"The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery"

On October 26, 1957, the intersection of Kingshighway and Southwest is closed, as actors re-enact the bank robbery scene for the movie “The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery”. Filmmaker Charles E. Guggenheim produced and directed the movie which cost $125,000 to make and was released in January of 1959. Interior bank shots were made inside the old United Bank building, and other scenes including the long-gone Milner and Shelby hotels, Gene’s Place on the Hill, the Golden Eagle Bar, Pope’s Cafeteria and the Famous-Barr Southtown parking lot. Police headquarters, University City High’s football field and Tower Grove Park were also backdrops.

Only five professional actors appeared in the movie including Steve McQueen in his final low-budget film. One hostage in the movie was played by Nancy Lyon who lived in the 7000 block of Waterman Boulevard. Another local player who had a prominent bit part was Martha Gable who had performed at the old Clayton Repertory Theater. She played another hostage. A hundred police officers are believed to have responded to the original crime and more than 50 of them would re-enact the scene this day along with newspaper reporters and photographers. “The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery” made its nation-wide premier at the Loew’s Orpheum.

The real robbery happened on April 24, 1953 when four armed men, three of them from Chicago, entered Southwest Bank shortly after 10 a.m. Being a Friday morning, they knew the bank would have a large amount of money on hand to cash payroll checks. Four blocks away, at Shaw and Kingshighway, police Officer Melburn Stein and Cpl. Robert Heitz were in a patrol car and were the first to respond to the call... continue reading.

Father Jacques Gravier, First White Man West of The Mississippi

October 10, 1700, a French Jesuit missionary, Father Jacques Gravier, discovered the river Mirameguoua, which we now call the Meramec. In his journal, the good Father also mentions a very rich lead mine 12 or 13 leagues (32-35 miles) from its mouth. “Mirameguoua” is an Indian word, meaning catfish and was given that name because the fish were so plentiful that they couldn’t navigate their canoe through them.

Father Gravier wasn’t the first missionary in the area, but many consider him the most successful. Converting many among the Peoria, Tamaroa, and Kaskaskia Indian tribes, he became the first to learn their language which he used to write a book of translations. Performing dozens of baptisms and a few marriages, he celebrated one of the earliest Catholic Masses in what we now call Illinois in 1693... continue reading.