Cypress Village Theatre
11129 St. Charles Rock Road,
St. Ann,
MO
63074
11129 St. Charles Rock Road,
St. Ann,
MO
63074
4 people
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April 2nd, 1969 grand opening ad in photo section.
Favorite movie memory here was seeing “Black Sunday” in 1977. Great film! One of St. Louis' most impressive 1970’s-era cinemas!
Jalex = You DO know me then…. Rather Curious Alan??? Need to figure out how to find or contact members….. Now I’m curious. LOL
Gelsomina – I worked there that same summer when we had ET & Poltergeist. Who are you, I’m Michael Z., remember Tim Pemberton, Sandy Turner, Angie Rolph, …
Hello to everyone that remembers this theatre. National General built some nice theatres, except they didn’t understand the market and they were obsolete upon opening. Ted Mann started building multiplexes as soon as he took over the company, but efforts to save theatres like this one were always doomed. This was a beautiful theatre with many fond memories, especially the people we were lucky enough to work with and get to know. I met my children’s mother working there.
The strip mall that replaced the theatre includes a Wal-Mart, Aarons (a rent-to-own appliance store) and a bunch of other stores.
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I took a job at Mann’s Cypress Village in May 1982, a week before Poltergeist and two weeks before E.T. opened. It was a crazy summer of constant sell-outs. E.T. played in the larger cinema which held 600+ while Poltergeist was playing in the smaller cinema (memory is that it held somewhere between 250 and 300).
I was there when the cinema transitioned from Mann to Wehrenberg (I’m pretty positive there was no GSS ownership in between). Once the massive success of the Spielberg movies died down there was a series of not-so-successful movies that I recall that screened at Cypress Village including Swamp Thing, Savannah Smiles, Murder by Phone, Diner, Zapped! and Blood-Sucking Freaks, before 48 Hours opened in the winter to good crowds (though nothing like the success of the previous summer).
Cerjda, I think I know who you are (John?)? I was one of the projectionists at the Cypress in the late 70’s. One comment about the “twinning” of this theatre. It was not exactly a 50/50 twinning, more like a 67/33 split. Smart move actually. The larger theatre had the standard two projector setup and the small had a three tier platter. I remember that when attendance in the large theatre’s flick started to fall off, the film was transferred to the small side, which started to sell out then.
It was a very attractive theatre, clean, excellent projection and sound equipment, and good management. Overall one of the best houses I worked in St. Louis.
Went here a ton of times – most notably to see “Splash,” “Supergirl,” and “Breakin 2 – Electric Boogaloo.”
Theatre closed, under Wehrenberg management, in January 1987.
Forgot to put this in.
But JAlex –
If you know Ben Littlefield, tell him I said hello. Tell him I followed him in the Metcalf and then went to the Cypress. He’ll know who it is because Ben managed the Mark Twain when I managed the Cypress Village.
Charles:
I think you may be confusing this theatre with some others; you may have been in it, but I “lived” that theatre for 3 years. I managed there from 1975 thur Jan 1979. The theatre was built to be the sister to the Century 21 theatre in Springfield Missouri. It was meant to compliment the Mark Twain at the south end of town: The Mark Twain was meant to be the High End cinema for NGC in StL competing with the Sunset Hills and the Esquire in town.
The Cypress Village was built with 928 seats. They were American Stellars – not thick backed but the same thin plastic backs used at the Century21 with Gold velour cloth. There was 4 aisles with a cross-over at the 1st 3rd of the auditorium. The outer aisles were against the walls so no one was able to pick on the custom panels that were there and they maintained their beauty for a long period of time. There was also wood beams every 20 feet on the outer walls. The wrap around curtain went approximately 20 feet back, but there was never any draperies that covered the walls. (except after it was twinned in the small auditorium and then only ½ way back.). The exterior of the building was brown/tan bricks and the roof flashing and downspouts were a copperish-reddish color to compliment the bricks. All of the windows were brown tinted. The walls in the lobby looked like a collage of brown squares of wood. The box office was indeed built so we could (with effort) provide for outside ticket sales, but the best method we found was selling off both sides of the island box office – got the people in a lot faster. This was a functional / simple but beautiful theatre.
Eventually we twinned the Cypress but at that point, the competition was already “plexed” and booking was always an issue. Some of the bigger hits we played was THE GOODBYE GIRL and FOUL PLAY.
Became a twin in 1978.
Cypress Village opened April 2, 1969. This the 2nd Fox Midwest division of National General Theatres theatre to open in the St. Louis market.
Theatre design credited to Martin Bloom and Associates.
A single-screen operation at opening, seating capacity at the time listed as 922 seats.
At the time, Ben Littlefield was the manager.