Don’t Miss ‘Vincent Price in St Louis: A Day with Victoria Price’ June 30th

ESC Tours Presents ‘Vincent Price in St Louis: A Day with Victoria Price’ on Saturday, June 30th. Tickets can be purchased HERE

The day begins at 9:30 AM with a private tour of the new Muny Exhibit at the Missouri History Museum.

After learning a little about the history of this venerable entertainment venue — and Vincent’s long history with it — we will leave for a van trip to see the St. Louis landmarks of Vincent’s youth.

We will stop for lunch (meal not included) at Blueberry Hill after which we will take a walk along the St Louis Walk of Fame and see Vincent’s star — and those of other St Louis dignitaries.

Then we will head over to the Saint Louis Art Museum. There we will spend some time viewing the collection and looking at art the way that Vincent did. Plus — as an added bonus — we will get to see some of the art pieces that Vincent donated to SLAM in a private viewing!

In the evening, we will head over to Schlafly’s for a movie night hosted by We Are Movie Geeks. We will be viewing The Pit and The Pendulum with some special features — with commentary by Tom Stockman and Victoria Price. (Food is not included, but you can order from the Schlafly’s menu.)

If you only want to attend the dinner, tickets for that can be purchased HERE

ABOUT THE TOUR:

This is a small tour, and so we are limiting the number of people to one van — so that everyone can get to know one another and be able to connect with Victoria.

The tour includes all van transportation and entrance fees to museums and the movie night. It does not include meals or drinks. Please bring water and any snacks you will need — and money for lunch and dinner!

NOTE:

The pickup/dropoff location will be announced in June.

THE WAY OF BEING LOST, the new book from Victoria Price, Author of ‘Vincent Price – A Daughter’s Biography’ can be ordered on Amazon HERE

In 2011, we asked Victoria to write a testimonial about her famous father toasting him on the centennial of his birth:

When I was a little girl, I believed that to come from St. Louis made you a member of a very desirable club.

I got this impression because whenever my dad met someone from his hometown, he greeted him or her as though he had just found a long-lost friend. Immediately they would discuss where they had “gone to school,” which I later learned did not mean college, as it did everywhere else in America, but rather high school. They would then talk about all the places they loved – Forest Park, the Muny, the St. Louis Art Museum, the Arch, Cahokia Mounds, the Mississippi – and, finally, of course, each would wax nostalgic, for what seemed an inordinately long time, about the food! When the reminiscences came to end, they would part, friends for life. And all because they both came from St. Louis.

Growing up in Los Angeles, no one – least of all me – expressed this kind of pride of place. And I never heard people who came from other places ramble on with this kind of rapture about their hometowns. St. Louisans always seemed to find one another, which stood in marked contrast to most of the transplanted Los Angelenos I knew, who would go to great lengths not to be associated in any way with Peoria or Dubuque or wherever it was from whence they hailed.

The bottom line was that my dad loved being from St. Louis. He couldn’t have been prouder to be a hometown boy who made good. He always remembered his youth with joy – whether it was discovering arrowheads at the Cahokia Mounds, rooting for the perpetual underdog Browns, or buying his first piece of art at age 12 (a Rembrandt etching) from a local gallery. He was a proud alum of Country Day, and remained friends with many of his schoolmates for life – most notably, fellow art collector Buster May. He loved returning home to visit his parents, to perform at the Muny, to chat with Country Day students – and mostly to eat the food! Certainly my father’s love of food, which would lead him to author a cookbook Saveur Magazine would call “one of the 100 most important culinary events of the 20th century,” was nurtured in St. Louis.

So, it goes without saying, that he would have been overjoyed and deeply touched by the fact that St. Louis is throwing him his 100th birthday party. (And he was a man who loved to celebrate his birthday!) I am so grateful to everyone for putting on this wonderful Vincentennial! And I hope that, in celebrating his 100th, his fellow St. Louisans can discover not only more about Vincent Price, but also experience some of my dad’s joy in being from what he considered the best hometown in the world!