(upbeat music) - [Jim] It was once a place for cops and robbers, but there's something new brewing in this South Side landmark.

- And the minute we walked in, we just fell in love with the building.

- [Jim] The first European explorers coming down the Mississippi River saw it painted on the bluffs.

And since then, the Piasa Bird has taken on a life of its own.

- It's more than just a really cool symbol.

It's something that can embody the best of us when it comes time to face down the challenges that we see in life.

- [Narrator] And the day movie history was made in St. Louis, a personal appearance that drew a frenzied crowd to Union Station, driven in part by what was likely a studio publicity stunt.

Whatever, it worked.

- That day was really the birth of movie stardom in America.

- [Jim] When famous faces became household names.

It's all next on "Living St.

Louis."

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - I'm Brooke Butler.

We begin with Veronica Mohesky's visit to a historic South Side building that was originally designed to handle some very serious business.

But, today, it's anything but.

- [Veronica] Like most coffee shops, Antagonist Cafe has pastries, coffee, and cozy spots to drink it, but unlike most, it also has jail cells.

- So the building that we're in is in the south side of Soulard St. Louis, and it used to be an old police station and EMS hub.

- [Veronica] Laura Leister is a co-owner of Antagonist Cafe and Pieces Board Game Bar.

Both are housed in the same historic Art Deco building.

- It was built in the early mid 1930s by Albert Osburg, who was the architect who also built the Soulard Farmers Market.

And it was built during the New Deal when they were going all around the city and building municipal buildings like police stations, EMS hubs, city halls, libraries.

- [Veronica] The Third District Police Station was open from 1937 to 1990, and is one of five Art Deco stations built in St. Louis.

- When this building was decommissioned in the 1990s from being a police station and EMS hub, it was sold to a private owner, and it was owned by a glass company for a few years, and then another private owner took it over, and that's when it became an art gallery, wedding venue, some food concepts.

And that gentleman owned this property all the way up until we purchased it in 2024.

- [Veronica] Anne-Marie Berger interviewed the previous owner, Ron Buechele, about Mad Art Gallery for "Living St. Louis" in 2004.

- Anytime, you know, you have a building that's designed for some complete other purpose, and then you're trying to change what you're doing inside of it, that presents a lot of challenges.

And with a gallery, wall space, and lighting and air conditioning and all those sorts of things that you need to make sure that the art is safe and secure and well presented didn't exist here.

In the main gallery, which is the old garage, it was just that.

it was a garage for over 60 years, and it had, you know, the look and feel of some space that had cars parked in it with oil dripping and gas and smoke and exhaust for 60 years.

- [Veronica] But Leister says renovating the space was challenging.

- There still is a shooting range below us because the police station had an active shooting range.

And so we had to decontaminate the lead in the basement and throughout the building.

So that's what we did for the first three weeks.

We hired a company to come in and remediate all the lead, and then we could come in and start working on it.

And so we had to put plumbing in, we had to redo the HVAC, all new plumbing for Pieces.

We had to dig 10 feet down to get to our sewer main, so it was just a full renovation while also keeping the bones of the property.

- [Veronica] Leister says she and her business partners decided to buy the space when the lease at their previous location for Pieces Board Game Bar was ending.

- And I really wanted to stay in Soulard, which limited our options.

And when this building came up for sale, it was a very high price tag.

So I just kept watching it and watching it, and the price kept going down.

And finally I said, "Okay, let's look at it."

And so me and my two business partners came in to look at it with our general manager.

And the minute we walked in, we just fell in love with the building.

It's the Art Deco design, the bones, it's unique.

It's 14,000 square feet, so we could put Antagonist Cafe and move Pieces into it.

- [Veronica] And Antagonist Cafe's name references the other coffee shop Leister and her partner's own, Protagonist Cafe.

- And it's just really fun because we're sitting in the very tip of the south side of Soulard and Protagonist Cafe is on the very north tip of Soulard.

So we feel like we're like the bookends of the neighborhood to get coffee.

