Where Have All the St. Louis Companies Gone?

I recently ran across the program for the first VP Fair held 30 years ago over the July Fourth holiday in 1981.    

I read it with great interest. Instead of a Country Western signer or rock band, the first fair featured singer Ella Fitzgerald.  Most young adults and teenagers then only knew of Fitzgerald from television commercials challenging people if the voice that broke a glass was “live” or on a Memorex recording tape. But it certainly showed St. Louis had much better taste in music 30 years ago compared to recent years.

As I read the magazine the less I was concentrating on the show. I was more interested in the number of firms that advertised in the program that are no longer in St. Louis or even in existence. Here are some examples.     

Anheuser-Busch, Inc.: Bought by In-Bev in 2009.

Bank Building Corporation: Bankrupted in 1990

Baur Properties: Sold their office buildings to an Indiana base company in 1998 and sold their last properties, two hotels in 2007. 

Boatmen’s Bank: Missouri’s oldest bank, founded in 1847, it was sold to North Carolina based Nations Bank in 1997, which later was swallowed by Bank of American. Perhaps it would have been much better for everyone if Boatmen’s had taken over NationsBank and then Bank of America.

Community Federal Savings & Loan: went into receivership and closed by the Resolution Trust on December 15, 1990.  They had a memorable radio jingle and an equally memorable headquarters building on Manchester at Ballas.

D’Arcy-MacManus: Pitch men for the brewery, they merged with ad men Benton-Bowles and went out of business in 2002 after another buyout.

Edison Brothers Stores: Not an original St. Louis company, but they operated a lot of shoe stores in St. Louis, until 1995 when they went bankrupt.     

Famous-Barr: The hometown department store created in 1911 with the merger of The Famous Clothing Company and William Barr Dry Goods, Co., it was bought by Federated in 2005 and had their name changed to Macy’s in 2006.

A.G. Edwards: Founded in 1887, the brokerage was sold to Wachovia in 2007. In 14 months Wachovia was floundering due to the subprime scandal and was bought by Wells Fargo.

General Dynamics: The military aircraft and submarine manufacturer was headquartered in Clayton from 1971 to 1992 when it moved to Fairfax, Virginia to be closer to the Pentagon, Congress and of course their K Street lobbyists.

Kroger: You have not been able to go Krogering in St. Louis for decades.  The closest Kroger store is a new one in Warrenton.

Lambert Furniture:F ounded in 1861. Long out of business.

Mallinckrodt: The pharmaceutical and chemical supply company founded in St. Louis in 1867 was sold to Tyco Healthcare in 2001.

McDonnell Douglas: Founded in St. Louis in 1938, merged with Douglas Aircraft in 1967 remaining headquartered in St. Louis until 1997 when bought by Boeing.    

Missouri Pacific Railroad: Begun in St. Louis in 1851 and headquartered here until the 1982 merger with the larger Union Pacific Railroad.

Ozark Airlines: Our original hometown airline from 1950 to 1986 when it was eaten whole by TWA, which was later consumed by American Airlines of Dallas, Texas.  

Ralston Purina: The Checkerboard Square people fell from the 57^th largest American company in 1955 to 342 in 2000. Frist the people food business was sold to General Mills in 1997. Then the animal food  business was gobbled up in 2001 by a hungry Swiss Mountain Dog named Nestle.

St. Louis Globe Democrat: The city’s conservative morning paper finally overtook the older Post-Dispatch in circulation numbers by 1980. The Post-Dispatch bought the Globe in 1986 and shut them down then changed from an afternoon paper to a morning paper.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The Pulitzer paper headquartered in St. Louis was sold to Lee Enterprises of Iowa in 2005.

The Seven Up Company: The drink was formulated by the Howdy Beverage Co. of St. Louis in 1929 and first marketed as “Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-line drink” before switching to 7-Up. With headquarters in Clayton there were plans for a rotating lighted 7-Up bottle on the roof of the 7-Up Building on Meramec and Carondelet, but in 1978 the company was bought by Phillip-Morris. By 1988 it was a Texas Company owned by Dr. Pepper and then went British when taken over by Cadbury Schwepps in 1995.      

Wetterau Food: Founded in St. Louis in 1868, later supplied all the IGA stores. It was sold to Supervalu of Eden Prairie, Minnesota in 1992.

WRTH Radio: The good music station. About the only way to get good music on the radio in your car nowadays is to bring it with you on your iPod or CDs.        

It is nice to see that one of advertisers in the program is still very much a St. Louis company. Forshaw of St. Louis has been a hometown business since 1871, selling fireplaces, grills, mantels, sheet metal products.