Inside St. Louis - Castelli's Moonlight Restaurant at 255

“The Chase is the Place”

The Chase, referred to as “The Miracle of the Miracle City” had its gala Grand Opening September 29, 1922 with the music of Paul Whiteman’s Pavilion Royale Orchestra of New York City. This was the start of the Chase Hotel’s decades long tradition of presenting premier night club, radio, television, movie and legit theatre entertainers and celebrities that no other facility of any type, anywhere, can rival. At the time the nine story Chase opened it had 500 guest rooms, three restaurants (the largest of which was the Palm Court), and could in total accommodate 2,200 people including 1,100 on the Chase Roof Garden. Those were the “dry” days of the Prohibition Era, but in-the-know travelers and local merry-makers could count on the Chase to surreptitiously come up with high quality alcoholic beverages that were stored in a “secret” tunnel that ran south under Lindell and connected to the old Kings-Way and Buckingham hotels. Later, figuring that spirits would be hard to come by during WWII, Sam and Harold Koplar had the foresight to stock the tunnel and even some hotel rooms with hundreds of cases of the finest whiskies. I have a bottle of Old Forester from 1941 that was in one of over a hundred cases of booze that was found in a locked room in 1968. By the way, the tunnel still exists, but it’s long been walled off. I wonder what’s in there.

Much to the surprise and dismay of downtown hoteliers, the Chase quickly catapulted to being the “in” inn of the period. Almost overnight The Chase was the place for many high-class functions such as dinner-parties and dances for the St. Louis aristocracy who in many cases dwelled in the mansions of elite neighboring streets such as Westmoreland Place, Portland Place, Hortense Place, Lenox Place, Pershing Place, Lindell Boulevard, Maryland Avenue, Kingsbury Place, Washington Terrace, Beverly Place, Westminster Place as well as in the numerous luxury apartments on streets such as Union Boulevard and Lindell. Even most of the high society occupants remaining on Vandeventer Place found the Chase more to their liking than the downtown hotels. Plus the Chase found considerable support from the members of the nearby Racquet Club and the Columbian Club among many other entities such as the St. Louis Medical Society, the Moolah and Masonic Temples, the Scottish Rite Cathedral, the University Club, the Wednesday Club and both St. Louis and Washington Universities. When the major banquet was given to honor Charles A. Lindbergh after his history-making flight across the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis, it was held at The Chase. Not long after, Col. Lindberg and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh would take up residence at the Oxford apartments at 320 Union Boulevard.

On a parallel course with the successes of Chase Ulman and the Chase properties were the good fortunes of Sam, Nat and Harry Koplar who were partnered with soon-to-be motion picture mogul Spyros Skouras in local movie house investments. The Koplar brothers were also on a roll with home construction as well as hotel and apartment holdings such as the Branscome and the Congress hotel, Senate and Embassy apartments on Union Boulevard. About the time Ulman, who would live for some 40 years in the Chase apartments, was set to sell the Chase properties; a contingent of St. Louis theater operators led by the Koplars, Skouras and Dr. Jacob Probstein, Sam Koplar’s cousin and an investor in Koplar business ventures, had a fateful meeting with William Fox of Fox Pictures. The group traveled by rail to New York City, then the location of Fox, to meet face to face with Fox who was the most powerful movie man of the time, to reason with him about the exorbitant exhibitors fee he was demanding for his movie “The Iron Horse.” Deals were offered, arrangements were suggested, but to no avail. In fact William Fox, who was as tough as they come, was so angered, that his parting message to the St. Louisans was that if they didn’t heed his wishes, he would build a movie palace greater than any other in the world and place it in the center of St. Louis with the goal of driving them out of business. He was true to his word, as far as the theatre was concerned, and our Fabulous Fox opened on January 31^st, 1929. The locals did lose their theatres, but so did Fox and many other operators, not because of Fox’s warning, but because of the Depression. Incidentally Dr. Probstein’s son, the late Norman K. (for Koplar) Probstein, for whom the Forest Park municipal golf course is named became an investor in the Congress and Senate and built the Bel Air East hotel at Third and Washington and the Bel Air West motor hotel just east of Euclid on Lindell.

