Armo Skydome

I still have the picture of the front of the ARMO Skydome. If someone smarter than I can scan the picture and replace the one above, I will send them a copy. You can email me at

Joe

My grandparents owned the Armo. They lived next to the Wehrenbergs at Lindbergh and Lincoln. My grandfather, Carl Holtzmann passed away in 1941. My grandmother ran it for a few years, before selling it. The family would love to have a copy of a photo, if anyone has one. I was unable to contact usscamp who said that he had one. Any help or additional info would be greatly appreciated.

I lived down on Alfred Ave. and attended the ARMO. I remember the price as 10 cents, and if you gave them 6 RC bottle caps, you got a ticket for a free cup of RC Cola. The floor was pea gravel and I believe the seats were wood individual fold down type. Just before the movie started, an usher would walk up on stage and pull back large panels on both sides of the screen which protected the speakers from the weather. The building right next to the north was a bakery with an upstairs apartment. I remember that everytime I was at the ARMO, the woman who lived upstairs was out on her back porch sitting in a lawn chair watching the movie for free.The Cook
market building has been redone and is like a small strip mall and extends all the way over to what used to be Becktolds market, the bakery is gone. The last movie I saw there was “The Creature from
the Black Lagoon”. I was 6 years old, it scared me half to death.
It was on one of the movie channels last year when I was surfin
around, so i watched a few minutes, this time I almost laughed
myself half to death.

If you guyshaven’t been down on Morgenford lately, it’s coming back to life with restaurants, grocery stores, furniture stores and other shops, and the neighbor hood is generally coming back slowly, the homes being rehabbed,etc.

Mike46

D.Snow, the article that you mentioned appeared int he St. Louis Post Dispatch on June 7, 1936. The theatre was supposed to be a 1000 seat indoor theatre as a joint venture with the Wehrenberg Theatres and Louis Ansell.

Hi,
I used to live at 4027 Conneticut in the 60’s. Born and raised in Soulard, 815 Geyer and before that 2002 A S. Broadway.
Jim

Joe,
You could send it as an attachment to an email to me

Thanks usscamp. An airdome would have similar problems to a drive-in. You need to wait for darkness to start the movie and weather is another factor. At least in a drive-in, if it starts to rain, your inside your car. An airdome theater would be one of the few theaters where you could wear a raincoat and not be considered a pervert. :)

Yes, it was a permanent outdoor screen similar to a drive-in.
However it was about half the size. That also was a way we would sneak in from behind the screen. The back of the skydome or behind the screen was an alley that ran from Wyoming to Connecticut.
On the corner of Connecticut and Morganford was O'Neals drug and soda fountain. …..Joe

I grew up in the Morganford & Humphrey area in the 40’s & 50’s.
I went to the armo show many times. I remember the wooden slat seats sat on pea gravel. It seated about 200 or more. I recall a childs admission was 15 cents. Sometimes you could get in for 6 Royal Crown bottle caps. The movies changed once a weel on Friday. If we didn’t have the 15 cents, my freinds and I would climb over the side wall.
Another trick was to tell the manager that I had to get my brother to take him home, once inside I would hide from the manager. Sometimes I think he knew the trick and just let me stay.
I have a photo of the front of the Armo Skydome.
I can name just about every store from Fyler to Arsenal, I loved that neighborhood. Someone told me Armo was short for Arsenal Morganford? If you have any memories, let me know…..Joe

Yes, the old Cooks store sits on the site.
JamesGrebe