The Detroit Eagle

Specific details on the Detroit Eagle's origins are scarce. The Menjos Complex, where the Detroit Eagle is located, has a longer, more detailed history. Menjos, the original bar, was established in the 1970s and became a popular gathering spot for the LGBTQ+ community.[5]

The original location was at 1501 Holden St Detroit, Michigan, now known as the Marble Bar, a live music venue bar that opened in the Fall of 2015 in the space formerly occupied by the Detroit Eagle, which moved in 2010. The Detroit Eagle became a part of this larger Menjos Complex in 2010.[6] Over the years, the venue expanded and evolved, eventually becoming the Menjos Complex, which includes multiple bars, a dance club, and various entertainment spaces.

In the 1970s, Madonna, the iconic pop sensation, made youthful forays into Menjo's in the Palmer Park area.[7] Her presence at this historic establishment has since become a legendary chapter in her early life, and this was likely the first gay bar where the pop icon ever danced.[8][9] According to local legend, Madonna's patronage of the bar took place during the mid- to late 1970s.[10] However, her visits were not without controversy, as she was eventually barred from the establishment.[11] Tim McKee-Zazo, Menjo’s general manager said “Before she went to New York and got famous, this was her hangout.[12] Her period of coming here was the mid- to late ’70s, but then she was barred from coming,” he said, sharing a local legend. “She got kicked out of here for pulling her vagina out. She was a rowdy teenager at the time.”[13] The original disco ball Madonna danced under is still in the possession of Menjo's; "That's the original 1976 disco ball that Madonna used to dance under here at Menjo's. She was 16 years old."[14]

• The Eagle (bar)
• LGBT culture in Detroit