Delmonte Theater

dallasmovietheaters on November 6, 2024 at 7:47 pm

One of the spectacular failures in St. Louis move theater history was the Delmonte Theater which was part of the Delmonte Way project that included space for 29 diminutive boutique stores opposite the large, six-story 83-suite hotel complex housing its theater and a never-built but proposed, adjoining 4,000 seat airdome. Months prior to the Delmonte’s debut, the building owner and theater operator, Famous Players Lasky - Missouri Corporation, were in court over lease transferrals. It was an ominous beginning.

The theater moved toward its September 4, 1920 launch with “Humoresque” on the big screen which included an opening address by Mayor Kiel. A bizarre race involving 1,500 war-trained homing pigeons included the names of 1,500 children who hoped their bird would win the contest. Once in the theater, the Adam Style architecture of E. Price Porter featured an impossibly large and long, one-floor theater. It was going to be the crown jewel for Famous Players Lasky Missouri. The Delmonte was billed, as noted above, as “The Largest One-Floor Theatre in the World.“ The $600,000 project launched in 1920 and looked like a winner just based on seat count, alone.

FPL-Missouri had hoped to draw 7,000 patrons to a single film when the airdome launched. But three lawsuits later, including disappointing reviews due to very poor sight lines, stifling ventilation, ticket pricing woes, and a wide array of other issues mired the theater in its six plus years of dreary operation. And keep in mind that these failures were before the onset of the Great Depression. The $36,000 annual lease would be terminated as Famous Players and building owner, Frederick L. Cornwell, parted ways on poor terms. William Goldman took on the venue with a grand reopening on September 1, 1922 showing “Slim Shoulders.”

The biggest moment for the Delmonte was signing Famous Players Lasky star Rodolph Valentino to a six-day contract for a major personal appearance schedule at the Delmonte. But even that came with a dark cloud. Famous Players Lasky filed an injunction barring the six-day appearance and forced the operator to appear in an appellate court allowing Valentino to appear on stage to explain the imbroglio in December of 1922. Embarrassing. Then after the Delmonte prevailed, Mr. and Mrs. Valentino hit the six-day appearance on the stage in February of 1923. Larger crowds meant that more people could see the deficiencies of design at the venue. The theater was soon reduced in stature thereafter to a second-tier house with live vaudeville before reducing prices. In Fall of 1923, Goldman had nothing to say about the theater’s operation likely rejecting a second year of leasing liability.

Failing to get the airdome off the ground, the theater next had to address the massive issue with ventilation problems. The third owner was none other than Frederick L. Cornwell, himself - who had lowered seat count to 2,688, installed a cooling system in late July of 1924 trying to save the summer season. Like the previous operator, Cornwell was soon in court over the box office splits with Fox Films while dealing with small audience sizes. Cornwell had reportedly bought a year’s worth of films to get pricing down for patrons. That plan went south when patrons didn’t appear. Singer Eva Tanguay reported that she was guaranteed $2,000 for her appearance at the Delmonte. She received just $300 and the owner bolted the doors and didn’t reopen. So, bottom line, the Delmonte was in search of yet another operator. And Cornwell was in court with an antitrust allegation against Famous Players Lasky-Missouri as the gloves were off.

Fourth operator Samuel G. Hoffman came with optimism circa 1927 and had made the decision to reduce seat count to 1,588 in hopes of finding better sight lines. Hoffman held the last of several grand openings at the failed Delmonte launching January 21, 1927 with “Lone Wolf Returns.” Just two weeks later, the theater closed permanently with “Stepping Out” on February 6, 1927. Hoffman stepped out with a sizable loss just on the remodeling to say nothing of the broken lease. And, yes, Hoffman was the third straight operator to appear in court - this time suing the building owner about lack of heat. The lack of heat delivery was likely due to the failure of the hotel which was a massive misfire and likely had the operator a bit stingy on utilities. The Delmonte was a dud and there was no chance of thinking about wiring the cavernous theater auditorium space for sound films. The Delmar Hotel, meanwhile, had turned from a new facility targeting the upper crust and socialites to a low-cost daily… weekly… monthly… anything - second or third tier operation.

The theater space was retrofitted as “Club Diablo,” a mis-timed roarin' 20s, major night club and dance hall. And, yes, they marketed as the “Largest ground floor entertainment restaurant in St. Louis.” The theater’s pipe organ was left in place to help provide nightclub music. Seemingly, it was a mismatch but this - at least - reduced the potential cost of the organ’s removal. Club Diablo opened with high hopes on December 29, 1929. And you probably know what happened… They ended up in two courtrooms - criminal and civil. Unpaid employee wages, receipts being seized, and - finally - a major behind the scenes brawl between management and stiffed employees led to one employee being shot and the operator going on the lam. The venue was closed officially within one year’s operation.

Another operator tried again in the space relabeling it as “The Rendez-Vous” beginning on January 1, 1931 - middle class operation - and lasting long enough for a single rendez-vous. A month later, the entirety of the venue was stripped of all tables and someone must have said, “This would make a great skating rink.” You probably know how that ended. In court! During the skating rink’s short operational cycle, the foreclosure process took place in Circuit Court and the default dollars were fairly head-spinning for the times. The hotel had converted into low-cost furnished apartments, in part, due to the onset of the Depression; the Delmonte Hotel Apartments facility was said to be 75 percent vacant.

The entire Delmonte operation (not including Delmonte Way’s 29 boutique shops) was sold at foreclosure for just $75,000. An ad in February of 1932 offered all of the contents of the former hotel / apartment building as the buyer likely was trying to recoup anything from their investment. The former theater / roller rink space became home to Tom Burke’s Frolics Night Club, a lower class affair that opened on Halloween 1931 and closed desperately shy of patrons just three months later after New Year’s Day. And, yes, it had a criminal court appearance associated with its operation. So that’s the Delmonte Theater and its progeny - not a winning proposition.

JAlex on May 16, 2006 at 2:40 pm

Architect of the Delmonte was E. Price Porter.

Claiming to be “The Largest One-Floor Theatre in the World” the Delmonte opened in September, 1920 with 2800 seats. Under the management of Famous Players-Missouri (Paramount) the opening film was “Humoresque”. In the audience opening night was Fannie Hurst, author of the book on which the film was based.

Perhaps the theatre’s one claim to fame was the appearance of Valentino on stage in 1923 with the theatre swamped by flappers
tieing up traffic on Delmar.

Paramount had dropped management late in 1921, and theatre had various operators before finally closing as a movie house in February 1927. After this, theatre was converted to a night club in 1929; then to a bowling alley in 1938.

Located at 5634 Delmar, seating capacity was reduced to 1588 by the time of closure. (Capacity once claimed to be 3700 in fact.) Theatre was behind a six-story apartment building. Theatre structure has been demolished, the apartment building remains.