But something of great importance did result from that New York trip as while in Manhattan our town’s entourage roomed at the sleek, new, Art Deco styled, Savoy Plaza Hotel (no longer in existence) and the streamlined skyscraper caught Sam’s fancy and imagination. So before their train backed into St. Louis Union Station, Sam had made up his mind that he would, like Fox, build his own palace in St. Louis – not a movie palace but a hotel and apartment building that would be the envy of all, anywhere on earth. And he too, kept his word. He set to work acquiring the land at the southeast corner of Maryland and Kingshighway that was next to the Chase, then signing the famed architects of the Savoy Plaza, Schopp and Baumann with the dictum that they should surpass their NYC work of art. Construction of the Park Plaza began in 1928 and the exterior of the building was mostly completed in ’29 and partially opened to the public, though much of the interior above the 16^th floor would, due to the intervention of the Depression and ultimate foreclosure, remain unfinished until 1931 and even later on some floors.

The Park Plaza tower of 310 feet, the third tallest building in the area, soared 28 stories above the street and cost a staggering $6 million dollars. While the Park Plaza was still under construction the crash of ’29 soon sent Koplar and his backers into foreclosure and the building was taken over by the Central States Life Insurance Company. Sam Koplar was hired as manager of the neighboring Chase Hotel, but he refused to let his dream die and through his hard work, business acumen, scrimping and thrift, as well as the kindnesses and support of many, he was able to buy a considerable amount of Chase bonds and in January 1947 Sam and his family bought $630,000 worth of Chase stock and took ownership of the Chase and regained his beloved Park Plaza as well. This is as close to a miraculous success story as you could ever find, and as anyone who knew Mr. Sam would tell you that without reservation, it could not have happened to a nicer or more deserving person. There are some wonderful human interest stories in this period from 1929 to 1947, but we’ll need to save them for another time.

Over the decades many a well known person would call either the Chase Hotel, Chase Apartments, Chester Apartments or the Park Plaza home including Joseph Darst, William J. Lemp, Jr. and his wife Ellie, Edwin Lemp, Albert Stix, Louis Rothschild, Carrie Peper, Ed Dorsey, Albert Blanke, Howard Baer, Julius Van Raalte, Millicent Stickney, Sallie Renard, Julian Miller, Dr. Jacob Probstein, Chase Ulman and dozens more. And of course it seemed that almost anybody who was anybody who visited St. Louis stayed there. The registration books have long vanished, but off the top of my head I’ll list a fraction of the “names” that I personally met while they were Chase Park Plaza guests: Frank Sinatra, Tony Randall, Otto Preminger, Eugene McCarthy, Red Skelton, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dorothy Shay, the Rolling Stones, Ted Lewis, Henry Kissinger, Rosemary Clooney, Andy Williams, Ann Miller, Sophie Tucker, David Essex, Jimmy Carter, Eddie Fisher, Ernest Borgnine, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Johnny Ray, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Mark Lindsay, Howard Keel, Bobby Darin, Henry Mancini, Arthur Godfrey, Frankie Laine, Debbie Reynolds, Danny Thomas, Johnny Mathis and Steve McQueen.

