Ritz Theater
3149 S. Grand Boulevard,
St. Louis,
MO
63118
3149 S. Grand Boulevard,
St. Louis,
MO
63118
3 people
favorited this theater
Built in 1910, the Juniata Theater was part of a small independent chain of theaters operated by O.T. Crawford in St. Louis. The theater was was located on South Grand Boulevard next to the Hessleberg Drug Company in the South Grand Business District.
The Ritz Theater, as it was renamed in 1924 when it was taken over by Ansell Brothers, was a fairly narrow theater with a small balcony. The Ritz Theater showed second-run movies. Rather non-descript interior and a very small lobby. The theater was twinned in 1981.
Contributed by
Charles Van Bibber, Norman Plant, JAlex
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Recent comments (view all 13 comments)
Last operated in the early 80’s by Harman Moseley who then was running some art film in the then twinned theatre. I guess that didn’t work well, so he ran some soft-core and later exploitatation. The neighborhood finally complained and the city bought the building and demolished it. Now the site of a very cramped parking lot.
Yeesh. I saw a number of films there on my cheap date nights, including “Blue Thunder” with the recently deceased Roy Schieder. The place wasn’t kept very clean, but maybe it was just the sloppy neighborhood kids. I swear a rat ran across my foot there once in 1980. Wasn’t that the southernmost theater on Grand Ave?
Became a two-screen house December 1981.
And, for Kerry M: No, the Melba was the farthest south theatre on Grand.
Here is an undated photo of a Ritz Theater in St. Louis.
Final day of operation was March 30, 1986.
The site of the theatre is now a parking lot.
Here are two 1985 photos of the Ritz:
Photo1
Photo2
Didn’t Mid-America Theaters run this place for a while in the 70s?
Yes, Mid-America operated this theatre from 1962 to 1979.
I remember when my Grandma died in 86'. She lived on Juniata St for 40 years. We drove up from Nashville and stayed at her house during the funeral. I remember being depressed and walking the few blocks from her house to the RITZ. I never went in, it may have been closed by then. My mom and aunt told me that they used to walk there all the time to see movies as kids.