Less than two decades earlier the three Skouras brothers arrived in St. Louis from their native Greece to become the results of rags to riches Hollywood success stories.

In addition to Windy City achievements such as the Chicago, Southtown, and Uptown theaters, the brothers C. W. and George Rapp drew up plans in the 1920s for notable theater-skyscraper hybrids that included New York City's 29-story Paramount (1926); Cleveland's 21-story Palace (1922); and the 22-story Oriental in Chicago whose top stories housed the Masonic Lodge halls.

The architects crowned the Ambassador with a distinctive cornice frieze of terra cotta griffins—a motif also displayed in two prominent New York skyscrapers of the period.

Thirty feet high, these windows were richly embellished with finely detailed terra cotta in Renaissance style.

The three floors of theater offices fronting Seventh Street were appropriately distinguished by terra cotta spandrel panels featuring regal pairs of sphinxes, Egyptian symbols of power.