Historical February 1988 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
You probably think that there’s nothing to be said about the Football Cardinals’ departure that’s not already been said, twice.
These days a weary smile of relief crosses my face when the headlines talk about anything other than the now-gone Big Dead. Heck, I’d rather read about Contra relief, voter fraud, or Famous-Barr red tag sales.
Even so, I’ve beaten and battered the Big Dead in this space for almost a decade, so it doesn’t seem appropriate to let them leave town without an observation or two. I’ve been a dissatisfied St. Louis pro football fan for almost 25 years now, so the loss of the Big Dead gives me the same mixed emotions as trading in an old car that never worked right. I’m pleased to be done with the radio that wouldn’t stay on the station setting, it’s nice to know that I won’t have to fill up the tank every 100 miles because the gas gauge doesn’t work, and I’m happy to plan to have a car that will start in rainy weather. Still, I’ll miss the old beast.
At least I knew not to get my hopes up on those rainy mornings and expect it to start.
It seems to me that we focus on the big events and overlook the smaller, more intimate happenings in a community that really affect the quality of life. Sure, we read about the football team leaving and the Board of Freeholders meetings, but where do we read about the White Castle on Chouteau closing? You may not remember the White Castle on Chouteau. Heck, you may not even know that it once was a White Palace. It’s true!
The building and parking lot are about 50 yards east of fourteenth street, on the north side of Chouteau.
After being a White Castle it later became a Burger Chef, a Chinese fast food restaurant, and then a cleaners (“Starched jeans -50¢,” the hand-printed sign said).
Now it’s closed.
To non-locals, it was just another White Castle, but to those of us in the know, it was — and always will be— “The Leon Spinks Memorial White Castle.” You remember Leon Spinks, no doubt. He’s the older brother of St. Louisan Michael Spinks and was the first in the family to win an Olympic Gold boxing medal and later become heavy-weight boxing champion of the world. Michael also won each, but Leon was the first in the family.
If you looked at Leon and Michael together, there was a clear family resemblance, but it was also obvious that Leon was the older brother and had first choosing when the food went around the table.
He was a much bigger, stockier fellow.
Well, years ago Leon was arrested for possession of narcotics at (where else?) the White Castle on Chouteau.
It seems that Leon was wearing a big brimmed black hat (it’s hard to imagine Leon wearing a white hat) when he was stopped by a policeman for questioning. Leon, never the subtle type, immediately yanked off his hat and threw it on to the roof of a nearby parked car in the White Castle lot.
The police officer, a courteous fellow, retrieved the hat and handed it back to Leon. Leon just as quickly threw it on the auto roof again.
The officer, smaller but smarter than Leon, thought this a bit funny and looked inside the hat. Guess where Leon had stashed his hash? Leon is still, I believe, serving time.
So much for the “Leon Spinks Memorial White Castle.” I can’t believe it didn’t get more press coverage when it closed.
We may get another pro football franchise, but there will never be another “Leon Spinks Memorial White Castle.” How about the old Broadway Drive-In and the City Workhouse in South St. Louis? Do any of you young and dear readers remember them?
The drive-in was located just north of where highway 55 and Broadway now intersect.
The Chariton Shopping Center, in fact, sits on all of the space used for the workhouse and much of the space used for the drive-in.
The shopping center is south and across from Minniewoods Park (honest!), just north of the Broadway exit from 55 and south of Meramec and Broadway.
The drive-in and workhouse were torn down in the mid-1960’s to make way for the highway. Immediately north of where the drive-in stood, south of what is now the American Legion Hall, stood the City Workhouse.
It was a white building, a couple stories tall and surrounded by a white fence with barbed wire on the top. Rumor had it that all of the prison rooms facing the drive-in screen—which pointed northwest and was easily seen from the Workhouse—were equipped with speakers so the prisoners could hear the movies as well as see them.
I know, at night, you could sit in the drive-in and look at the prison windows and see the people inside watching the screen. I always wondered if the worst part of incarceration wasn’t being forced to watch night after night after night of “Treasure of Sierra Madre.” What about the loss of Santoro’s, not far from our own neighborhood, at Big Bend and Millbrook?
It was a little family bar with a dart board. You could get semi-cool drinks and semi-efficient service, but they always came with a full smile.
Once I even borrowed money from the bartender to use a pay phone.
It was replaced a year or so ago with E.G.’s Millbrook Cafe. Millbrook was clearly designed to cater to suburban yuppies: lots of chrome, plants, linen table cloths, over- priced food, and a parking problem.
There is some justice in the world though; Millbrook is already out of business. Someone was going to buy it and name it Montana’s, but that fell through, too. Maybe we could dirty it up a bit, get rid of the fancy high-priced menu, put in a few dart boards, and call it Santoro’s II? Son of Santoro’s? Then there was the loss of my best friend, Roger Perry. No, Roger didn’t die, he just moved to Vermont.
Now Roger wasn’t fought over by the Mayor and County Supervisor, and no one called a press conference when he left, but it was a real loss for our community all the same. Roger was exceptionally good at working with people and building coalitions.
He started out as a professor of education at Washington University, then moved to the St. Louis Public Schools where he thought of and began the School Partnership Program (one of the programs which today receives nothing but acclaim). Politics is the name of the game, however, and when his boss, Superintendent Bob Wentz, moved to Las Vegas, Roger’s position was deleted from the budget by a rival for the job. Roger looked around, found nothing to his liking, and is now in the Green Mountain State. I don’t know how things would be different for us if Roger were here, but I truly believe that the St. Louis Public Schools, if not the entire community, would be in better shape.
He was a catalyst and he made things, good things, happen. How about the shutting of the Tivoli?
The closing of the General Motors plant on Union Avenue?
The retirement of Senator Eagleton?
My dog Tokar’s death? Those are the kinds of losses that really make a difference to the quality of life. Sure, it looks bad for a pro football franchise to leave St. Louis.
No question about it.
But how bad would it have looked for 50,000 people to pay week after week to witness mediocrity? What does it say about discerning sports fans when they support a team that not only loses, but that year after year doesn’t improve? Do you realize that the number of pro football playoff games played in St. Louis is equal to the number of men who have walked on Mars?
The older I get, the more I find myself believing in the power of the marketplace. Good things should prosper, be they businesses, schools, or other institutions. Inefficient things should do poorly and go defunct, be they businesses, schools, or institutions.
The shame isn’t that the Football Cardinals left town, it’s that they didn’t go out of business.
If the free market really worked, they would have gone out of business and some entrepreneur would have started a new pro football franchise here in St. Louis.
If he, or she, did a good job, the team would win and the seats would be full and questions of a new stadium or moving would be moot issues. Isn’t it nice to think of what would have happened if Whitey Herzog could be in charge of a St. Louis pro football team? Bring on an expansion football team, one that tries and improves and one we can support.
In the meantime, does anyone have “Treasure of Sierra Madre” on videocassette? I’m looking for something to do on Sunday afternoons.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, February 1988.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: Original opinion column contains unverified allegations about Leon Spinks and an account of Roger Perry’s departure from SLPS; preserve as attributed historical claims, not independent verified findings.
Original source: SD_Times1988_02.pdf, printed page(s) 8; PDF page(s) 8.