- [Veronica] Antagonist Cafe opened in December, 2024.

The Board Game Bar reopened in the new location in February, 2025 on the other side of the building, which used to be the garage of the police station.

What to house EMS and police vehicles now has a full bar and over 1200 board games.

And besides just the jail cells, Leister and her partners were committed to preserving the Art Deco style of the building.

- We also have the original terrazzo floors out in Antagonist Cafe.

The original brass reception desk where people would report crimes, bail people out, that's where you can order a latte right now.

So all the original features, the jail cells are still here.

The marble lining the walls into Pieces is all original.

- [Veronica] They also added elements to match the Art Deco theme, like hand-painted stenciling and thrifted or vintage light fixtures and furniture.

But Leister says they've heard some pushback online about their use of the building.

- There's been a few people on the internet that will comment and say, "Oh, they're glorifying jail," or they're making something, you know, kitschy out of something bad historically.

And so I always respond to those comments as, "Well, we're taking it back for the community."

Like, no doubt that this was a negative place at some point in time for people, and any naysayers who come in, I think they'd really be pleased what we did for the community.

- [Veronica] And she says it's important to renovate and reuse historic buildings like this.

- And so every time I see a big box store knock down old buildings or, you know, a developer putting in a new house or a luxury apartment, it just makes me cringe.

And so when I saw this property, me and my business partners were like, this can't be demolished or turned into a luxury apartment.

It has to be taken back for the community.

And, you know, you can see the history in it.

- The Native American tribes who lived around here for thousands of years did not leave any written records, but the first European explorers found their mounds and also saw an intriguing piece of artwork overlooking the Mississippi River.

Our production intern Carter Reeves dug into the story of the Piasa Bird.

The mystery, the misinformation, and the mascot.

(fire roars) (drum music) - [Carter] When you think of high school mascots, you often think of something predictable like the Lions, the Bulldogs, or the Eagles.

But if you're ever traveling by Southwestern High School in Piasa, Illinois, you may just catch a glimpse of one memorable monster.

Meet the Piasa Bird.

With roots in Native American folklore, this creature has kept up with the times, now taking on the roll of a mascot.

- It's an important symbol of our community.

It's something that's very unique.

You won't find it as a high school mascot anywhere else in Illinois or in the country for that matter.

- [Carter] Matt Hasquin is a history teacher at Southwestern High School.

- It's such an important part of what happens here in the River Bend area.

It's more than just a really cool symbol.

It's something that can embody the best of us when it comes time to face down the challenges that we see in life.

- [Carter] But the town of Piasa isn't the only place where you can find the beast.

You can find it all over southwestern Illinois, especially in the nearby town of Alton.

(energetic music) Before the Piasa was a mascot, it was and still is a painting on the bluffs of Alton, Illinois.

And Piasa Park is where this creature now calls home.

- Piasa Park, where the bird is, gets a lot of visitors.

I mean, any given day you've got a motorcycle club up there stopping.

- [Carter] Cory Jobe is the president and CEO of the Great Rivers and Routes Tourism Bureau.

- I think it's just been a part of the culture here, having it on the byway and celebrated the way we do, it's something that's unique and historic to our community and we celebrate it.

- To have of this mythological being living in your area, that's pretty cool.

It adds to, I would say, the romance of the region.

- I think it's unique, and there's a story there to be told, and it's a part of our history.

- It's really given us a sense of identity and something that we can really be proud of.

It's a way to honor something that's local and Indigenous.

And it's something the community really rallies around.

- [Carter] Though we don't quite know the tribe that started the story of the Piasa Bird, we do know some history.

Dr. Mark Wagner is the director of the Center for Archeological Investigations at Southern Illinois University.

- The Piasa is a painting that was seen in 1673 by Marquette and Joliet.

- [Carter] Father Jacques Marquette and fur trader Louis Joliet were explorers who voyaged down the Mississippi River in 1673 and kept detailed records of their journey along the way.

- [Dr. Wagner] And there was a map made, and there was reason to believe that Juliet was there when that map was being drawn.

