In response to Chris Utley please e-mail me at with an e-mail address and I can send you some pics of Creve Coeur interior. Most of the shots will have former staff but I have a ton of pics from the 3 years that I worked there. I do have one shot from the final night showing the screen in House 1 will all of the staff standing on the wall infront of it.
While I worked for the Wehrenberg Theatre Creve Coeur I was told that back before Star wars was released our film booker at the time was out on a fishing trip with the Fox rep and he told him that he had a sci-fi film coming up. He didn’t think that this film was going to do anything at all our booker said sure he would take a copy and put it at our Creve Coeur theatre. Little did they know that the film was going to be as big as it was. Luckly at the time Creve Coeur was a single screen that sat over 900 and it sold out almost every show. When they released Phamtom Menace by that time I was working there and the theatre had been remodeled and split into 3 screens we put it in the big theatre that seated 510 we only sold out one night and that was opening night & that was because of me and my big mouth getting on the radio and having the DJ’s annouce that we still had plenty of tickets available. I lost count of how many people told me and my staff that they saw the original there when they were younger.
While I was closing down the Creve Coeur in St. Louis, MO we found some of the original footage there was about 100 frames of it in 70mm format. It was shoved in a box in the basement.
As one of the managers that closed the Shady Oak I was told by the person at the bank that managed the trust, that there are five owners of the building. They all inherited it and they all have to agree on what to do with the property. But that is one of the biggest problems since all of them cannot agree. Some of them would like to sell and some of them want to keep it mostly for the tax write off. Besides the sports bar that was planning on moving in there were a couple of other people that I personally walked through the building with one was a church group that was thinking of converting it to a church and one of the others was Clayton High School was thinking of converting it to a theatre to do plays. But of course neither of them did. Mostly due to the cost of repairs and upgrades.
During Wehrenberg’s bankruptcy they had no where left to store equipment from the closed theatres. They took one of the auditoriums and put everything in there. Then the theatre became a 13 plex.
The theatre had already closed it’s doors and moved all the equipment and stock out when they found out that the film booker had already prebooked a movie there. Unable to get out of the contract they reopened the doors for that movie. Only bringing in the bare min. Little did they know that the movie that was prebooked would keep them open for another few months. That movie was Titanic.
The last few years that the theatre was open it was being used more for rentals more than anything. They tried a few different formats to bring it back to life including showing old movies from the 40’s & 50’s. Some of the main movies being showng were Indian films. After Shady Oak closed West Port took on The Rocky Horror Picture Show. That was that last movie played.
The orignal theatre was a 1 screen that sat over 900 people. Later it was remodeled and cut into to three auditoriums. The end as Chuck puts it was not when AMC built next door. It was when AMC built a 16 plex a few miles down the road. The doors closed for the final show on September 13, 1999. The AMC 12 opened a few weeks later.
In response to Chris Utley please e-mail me at with an e-mail address and I can send you some pics of Creve Coeur interior. Most of the shots will have former staff but I have a ton of pics from the 3 years that I worked there. I do have one shot from the final night showing the screen in House 1 will all of the staff standing on the wall infront of it.
While I worked for the Wehrenberg Theatre Creve Coeur I was told that back before Star wars was released our film booker at the time was out on a fishing trip with the Fox rep and he told him that he had a sci-fi film coming up. He didn’t think that this film was going to do anything at all our booker said sure he would take a copy and put it at our Creve Coeur theatre. Little did they know that the film was going to be as big as it was. Luckly at the time Creve Coeur was a single screen that sat over 900 and it sold out almost every show. When they released Phamtom Menace by that time I was working there and the theatre had been remodeled and split into 3 screens we put it in the big theatre that seated 510 we only sold out one night and that was opening night & that was because of me and my big mouth getting on the radio and having the DJ’s annouce that we still had plenty of tickets available. I lost count of how many people told me and my staff that they saw the original there when they were younger.
While I was closing down the Creve Coeur in St. Louis, MO we found some of the original footage there was about 100 frames of it in 70mm format. It was shoved in a box in the basement.
As one of the managers that closed the Shady Oak I was told by the person at the bank that managed the trust, that there are five owners of the building. They all inherited it and they all have to agree on what to do with the property. But that is one of the biggest problems since all of them cannot agree. Some of them would like to sell and some of them want to keep it mostly for the tax write off. Besides the sports bar that was planning on moving in there were a couple of other people that I personally walked through the building with one was a church group that was thinking of converting it to a church and one of the others was Clayton High School was thinking of converting it to a theatre to do plays. But of course neither of them did. Mostly due to the cost of repairs and upgrades.
During Wehrenberg’s bankruptcy they had no where left to store equipment from the closed theatres. They took one of the auditoriums and put everything in there. Then the theatre became a 13 plex.
The theatre had already closed it’s doors and moved all the equipment and stock out when they found out that the film booker had already prebooked a movie there. Unable to get out of the contract they reopened the doors for that movie. Only bringing in the bare min. Little did they know that the movie that was prebooked would keep them open for another few months. That movie was Titanic.
The last few years that the theatre was open it was being used more for rentals more than anything. They tried a few different formats to bring it back to life including showing old movies from the 40’s & 50’s. Some of the main movies being showng were Indian films. After Shady Oak closed West Port took on The Rocky Horror Picture Show. That was that last movie played.
The orignal theatre was a 1 screen that sat over 900 people. Later it was remodeled and cut into to three auditoriums. The end as Chuck puts it was not when AMC built next door. It was when AMC built a 16 plex a few miles down the road. The doors closed for the final show on September 13, 1999. The AMC 12 opened a few weeks later.
It has also since been demolished.