Loew's State Theatre
715 Washington Avenue,
St. Louis,
MO
63101
715 Washington Avenue,
St. Louis,
MO
63101
8 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 27 comments
Meet Me in St. Louis world premiere from November 22nd, 1944 ad also in photo section.
August 21st, 1924 grand opening ad in photo section. It started with a street parade from Union station to the State theatre.
“Meet Me In St. Louis” World Premiere 11/22/44, photo & copy added to Photos Section courtesy of the Vintage St. Louis Facebook page.
Judy Garland starred in the story of the Smith family, who lived at 5135 Kensington Avenue on the eve of the 1904 World’s Fair. The movie includes classic songs such as “The Trolley Song” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” It was nominated for four Academy Awards, including best song for “The Trolley Song.”
Upload of 1935 Marx Brothers showing at State Theater. See photo section.
Stephen, I would also like to extend my prayers and sympathy to you and your family. Although I never met your father in person, I knew of him and our mutual love of movie theaters (especially in St. Louis) from this and other websites we posted on (Cinematour.com, drive-ins.com, etc). As my good friend Chris Utley said, your father had true passion for movies and movie theaters, especially in our hometown of St. Louis. God Bless you during this difficult time.
WOW! So very sorry to hear about your loss. I’ll make no bones about it – your dad and I (and many of us) had our battles here on Cinema Treasures regarding historical accuracy and whatnot. But one thing can’t be denied: his love and passion for cinema and movie theatres – particularly the ones in the great city of St. Louis – was real.
R.I.P. Mr. Van Bibber. May God comfort your family during this time of grief.
Stephen: Your recent post brought tears to my eyes and when I read…“An eternal Aloha to Patsy from dad” I wiped away a tear. I will truly miss my “Hawaii Guy”. God Bless you and your family.
Stephen, I echo the thoughts of TJ on your father’s passing. I have been fascinated with theaters since the late ‘60s, particularly with those in my hometown of St Louis, and your father filled in many of the holes of my research over the years through his comments and pictures. He will be missed.
Stephen, Thank you so much for posting this dedication to your Dad, and I am saddened to hear of “OUR” loss. I feel so fortunate to have had but a glimpse into our shared memories of the relationship between your Dad (as a high school student), working alongside my Mother, at the Loew’s State in St. Louis. Sadly, and selfishly, I hesitated too long to respond to his last email. We were both driven to tears – happy tears, yet grieving tears – of treasured moments. I had often thought of continuing our emails, but just could not bring myself to possibly cause another person’s sadness – if that was the case. Please know that my deepest sympathy is sent with this missive – to you and your brothers – and I will always remember you Dad, for bringing back such warm and heartfelt memories of better days. You, me, and this entire community has been so blessed by the service of your Dad’s “hobby.” May he rest in peace. Mahalo and Aloha. Tom
This is a dedication to our loving father whom was called home by out heavenly father on November 11, 2013.
Our great grandmother managed theatres in St. Louis so theatre was in dad’s blood. Then while in high school he was in the DECCA program his Junior and Senior years and went to school a half day and worked at the Loew’s State in Downtown St. Louis. Dad loved the movie theatres and started researching them early in his life. He was most fond of the Loew’s State. Mr. Bovin was the City Manager for Loew’s in St. Louis. The two built a special bind. Others there were Nick Manzella the manage and John Muich the assistant manager. Dad wanted to be a pilot above all things though. He did his college and then his flight school, met our mother in college. Through pulling some string by people that could dad was able to get a job with TWA. His life was happy, a beautiful career and a wonderful loving wife. They had three children, Stephen Philip, Christopher Charles and Zachary Benjamin. Mon developed cancer while carrying Zachary and passed away three months after Zachary was born. It was very difficult for all three of us boys but it was extremely hard on dad. He had to do local flights so that he could be home with us as much as possible. We must say we had the greatest dad the heavenly father could put on this earth. As we got older dad was able to work international flights. When we were not in school we would make as many trips with him as possible. Dad joined an online site called Cinema Treasures and it worked out great for him. When he had layovers in his destination cities he would research theatres. Dad joined Cinema Treasures not very long after it went live inline. He joined on October 6, 2003 and over the years has contributed more than 5,000 theatres, 14,000 comments and almost 4,000 photos to the site. Dad lived for his sons first, flying second and the theatres were his one and only hobby. He made some special friends on Cinema Treasures, Patsy from down south, Ken from New York,, Randy Carlisle the great photographer from Texas, Don Lewis from the Dallas Fort Worth area (Don is also a airline worker with Southwest) but they all are contributors to Cinema Treasures. There is also Ken Roe from the United Kingdom who was a wonderful friend to dad. Out Mom was born and raised in the UK. Being a pilot dad had his favorites to fly to. His number one spot was Hawaii. That is where mom and dad were buried. They are there is spirit and we well be able to feel that spirit when we go over there. Mom and Dad had their condo new Honolulu on the ocean and he spent the mainland cold months in HI. We have family and friends in St. Louis, Salt Lake City and of course Hawaii so we had to have services at all three places before dad was finally buried. Dad got me started on Cinema Treasure but I don’t know if I will ever be able to fill his shoes. But I will try. Mahalo to all those that have helped me so far, especially Joe Vogel and Ken. Ken I can’t count the times that when we were around dad and he would read your comments and just bust out laughing. You touched his heart in so many way. I know there are many others but those mentioned in this dedication are the one that dad talked about most of the time. His love through my spirit goes out to you all. You are all treasures in so many ways and thru a treasure that your friendships came to fruitation “Cinema Treasures” Mahalo to you all. Dad really fought a tough battle but his body was so weak from the first tumor that he didn’t have the physical strength to beat it this time. I tried to be there for him as much as possible and sometimes I felt like I wasn’t there enough. Being the firstborn there was a special bind between the two of us. I still feel the flow involuntarily when I go through his theatre research, when I see something that was special to him, his photos. Time will help I know. And since we were all sealed together in the Temple I know we will all be together again one day.
