The last time I saw the McLean (maybe 2003 or so), all of the “fancy” seen on the ‘43 postcard was gone—marquee, Vitrolite, neon, etc.—and it was barely recognizable as a former movie theater. The interior was stripped down to the outer walls, and there were gaping holes in the roof. This one’s finished.
A little clarification regarding the theater-to-antique-mall-to-theater conversion:
The antique mall actually took up the entire first floor—lobby, auditorium, and all. The Globe project was a very invasive gut rehab, and ironically the interior looked more like a golden-age movie theater when it was an antique mall than it does now! The Globe is a completely modern triplex, complete with a new elevator and a coffee shop upstairs. The Globe may well have only a third of the seating total in its three smallish rooms as the Bond did as a single-screener, but it’s like comparing apples and oranges.
Kerasotes, to their credit, kept all the neon functioning beautifully until the very end. The final movie was “Forces of Nature” starring Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock.
Thanks for bringing that up, JAlex. I read recently that Komm opened the Will Rogers (in an existing building remodeled by the Boller firm) to head off competition from other exhibitors: Another company would be less likely to move into Collinsville if Komm had two theaters downtown instead of just one! At this time, the Will Rogers building is for sale. The most distinctive remainder from the Boller design is a pair of very 1930s staircases leading to the balcony.
When the Capitol’s lobby—with no serious remodeling; how cool!—was being used as a record store, the auditorium was used for storage. During the restoration of the Opera House building, the auditorium was demolished—but the building still looks the same from the front.
PharMor simply remodeled the old Varsity Theater; they didn’t replace the building—though they might as well have. I worked at Vintage Vinyl for a while and always wished that the drugstore had never intervened; the record store would have had a much cooler vibe if it had been converted directly from movie-theater use. PharMor totally gutted the place.
Long after the Roxy had showed its last movie, it was slated to be converted into a church-sponsored coffeehouse for the local youth. Some of the neighbors feared that this business would attract hippies, bikers, and (gasp!) African-Americans to the block, and the plan was trashed. The theater’s owner, who had been looking forward to collecting some rent on the place for the first time in ages, was so frustrated by this irrational grassroots uprising that he fired up the projector and reopened the theater VERY briefly as a porno house, just to show the naysayers how foolish they’d been to protest something as innocuous as a Christian coffeehouse!
The following is certainly “fuzzy” information, but it’s the kind of thing that often jogs people’s memories and brings certifiable facts out of the woodwork, so here goes. The old Arcade Lanes bowling alley on Olive Street in University City, MO had a “party room” that contained at least two rows of old wooden theater seats, and I asked the owner of the Arcade where they had come from. He said they were from an old theater on Grand that had been “near the Fox” and was torn down in the ‘40s or '50s. The “Grand Central” name didn’t ring a bell with him, but it’s the only theater that fits the description. I was hoping to acquire some of these seats—or at least direct them to a good home such as the City Museum—when and if the Arcade closed, but unfortunately the bowling alley and (presumably) the theater seats were destroyed by fire a couple of years later.
While there was some talk of turning the Criterion into an African-American history museum—even after a whole corner of the auditorium crumbled—the project was abandoned and the theater was demolished. The Criterion’s vertical sign, with its streamlined lettering, was one of the most beautiful in town.
I’ve seen the “Boller Brothers site” Chuck refers to—it was years ago and I don’t have the URL—but I may be able to clear a few things up. The site listed the town, the cinema and the date for a lot of Boller projects, and in many cases the date listed for a particular theater was long after the theater had opened. This suggests that the Boller firm was simply doing a remodel job on an existing cinema. In the Granada’s case, it’s entirely possible that while Rupert was the original architect, the Bollers made later contributions.
The Ritz was left unlocked shortly before demolition, and I couldn’t resist taking a flashlight in and looking around. The seats and screen had been pretty well worked over by vandals. While one of the restrooms was wrecked, the other had apparently been kept viable by workmen doing pre-demolition salvage—it was in decent shape, stocked with paper towels and soap. In the balcony I found a homemade Superman costume neatly folded up inside a plastic bag.
A while after the Ritz was knocked down, I looked up the Rolla newspaper from the demolition date. While there were several photos and a detailed history on the adjacent car dealership that was also demolished, no mention was made of the Ritz.
The flooring store still has a few theater seats and a ticket machine on display in what was the theater lobby. And yes, it was in business long past 1970.
The Northland Cinema has been demolished. The whole shopping center, in fact, was recently leveled and replaced with a modern strip center anchored by a Target store.