The Chase had been a preeminent entertainment center in the ‘20s and 30’s when some of the greatest of the big bands such as Hal Kemp, Ted Weems, Vincent Lopez and Ben Pollack played the Chase Roof Garden and were oft heard, after 1927, over a nation-wide radio hookup on the Columbia Broadcasting System. In early 1940 then Chase manager Sam Koplar hired his son Harold, who was managing the Forest Park Hotel, to design an enclosure for the Chase roof. The result was the Zodiac Cocktail Lounge and Starlight Ballroom that opened in December ’40 with vocalist Wee Bonnie Baker and the Orrin Tucker orchestra. These rooms are still stylish and amazingly similar to how they first appeared. Missing are the signs of the Zodiac that were etched on the top of the circular glass Zodiac bar that was 62 feet in circumference. The silvery nude figure of a girl that was created by Washington University professor Carl Mose that was in the center of the round back-bar is gone as is the round opening that was in the ceiling above the statue to allow for night star-gazing. The walls of both rooms were either floor to ceiling glass or murals painted by the noted artist Eric Mose, brother of Carl. In 1991 the half-round bandstand that extended out of the building over the lobby roof 10 floors below was removed as well as the letters that spelled the name Chase that were above that bandstand on the exterior of the building. At last check, these blue neon lit letters are in the collection of the Missouri Historical Society.

Starting in the ‘40s, to add to the ambiance of the hotel, the Koplars, under the direction of Harold Koplar, made the hotel the premier place in the area, and some say in the country, for top night club style entertainment with comedy and lounge acts such as Jerry Lester, Paul Gilbert, Billy de Wolfe and Al Tucker’s band playing the Zodiac and Steeplechase which were under the supervision of Alberto Aranda Villalobos from 1940 to 1954. Small musical groups such as duos and trios were booked into the Merry-Go-Round and Steeplechase. The more sophisticated, often light classical, performers played the Crystal Terrace, later called The Gourmet Room, in the basement of the Park Plaza. The biggest names played the fabled Chase Club which had been in operation since the 1920s. The Koplars put Hack Ulrich in charge of the Chase Club and the show room began hosting the likes of the Tommy Dorsey orchestra, the Mills Brothers, Carmen Miranda, Liberace, Frank Sinatra, Carol Lawrence, Jimmy Durante, Martin and Lewis, Guy Lombardo, Bobby Darin, Robert Goulet, Joey Bishop, Paul Anka, the Artie Shaw orchestra, Harry Richman, the Kingston Trio, Patti Page, Ted Lewis, Perry Como, Lena Horne (the first African-American to stay at The Chase, and so many more. Xavier Cugat for years led a Chase Club house orchestra as did Buddy Moreno and others. All the preceding were hits, but there’s also a long list of acts that were duds.

