THE AMERICAN THEATRE'S FINAL CURTIN CALL
May 2, 1953 

"A lot of ghosts of the past are going to scatter and a lot of stars of today are going to heave a long sigh. They loved the American. So did the people of St. Louis."
Dickson Terry, St. Louis Post Dispatch, April 26, 1953

On the evening of May 2, 1953, the curtain came down for the last time at the American Theatre on Market Street. The final performance was "The Fourposter" starring Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn. Preparations to raze the building began the next day. The building was torn down in order to provide space for a parking garage that would continue the development of downtown St. Louis. Although the original building was gone, the American Theatre and its tradition of bringing "legitimate stage attractions" to St. Louisans lived on at its new location on Grand Avenue in the former Shubert Theatre.

	Visit the Senate Theatre down the street
	Visit one of the many parking garages built downtown in the 1950s