And that figure is drawn on that map.

So that's the best source we've got of it.

- [Carter] According to Dr. Wagner, the painting was around before the 1600s, predating the existence of any known tribes that are still around today.

And while Marquette and Juliet's account is credible, others not so much.

- And everything since then has been questionable.

There was a author in the 1830s named John Russell, and he wrote a legend that he claimed that he heard from the Illini.

It's not.

It's just something he made up.

He was a popular writer.

If you think about his legend of the Piasa, realize he's telling you a Greek or Roman myth.

It's about this monstrous bird.

It comes down and it's devouring people, and it has to be fought by a band of heroes to kill it.

But his story got into all these newspapers and got reprinted and keeps getting reprinted.

It popularizes it, brings it out to widespread public knowledge, and people believe it's true.

- [Carter] The paintings that Marquette and Juliet saw in the 1670s were lost to coring on the bluffs in the early 19th century.

But that didn't stop the people of Alton from celebrating their town's monstrous figure.

But it wouldn't be without a few visual changes.

- The mascot, that's based on a drawing from the 1870s.

It is a very European looking image.

It doesn't look like anything any Native American ever drew.

It looks like a dragon.

- [Carter] Apart from the modern day painting currently on display in Piasa Park, the Piasa has sported many different looks over the years, like one in 1924, 1934, and eventually in 1983, a familiar plaque was displayed that would go on to become a mascot for a particular high school.

- This used to hang on the bluffs down by Alton.

The metal was removed from the bluff, and they went back to painting the rock face on the bluffs.

One of our students discovered the bird underneath the old Clark Bridge down across the Mississippi.

The bird was purchased for a dollar and brought up here, and then there was a community effort to get the structure put up behind it to get it hung and then painted, and just now it's a permanent fixture.

The Piasa is just, it's meant to be something that embodies courage and strength.

You know, we put it up right around 9/11.

We hung the flag from it before it was painted over.

And then during the Covid pandemic, the maintenance crew was able to have a mask installed over the Piasa Bird's face as just a reminder how we all need to take care of each other.

It's often said at graduation, you know, "Once a Piasa bird, always a Piasa bird."

And, hopefully, you know, we can continue to have that as we move forward into the future.

- Finally, "This Week in History," an event that was a turning point in the early days of the movie business, Jim Kirchherr tells us about something that happened in St. Louis 115 years ago that for the first time shifted the spotlight from the movies to the movie stars.

(bouncy music) (old-time music) - [Jim] On March 25th, 1910, a crowd was gathering at Union Station, awaiting the arrival of the woman who was known as the Girl of a Thousand Faces.

The woman coming to St. Louis on the train was Florence Lawrence.

She's considered America's first movie star.

The first to be identified by name, the first to be sent out to make a personal appearance, and the first who was the subject of a movie studio publicity stunt.

This ad in "The St. Louis Times" is a good introduction to the life and reported death of Florence Lawrence.

- [Announcer] There's a wild surging rush forward carrying police and barriers with it as the frenzied spectators struggle to greet and acclaim their favorite.

- [Jim] This is the iconic scene of movie stardom, the premier, the spotlight, celebrities exiting luxury automobiles, adoring fans pressing for a chance to see their idols, whose lives and loves, real or products of the press agents, were chronicled in the fan magazines.

But this was the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Back in 1910, the industry was still on the East Coast, and the age was somewhat less than golden.

(piano music) In New York City, DW Griffith's Biograph Pictures was turning out, really, churning out short one and two reel films from this modest building.

It was really a movie making factory.

And the people in front of the camera workers on the assembly line.

One of them was a young petite woman by the name of Florence Lawrence.

But at this point, moviegoers did not know her name.

Actors were not listed in the credits, but Florence Lawrence was becoming a fan favorite, even if they only knew her as the Biograph girl.

- They would try to crank out two or three a week.

And these were one reelers, usually, maybe two at times.

And I would say Florence Lawrence was in 200 of them.