	In 1951 Harry Fender, one time Ziegfeld Broadway star, began hosting a late night radio interview and music show from the Steeplechase first on KXOK then for some 20 years over KMOX. Harold Koplar had wanted Harry to do the show from the Zodiac Room which was quite successful, but Harry said “I want to go where the business ain’t.” So they put him in the Steeplechase which was about to be closed, and the place became a major success as people crowded in to see Harry interview stars such as Ethel Merman, Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Stan Kenton, Rogers & Hammerstein, Nat “King” Cole, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Benny Goodman, Mary Martin, Hans Conreid, John Carradine, Pearl Bailey, Tony Martin, Forrest Tucker and most all the stars who played the American, Kiel and Muny as well as others who either stayed or played at the Chase Park Plaza.
	The hotel was losing some business to other inns that had swimming pools so in 1953 the courtyard on Lindell, which had been the original entrance to the hotel, was replaced by a pool with a lavish surrounding décor. At that time a large lower level health club was also opened. In ’61, the year in which Sam Koplar would die, the Koplar team in what would be a very successful bid to attract more convention business joined the hotels at the lobby level and renamed them the Chase Park-Plaza. They also connected the Chase hotel with the Chester apartments on each floor with a modern hotel room section that offers exterior balconies. A multi-story connecting garage to hold one thousand cars was built and the 2,500 seat Khorassan Room was opened on March 5, 1957. Later the Veiled Prophet Ball moved from Kiel Auditorium to the Chase where it was right at home as the room was named by a contest winner to honor the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan. The room was also home to the annual Fluer de Lis Ball, the Jewish Hospital Auxiliary’s Clover Ball, the Variety Club’s telethon and the ever popular Wrestling at the Chase that was aired on KPLR Channel 11 then owned by Harold Koplar with studios in the Chase apartments. Another of Harold’s sons, Ted, become the family member who would oversee this extremely successful independent television station. Harold’s daughter Susan eventually would head, as she still does, with her husband Peter Brown, the Koplar’s Lodge of the Four Seasons at the Lake of the Ozarks, yet another wonderful story for a later date.
	The Koplar family didn’t own radio stations, but during much of the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s, during different years, both KWK and WIL broadcast from studios and offices on the 9^th floor of the Chase. That’s the floor that if you examine the building closely is behind small round windows just below the Zodiac and Starlight. Later the Frank Block Advertising agency was also on this floor that was never used for hotel rooms. Today it houses, among other offices, the executive office of the hotel. In addition to all we’ve so far mentioned there were countless broadcasts and telecasts that emanated from the complex. For example there was a time that Reed Farrell hosted Channel 11 news from the lobby and Jack Buck did a KMOX show from the Zodiac called Saturday at the Chase on CBS. Once the glib Mr. Buck said “The Chase was the Mecca for everything in St. Louis – where the elite used to meet to eat and cheat.” There has always been a magic and mystique about the Chase Park Plaza that remains to this day with the impeccable continued restoration and redevelopment under the close scrutiny of the property’s managing partner and developer Jim Smith who is a St. Louis native. Jim’s long-time love for the hotel is truly as strong as that of Sam, Harold or Harold’s son Robert who was to have taken over operation of the inn from his father. Sadly Robert died of a heart condition while he was just in his forties.
	Over the years there were many dining spots within the walls and hallowed halls of the hotel(s) and all were in their own way unique. In the lower level of the Park Plaza there was a superior upscale dining room called the Crystal Terrace which became the Gourmet Room. This space, which is now a conference center, went through more transformations in theme and décor than any other place in the hotel, and likely any other place in the area. Among other names it was known as Marty’s Make Believe Ballroom (hosted by Marty Bronson), Crazy Horse, The Berries and The Basement. On the top two floors of the Park Plaza Harold Koplar created the lower floor into the Tiara Lounge and the top floor as the Tiara Room. These swanky modern rooms, to be used for private events, were decorated with Siegfried Reinhardt murals, huge expanses of glass, redwood and stone. Koplar outdid himself in making these spaces as great as or even greater than the Rainbow Room in NYC.
