Missouri Theatre

626 N. Grand Boulevard,
St. Louis, MO 63103

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Showing 26 - 33 of 33 comments

MarkA
MarkA on October 1, 2004 at 7:47 pm

Mr. Van Bibber is not even remotely correct about the Missouri Rockets. He fails to give credit to the person who formed the troup, Russell Market. The history of the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes begins at the Missouri Theater. Eventually, Markert’s Rockets caught the eye of Samuel L. (Roxy) Rothapfel and they moved to New York City to appear at the Roxy Theater as the Roxyettes, beginning in March 1927.

Russell Markert and Roxyettes were lured away by Roxy when he moved eastward along 50th Street to open the Radio City Muisc Hall on December 27, 1932. In the beginning at the Music Hall, they were known as the Radio City Music Hall Roxyettes. But when Roxy was eventually fired as Director of the Music Hall and the Center (nee RKO Roxy) Theater, the Roxyettes' name was changed to Rockettes in 1934, the name being influenced by the Rockefeller name.

Sources of this information include:

Ben M. Hall, The Best Remaining Seats
Daniel Okrent, Great Fortune
Gail G. Hannah, Radio City Music Hall: A Legend Is Reborn (This is a booklet that was produced by Radio City Entertainment on the restoration of the Music Hall.)

I trust that this information gives correct and factual information about the Missouri Rockets.

melders
melders on May 13, 2004 at 11:08 pm

Thank you to whoever took the photo down!

melders
melders on May 10, 2004 at 11:56 pm

You are right JAlex, Skouras Brothers did not build the St. Louis Theatre. Also, Charles if you read through the comments above, you do not mention that the Rocket Girls became the Rockettes. All you say is that they moved on to the Roxy theater.

JAlex
JAlex on April 24, 2004 at 8:54 am

The Skouras Brothers did NOT build or ever operate the nearby St. Louis Theatre.

melders
melders on April 1, 2004 at 10:58 am

The Missouri Rocket Girls would go on to become the even more famouse Radia City Rockettes.

boots
boots on October 7, 2003 at 12:03 pm

THIS IS INDEED A PHOTO OF THE MISSOURI THEATRE…BUT IT’S THE ONE IN ST. JOSEPH, MISSOURI..NOT ST. LOUIS AS YOU NOW HAVE IT LISTED!

boots
boots on September 14, 2002 at 2:53 pm

JUST AN UPDATE…THIS IS “NOT” THE EXTERIOR OF THE MISSOURI THEATRE IN ST. LOUIS…I SUBMITTED THIS PICTURE AS THE EXTERIOR OF THE MISSOURI THEATRE IN ST. JOSEPH, MO…SO TO ALL FANS OF THIS WEBSITE…PLEASE NOTE THIS CORRECTION! THANK YOU!

MY BEST…WILLIAM HAMILTON

JAlex
JAlex on August 22, 2002 at 8:28 am

St. Louis' Missouri Theatre was designed by the firm of DeRosa & Pereira for Famous Players-Missouri (a subsidiary of Famous Players-Lasky).

Theatre opened November 8, 1920. Seating capacity was approximately 3600.

Theatre was last used in December, 1957.

Theatre was demolished in summer, 1959.

Office building was not “built in its place”, but was built in 1922 fronting Grand Avenue. Theatre auditorium was behind the office building. 1959 demolition was of auditorium only.

Theatre was later operated by the Skouras Bros., RKO, and Fanchon & Marco which evolved into Arthur Enterprises.