Ritz Theatre
216 SW C Avenue,
Lawton,
OK
73501
216 SW C Avenue,
Lawton,
OK
73501
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built in 1917, didn’t have a roof in the beginning, open air theater.had island box office, had 2 balconies. the back balcony was for African americans.dressing rooms in basement. lights suspended by ropes. approx. 1700 seats.closed during depression and bought by leonard jones. leased by video theaters around 1950. Ronald Duncan 580-379-0362.
Listings stopped in 1974. Adult movies in its last few years.
Here is what the neighborhood looks like these days, the Ritz is long gone!
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Here is a November 1972 ad from the Lawton Constitution. I guess Lusticolor never really caught on.
http://tinyurl.com/qc23m7
Don:
Sorry it took two years to respond, but my interest in cinema history comes and goes.
I gathered a lot of info about Video theatres from morgue newspaper articles, ads, and also by word of mouth.
It would have been prior to 1968 when Video operated the Pix, Reno, and Midwest. These theatres were listed together within Video theatre block ads.
I believe Video operated the Circle Cinema in Tulsa because I have heard that it was managed by Ed Swallow who later transferred to Okmulgee (his home town) to manage the Orpheum.
I’ve been told that throughout the 30’s & 40’s when not showing second run movies the Ritz was an on and off burlesque house. Listen to the type music the small house band would have played for strip-tease performers -
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The 1981 IMPA shows these Video Independent theaters in Lawton:
Vaska, 82nd Street Twin Drive-In, Video Twin Theater, Showcase Twin.
In 1970 the lineup was a bit different: Lawton, Diana, Vaska, Ritz, Auston Drive-In, Capitol Drive-In.
What difference does it make if Video Independent Theatres operated one or a dozan porn theatres? Everyone knows they regularly booked X-rated product into several of their theatres.
Anyway, both the Pix and Reno were closed long before 1968, and before hard-core films came out of the closet,
Nuf sed!
Grand opening ads clearly list the Reno Theater as a Griffith Bros. house. Have no proof that the Midwest or Pix were ever Video operations, but have heard that they were during their last few years. Tulsa Circle was definitely run by Video.
Another (and better) view of the (Lawton?) Ritz …
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It looks like the letters on the building spell “Newman”. I think the building was named first and the theater was added later, by the appearance in the photo.
seymour cox
would love to see the olds ads as i have no recollection of the pix, reno or midwest in okc or circle cinema in tulsa being owened by video. i worked in shipping part -time or was one of the delivery drivers from roughly 1968 to 1974 don’t recall either the names or deliviering to more than 4 theaters in okc-will rogers, may, twilight gardens and rialto.with regard to the boomer as a college town it was a little more racy but i think the only time anything slightly hard-core was shown ws when my cohorts and i rented it for midnight movies when i was in school there from 1970 to 1978. then again that was long time ago and my memory might be real foggy. would love to know more if you have the time
Another angle of the same shot, and much clearer -
http://www.tulsalibrary.org/JPG/F0104.jpg
Mr. Albright:
I beg your pardon, but reaserch of old newspaper ads reveal that Griffith Bros (AKA-Video) Theatres operated more than just two porn houses.
In OKC they owned skid row theatres that regularly exhibited X-rated films; Pix, Reno, & Rialto. Also, it was Video who switched the opulent Midwest Theatre over to adult loops, when they leased this giant atmospheric during the late 1960s.
Throughout the 1970s Video exhibited X-product in their Circle Cinema, Tulsa.
The Boomer Theatre in Norman sporadically screened skin flicks, though actually not often enough to classify this as an adult house.
Is this a picture of the Ritz Theatre in Lawton (long before it became a porn house) ? ? ?
http://www.tulsalibrary.org/JPG/E1663.jpg
the ritz was one of only two x-rated movie houses owned by video independant theaters. the other was the rialto in downtown oklahoma city (which didnt always just show x., also showed the blackplotation films of the 60s/70s. the ritz catered to the soldiers of fort sill. the films were shipped from oklahoma city after being reviewed by video’s film bookers to make certain they were not beyond the limits set by Lawton’s chief of police. if the films were too racy they were shipped back to dallas rather than being forwarded to lawton but only after every guy who worked on the film row got together that evening for a private screening.
Just a bit of trivia…the letters that spelled R-I-T-Z on the Ritz/Lawton were purchased at the urban renewal sale and now sit atop the marquee at the Ritz Theatre, Shawnee, Oklahoma.
The Ritz in its last days was Lawton’s X-Rated theater. It was demolished in the late 1960s (along with the Lawton, and Dome/Dianna for the “Urban Renewal” program. The Central Mall now occupies what used to be downtown Lawton. the Central Mall replaced 100 years of history with the ambience of a used cheeseburger wrapper.
The seating capacity of the Ritz Theater varies in different editions of Film Daily Yearbook; 1940=800, 1943 and 1950=1,000.