Ambassador Theatre (St. Louis)
Encyclopedia
The Ambassador Theatre was a lavish movie palace
-type theater in St. Louis, Missouri
, designed by the architectural firm of Rapp and Rapp
. A landmark of rococo 1920s theater design, it opened in 1926 and was demolished in 1997.
The Skouras Brothers Co, Spyros Skouras
, George Skouras
and Charles Skouras
, whose dream of building a world-class movie palace in downtown St. Louis
was grandly realized in 1926 when the $5.5 million Ambassador Theatre Building opened on prime real estate at the northwest corner of Locust and Seventh streets. The 17-story structure which housed the luxurious cinema also added an impressive tall office block to the city's skyline. Less than two decades earlier the three Skouras brothers arrived in St. Louis
from their native Greece
to become the results of rags to riches Hollywood success stories.
), was completed in 1925 on Grand Boulevard
. In addition to Windy City achievements such as the Chicago
, Southtown, and Uptown
theaters, the brothers C. W. and George Rapp drew up plans in the 1920s for notable theater-skyscraper
hybrids that included New York City's 29-story Paramount (1926); Cleveland's 21-story Palace (1922); and the 22-story Oriental in Chicago
whose top stories housed the Masonic Lodge
halls.
In the Ambassador, Rapp & Rapp expanded the firm's typical Louis XIV Sun King style, a rendition of French Renaissance
/Baroque
motifs for which they were best-known. The architects crowned the Ambassador with a distinctive cornice
frieze
of terra cotta griffins—a motif also displayed in two prominent New York skyscrapers of the period. Gazing across the rooftops, the griffins were well-placed as traditional guardians of treasure in antiquity. The planar quality of the cornice and flattened treatment of the griffins suggest the influence of modernist trends. The cornice marked a departure from older style. more elaborated cornices of high relief, often punctuated by lion heads.
To announce the theatre portion of the tall Ambassador Building, Rapp and Rapp
designed a monumental arcade of giant windows along Locust Street, wrapping the corner of Seventh. Thirty feet high, these windows were richly embellished with finely detailed terra cotta
in Renaissance style. Highly modeled theater masks of comedy and tragedy were featured on cartouche pier and spandrel
panels. The three floors of theater offices fronting Seventh Street were appropriately distinguished by terra cotta spandrel panels featuring regal pairs of sphinxes, Egyptian
symbols of power.
Movie palace
A movie palace is a term used to refer to the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930.There are three building types in particular which can be subsumed...
-type theater in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, designed by the architectural firm of Rapp and Rapp
Rapp and Rapp
The architectural firm Rapp and Rapp was active in Chicago, Illinois during the early 20th century. The brothers Cornelius W. Rapp and George Leslie Rapp of Carbondale, Illinois were the named partners and 1899 alumnus of the University of Illinois School of Architecture...
. A landmark of rococo 1920s theater design, it opened in 1926 and was demolished in 1997.
Origins
As early as January 1925, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch mentioned plans for a 22-story office building containing a Skouras Brothers theater. The entire structure was to cost $2.5 million. What was eventually constructed was a 17-story building, with a 3,000-seat theater—designed by Rapp & Rapp—occupying the first six stories. The theater cost $5 million and the organ alone cost $115,000. The grand opening was held on August 26, 1926, and the Ambassador welcomed 2.6 million patrons in its first year.The Skouras Brothers Co, Spyros Skouras
Spyros Skouras
Spyros Panagiotis Skouras was an American motion picture pioneer and movie executive who was the president of the 20th Century Fox from 1942 to 1962...
, George Skouras
George Skouras
George P. Skouras, George Skowras, in Skourohorion, Greece, was an American movie executive and president of United Artists Theatres. He was one of ten children, three of which came over from Greece in 1910 as poor sons of a sheep herder and rose to become top movie executives...
and Charles Skouras
Charles Skouras
Charles P. Skouras in Skourohorion, Greece, was an American movie executive and president of Fox Coast West. He and his two brothers, George Skouras and Spyros Skouras, came from Greece as poor sons of a sheep herder who rose to become top movie executives.-Biography:The Skouras brothers arrived...
