Apollo Art Theatre
323-29 De Baliviere Avenue,
St. Louis,
MO
63112
323-29 De Baliviere Avenue,
St. Louis,
MO
63112
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August 19th, 1936 grand opening ad in photo section.
When theatre opened, and until 1955, the Apollo was a typical neighborhood theatre with double-bills of subsequent run films.
(The description above leads one to think it was an art house from opening.) During these years it was an operation of Joe Litvig with Fred Wehrenberg taking a partial financial interest and, for a few years, doing the booking.
Grace Piccione took over the theatre in 1955 and occasionally dabbled in art films until 1957 when the theatre became a full-time art house and became the APOLLO ART.
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.