Ritz Theater
403 E. Main Street,
Belleville,
IL
62220
403 E. Main Street,
Belleville,
IL
62220
3 people
favorited this theater
Showing 12 comments
article:
Midway theatre (Ritz) opening 22 Nov 1929, Fri Belleville Daily Advocate (Belleville, Illinois) Newspapers.com
Opened (or placed its 1st ad) as Midway on November 23rd, 1929. ad posted.
This was the Midway theatre, which was renamed the Ritz theatre on December 19th, 1930. First ad posted.
Ritz 2 opened on April 21st, 1972. Grand opening ad posted.
One of the earliest movies I saw here was “One Magic Christmas”…and other memorable movies included “The Little Mermaid,” “Prancer” and “Ghosts of Mississippi.”
I’ll never forget seeing “Ghostbusters II” in one of the upstairs screening rooms. In this particular room, the projector beamed onto a mirror (at the rear right corner of the room) that then beamed onto the screen. On this particular day, the projector malfunctioned and began to reverse the film at double speed. Momentarily, an usher came out to announce that the screening would be cancelled due to the malfunction and we were all issued rain checks. I didn’t see the movie in its entirety until it screened second-run at the Lincoln months later.
When the church moved into the old theater, a bar owner purchased the huge cursive RITZ sign and intended to place it on the facade of his bar on Washington Avenue in nearby St. Louis. This never came to pass, and the Ritz bar went out of business. I wonder where that sign wound up!
Below is a link to story about haunted history of the Ritz Theatre:
View link
i work at the ritz too went it closed! julie was the manager. yeah people said it was haunted. very creepy during closing time
There is a current photo on the church site. Go to www.faithbaptist-church.org and click “about”.
Parking, or lack of it, was the downfall of the Ritz. The theatre is at the far east end of downtown Belleville and never had a real easy place for customers to park. It is a shame this beautiful theatre has gone dark – it was/is beautiful and my very first job at 16 y.o. Before long, I became the Asst. Manager/Projectionist and had some of the best years of my life there! After cutting the balcony into two seperate but small theatres, the seating capasity for the main auditorium was about 375. The two screens “upstairs” sat 175 and 80 respectively. I certainly can remember when the Ritz could sell-out all three screens! Although it was said the theatre was haunted, I have to say I never saw any such activity – all I saw and remember are the best times of my life! At least the Ritz hasn’t been torn down and lives now as a church!
Original name was the MIDLAND.
My husband and I are looking for old theater seats to purchase for our home theater please contact us at We live here in belleville on olive street.