The Strand was sold to Peter Piccione of St. Louis in 1968 and renamed The St. Charles Cinema and operated as such for a few years until all the new multplexes popped up. It was then operated as a venue for rock music and called The Factory. In the early seventies Mr. Piccione sold it to the government for conversion.
Grace’s name is spelled Piccione. She owned and operated the theater during the sixties. When the neighborhood and business declined she leased it out for a few years. Some of the operators showed ‘blue movies’ but they didn’t last long. She had a great office upstairs next to the projection room. You could sit at her desk and open some shutters and watch the film. It was one of the few theaters that played ‘art movies’ in St. Louis during those years. Maybe the only one. I think she played ‘Never on a Sunday’ for about a year. A good movie could have ‘legs’ in those days.
The Strand was sold to Peter Piccione of St. Louis in 1968 and renamed The St. Charles Cinema and operated as such for a few years until all the new multplexes popped up. It was then operated as a venue for rock music and called The Factory. In the early seventies Mr. Piccione sold it to the government for conversion.
Grace’s name is spelled Piccione. She owned and operated the theater during the sixties. When the neighborhood and business declined she leased it out for a few years. Some of the operators showed ‘blue movies’ but they didn’t last long. She had a great office upstairs next to the projection room. You could sit at her desk and open some shutters and watch the film. It was one of the few theaters that played ‘art movies’ in St. Louis during those years. Maybe the only one. I think she played ‘Never on a Sunday’ for about a year. A good movie could have ‘legs’ in those days.