Bremen Theater

My grandmother owned the Bremen. My mom, sister, and I lived with her, and I remember going there with my sister as kids in the 60’s. We weren’t allowed to mingle with the public as we were both under the age of 10, so we sat in the balcony, which at that time was closed to the public. Sometimes the projectionist’s kids were there, too. I remember the projectionist would let us come into the booth and rewind the film reels by hand. He’d also let us peek through the little windows for the projector and watch the movie from there. We weren’t allowed to use the public restroom either, so we had to walk all the way down the aisle to the door to the left of the screen and use the bathroom back there. I always thought it was so spooky back there I usually asked my sister to go with me, even though I’m the elder! I also remember how the screen had been slashed at some point, I think in the lower right corner, two parallel horizontal cuts maybe twelve to twenty-four inches long, about two to three inches apart, with a short vertical cut that connected the two, I think towards the left end of the slashes. North St. Louis was already a pretty dangerous place, even almost 50 years ago. Good thinking on Grandma’s part to keep us away from that! On Monday mornings we’d ride down to the “picture show” as she always called it, to pick up the weekend’s receipts and deposit them in the bank. She’d always let us pick a candy bar from the case and sometimes a soda from the machine. It was the type where you put your cup under the nozzle and push the button to choose your flavor; you could press multiple buttons and mix the flavors – cherry/orange/Coke is yummy stuff for a nine year old, lol! I was sad when she sold the show, but she was already well into her seventies by then, and selling the theater allowed her to pay off her house. Long afterward there were still reminders of the old place; we had the usher’s broom and long-handled dustpan, the ticket-taker’s chair from the ticket booth, at least a gallon sized can of Popsit Plus popcorn oil, and she must have had several dozen pads of theater schedules which we used as note paper for grocery lists, etc., for the next ten years.

Patrickgenna, as a Northsider I was raised in that area, and don’t have too much of a problem whenever I’m in “the hood”. I do keep my wits about me I’ll admit, lol. For those unfamiliar with that area, caution is the keyword. Next time I go up that way, I’ll grab some newer pics of what’s going on…

A group called Sun Ministries has launched the Isaiah 61 Initiative, with plans furnished by Architects for Humanity. They have had youth groups come in and clean debris out of The Bremen,the next step is some deconstruction and rehabbing. Google it for more info and pictures….

The “North Side city park” referred to is Hyde Park. I have a picture somewhere depicting the theater in the 1940’s that I got from somewhere…I’ll try to add it to this page next time I stop by.

O.T. Crawford is the same man that made the ‘Gayety Theatre" from the moved out 1st Presbyterian Church at Loust and 14th street, now a parking lot.lding to now put on vaudeville acts. BertLahr appeared there.
JamesGrebe