Ritz Theatre
6337 W. Roosevelt Road,
Berwyn,
IL
60402
6337 W. Roosevelt Road,
Berwyn,
IL
60402
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 28 comments found
Here’s one of my pictures of the Ritz from a couple years ago.
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Here’s one of my pictures of the Ritz from a couple years ago.
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josephdkovarik, I’m very interested in seeing pictures of the Ritz Theater. You can e-mail me at
Here are two 1982 photos:
Photo1
Photo2
Someone mentioned that there was a murder at the Ritz back in the 1920s. This is a free portion of a NY Times story dated May 1, 1928.
MOVIE GIRL MURDER ALARMS CHICAGOANS; Civic Leaders Lay Callous Staying to “Alliance of Crime and Politics.” ABANDONED AUTO A CLUE Search for Bandit Slayers Leads to “Badlands” of West Side and Drainage Canal. Crime Described at Inquest. Civic Leaders Denounce Conditions.
CHICAGO, April 30.—The search for those who killed Pearl Eggleston, 17-year-old usher, on Sunday night during a $1,400 robbery of the Ritz Movie Theatre, 6334 Roosevelt Road, Berwyn, swept tonight through the badlands of the southwest side, just out of the Chicago limits, following the finding of the robbers' automobile at Archer and Long Avenues.
uly 20, 1928
YOUTHS PLEAD GUILTY TO SLAYING GIRL USHER; Four Break Down in Chicago Court on Seeing Sobbing Mother of Victim.
CHICAGO, July 19.—The four youths who admitted participating in the robbery of a Berwyn, Ill., movie theatre in which Miss Pearl Eggleston, 17 years old, an usher, was shot and killed, will on Monday learn whether they will go to the electric chair or life imprisonment.
Someone mentioned that there was a murder at the Ritz back in the 1920s. This is a free portion of a NY Times story dated May 1, 1928.
MOVIE GIRL MURDER ALARMS CHICAGOANS; Civic Leaders Lay Callous Staying to “Alliance of Crime and Politics.” ABANDONED AUTO A CLUE Search for Bandit Slayers Leads to “Badlands” of West Side and Drainage Canal. Crime Described at Inquest. Civic Leaders Denounce Conditions.
CHICAGO, April 30.—The search for those who killed Pearl Eggleston, 17-year-old usher, on Sunday night during a $1,400 robbery of the Ritz Movie Theatre, 6334 Roosevelt Road, Berwyn, swept tonight through the badlands of the southwest side, just out of the Chicago limits, following the finding of the robbers' automobile at Archer and Long Avenues.
uly 20, 1928
YOUTHS PLEAD GUILTY TO SLAYING GIRL USHER; Four Break Down in Chicago Court on Seeing Sobbing Mother of Victim.
CHICAGO, July 19.—The four youths who admitted participating in the robbery of a Berwyn, Ill., movie theatre in which Miss Pearl Eggleston, 17 years old, an usher, was shot and killed, will on Monday learn whether they will go to the electric chair or life imprisonment.
Does anyone remember that a kid was accidently shot by his brother in the theater in the 60’s? I was there and heard the shot go off. It sounded so loud in there. Some boys broke into a home and stole some guns and hid in the theater. One boy was sitting behind his brother and the gun went off, and the bullet went thruogh the seat into his brothers back. Does anyone have knowledge or information about this?
Thanks josephdkovarik :)
It would help a lot.
My grandma might have some pictures of the Ritz.I’m going to look through some of the boxes of pictures.My family owned a house less than a block away from the Ritz from 1926 to 1992.I could see the Ritz from home at 1222 Highland ave.
Someone somewhere must have pictures of the interior of The Ritz! The Theatre Historical Society has nothing at all. :(
Kevincon, please email me directly for my postal address
email me at And thank you so much in advance. :)
There sure was a fire there in the late 70’s.My grandfater was a retired Berwyn firefighter,so my dad knew the lieutenant in charge.We lived a block away at 1222 highland ave.,and went over there when we heard the fire engines.It was a small fire confined to a closet across from the candy counter.The guy my dad knew took us inside.Over the next few years I had a number of chances to go inside. It was closed,and the electic and water were turned off.I can picture the entire building.It was almost an entire block long.The sub-basement regularly fodded and had to be pumped out.Once the electric was off the sump pumps were obviously not working.Wish I had kept some of the items that were no doubt discarded,like the vaudeville trunk with orange clown shoes in it along with other costumes.
Charles, I’ll get you a copy of Cicero and Oak Park if you like. Let me know how you want me to get them to you, ie PO box or delivery address. Kevincon
I stand corrected. The Ritz somehow got put in the same archives as The Oakwyn. – The Oakwyn is now a Teamsters HQ. I’m going to let The Theatre Historical Society know that they have some errors.
Thanks to Doug Deuthler’s books. I only own Berwyn, but I want to get a copy of Cicero too. I just can’t find it now, nor afford it.
I’m undergoing cancer treatments, and my insurance isn’t covering much. (Hey, we’re in Illinois, we take what we can get.) Thank you for the correction AKC Bob Jensen.
A Kilgen theater organ opus 3473 size 3/9 style U020 was installed in the Oakwyn Theater in 1926.
I ran across a story about a female usher at the Ritz who was murdered at the theatre by 3 armed 20 year old punks back in the late 1920’s. There are stories about it if you go to the Chicago Tribune archives.
MICHAEL KUECKER & CHARLES DuPONT, are you sure the Ritz was at one time the Oakwyn? The Ritz was at Roosevelt Road (12th Street) and Ridgeland Avenue and the Oakwyn was at Roosevelt Road and Oak Park Avenue (about 4 “city blocks” apart).
