Ritz Theater
3149 S. Grand Boulevard,
St. Louis,
MO
63118
3149 S. Grand Boulevard,
St. Louis,
MO
63118
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The Ritz Park (at the theater site) held community events such as Tower Grove Pride Fest in the past
Would any of you who have posted here happen to have old photos of the houses on 3600 Juniata near the old Ritz Theatre? If so, please contact me at . Thanks!
The former site of the Ritz is now a St. Louis city pocket park.
The weekend that President Kennedy was assassinated, I went to the Ritz and saw “Lawrence of Arabia”. I was 12 years old. There were about 5 other people there that Sunday afternoon. I also saw the first run of the Beatles first movie “A Hard Day’s Night” there. I stayed all day in fact and still have my original ticket that I had to purchase ahead of time. The Ritz was the closest movie house to me as I lived on Juniata Street. I alternated between it, the Shenadoah, Columbia. Avalon and Granada theaters on Sundays.
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.
Yes, Mid-America operated this theatre from 1962 to 1979.
Didn’t Mid-America Theaters run this place for a while in the 70s?
Final day of operation was March 30, 1986.
Became a two-screen house December 1981.
And, for Kerry M: No, the Melba was the farthest south theatre on Grand.
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?
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.
In 1925 a Kilgen organ was installed , a 2m/4r instrument.It had a 2hp motore and was on 10" wind The opus number was 3471. No indication of the fate of the organ.
JamesGrebe
Theatre located at 3149 S. Grand.
Built in 1910, one of the theatres of O.T. Crawford. Opened as the JUNIATA Theatre.
Theatre renamed the RITZ in 1924 when the Ansell Brothers took over.
Architect was William Lucas.
Capacity of 950.