	There was the Park Plaza drug store with a full soda fountain at the corner of Kingshighway and Maryland where they made incomparable malts and milkshakes and truly tasty tuna salad sandwiches. For light dining there was the Park Plaza Grill, later the Fiesta Grill, noted for blintzes, which was the hotel’s coffee shop. In the ‘60s the Park Plaza would add Around The World Foods which was a combination delicatessen and gourmet food shop plus from the 1930s there was the very chic and sophisticated Merry-Go-Round cocktail lounge at the east end of the Park Plaza lobby, which like the drug store, had an entrance from both the lobby and Kingshighway.
	Starting in ‘59 the old Chase lobby would be demolished to make way for a new, modernistic lobby, registration desk and entrance, which most agreed was cold and austere. It would be the start of another era of Koplar’s ongoing efforts to keep the hotels always in tune with the times. When the Park Plaza was joined physically with the Chase, the Park Plaza registration desk was removed, and the area would become the Tenderloin Bar for the adjoining Tenderloin Room restaurant which opened on March 28^th, 1962 when the Chase Club closed. This ornate old-world styled two level dining room filled with trappings, including heavy chandeliers, mahogany paneling and fireplaces from an old Vandeventer Place mansion came under the tutelage of Hack Ulrich of Chase Club fame. The Tenderloin’s Pepperloin steak was and is the room’s signature dish. It, as were other meat entrees, was cooked over a charcoal grill. Due to fire codes the open charcoal grill has been removed, but the Pepperloin, which is always USDA prime beef, is still perfectly grilled. Meat dishes used to be served sizzling hot on metal trays, but since the juices would splatter, they now serve meals on very hot china plates. The lobster tank is sadly gone (probably not sad for the lobsters), as is Hack, who passed away several years ago. He loved to show customer’s children how he could rub a lobster’s underside and “put the lobster to sleep.”
	The special Hack’s steak sauce he created is still served, but it’s now called Tenderloin sauce. His creation of an Hellenic salad has been replaced by a Greek salad, which is similar; but the U. S. Senate bean soup is always on the menu just as it’s been since ’62. Once upon a yesteryear the hotel had a huge bakery with wonderful cakes, pastries and pies. My favorite was the hazelnut whipped cream cake. But that was then and now the dessert selection is quite limited and not inspired. The Tenderloin was ravaged by a fire in 1968 and would be closed until 1970, but the restoration was so well done, many regular customers observed little change in the look and feel of the room as antiques and architectural artifacts aplenty were purchased from the about to be razed Burkham mansion across the street from the hotel. Hack had a knack for hiring the “right” people for his operations, many of Greek descent, including several members of the Karagiannis family who eventually would take over the operation and to this day lease the restaurant from the hotel. In most respects the Tenderloin Room is as beautiful, charming, nostalgic and downright good as it was when it opened going on 48 years ago. When you visit tell them I sent you and ask for Dino Karagiannis or Sparky Psara. The legendary Tenderloin lunch is available from 11a to 2p Monday through Friday with dinner Sunday through Thursday from 5p-9p and until 10p on Friday and Saturday.
	Fortunately since the Tenderloin is on the Park Plaza side of the complex it didn’t fall victim to the scavengers who stripped the Chase to the bare walls when that section of the complex was closed and everything was sold off for what most felt was a prelude to the Chase being demolished. Thank goodness Jim Smith and other wiser heads prevailed.
	The very popular Tack Room was added at the north end off the Chase lobby. This “horse” related somewhat rustic 24 hour “coffee shop” served a great array of good food at reasonable prices and offered table, booth and counter service. If you wanted to see the stars, celebrities and business bigwigs all you had to do was spend a little time there as you enjoyed things such as their incomparable chili-cheeseburger. A sea-food house called The Sea Chase would open in part of the old Chase Club with an 11 foot model of the ship Sea Witch that was used in the Charlton Heston M-G-M movie The Wreck of the Mary Deare as its focal point, but the room was never a success. At the same time the Hosteria Dell ‘Orso, with its many antiques from Italy, was a gourmet Northern Italian restaurant on the third floor of the Chase above the Sea Chase. It fizzled and was quickly closed to become a private dining room under the name Mr. Sam’s in which oil portraits of Sam and his wife Jeanette Koplar were displayed The Tally-Ho which was in the lower level of the Chase was where the employees dined.
