"The Preacher" Hangs On East Locust!

Okay, it's really John Carradine in a bit part as a street bum in the Crown International film "The Hostage"--among many other appearances, you'll probably remember him as the preacher from "The Grapes of Wrath". But here he is, near the beginning of the film, crossing the street on East Locust, as if he had just left a matinee at the Amuzu and decided to wander over to the bar.

And, okay, he wouldn't have been coming from the Amuzu, since this was 1967 and the Amuzu had been closed for 14 years already. But I can dream, can't I?

BBQ In The Ground, 1939

Back in the 1930's, when the Roosevelt Theatre was new, the plan was for the theatre to be fully integrated into a whole complex along 42nd street--conceptual renderings from the time originally showed an apartment complex attached to the theatre, though this apparently never happened. A shopping center just across Rollins took on its namesake (which it retains today), and down below the theatre structure itself was a restaurant: Red's Barbeque. The theatre itself is now of course the Des Moines Community Playhouse, and Red's eventually became Theater in the Ground.