No longer right up their alley, a bowling landmark closes

It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. But none did. And that, ultimately, spelled the end, after 47 years, for this Columbia Heights bowling alley.

Mady's Bowl and Lounge on Central Avenue, a basement bowling alley that shared a strip mall with a Salvation Army store, seemed straight out of the movie "The Big Lebowski." Except the Dude wasn't there. Walter wasn't there. Sometimes, nobody was there.

"Some of the best bowlers in the Twin Cities once bowled here," founding owner Gene Mady, 78, said last week as he prepared for last Saturday's closing. "But many years ago, I predicted a slowdown because not enough people commit to anything. And with bowling, you gotta do it."

Mady, who cried when he told his leagues that the place was closing, is now committed to a fire sale this Saturday. Everything but the memories must go -- bowling balls, lockers, bar equipment. OK, the conversation piece that hangs behind the counter -- a T-shirt bearing a picture of a bowling ball and the caption, "Grab Your Balls" -- that's not for sale. But does anybody want a slightly oily wooden alley, gutters included?

James Downey, 24, rested his elbows on the counter and looked at the well-worn surroundings. Downey had done maintenance and janitorial worked at Mady's for the last three years.

He says his father, brother and sister worked there. He lives right behind the alley. He literally grew up there.

"My mom was pregnant with me when she bowled in leagues here," Downey said.

The leagues used to congregate every night, inhaling pork tenderloin sandwiches -- the house speciality -- while reasoning with old-fashioned wooden lanes as other alleys turned to synthetics. The place never attracted such celebrities as Joe Mauer, who has been seen bowling at Elsie's on Broadway, a few miles away. And Mady's never got into moonlight bowling and the whole neon light craze.

A neon sign outside might have helped. Even on one of the Twin Cities' busiest streets and most well-traveled corners, you had to know this place to find it. And even then, you might not make it down the 27 steps to this basement bowling alley.

"The good bowlers carry with them two or three balls," Mady said. "Those steps may have been too much for a load like that."

Mady was once a good enough bowler to consider a pro career. He says he went to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to a pro-am tournament and the pros got a whiff of his 200 average and wanted him to join. When he realized he was a pin or two shy of competing at that level, he opted for the next best thing: He'd start his own alley.

The Mady clan was among bowling's elite in Minnesota. Gene's uncle, Ed Mady, was a local bowling legend who later joined the Brunswick advisory staff. Gene's father, Chet, was a state Hall of Famer and with siblings Sylves, Leo, Mike and Rich, they were an imposing team in the early 1950s that could bust up any alley.

Chet and Gene opened Mady's in 1964 and things were bustling for a while. They took leagues to Las Vegas for a weekend each year -- when no other Minnesota alley was doing that.

Then the patrons were replaced by problems. There were two stings -- one in which Mady's staff was caught serving an under-aged drinker, the other targeting under-aged cigarette buyers.

"After I got fined $900, I quit the cigarette business," Gene Mady said.

"But the no smoking, that took a lot of business away," he added, referring to the state law banning smoking in public establishments.

When the smoke cleared, it was obvious that the sparkle of this now-dingy alley was gone. Nearly a half century of gutter balls had taken their toll on the old joint.

"Maybe it hurts that we're in a basement. Maybe the technology left us behind. If you wanted to play laser tag or play an arcade, this wasn't the place. We ain't got no light-up signs. It's just bowling."

Hansen has thrice bowled 299 -- opening with 11 consecutive strikes, just missing that perfect 12-strike, 300 game. Gene Mady also knows what it's like to come oh so close, only to be disappointed.

Six years ago, he felt comfortable giving the business to sons Bret and Bart. Yes, Gene was a die-hard fan of the old "Maverick" TV show, featuring gambling brothers Bret and Bart, but he didn't consider the transfer of the bowling alley a big gamble.

"I retired and bowling took a landslide," Gene said. "Then the economy went. I came out of retirement, but it was too much. Everything I predicted came true."

Now comes the liquidation sale. Maybe someone will want a bowling ball as a piece of art, Mady said.