Ritz (Austin, Texas)

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The Ritz in Austin, Texas, located at 320 E. 6th St, was built in 1929 by L.L. Hegman, who owned several movie theaters in Austin. It was the first theater in Austin to be built specifically for the talkies. The architect was Hugo Kuehne, founding dean of the University of Texas School of Architecture, who also designed the Austin History Center (originally the Austin Public Library). It was originally a long narrow space, and was segregated, as were most movie theaters of the time, with a separate entrance leading to a balcony reserved for people of color.^[1]

The theater opened on 6th Street on October 13, 1929. It showed primarily first-run westerns with a lower ticket price than any other theater in town, and frequently brought in the stars, like Wild Bill Elliott and Dub Taylor, along with country musical acts who performed before the movies.^[2]

In 1937 Hegman's son Elmo took over management, and expanded the theater to 800 seats by adding 25 feet of width. He continued showing Westerns until television siphoned off the audience, and closed the theater in 1964.^[1]

Cary White, the production designer for The Faculty and Spy Kids, amongst other movies, was the projectionist and janitor at the Ritz during some of its last days as a movie house.^[3]

The theater remained shuttered until 1970, when it re-opened for three years as a porno house. A year later, in October of 1974, entrepreneurs Jim Franklin and Bill Livinggood renovated the theater and opened the doors as a music venue, offering an eclectic mix of programming from classical to rock, and including live theater and movies. This was also short-lived, and the club closed in 1975.^[4] Several other groups moved in over the years. The Center Stage theater group took it over in 1977, closing off the balcony to make a second, separate theater. In 1981, Shannon Sedwick and Michael Shelton began running the venue as a punk rock club. The violence inherent to punk rock shows eventually cost the operators their liquor license, forcing another closure in late 1982. In the fall of 1983 the Ritz became home to Esther's Follies, a comedy troupe that still entertains Austin just a few blocks further east on 6th St. Esther's Follies was only one of the attractions hosted by the Ritz at that time. The managers also began reintroducing music, from Texas bands to heavy metal, and very cautiously brought back a little bit of punk rock.^[1] The building has consistently been a music venue, bar and pool hall since that time.

On March 20, 2007, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema announced that they would be relocating their downtown cinema, which was the original theater opened in 1997, to the Ritz. They will begin construction on April 1, 2007 to revive the Ritz as a movie theater.^[5] The Ritz is still owned by the grandchildren of L.L. Hegman.

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b ^c Pearson, Jon "The Ritz: 50-year survivor" The Daily Texan, February 8, 1985
^ Advertisement "Elliott finds heart of Texas mighty big" Austin American-Statesman, March 7, 1942
^ Larry Craddock, building owner
^ Saez, Daniel D. "Ritz Theater Revived" The Daily Texan, September 13, 1974
^ Novak, Shonda "Alamo Drafthouse moving to 6th St." Austin American-Statesman, March 21, 2007