Ritz Cinema

The Ritz Cinema was a single-screen theater that was built in 1970 to replace another Ritz Theater that had closed just three blocks away (it has its own page on Cinema Theatres). The New Ritz struggled with high crime and low audience turnout never finding its programming niche. The New Ritz Theatre was abandoned and then finally bulldozed in 1999.

The more well known Ritz Theatre was found in the 1700-block of Nashville. The Ritz had a vibrant 30-year history of motion picture exhibition catering to an African American clientele. It was operated by the Bijou Amusement Circuit and was the secondary theater to the legendary Bijou which was less than two miles away.

The original Ritz was ensnared in a strategic move to uproot the African American community along and around Jefferson Street which the City and State deemed to be contributing to urban blight. Eviction notices came for residents and business, alike, so that Interstate 40 could be built. While most had nowhere to go, the Ritz found new digs in the 2000-block of Jefferson - just three blocks away and across the street. But with the film exhibition marketplace turning to suburban luxury twin screen theaters with abundant free parking in adjacent lots, the Ritz seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Despite that, the New Ritz Theatre launched in 1971 with Blaxploitation fare. Transportation routes were challenged by the demolition projects and road crews. Parking was a challenged. Crime rates soared as displaced and sometimes homeless residents were in desperate situations during the urban renewal projects. But the New Ritz soldiered on. In April of 1972, a fatal stabbing incident occurred during a showing of “Halls of Anger.” A month later, a high profile robbery took place leading to even fewer patrons showing up.

New operators took on the New Ritz. Under the Ritz Theatre moniker, the venue reopened May 30, 1973 as a continuous show, “grind house” playing “XXX” films. The opening feature was “Tongue-Tied” and the theatre was operated on a sublease by LBT Inc. who operated the Mini-Adult Theatre on 4th Street in downtown Nashville. On August 4, 1973, the Ritz was raided for screening, “Affair in the Air;” that raid was caught on videotape by one of the local news affiliates and covered by three other news outlets who came with the local officials.

New and final operators, StarTrack Theatres, took on the venue in March of 1974 as the Ritz Cinema. It relaunched with a new policy operating as a sub-run discount house showing Chopsocky and Blaxploitation double features for under a dollar. The opening films were “The Thunder Kick” and “Fists of the Double K”. The theatre continued one year closing in early-1975. The theatre was then listed as abandoned as the State requested back taxes that never came.

The property is then misidentified as a landmark as folks think about reopening the dormant Ritz property only to find a much less interesting, 8,000 square foot and totally nondescript brick building. A $250,000 grant from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development came along allowing the facility - whose facade was covered in papered handbill advertisements and graffiti - to be demolished. In 2001, the theatre was quickly demolished ending the theater building’s unsuccessful run which amounted to less than four full years of movies and 17 years of emptiness.

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