Chatterbox Bar – Selby and Western, St. Paul
Tracing the history of buildings in St. Paul is more difficult than those in Hennepin County because fewer resources are online (or I am unaware of them), including the St. Paul newspapers, so I am left with the Minneapolis newspapers, and helpful comments on Facebook. But I will give this a try!
A NOTE ON ADDRESSES
There seem to be three addresses in play here:
389 Selby was the original address of the Chatterbox. The first mention of the place that I found in the Minneapolis newspapers was in March 1938, but it could have gone back as far as the end of Prohibition, which was April 1933.
We see 389 Selby in a note dated March 1946 about the bar being remodeled.
On September 26, 1950, in a report about a robbery, we learn that Robert Whiteside was the manager/bartender.
391 Selby was a four-story apartment building that went back to 1908, if the address stayed consistent. In 1948, a 20 ft. high stairway collapsed and six people were injured.
393 Selby comes up in the St. Paul Globe as a combination commercial/residential building going back to at least 1890. Businesses at the turn of the last Century included a dry good store, a plumber, a beauty parlor, a massage school (ladies only), and Korn’s Rental Emporium, which rented bicycles, all the rage at the time.
393 was the Bakke Variety and Department Store in 1962, before the 1965 fire. This became the address of the Chatterbox, as evidenced by a note/ad in December 1985 and another in April 1992.
THE BEAUX ARTS THEATER
Information about this theater comes partially from the website Cinema Treasures.
The Elk Theater opened in 1912 to 1917. There was also an Elk Theater at 2707 E. Lake Street in Minneapolis – and one in Elk River. There was an ad in November 1912 at 393 Selby.
It was called the Rialto Theater from 1917 to 1918. (Not to be confused with the Rialto at 735 E. Lake Street in Minneapolis)
It was renamed the Summit Theater from 1918 to 1933. On June 28, 1924, proprietors Mr. and Mrs. William A. Cameron were shot by a bandit after they closed the theater. Mrs. Cameron died of her injuries and left a considerable sum to her husband, the paper was sure to report. The address was given as 39, Selby! Their typo, not mine!
It was then renamed Beaux Arts Theater from 1933 to at least the 1950s.
In 1935, a story about a fire identified the Beaux Arts Theater at 391 Selby. The theater had 200 patrons at the time – it reportedly seated 300. 22 apartments had to be evacuated as well. Two years later, in a story about fraud in “Bank Nights” at the Beaux Arts, the address was given as 393. And in 1938, a story about a robbery stuck to the 393 address.
Cinema Treasures says that the site is now a parking lot.
1965 FIRE
On August 8, 1965, a 4-alarm fire broke out at the Abbey Apartments, which were adjacent to the Chatterbox Bar and Supper Club, as it was referred to in the newspaper report. The owner of the Chatterbox was listed as William O. McCann. The Abbey was a four-story brick building that housed 22 residents. Two residents and two firemen were not seriously injured. The apartment building, bar, and Bakke’s Variety Store were destroyed – damage was estimated at $150,000. When fire crews came on the scene, the smoke was so thick, they couldn’t tell if the fire was at the Abbey or the Angus Hotel across the street. More than half of St. Paul’s fire equipment was used to fight the fire. A 60 ft. radio antenna on top of the apartment building belonged to the Yellow Cab Co. of St. Paul – a crane was brought in to make sure it didn’t fall. The tragedy of the fire for the Chatterbox was that part of its insurance was held by a company that was declared insolvent by the Ramsey County District Court the week before, and McCann had not transferred it to another company. (Minneapolis Star, August 9, 1965; Minneapolis Tribune, Paul Presbrey, August 9, 1965)
Facebook comment: The hotel and the Chatterbox burned from top to bottom, and it took three years or more to restore it all. Terrific-sized ice dams flowed out several windows on all but the top two floors – it looked like Minnehaha Falls coming out of each window from the firefighters spraying the structure for what seemed like hours.
In Joe Soucheray’s column of June 4, 1978, Joe named Robert McCann as the owner of the Chatterbox. Robert