Ritz Theatre

534 Spring Street,
Danville, VA 24541

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rivest266
rivest266 on June 22, 2023 at 3:38 pm

Grand opening ad posted.

50sSNIPES
50sSNIPES on March 1, 2022 at 6:13 am

First planned by J. Coates Carter, and constructed by cinder block and bricks, the $100,000 552-Capacity colored Ritz Theatre opened its doors on December 14, 1946 and was first owned by Bernard Depkin Jr., and Rives Brown, both from Martinsville.

The Ritz closed for a time on September 2, 1954 for the installation of CinemaScope (I didn’t notice it until now), and reopened a few months later. It was closed in 1957.

The Ritz’s CinemaScope wasn’t mainly used very often, possible due to Danville’s dominant mainstream indoor theaters (the Capitol, North, and Lea) and secondary indoor mainstreamers (Rialto and Schoolfield) all had CinemaScope.