I was able to find these: "a 50 cent show for 5 cents". Anyhow, after spending a solid week of my spare time reading, riding around and looking for photos of the St. Louis theaters, I thought I should share my findings and a summary of the info I pulled from various sources. Here's a list of the 38 theaters with no photo images on Cinema Treasures: Dig a bit deeper and you can find some photos of some of these missing places. Previously, I discussed the four remaining, fully operational, St. Louis cinemas. It's destruction was captured within the "Straightaways" album inset by Son Volt showing the stage on display for the final time amongst the piles of red brick: Album inset photo: Son Volt "Straightaways", 1997 Warner Bros. Records. It's closing is pretty well documented and I will do a separate post on it in the future. Some of this info is crowd-sourced, so it may be more on the subjective or anecdotal side and there are some cases of slightly inaccurate details. It is slated for a renovation into a catering and events company called Wild Carrot per a nextSTL story from May, 2016. This is not a St. Louis-only problem: the other three Midwestern cities I scanned (Kansas City, Memphis and Cincinnati) have lost most of their theaters too. For the latter, there is a fantastic source: This online catalog of movie theaters past and present has some incredible photos and snippets of information. The dark horse method, usually the most fun and personable, you can read from or listen to first hand accounts from people who were there or who devoted their time to research and share it with the public. Go check them out, many are already gone or on their way to the landfills and brick/scrap thieves. At 411 North 7th Street was a Downtown treasure.
These chance connections are one the things that makes St. Louis such a charming place to live. Then by World War II it had become an adult movie house. And the point of this post is to share a list and as many photos of the St. Louis theaters of the past that I could find. This guy obviously has a ton of experience and first hand knowledge of the city's theaters. The Princess was at 2841 Pestalozzi and is still there although bastardized with a fairly heavy hand: theater as a church. The Lafayette was at 1643 South Jefferson (the building in white); this is now a Sav-A-Lot: The Lindell was at 3521 North Grand: The Loew's Mid City was at 416 N. Grand: The Martin Cinerama was at 4218 Lindell and was pretty mod, with a curved screen and plenty of mid-century charm: The Melvin was at 2912 Chippewa and is still there to see: The Michigan was at 7226 Michigan and was freaking ~1999 when it was razed: The Missouri was at 626 N. Grand (currently being renovated, yay! Lord knows I did, for almost a week straight.
Show Place Icon Theatres Contact Information. It is a strength of ours and the buildings themselves were built to be an extension of that artistic expression, a gift to the neighborhood or city in which they resided. Busch II lasted for a mere 40 years but its wake of destruction was intense and we're left rking lots. Photos are surprisingly very hard to find. I've shown the most grand losses, but there are many, many others worth noting. The Stadium Cinema II was at 614 Chestnut and was once converted to Mike Shannon's restaurant: The Sun was at 3627 Grandel Square and was lovingly restored and in use by a public charter school Grand Center Arts Academy: The Thunderbird Drive-In was at 3501 Hamilton (I'm dying to find better photos of this one): The Towne (formerly Rivoli) was at 210 N. 6th Street and was a well known adult film spot: Union Station Ten Cine was at 900 Union Station on the south side of the property. Movie Theaters / Cinemas Near Me. The Mikado was renamed the Victory theater in February, 1942. The newly modernized Mikado added a permanent marquee projecting over the entrance. I've lived here for ~21 years and many of my favorite metal signs have vanished. Louis' on Cinema Treasures, it counts 160 theaters, of those 132 are actually in St. Louis (many are in the 90 or so cities in St. Louis County and unincorporated parts of the suburbs that will not be discussed here). Will need to verify this.
Now that a selection has been made, an Indiegogo campaign has launched. It was razed in 1954. Fire regulations, wider seats, and aisles reduced seating capacity to 1103. I was at a local tavern and started spieling about my new-found obsession with local theaters, and the conversation spread to the table behind me where sat someone who just happens to be an urban explorer with tenfold my experience. Movie theaters and cinema in general are one of the greatest things 20th Century American's gave the world. Then (image via Cinema Treasures). It was most recently Salamah's Market and was purchased from the local community development corporation. Too bad we lost so many of these places.
But for a central repository for vintage photos of the cinemas, you can't beat Cinema Treasures. Mercantile Bank got the demo the fools in charge of the city let it happen. I tried to connect with him to get his story and understand how he has so much information and experience with St. Louis theaters. For instance, I was interested in the King Bee (great name), Tower and Chippewa Theater at 3897 Broadway which supposedly became the home of an appliance store owned by locale pitchman-legend Steve Mizerany. Most of the entries of St. Louis theaters were written by one Charles Van Bibber. All photos were sourced from the Cinema Treasures website. In my humble opinion the biggest losses were the Ambassador, Congress, Granada, Grand, and Loew's all victims of either urban renewal or neglect. Following are those others that we have lost entirely or are still there, waiting for someone with the means to save them.
Of those 132, 38 have no photos available so there is no current photographic evidence readily available online. Maffitt: 2812 Vandeventer, 63107. St. Louis was built to be amazing and special and boomed when America its bust years were devastating as ~0. Photo sourced from: "DJ Denim" on Flikr. Some were massive losses to Mother Nature, Urban Renewal, or good old fashioned abandonment and neglect.
All these buildings are gone and photos are not readily available online. When built, the Melba Theatre had a park in front of it. Turns out, this guy has devoted a tremendous amount of time looking into this same topic and just so happens to have a three-ring binder filled with research, photos and info... I have connected with him and hope to revisit that conversation and follow up on this fun topic. This vacuum hit the oldest parts of the city hardest. The Virginia was at 5117 Virginia and is still standing: The West End was at 4819 Delmar: Here's another one right before its demo in 1985: The Whiteway was at 1150 S. 6th Street: The World Playhouse was at 506 St. Charles was known for burlesque: Thanks to Charles Van Bibber for the time and effort you've shared with us for future consideration and pondering. You can take the academic approach and go straight to the library, reading through the documents, papers, maps and corroborated information that may or may not is the time consuming route, the route journalists and other people getting paid should take. The good news is, there are 59 theaters with photos of the the buildings when they were operational or with enough there to verify it. You can read the full proposal text below. The 1, 190-seat house on Grand Avenue had an airdome next to it. The Apache was at 411 N. 7th Street: The Apollo Art was at 323-329 DeBaliviere and was raided several times by the police because they were showing foreign and independent films: The Arco was at 4207-11 Manchester in Forest Park Southeast, now called the Grove: The Armo Skydome was at 3192 Morgan Ford, now a 7-11. The O. T. Crawford chain built the Mikado theater in 1911, the architect was F. A. Duggan. A good example of this eventual demise is the Garrick Theater built in 1904 and eventually razed in 1954. In many cities a theater named Mikado (a dated term for "Emperor of Japan") would be renamed.
The movie would then continue in the cooler outdoors. However, that should not stop you from exploring this amazing site. Here's the current site use: Now (image via Google Street View). How the hell do we continue to allow this kind of thing to happen? Used to host "battle of the bands", just down from the white water tower in the College Hill Neighborhood. And of course, thanks to Cinema Treasures for cataloging these important places.