Well to all I say Mahalo and Aloha (An eternal Aloha to Patsy from dad)
Stephen Philip Van Bibber, Christopher Charles Van Bibber, Zachary Benjamin Van Bibber
Chuck, First off – thanks for responding, and I have no idea why I wouldn’t know you! It seems that I was always down there, although I was in the Navy in ‘65. Red Velvet Cake! I have her handwritten recipe for that, and treasure it as if it were gold. Rather than clutter up this site with reminiscences, could you email me @ tom(dot)amy(dot)jones(at)gmail(dot)com, please? I remember Candy being sooo ticklish. Spinelli, Berger. Would love to “talk” to you. Thanks.
Chuck1231 – I’ve emailed you before, but have not gotten a response. I’m seeking info as to when those photos were taken. The lady in the ticket booth is my Mom, but it is difficult to guess the age of the photo. Also, the ticket taker is Ed “Candy” Gibbons. I spent many a day, watching movies over and over – many times from the projection booth. What fun! Thanks, Tom
Chuck: Thanks for the nostalgic explanation of “fun days back when”! Aloha
Love the little boy in line to see a movie back then.
Before the theater was torn down much of decorations were removed. A young couple starting up a lighting business bought the chandeliers. One of the chandeliers was sold to Johnny and June Carter Cash and was installed in their entry hall. May have been dining room but I believe it was the entry hall. The couple now own OCL, a lighting business and one of their specialties is accquiring vintage lighting and making reproductIons. I believe they did the lighting for the Peabody Opera house.
Love the old ticket kios! The Warner Theatre/Erie PA still has a kios and it is used!
Great pictures of Loews in the 60s… that’s more or less how I remember it looking in the 70s. And indeed, there was a Katz Drugs to the left at the corner, and the Washington Ave News was next door to the right. They built the “futuristic” (for it’s time) bank building across the street in 1975. Thank gosh for memories and pictures!
Great looking Marquee.Good stories.I can relate to the “SUPERFLY” flicks.
The Chandaliers MAY have been taken out and installed in a LOEWS HOTEL I know that they did that from time to time,about the box office I have no idea.
Does anyone know what happened to the chandaliers and marble box office that were removed from the theatre in 77 when it closed?
Another Loews gone and it was designed by Thomas Lamb! The Akron Civic Theatre in Akron Ohio was a Loews, too.
Great pictures of the LOEWS STATE. Too bad the Vertical sign was gone.Those were the days!!!!!!!
I saw many great Kung-Fu features there in the 70’s, as well as offbeat films like “Bug”. I snuck in to watch “Super Fly” (wasn’t old enough) but they actually let me in to see the only X-rated film they ran…“The Street Fighter” (X-rated due to extreme violence for the time). The last time I was there was shortly before they closed…a Bruce Lee double feature (which they ran several times between 1974-77…always to a packed house and extra days) “Fists Of Fury” and “The Chinese Connection”. This would have been during the second week of June, 1977…I had seen “Star Wars” at the Creve Coeur Cine' earlier in the day, and stopped by the Loews to watch Bruce again…I didn’t know they would close the place in a couple of months…
Just wondering why Loew’s added “State” to the names of several of their theaters? Why not just Loew’s St. Louis"?
I am wondering why this theatre is listed as an atmospheric with a ceiling of gold leaf and a central chandelier.It does not sound like a true atmospheric,however the theatre may have atmosphere.There are other theatres on the atmospheric list which probably should’t be there,which tends to make it confusing.I am researching and compiling a list of atmospherics and have found about 146 so far,which I suspect has only scratched the surface,as John Eberson probably designed that many himself.
atmos.