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THE AMBASSADOR THEATRE BUILDING & THE SKOURAS BROTHERS

Spyros Skouras' 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, Charles (1889-1954), George (1896-1964) and Spyros (1893-1971), arrived in St. Louis from their native Skourohorion, Greece, the sons of a poor sheep herder. Living frugally on wages as busboys and bartenders in downtown hotels, the brothers pooled their savings of $3500 in 1914. In partnership with two other Greeks the Skourases constructed a modest nickelodeon at 1420 Market Street on the site of today's Kiel Opera House. This initial property. named the Olympia, was quickly followed by the acquisition of other theaters.

In 1920, the Skouras Brothers Co. incorporated with $400,000 capital stock. More than thirty local theaters belonged to the Skouras empire by 1924. Five years later, the triumvirate sold out to Warner Brothers and moved east to claim top executive places in the industry. Charles eventually became president of Fox Coast West, and George, chairman of the board of United Artists. After Spyros helped merge Fox with 20th Century films in the 1930's he served as president from 1942 to 1962. During Spyros' tenure there he worked to rescue the faltering movie industry from television's lure. 20^th Century Fox's famous advertising slogan, Movies are Better than Ever, " gained credibility in 1953 when Spyros introduced Cinemascope in the studio's groundbreaking feature film The Robe."

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 Hall), was completed in 1925 on Grand Avenue. 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 1920's 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.