When the church moved into the old theater, a bar owner purchased the huge cursive RITZ sign and intended to place it on the facade of his bar on Washington Avenue in nearby St. Louis. This never came to pass, and the Ritz bar went out of business. I wonder where that sign wound up!
The tornado didn’t spell the end of the building. The library remained inside the old La Cosa until the ‘80s or '90s, when a new library was built behind it. Upon completion of its replacement, the La Cosa/library structure was demolished. (So that’s where it was, Chuck; right in front of the site of the present library, just a few feet from the street. I remember it well; it was the library I went to as a kid!)
Bigger multiplexes killed off the smaller theaters, for the most part. The Mark Twain and the Sunset Hills couldn’t compete with the shiny new cinemas at Crestwood Plaza and Ronnie’s Plaza. The AMC 12 was literally built just behind the instantly-doomed Creve Coeur, a Wehrenberg triplex that was the chain’s flagship when built as a single-screener in the ‘60s. I like the older theaters 'cause they had more character, but that’s just the way it goes. :(
I have something to add to JAlex’s post: The Post-Dispatch once reported that the Jerry Lewis chain was planning to build a cinema in the St. Louis suburb of Overland; it was never constructed. The three Jerries that came to fruition in this market were the one on this page, the one that became the Bridgeton/Bridgewood, and one on Bellefontaine Road that survived longer than the others as a link in a small chain (People’s, maybe? My research notes are in storage.)
A little exciting news about the Bonanza: The building is being rehabbed, and the latter-day brick-and-paneling facade of the first floor has been torn out to temporarily reveal part of the old theater’s lobby. The photo linked here shows ancient posters advertising the Garrick Theater, and if you click the “right arrow” key you’ll see three more pictures of the Bonanza as it appears in June 2013!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrensnow/8979694833
The strange name of “S'Renco” came from the theater’s manager, Ruby S. Renco. I wish I had the date of the newspaper I saw it in to back me up, but I’m pretty sure I read that this cinema closed to the public shortly after the projectionist was mugged IN THE PROJECTION BOOTH DURING A MOVIE. Must’ve been a rough neighborhood! The apparent age of the building now on the site, the Barnard Rubber Stamp Company, suggests that it’s the same building that housed the theater.
Anyone interested in doing further research should take into account that Jablonow and Komm are the correct spellings of the names of the families involved in the running of this and many other theaters. (Source: multiple mentions in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and St. Louis Globe-Democrat)
I’ve noticed it too, but I’ve noticed how often Chuck’s descriptions could use a little clarification. I think they’re probably both right, in a way: Many of these theaters were probably independently run before Fanchon (not Franchon) & Marco came into the picture. The City Directories can be trusted, to a point: Sometimes a theater would exist for a couple years or more before making it into the Directory, and sometimes the Directory would continue to list it for a few years after it had gone out of business.
The September 2013 Google Street View shows a crew working on the exterior of the theater!
When the church moved into the old theater, a bar owner purchased the huge cursive RITZ sign and intended to place it on the facade of his bar on Washington Avenue in nearby St. Louis. This never came to pass, and the Ritz bar went out of business. I wonder where that sign wound up!
There’s a bunch of 1999 Illiana photos in this set on FLickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/darrensnow/sets/72157605357779599
The tornado didn’t spell the end of the building. The library remained inside the old La Cosa until the ‘80s or '90s, when a new library was built behind it. Upon completion of its replacement, the La Cosa/library structure was demolished. (So that’s where it was, Chuck; right in front of the site of the present library, just a few feet from the street. I remember it well; it was the library I went to as a kid!)
One of my favorite things about this cinema is that the snack bar is accessible to mall-goers who aren’t theater customers. Extra income…pretty smart.
I’ll bet the architects were actually A.F. and Arthur Stauder, a team of brothers who were pretty active in the area.
Bigger multiplexes killed off the smaller theaters, for the most part. The Mark Twain and the Sunset Hills couldn’t compete with the shiny new cinemas at Crestwood Plaza and Ronnie’s Plaza. The AMC 12 was literally built just behind the instantly-doomed Creve Coeur, a Wehrenberg triplex that was the chain’s flagship when built as a single-screener in the ‘60s. I like the older theaters 'cause they had more character, but that’s just the way it goes. :(
I have something to add to JAlex’s post: The Post-Dispatch once reported that the Jerry Lewis chain was planning to build a cinema in the St. Louis suburb of Overland; it was never constructed. The three Jerries that came to fruition in this market were the one on this page, the one that became the Bridgeton/Bridgewood, and one on Bellefontaine Road that survived longer than the others as a link in a small chain (People’s, maybe? My research notes are in storage.)
A little exciting news about the Bonanza: The building is being rehabbed, and the latter-day brick-and-paneling facade of the first floor has been torn out to temporarily reveal part of the old theater’s lobby. The photo linked here shows ancient posters advertising the Garrick Theater, and if you click the “right arrow” key you’ll see three more pictures of the Bonanza as it appears in June 2013! http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrensnow/8979694833
The strange name of “S'Renco” came from the theater’s manager, Ruby S. Renco. I wish I had the date of the newspaper I saw it in to back me up, but I’m pretty sure I read that this cinema closed to the public shortly after the projectionist was mugged IN THE PROJECTION BOOTH DURING A MOVIE. Must’ve been a rough neighborhood! The apparent age of the building now on the site, the Barnard Rubber Stamp Company, suggests that it’s the same building that housed the theater.
Anyone interested in doing further research should take into account that Jablonow and Komm are the correct spellings of the names of the families involved in the running of this and many other theaters. (Source: multiple mentions in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and St. Louis Globe-Democrat)
The photo above, it should be noted (the one I’m looking at presently has the Fox in the foreground) depicts the American’s Grand Avenue location.
I’ve noticed it too, but I’ve noticed how often Chuck’s descriptions could use a little clarification. I think they’re probably both right, in a way: Many of these theaters were probably independently run before Fanchon (not Franchon) & Marco came into the picture. The City Directories can be trusted, to a point: Sometimes a theater would exist for a couple years or more before making it into the Directory, and sometimes the Directory would continue to list it for a few years after it had gone out of business.