his boats raced1958
  4. IVSix courses and an orchestra1959
  5. VSeven Mondays that opened the room1966
  6. VIThe night became the record1966
  7. VIIMost nights belonged to somebody's family1968
  8. VIIIThe year they celebrated five1958
The Roostertail in daylight, the script sign on the wall and a black car waiting under the entrance canopy
The unlimited hydroplane Miss Smirnoff, hull number U-90, running flat out on open water with white spray thrown up behind its stern and the driver low in an open cockpit.

ITHE NAME

1950

The name is water at speed

A hydroplane running flat out throws a curtain of water off its stern, as high as seventy-five feet. That plume is the name of this place. Joe Schoenith raced the boats that made it. Everything else here follows from that.

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IITHE BOATS

1955

The Gold Cup Came First

Joe Schoenith bought a Detroit electrical contracting firm named W. D. Gale and advertised it with race boats. Sixteen hulls over twenty-six seasons. Twenty-seven wins.

On August 7, 1955, his son Lee drove Gale V to the APBA Gold Cup at Seattle without winning a single heat. He took it on the speed bonus, by 4.536 seconds over ninety miles. The Cup came back to Detroit. Three years later the club opened on the racecourse itself.

Schoenith family collection

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A young man in a GALE team shirt leans across a table and kisses the rim of a large silver trophy bowl held by a young woman, with a packed grandstand crowd, a police officer and a naval officer behind them.
An unlimited hydroplane alongside a dock with crew standing on its deck, the word Roostertail lettered in script across the flank of the hull.
Bill Cantrell, Joe and Millie Schoenith at the White House with President Dwight Eisenhower, who holds the President's Cup.
Bill Cantrell with Joe and Millie Schoenith at the White House, where President Dwight Eisenhower presented the President's Cup.

Now I know it is official.

Joe Schoenith, carrying the Gold Cup onto the plane home, 1955

IIITHE BUILDING

1958

Built where his boats raced

Joe Schoenith hired architect Edward M. Newman in 1957. Newman's site plan is dated that September. The Roostertail script is already inked on it, months before there was a building. Schoenith set the club on the turn of the river where his own boats raced.

The doors opened in 1958. Thousands came in the first few weeks. It has been in the family ever since.

Schoenith family collection

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Joe and Millie Schoenith seated side by side in evening dress, she in a pale fur holding a bundle of roses, both smiling.
Charcoal presentation rendering of the proposed Roostertail at night, spotlit, showing a peaked glass gable above stepped glass wings on a stone base.

IVTHE SUPPER CLUB

1959

Six courses and an orchestra

Dinner ran five thirty to nine thirty. Six courses from $3.75. A businessmen's lunch from $1.50. No cover, no minimum. Coat and tie.

You called VAlley 3-2000 for a table, danced to the Joe Banket Trio in the Admirals Club, and watched the marina through the glass. Mondays brought a fashion show. The lobby board advertised outboard motors, too.

Schoenith family collection

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Three guests in evening clothes stand in a wood-paneled lobby reading a framed black letter board that lists the night's orchestra, a Monday fashion show, and outboards available in the marina.

The Roostertail proudly presents Claude Thornhill and his Orchestra, with vocals by Judy Carey.

The lobby board, about 1959
The Roostertail's main room at night, every table taken under warm ceiling light, a band playing at the far end against a wall of deep blue windows.

VMOTOWN MONDAYS

1966

Seven Mondays that opened the room

In 1965 the twins, Tom and Jerry Schoenith, built the Upper Deck. A year later they booked seven straight Mondays of Motown into it, opening with the Four Tops on August 22, 1966, and closing with the Temptations. Every set was taped and played back on WKNR the following Saturday night.

They mixed the room on purpose, by race and by age. The family was threatened for it. All seven Mondays ran.

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Smokey Robinson with his arm around a younger man in a pinstriped suit and tie, both smiling at the camera, night windows behind them.