I found another address of 6343, that it was built in 1926, had 1500 seats and closed in 1978.
CHARLES DuPONT, I found two pictures of the Ritz in the Arcidia Book, Images of America, BERWYN, by Douglas Deuchler.
Page 68 has a photo that shows the Ritz in about 1931. You can see streetcar tracks on Roosevelt Road. In the theatre building the top two floors are apartments and the first floor has about seven storefronts, plus the theatre entrance. To the left of the entrance is a storefront with a LUNCH sign hanging over the sidewalk. Painted on the windows: SODAS, ICE CREAM, GARCIA C (the rest is hidden, I would guess it was CIGARS). To the right of the theatre is: RITZ JEWLERS, DIAMONDS, WATCHES, SILVERWARE, JEWELRY.
Berwyn had a large Czecoslovakiian and Bohiemian population and the Ritz routinely screened Czech films.
In the photo the marquee reads:
PREMIER SHOWING OF FIDLOVACKA FIRST CZECHOSLOVAKIA PICT
ALSO VAUDEVILLE ON SAT
A LIVING SHOW ON OUR SCREEN
The vaudeville included jugglers. magicians, singers, comedians, and chorus girls. Charleston dance contests were held on stage during the height of that fad.
Page 122 shows the mostly gutted interior of the Ritz as it was being turned into condominiums. The architect that designed the condo conversion was Errol J. Kirsch. The storefronts are now entrances to different condos and the stores windows have been bricked up so only a high window has been made of each window. A Mobil Gas Station is next store. I understand the condos are very modern, but the outside the building looks very much as it did when it was a theatre, but without the marquee. It’s not great, but at least the building was saved and it’s better than nothing, which is what my wife says about me, I’m better than nothing!
About three photos of what the Ritz looks like now are at Cinema Tour.
The Ritz had a 3/9 Kilgen Pipe Organ in it, does anyone know what happened to it?
“Gee Dad, it was a Kilgen!”
Oh yes, the apartments and offices of the Berwyn theatre had a fire. The theatre itself wasn’t touched. But some Berwyn official decided that “Since the building is not in it’s entirety, we cannot give it landmark status.” [ACTIVATE CAPTAIN SUBTEXT]
“Since LaSalle Bank has offered to provide their services to The City Of Berwyn, thus giving over $100 Million to our city every month, we can clear space for them to open a branch.” [DEACTIVATE CAPTAIN SUBTEXT] :–(
RiisPark may be thinking of the Berwyn Theatre, which is described on its page here as having had a fire.
No fire that I know of.
This is an excerpt from the Chicago Sun-Times dated 8/22/86. How much of the theater was saved during the conversion?
What once was the Ritz Theater – and before that a vaudeville theater – in west suburban Berwyn is developing into the 52-unit Atrium Court Condominiums.
Angled and arched avante-garde designs give the building at Roosevelt and Ridgeland a futuristic appearance. Buyers can choose one, two or three levels of customized living space. Young married couples and empty nesters are already moving in; 28 one and two-bedroom units priced from $56,000 to $99,500 have been sold. Demolition has begun.
I thought this theatre was damaged by fire near its end. Can anyone confirm this?
The correct address of the Ritz theatre was 6337 – Whoever put the info in the database has a typo. 6337 W Roosevelt Rd, now known as ONE ATRIUM COURT. – Kevincon, thanks for the info. Come on people, someone must have pictures. The Theatre Historical Society would love them, and The Berwyn Historical society only has tickets from The RITZ. :(
THE RITZ THEATER: it couldn’t have been at 6334 as the begining of this article states, that would have put the Ritz Theater in Oak Park on the north side of Roosevelt Road.
I believe the Ritz Theater was at 6337 Roosevelt Road, Berwyn, Illinois 60402. The Atrium building, now condos, at 6337 Roosevelt Road, Berwyn, Illinois 60402 has evidence of a theater as it’s base. If you look in the parking garage you’ll see a raked concrete floor with small holes that run from the south wall to the north wall on a curve indicating where theater seats were bolted to the floor. The stage was at the east end of the parking garage. Evidence of a back stage area on the southeast corner of the garage and farther east is a room with tongue and grove boards commonly used for stage flooring. If you stand in the parking lot south of the building you can see evidence of a fly loft in the brick work on the farthest south wall. Someone must have pictures of the Ritz Theater. It was standing on this site until the 1980s.
In the 70’s, we lived in Oak Park on Austin Avenue—not really that far from the Ritz. But, like chitownguy, we tended to go to the Berwyn, Olympic, and Harlem-Cermak theaters in that neighborhood. Perhaps it was an accessibility issue; the Ritz was pretty much in a residential area. And although close to the city border, it was considered in “the suburbs,” which meant limited public transportation. For drivers, I don’t recall a lot of parking (if any). I do remember some of the movies I saw there though—“Willy Wonka,” a film called “Night Moves” (with Gene Hackman I believe), and one of those British “Carry On” comedies spring immediately to mind. The last film we saw there was a Roger Moore vehicle called “Shout with the Devil.” The theater was in such disrepair that there were stains all over the screen, some theater seats had been ripped out and were stacked up in front of the screen (and thus being projected on!), and the sound went out about halfway through the film for what seemed an eternity. The theater was clearly on its last legs, and management didn’t care about the quality of the film presentation. A shame that’s my last—and lasting—memory of the place. Seems like it was probably pretty nice in its heyday.