, whose dream of building a world-class movie palace in downtown St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
was grandly realized in 1926 when the $5.5 million Ambassador Theatre Building opened on prime real estate at the northwest corner of Locust and Seventh streets. The 17-story structure which housed the luxurious cinema also added an impressive tall office block to the city's skyline. Less than two decades earlier the three Skouras brothers arrived in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
from their native Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
to become the results of rags to riches Hollywood success stories.
Design
The Skourases chose Rapp & Rapp, Chicago's famed theater architects, to design the 3000 seat Ambassador. The firm's local debut, the St. Louis Theater (now Powell Symphony HallPowell Symphony Hall
Powell Symphony Hall is the home of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. It was named after Walter S. Powell, a local St. Louis businessman, whose widow donated $1 million towards the purchase and use of this hall by the symphony...
), was completed in 1925 on Grand Boulevard
Grand Boulevard (St. Louis)
Grand Boulevard is a major, seven to five lane wide, north-south thoroughfare running through the center of St. Louis, Missouri. Grand runs north through Carondolet Park in the south of St. Louis to the Mississippi River north of McKinley Bridge, about midway between Forest Park and the Mississippi...
. In addition to Windy City achievements such as the Chicago
Chicago Theatre
The Chicago Theatre, originally known as the Balaban and Katz Chicago Theatre, is a landmark theater located on North State Street in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1921, the Chicago Theatre was the flagship for the Balaban and Katz group of theaters run by A. J. Balaban, his brother...
, Southtown, and Uptown
Uptown Theatre (Chicago)
The Uptown Theatre, also known as the Balaban and Katz Uptown Theatre, is a massive, ornate movie palace in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Designed by Rapp and Rapp and constructed in 1925, it the last of the "big three" movie palaces built by the Balaban & Katz theatre chain run by...
theaters, the brothers C. W. and George Rapp drew up plans in the 1920s for notable theater-skyscraper
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
hybrids that included New York City's 29-story Paramount (1926); Cleveland's 21-story Palace (1922); and the 22-story Oriental in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
whose top stories housed the Masonic Lodge
Masonic Lodge
This article is about the Masonic term for a membership group. For buildings named Masonic Lodge, see Masonic Lodge A Masonic Lodge, often termed a Private Lodge or Constituent Lodge, is the basic organisation of Freemasonry...
halls.
In the Ambassador, Rapp & Rapp expanded the firm's typical Louis XIV Sun King style, a rendition of French Renaissance
French Renaissance
French Renaissance is a recent term used to describe a cultural and artistic movement in France from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that many cultural historians believe originated in northern Italy in the fourteenth century...
/Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
motifs for which they were best-known. The architects crowned the Ambassador with a distinctive cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
of terra cotta griffins—a motif also displayed in two prominent New York skyscrapers of the period. Gazing across the rooftops, the griffins were well-placed as traditional guardians of treasure in antiquity. The planar quality of the cornice and flattened treatment of the griffins suggest the influence of modernist trends. The cornice marked a departure from older style. more elaborated cornices of high relief, often punctuated by lion heads.
To announce the theatre portion of the tall Ambassador Building, Rapp and Rapp
Rapp and Rapp
The architectural firm Rapp and Rapp was active in Chicago, Illinois during the early 20th century. The brothers Cornelius W. Rapp and George Leslie Rapp of Carbondale, Illinois were the named partners and 1899 alumnus of the University of Illinois School of Architecture...
designed a monumental arcade of giant windows along Locust Street, wrapping the corner of Seventh. Thirty feet high, these windows were richly embellished with finely detailed terra cotta
Glazed architectural terra-cotta
Glazed architectural terra-cotta is a ceramic masonry building material popular in the United States from the late 19th century until the 1930s, and still one of the most common building materials found in U.S. urban environments...
in Renaissance style. Highly modeled theater masks of comedy and tragedy were featured on cartouche pier and spandrel
Spandrel
A spandrel, less often spandril or splaundrel, is the space between two arches or between an arch and a rectangular enclosure....
panels. The three floors of theater offices fronting Seventh Street were appropriately distinguished by terra cotta spandrel panels featuring regal pairs of sphinxes, Egyptian
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
symbols of power.