GRIFFIN March 2025

4 • CWEA GRIFFIN • March 2025 Growing up on the 4900 block of Pershing Place in the Central West End of St. Louis during the 1950s and ’60s, it became apparent to me very quickly that one of the great attractions of the neighborhood was the Chase Park Plaza Hotel. Built in 1922, the hotel featured barber shops, gifts shops with candy and risqué magazines, a large outdoor swimming pool, a grand lobby, gourmet restaurants, Wrestling at the Chase, the Chase Club, Harry Fender/KPLR TV and all kinds of celebrity guests. To the coming-of-age set in the neighborhood, the Chase offered an endless supply of fun, enter- tainment and adventure. It repre- sented a magical kingdom over- looking Forest Park where visitors could stay and neighborhood kids could play. Perhaps the most exciting as- pect of the hotel were the elevators. They provided a gateway not only to the Zodiac Room but also to the myriad rooms, back stairs and cor- ridors high above Kingshighway and Lindell. Nimble use of the el- evator system allowed us to escape the clutches of hotel managers just about all the time. During the early spring of 1964, my father invited me to join him for the short walk to the Chase to view the St. Louis Bicentennial parade and motorcade led by Presi- dent Lyndon B. Johnson. More than 100,000 St. Louisans turned out that day to celebrate the 200th birthday of the city’s founding on the banks of the Mississippi. I remember my father comment- ing that he didn’t understand why Harold Koplar, the owner of the hotel, had elected to redecorate the Presidential Suite for LBJ when the president was only going to use the suite to “change his shirt for dinner.” In many ways, the Bicentennial celebration in St. Louis continued for a few years. The new Busch Sta- dium, moving from the city’s north side, opened in 1966 in Downtown St. Louis. The glorious Cardinals baseball stadium followed the open- ing of the stunning Gateway Arch in October 1965, remaking the City’s riverfront. In the spirit of the Bicenten- nial, St. Louis welcomed the inva- sion of British pop/rock music in the form of the Beatles and Roll- ing Stones during the summer of 1966. That was perfect timing for me and my fellow Chase groupies as we had reached peak prowess in our coverage of the hotel. We knew the Stones were in town and that they were staying on one of the top floors of the hotel. Seizing on precious inside in- formation, we infiltrated the pool area and watched in amazement as Brian Jones, founder of the Rolling Stones, repeatedly tried to execute flips off the high diving board, only to land each time on his back! He was clearly feeling no pain and this perhaps should have been an early sign that he would be out of the band within three years. Staying ahead of the game, our motley crew raced to the elevators to find the Rolling Stones’ suites in the hope of ambushing them as they returned from the swimming pool. Luckily, we quickly learned that the 18th floor was the target. As I approached the door to one of the Stones’ suites, out popped Charlie Watts, the drummer of the The Chase Park Plaza: Making a neighborhood via celebrity sightings By Joe Schlafly The pool area of the Chase Hotel. Stones who would go on to play that role for 60 years. On that par- ticular day during the summer of 1966, he could not have been more friendly and gracious to this young teenager, who was essentially crash- ing his party. We spoke for a while and discussed the tour, and I asked him about any new songs the group might be creating. Watts retreated into his room and reappeared with a sheet of music and lyrics to a song titled Lady Jane. That song, along with Paint it Black, were big hits for the Stones that summer. Charlie insisted that I keep the song sheet; his generosity made me the coolest kid in the neighbor- hood for the rest of the summer. The Rolling Stone encounter may have been the high point of my youthful affair with the Chase Park- Plaza. I am confident that I am far from alone as a neighborhood ben- eficiary of the grand hotel.