That's a rough estimate on my part, but she was in- - [Jim] Katie Pratt, a former editor here at Nine PBS, has worked restoring Biograph films for the Film Preservation Society.

She knows Florence Lawrence frame by frame.

- I would say, and this is just speaking in the Biograph realm, that there's definitely something about her as soon as she comes on the screen.

And Griffith was very good about knowing what talent would appeal to audiences.

He just had that gift of saying, you know, you've got whatever this is, star quality, I guess.

- [Jim] Women were also swooning over the Biograph's handsome leading man.

Later they would learn his name, King Baggot.

He would play a supporting role in the events in his hometown of St. Louis.

Tom Stockman has lectured on Baggot's film career.

- He could do comedy, he could do romance.

He was a very good looking man.

The women just loved him.

- [Jim] They just didn't know his name.

Not yet.

There were a couple of reasons film players were anonymous.

Moving pictures were not considered legitimate theater.

And some stage actors who might make a film for money didn't want their name associated with it.

But it was also to the movie studio's advantage to keep it that way.

Joe McClintock is an amateur film historian who has dug deep into this story.

- Basically, there was a trust over in New York of about seven movie studios.

They all worked together because they did not wanna pay the movie stars too much money.

So nobody knew who these movie stars were.

- [Jim] It took this guy to change that.

His name was Carl Laemmle.

He was later a major player in Hollywood as head of Universal Studios.

But in 1909, he was just starting up a new movie studio that was not part of the trust.

Thus the name Independent Moving Picture Company, or IMP.

And in 1909, Florence Lawrence left Biograph and went to work for IMP Studios, and Laemmle decided that her fans should now know her by name.

They should know when a Florence Lawrence movie was showing.

- Sold tickets right there.

You didn't even have to say what film it was.

I mean, I'm guilty of that.

I'll watch any movie with my favorites in it.

It doesn't matter what it's called.

So I think that was the start of that.

- [Jim] All Laemmle had to do was turn a nationally known face into a household name.

And this is where it gets interesting.

There was a rumor, maybe a fabrication, that Florence Lawrence had been killed in a streetcar accident while shooting a scene in New York.

Some versions said it was an automobile.

Laemmle then placed this ad in a film industry publication headlined "We Nail a Lie."

It says the rumor had been foisted on.

Are You ready?

The public of St. Louis by his enemies.

That Florence Lawrence was in the best of health making movies for IMP with her best work about to be released.

Most accounts credit Carl Laemmle was simply making up the rumor himself so he could deny it.

But most accounts don't deal with the question, why St. Louis?

Yeah, it was still one of the biggest cities in the country.

It had a couple of hundred places showing moving pictures and lots of fans.

So maybe Carl Laemmle just picked the city's name out of a hat.

But maybe, and there's a lot of maybes in this story, St. Louis actually had a pretty big role in all of this.

Take a look.

Weeks before Laemmle's famous "We Nail a Lie" ad, "The St. Louis Times" was reporting this, "Film Poser is Not Dead."

Poser was often used to describe film actors famous for their facial expressions.

The subhead then uses her name.

"Miss Florence Lawrence, Reported Killed in Auto Wreck, Still Acting Before Camera."

A fact it said that was confirmed by Carl Laemmle.

Joe McClintock thinks this early St. Louis report has been overlooked.

- The rumor was started, and I think it was started to sell movie tickets.

But I don't think it started with Carl Laemmle.

I think it started with a man named Frank Talbot.

- [Jim] He would've had his reasons.

Frank Talbot owned theaters in St. Louis, including The Gem Theater, where the new IMP films with Florence Lawrence were being shown.

and people were coming.

An earlier "Post-Dispatch" article on the local movie business makes no mention of Florence Lawrence's rumored death, but says hundreds of fans had been asking about where she was and were switching theaters to find her films.

So another possibility to consider.

It was a rival theater owner who started the rumor to keep his customers from heading over to The Gem.

Maybe Talbot didn't actually start the rumor.

Maybe he just took it and ran with it.

Got the not dead news story placed prominently in "The St. Louis Times," and in the same edition his Gem Theater ad, "Florence Lawrence Not Dead.