The last time I saw the McLean (maybe 2003 or so), all of the “fancy” seen on the ‘43 postcard was gone—marquee, Vitrolite, neon, etc.—and it was barely recognizable as a former movie theater. The interior was stripped down to the outer walls, and there were gaping holes in the roof. This one’s finished.
A little clarification regarding the theater-to-antique-mall-to-theater conversion:
The antique mall actually took up the entire first floor—lobby, auditorium, and all. The Globe project was a very invasive gut rehab, and ironically the interior looked more like a golden-age movie theater when it was an antique mall than it does now! The Globe is a completely modern triplex, complete with a new elevator and a coffee shop upstairs. The Globe may well have only a third of the seating total in its three smallish rooms as the Bond did as a single-screener, but it’s like comparing apples and oranges.
Kerasotes, to their credit, kept all the neon functioning beautifully until the very end. The final movie was “Forces of Nature” starring Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock.
Thanks for bringing that up, JAlex. I read recently that Komm opened the Will Rogers (in an existing building remodeled by the Boller firm) to head off competition from other exhibitors: Another company would be less likely to move into Collinsville if Komm had two theaters downtown instead of just one! At this time, the Will Rogers building is for sale. The most distinctive remainder from the Boller design is a pair of very 1930s staircases leading to the balcony.
I don’t know which production company (or companies) is involved, but I do occasionally see coming-events posters at the Miners.
When the Capitol’s lobby—with no serious remodeling; how cool!—was being used as a record store, the auditorium was used for storage. During the restoration of the Opera House building, the auditorium was demolished—but the building still looks the same from the front.
PharMor simply remodeled the old Varsity Theater; they didn’t replace the building—though they might as well have. I worked at Vintage Vinyl for a while and always wished that the drugstore had never intervened; the record store would have had a much cooler vibe if it had been converted directly from movie-theater use. PharMor totally gutted the place.
Long after the Roxy had showed its last movie, it was slated to be converted into a church-sponsored coffeehouse for the local youth. Some of the neighbors feared that this business would attract hippies, bikers, and (gasp!) African-Americans to the block, and the plan was trashed. The theater’s owner, who had been looking forward to collecting some rent on the place for the first time in ages, was so frustrated by this irrational grassroots uprising that he fired up the projector and reopened the theater VERY briefly as a porno house, just to show the naysayers how foolish they’d been to protest something as innocuous as a Christian coffeehouse!
The following is certainly “fuzzy” information, but it’s the kind of thing that often jogs people’s memories and brings certifiable facts out of the woodwork, so here goes. The old Arcade Lanes bowling alley on Olive Street in University City, MO had a “party room” that contained at least two rows of old wooden theater seats, and I asked the owner of the Arcade where they had come from. He said they were from an old theater on Grand that had been “near the Fox” and was torn down in the ‘40s or '50s. The “Grand Central” name didn’t ring a bell with him, but it’s the only theater that fits the description. I was hoping to acquire some of these seats—or at least direct them to a good home such as the City Museum—when and if the Arcade closed, but unfortunately the bowling alley and (presumably) the theater seats were destroyed by fire a couple of years later.
While there was some talk of turning the Criterion into an African-American history museum—even after a whole corner of the auditorium crumbled—the project was abandoned and the theater was demolished. The Criterion’s vertical sign, with its streamlined lettering, was one of the most beautiful in town.
I’ve seen the “Boller Brothers site” Chuck refers to—it was years ago and I don’t have the URL—but I may be able to clear a few things up. The site listed the town, the cinema and the date for a lot of Boller projects, and in many cases the date listed for a particular theater was long after the theater had opened. This suggests that the Boller firm was simply doing a remodel job on an existing cinema. In the Granada’s case, it’s entirely possible that while Rupert was the original architect, the Bollers made later contributions.
The Ritz was left unlocked shortly before demolition, and I couldn’t resist taking a flashlight in and looking around. The seats and screen had been pretty well worked over by vandals. While one of the restrooms was wrecked, the other had apparently been kept viable by workmen doing pre-demolition salvage—it was in decent shape, stocked with paper towels and soap. In the balcony I found a homemade Superman costume neatly folded up inside a plastic bag.
A while after the Ritz was knocked down, I looked up the Rolla newspaper from the demolition date. While there were several photos and a detailed history on the adjacent car dealership that was also demolished, no mention was made of the Ritz.
The flooring store still has a few theater seats and a ticket machine on display in what was the theater lobby. And yes, it was in business long past 1970.
The Northland Cinema has been demolished. The whole shopping center, in fact, was recently leveled and replaced with a modern strip center anchored by a Target store.
The State has finally been demolished; at this time the lot remains vacant.