Ritz Theatre
124 Bradford Street NW,
Gainesville,
GA
30501
124 Bradford Street NW,
Gainesville,
GA
30501
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Contributed by
DENNIS WHITEFIELD
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
Opened on Christmas day in 1933. This is a vintage photo.
Here is the 1933 photo from another source.
This should be Show Theatre AKA Ritz, it was the Show Theatre when it closed. Here is a 1983 photo of the Show Theatre.
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Even though the date given for this photo is March 2983, it looks like another 1983 photo to me.
Some History can be read on the PALACE THEATRE site Athens Ga. I printed several letters on both GAINSVILLE theatres. Enjoy.they date back to the 40’s.
My dad owned this theater and the Royal Theater in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The Ritz never did as well as the Royal and always seemd to be second class behind the Royal. In 1960 or 61, my dad closed the Ritz and my mother took it over. They removed all the theater seats and other “theater” stuff and it was completely redone as a teenage dance club called The Peppermint Lounge. Everything was done in red and white and the ladies bathroom was so cute with peppermint striped chairs. The old concessions area remained a concessions area but instead of candy and popcorn, they sold hamburgers, hot dogs and corn dogs. The Peppermint Lounge lasted only a year or two and my parents sold the Ritz/Peppermint Lounge entirely. I remember in its later years, it was transformed back into a theater and was renamed The Show and showed all x-rated movies (to my mother’s disgust). My parents kept the Royal until sometime in the 1970’s when it was sold.