Red Bird Lanes was a popular hangout for all ages for a total of 37 and 1/2 years. Multiple generations have fond memories of bowling there, learning to bowl there, or just hanging out. It stood at 7339 Gravois Avenue, at the busy intersection of Gravois and Hampton, just north of River Des Peres.
Red Bird Lanes, at Gravois and Hampton
Designed by architect Ed Wood, it was built of concrete and yellow brick, with then-state-of-the-art aluminum windows. It stood at the intersection of Gravois and Hampton in south St. Louis, just north of the River Des Peres.
Red Bird Lanes had 32 bowling lanes, with a snack bar, cocktail lounge, and nursery. It was open 24 hours. A lower level had a meeting/banquet room. The initial partners were Joe Garagiola, Tom Carbone, Carl Sciuto, Sam Caputa, Biggie Garagnani, and Stan Musial. It opened for business in 1958.
In the March 26, 1996 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Musial reflected on Red Bird Lanes. He said Red Bird Lanes was a good bowling alley, a good investment, and that he and his partners had a lot of fun with it. He also said he never took up bowling himself. Musial said he didn’t remember who came up with the name. But he said it was catchy, and that red birds and sports seem to go together pretty well in St. Louis. Whoever came up with the idea, the name clearly was a reflection that two of the bowling alleys co-owners had played baseball for the Cardinals.
Ultimately, an incident more than a quarter century after Red Bird Lanes opened proved the undoing of the relationship between Musial and Garagiola. And ultimately, the demise of Red Bird Lanes itself.
The background on Musial and Garagiola
Garagiola was a former teammate of Musial, a second-string catcher who played eight seasons in the major leagues, including five and a half seasons with the Cardinals. He played for a total of four teams.
Garagnani was 13 years older than Garagiola, but they’d grown up in the same neighborhood in south St. Louis.
After he retired in 1954, KMOX hired Garagiola to broadcast Cardinals baseball games starting with the 1955 season. His always cynical, sometimes self-deprecating sense of humor gained him a following. One of his stories was about how he decided it was time to retire. As he told the story, he was catching for another team playing against the Cardinals, and Musial came up to bat and asked his former teammate, “When are you gonna quit?”
The Musial and Garagnani families had been running restaurants and hotels together since 1949. It started with Garagnani buying a restaurant on Route 66, and it becoming a favorite of Musial. After a few years, Musial asked if he could purchase a share of the business. Stan Musial and Biggie’s grew into an empire of restaurants and hotels in St. Louis and southern Florida, where the Cardinals held spring training. The bowling alley in south St Louis was only a small part of the business, and Garagiola had little, if anything, to do with the rest of it.
In 1958 when Red Bird Lanes opened, Garagiola was in his fourth season broadcasting Cardinals games. He was a rising star, but his national prominence was still ahead of him. Garagnani had done Musial a favor by letting him partner with him in his restaurant in 1949. Musial was paying it forward by letting Garagiola partner in the bowling alley.
The disagreement between Musial and Garagiola
After a quarter century, all of the original founders were getting up in years or had died. For all of them, the bowling alley was an investment. The younger generation of Musials and Garagnanis had the more direct involvement in keeping the bowling alley and the restaurants and hotels running.
Except somehow Joe Garagiola didn’t get the memo.
Sometime in 1985 or 1986, Joe Garagiola decided he didn’t like the way the Musial and Garagnani families kept the books.
But rather than letting the younger generation of Musials and Garagnanis run the bowling alley while he concentrated on his television career, Garagiola pressed the matter and sued in April 1986. One of his demands was that the rest of the businesses the Musials and Garagnanis operated would be liquidated.
The settlement
Garagiola and Stan Musial settled out of court, and the two men never spoke publicly about the matter. But as a result of the settlement, they sold Red Bird Lanes, and the Musials and Garagnanis wound down their other business interests. Musial withdrew from public view, embarrassed that a former teammate and longtime business partner would question his honesty.
I feel bad for the hundreds of employees who ultimately lost their jobs because Garagiola took it to court when he could have quietly sold his interest in the business instead.
The lawsuit was the reason why Stan Musial refused to throw the ceremonial first pitch of game 3 of the 2006 World Series to Garagiola and Ozzie Smith threw the pitch instead. Musial and Garagiola never reconciled.
The demise of Red Bird Lanes
The group who bought Red Bird Lanes consisted of a local management company and a management company in California. This partnership operated Red Bird Lanes for about a decade before selling it to Walgreens in 1996.
Arguably, both part of Red Bird Lanes’ charm and part of its downfall was that management never redecorated it. For 37 1/2 years, it looked the same inside as it did in 1958. But by the mid 1970s, public fascination with the 1950s had come back and never really waned. So as long as the interior was still in good condition, a late-1950s vibe didn’t have to be a liability.
Walgreens bought it in 1996 and demolished it to make way for a pharmacy. Today, the Walgreens is across the street from a CVS pharmacy and from a grocery store with an outsourced-to-CVS pharmacy, a reflection of the city of St. Louis’ shrinking and aging population. The fourth corner of the intersection, at 7350 Gravois, used to be a popular Steak ‘n’ Shake location that closed in 2019. A car wash now occupies that site, which seems to be a trend.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.
In the early 80’s I was an Assistant Manager for Steak ‘n Shake and first assigned at the Gravois restaurant across the street from Red Bird Lanes. This was still the time period for curb service and closing overnight. So, I did spend a few times afterwards at the all-night bowling alley. Lots of great memories with co-workers. BTW, we would still have some celebrities dine at the old Steak ‘n Shake, which was previously an old Howard Johnson’s diner before it was replaced with a second-generation store a decade later. Morning breakfast guests also included The Decent Boys, Steve Mizerany and Joe Farhat, of The New Deal Applicance Company next to the Bevo Mill. Definitely a different time period. It is sad to see a Walgreens now there and the Steak ‘n Shake gone.
Wow, those are some names I haven’t heard in a long time! I think I remember you telling me back when we were cubicle neighbors you had managed that Steak ‘n Shake. Turns out that location was one of the places Emily and I went the night we met. The bowling alley was long gone by then.