	For dining that was a step above the Tack Room and not as pricey as the Tenderloin Room there was the exceptionally serene and beautiful Williamsburg Colonial-styled Hunt Room. It’s where today’s Eau Bistro is located. The Hunt Room hosted the first truly upscale Sunday brunch in this part of the country…and this heritage is continued today. I don’t know of a brunch of this quality anywhere. The Bistro serves from 6:30a to 10:30 a Monday thru Saturday, Sunday through Thursday from 5p-10p and until 11p on Friday and Saturday. That scrumptious Sunday brunch is offered from 9a until 2p. Across the hall is the Café Eau. It’s in the space overlooking the pool long occupied by the Steeplechase. The fare is lighter here than at the Bistro and the emphasis is more on their ice bar and night life with music from 9p to 1a. The Café operates from 11a to 10p for food, seven days a week with the bar open until 1a.
	Chaser’s Lounge is in the lobby area next to the pool and across from the Chase Park Plaza Cinema. This is a spot for appetizers, drinks and music from 5 to 10 Tuesday through Thursday and ‘til midnight on Friday and Saturday. The Marquee Café, today’s version of the “hotel coffee shop” is off the Lindell lobby near the movie theatre ticket window. It’s usually a nice quiet spot made cheerful with large windows, being at the east end of the pool and having a décor based on wonderful photographs of many of the stars who performed at or were guests of the Chase Park Plaza. Hours of operation are: Saturday and Sunday breakfast from 6:30a to 12:30p, Sunday lunch and dinner from Noon ‘til 9p, Saturday lunch and dinner from noon until 11p and Monday through Thursday dinner from 4p-10p.
	To see a couple hundred images and artifacts of the Chase Park Plaza from over the years I suggest you visit the Legacy Room, in the lower level of the Chase. Ask the concierge and he or she will open the room for your perusal. Hopefully Jeanne Venn the queen of concierges in St. Louis will be on duty to show you through the room as it was her idea that such a memorabilia collection be created. After getting the ready and full approval of hotel owner Jim Smith I had the distinct honor of being allowed to both locate items for the Legacy Room and to design the room itself. Among the things you’ll see are great photos of the Park Plaza as it was being built and when it opened, a rare picture of the original 1922 Chase lobby, a 1930 horse that was used in the décor of the Merry-Go-Round cocktail lounge, décor, many one-of-a kind photos of celebs and presidents who were at the Chase Park Plaza, part of the balustrade of the Gourmet Room/Crystal Terrace, a collection of classic post-cards, an original elevator car from the Chester apartment building and dozens of vintage photos, menus and more. We are about to add an additional number of items to the already significant display but we really are in need of many more things.
	If you have something that represents, or is from, the Chase Park Plaza that you’d like to donate to our museum, we’d gladly accept same and add the item or items to our display. We’re seeking photographs, menus, cocktail napkins, swizzle sticks, match-books, Chase Park Plaza gift items, playing cards, signs, room keys, silver items, seltzer bottles, advertising pieces, programs of events, Wrestling at the Chase cards, video or film of events, advertising or Channel 11 programs, Chase Park Plaza radio or TV commercials, art work, printed items, etc.. In many cases we can make copies of your things and return the originals to you. We even hope to someday find such things as the brass mailbox from the Chase lobby, the statue from the Zodiac Room, the Park Plaza neon sign that was above the Kingshighway entrance, light fixtures from various dining rooms, etc. If you have anything for us to consider, I’d love to speak with you. You can reach me through the Antique Warehouse at antiquewhs.com or gmelz@sbcglobal.net. I can be reached by cell phone at 314 795 1831. I wish we had more space here so that I could relate my many personal memories of the Koplar family and the Chase, including some great ghost stories, but maybe I can do that at another time.
	For more about the Chase Park Plaza and Harold Koplar we suggest the book “Meet Me in the Lobby” by Candace O’Connor with an introduction by yours truly. Another book of interest would be “St. Louis Lost” by Mary Bartley. For your personal research you’ll find no better archive than the St. Louis Globe-Democrat “morgue” at the Mercantile Library of St. Louis which is adjacent the Thomas Jefferson Library at UMSL.
	The Chase Park Plaza is located in St. Louis, Missouri. Click here for directions. Click here for an image gallery of The Chase Park Plaza

Written by: Ron (Johnny Rabbitt) Elz of KMOX and Channel 5’s Show Me St. Louis.

Hotel Contact Information	The Chase Park Plaza
	212-232 N. Kingshighway Blvd.
	St. Louis, Missouri 63108
	(314) 633-3300
	www.chaseparkplaza.com
Dining Contact Information	Eau Bistro, Cafe Eau
	Chaser's Lounge & Marquee Cafe
	www.chaseparkplaza.com/fine-dining-restaurant
	The Tenderloin Room
	(314) 361-0900
	www.tenderloinroom.com
Cinema Contact Information	Chase Park Plaza Cinema
	(314) 367-2385 Box Office
	(314) 367-0101 Show Schedule
	chase.stlouiscinemas.com