Tivoli Theatre
6350 Delmar Boulevard,
St. Louis,
MO
63130
6350 Delmar Boulevard,
St. Louis,
MO
63130
12 people
favorited this theater
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I believe the theatre was purchased by a church and they’re now running church services in the main auditorium. Not sure if they still show films.
Visiting from out of town on spring break, I saw “Fargo” here just after it opened in 1996. It ended up being one of my all-time favorites.
Temporarily closed/temporarily retired the name “Tivoli” on Monday, September 1, 1969, with Sidney Poitier in THE LOST MAN and Richard Widmark in MADIGAN. Re-opened on Monday, September 15, 1969 as the Magic Lantern with a “New British Talent” festival featuring the Peter Collinson films THE PENTHOUSE and UP THE JUNCTION. (St. Louis Globe-Democrat)
May 19, 1995 grand opening ad as a 3-plex also in photo section.
May 10th, 1924 grand opening ad in photo section.
Fire at Stivers Lincoln-Mercury 1956 (University City Public Library photo)just added. Via the Vintage St. Louis Facebook page.
Wow. That is the very first concession booth I ever remember visiting. Amazing find!
Wow! The U-City Cinema! The place where this whole movie loving obsession of mine began some 36 years ago! Wish I could read what was on the marquee! Thanks again, Norman!
My sources are contemporary (meaning 1924) St. Louis newspapers which are available at local libraries.
Hey JAlex- what are your sources for info on the Tivoli? Am writing a report and need solid info.
The one and only time I’ve ever seen “The Sound of Music” on the big screen, it was here! I also remember seeing a double feature of “Alien” & “The Man Who Fell To Earth” with my mom in the early 80’s. She covered my eyes through the majority of “TMWFTE” due to all the nude/love scenes.
This theatre now has REAL-D in one of their auditoriums. They are currently playing Up in that auditorium.
When I went there from around 1980-85, they would have a printed program of all the films to be shown for the next few months. A typical weekend in U City would be: a bite to eat at Gyro’s Greek restaurant, see an oddball film at the Tivoli (for example “The Last Tango In Paris”), walk up to Blueberry Hill and hang out for a while, then down to the Varsity to experience “Rocky Horror” for the umpteenth time (and the Stooges too!) I was just at the Tivoli last week to watch a film I worked on for the 48 Hour Film Project. The Edwards have a great community spirit!
It’s a little bit out of focus, but the Tivoli Theatre looks like a very attractive theatre.
Sequence of names:
1924 – Tivoli
1969 – Magic Lantern
1974 – U-City
1977 – Tivoli.
Some of my earliest memories of going to the movies are at this theatre in the early-mid 1970’s. In those days, the place was known as the U-City Cinema and regularly featured double-feature programming.
The seating may well have been close to 1,400 at one time. You must remember that seats at that time(1924), were narrow by today’s standards and ran from side to side with narrow aisles and precious little room between rows.
In 1923 The Kilgen Organ Co. installed a 2m/6r organ in a single chamber on the right side.It had a 5hp blower and a pressure of 10' wind. The chambers were up in the original part of the front. Behind all the draperies was still the orgianl stuff, though painted black. In a organ crawl through the chamber I found a few remnants of the organ. I was given permission by having a contact with Claudia Mink, a friend of the manager in the 1980’s For a 6 rank organ that blower size was large. Never found out where the organ wound up. Seeing that there were a few parts still in the chambers it was probably trashed and pitched.
JameGrebe
Hi folks, let me point out a few facts from the Tivoli as a member of the staff from 1993-present. The previous remodel was horrible. The Arthurs took the screen off the stage and positioned it approximatey 40 feet toward the rear wall. The screen that was here when I got here was almost exactly the same size of the current screen on our stage. Why did they move it? They wanted to modernize the appearance so they draped the walls in blue fabric and installed a drop ceiling to hide the main duct work. They failed to insulate the old front end of the auditorium though so as the heating system began to fail the building became a big ole damp cave. I was told that prior to the mid 80’s that the auditorium seated 800. Around that time, Landmark installed 500 rocker seats. The entire building was truly in horrible shape when it closed in May of 1994. Every system was, or had failed. Joe Edwards bought and restored the building to what it is today. We now seat around 750 total for the three auditoriums.
I have never been to the Tivoli, or St Louis for that matter, but I take your points.
I have a copy of the theatre guide for St Louis published by the Theatre Historical Society of America for their 1984 Conclave to the city. I quote from that;
Tivoli
Opened: 1924
Seats: 1,900 (Eh?)
Interesting Facts: The theatre is a victim of a horrendous 1960’s remodeling job. The original organ screens and decorative plaster are behind the present screen. The dressing rooms have graffiti from vaudeville actors from the 1920's
Present Status: exhibits art and foreign films
As I said, this was a 1984 record of the Tivoli by THSA.
You will be pleased to know that the Film Daily Yearbook, 1950 had a reduced seating capacity given as 1,313. I know these figures cannot be, and should never be taken as ‘gospel truth’.
Thanks Charles. Just trying to give a perpective on the size of the building, being it had no seating capacity given here, until I posted it.
The Film Daily Yearbook 1941 gives the seating capacity for the Tivoli Theater as 1,440.