ST. LOUIS • On Sept. 7, 1982, in the hours before the grand reopening of the Fox Theatre in midtown, Mary Strauss fussed over an unpolished brass rail and minor flaws in color schemes. She and her husband, developer Leon Strauss, had made restoring the lavish old movie palace a $3 million obsession.

"This building, with its grandeur, is just what the doctor ordered for St. Louis," said Leon Strauss.

The opening stage show that night, "Barnum," was a smash hit for the Strausses and for midtown, the district that once had bustled with people, streetcars, automobiles and things to do. Its row of big theaters, including the Fox, at 527 North Grand Boulevard, had been the city's "Great White Way," the glistening place to be.

Midtown was countryside in 1876, when the city set its boundary pa

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