See her here in today's motion pictures."

Was there a rumor?

Was it a hoax?

Was it Talbot's idea?

Laemmle's plan?

Nobody really knows for sure.

Whatever, it worked.

- The first time Florence Lawrence becomes famous is when they're denying that she died.

- The "Globe-Democrat" took up the story with Florence Lawrence's surprised reaction to the reports of her death.

And here's a feature story with some Florence Lawrence beauty tips.

The "Post-Dispatch" ran a whole page on her still alive.

It was titled "The Girl of a Thousand Faces," determination, sadness, concentration, piety, coquetry, horror, hilarity.

The photos and quotes coming straight from the IMP Studios.

And Carl Laemmle wasn't done.

He got on a train with Florence Lawrence and King Baggot, co-stars of his new film, and they headed to St. Louis for two nights of personal appearances.

And if you showed up at Union Station to greet them, you could get an autographed picture of Florence Lawrence.

It was March 25th of 1910.

- That day was really sort of the birth of movie stardom in America.

- [Jim] "The St. Louis Times" seemed to be a partner in all of this with exclusive coverage.

It reported that thousands of people turned out, mostly women, a bigger crowd had said than had come out for President Taft's recent visit.

When Florence Lawrence got off the train, the times said a flood of femininity swept toward her like an avalanche.

And that the crowd pressed her so closely that it appeared she would be trampled under foot.

Later accounts said buttons were torn from her coat as souvenirs.

This might all seem like studio hype.

But remember, nothing like this had ever been done before.

- I have no reason to think it was exaggerated.

I think motion pictures were fairly new, but there was a huge fan base for them.

And I think people generally had this appetite to meet a movie star.

- Of course, that just kept getting more and more intensified, you know, throughout the '30s and '40s.

And yeah, I would credit Florence Lawrence with having started that or having it thrust upon her, maybe.

- [Jim] What happened in St. Louis that day set something in motion that now just couldn't be stomped.

The "Post-Dispatch" ran a full page story profiling other silent film stars by name.

It said movie fans, or fiends as it called them, were now demanding personal news about their favorites.

The following year, the first fan magazines hit the news stands.

And King Baggot, he now became known as the king of the movies.

- He was the number one male movie star for a number of years, and he did so much.

His career went very well.

- [Jim] You can still find some of their films from the silent era, but so many have not survived.

And for the most part, for the general public today, neither have their names.

By the 1920s, they'd been surpassed by bigger stars making bigger pictures.

They both continued to appear in films, but you'd be hard pressed to spot them.

King Baggot as man in audience, racetrack spectator, theater goer, baseball fan.

Florence Lawrence in 1933's "The Silk Express" as older blonde phone operator.

She did have a small speaking part in this 1931 Hoot Gibson western.

She arrives in a buggy for a single scene.

- That's the man.

- [Jim] She might not have said much, but Florence Lawrence could still make a face.

- He has the (indistinct).

- You big brute!

- [Jim] Florence Lawrence's life was not going well.

She was dealing with pain from a movie set injury and with bouts of depression.

Later, suffering from an incurable bone disease, the first movie star committed suicide in 1938.

King Baggot whose acting career started in St. Louis theaters died 10 years later.

Their deaths made the news.

But even in St. Louis, the stories made no reference to what had happened here in 1910.

- You know, by the late '30s, it was a case of, I'm surprised they remembered who she was at all.

- [Jim] This publicity photo was taken in 1935.

It shows 10 silent film stars signing contracts to appear as extras in MGM films.

And there they are, King Baggot and Florence Lawrence, who made movie history in St. Louis together again for one more publicity stunt.

(gentle music) (no audio) - And that's "Living St.

Louis."

You can find these stories and more on our Nine PBS YouTube channel and at NinePBS.org/LSL.

I'm Brooke Butler.

Thanks for joining us.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] "Living St. Louis" is funded in part by the Betsy and Thomas Patterson Foundation and the members of Nine PBS.