We had threats against our family, we had FBI watching our house…because we [booked] the Supremes.

Tom Schoenith, WDET 101.9 FM, 2016

VILIVE FROM THE ROOSTERTAIL

1966

The night became the record

For a few years the tape here was always running. Motown taped seven Monday nights on the Upper Deck in 1966, then put each one back on Detroit radio the following Saturday. That run produced Four Tops Live! and Temptations Live! In November RCA Victor sent George Carlin in for three more.

Television crews worked the terrace by the water. Radio went out live from the floor. Nothing here stayed in the room.

Schoenith family collection

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A television crew and a group of young people gathered on the lawn at the river's edge, an ABC camera behind them and a woman holding up a chalked production slate.
Edsel Ford II, sixteen years old, hands raised at a striped terrace table beneath an ABC television camera on the riverfront.
Edsel Ford II, sixteen years old, at a terrace table under the ABC camera.
A group of young people posed shoulder to shoulder on the lawn, a large network mobile television unit parked on the drive behind them.
A wide view of the riverside terrace during a shoot, a television camera trained on a couple seated at a single table with the river and far shore behind them.

Recorded live at Roostertail, Detroit, Michigan.

Cover of George Carlin's Take-Offs and Put-Ons, RCA Victor, 1967

VIITHE NIGHTS THAT WERE OURS

1968

Most nights belonged to somebody's family

Past the marquee names, the calendar filled with something quieter. Weddings, proms, charity nights, the parties in between. More than seventy weddings a year.

In 2018 the family invited back every couple ever married here. About two hundred came. One family was recognized for four weddings of its own. Tom and Diane Schoenith were married here in 1968. That night, fifty years on, they danced on their own floor for the first time.

Schoenith family collection

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Gordie Howe in a dark suit pours champagne for a bride in a veil and her groom at their table, river light in the windows behind them.
Gordie Howe pours champagne for a bride and groom, river light behind them.
Marie Fisher, in the foreground, at a long banquet table of young guests turning toward the camera over dinner.
Marie Fisher, foreground, at a long table of young guests.
Three guests in midcentury evening dress lift tall glasses trimmed with orchid sprays, one woman wearing a corsage at her waist.

One couple brought the bar bill from their wedding: $7.50. That's something you remember.

Tom Schoenith, 2018

VIIIAND STILL

1958

The year they celebrated five

This is what the fifth anniversary looked like. 1963. Nobody printing it knew whether there would be a tenth. There was. Same river. Same room. Same family since 1958, and a grandson runs it now. Nothing about that was guaranteed. The room still fills. The night still ends. People still take it with them.

Schoenith family collection

Seafoam green duotone magazine cover showing a hydroplane at speed on the water, headlined Gold Cup Issue and dated June-July 1963, with a line across the bottom celebrating the Roostertail's fifth anniversary.

Gold Cup issue. Celebrating the Roostertail's fifth anniversary.

RoosterTales, June 1963

The long version

Every chapter above has a full article behind it, with the dates, the sources and the photographs that would not fit.

  1. THE NAME · 1957Why it is called the Roostertail: the spray behind a racing hydroplane5 min read
  2. THE BOATS · 1955Gale Enterprises hydroplane racing: the team behind the Roostertail6 min read
  3. THE BUILDING · 1958Roostertail Detroit history begins with a blueprint dated September 15, 19576 min read
  4. THE SUPPER CLUB · 1959Inside the Roostertail Detroit supper club, 1958 to 19796 min read
  5. MOTOWN MONDAYS · 1966Motown Mondays at the Roostertail: seven nights in 19667 min read
  6. ON THE RECORD · 1966The albums recorded at the Roostertail, 1966 to 19706 min read
  7. ON THE BILL · 1966Who has performed at the Roostertail Detroit: 20 acts we can document7 min read
  8. THE NIGHTS THAT WERE OURS · 1968The Roostertail Detroit wedding history nobody put on the marquee5 min read

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