Dublin Theatre
314 Academy Avenue,
Dublin,
GA
31021
314 Academy Avenue,
Dublin,
GA
31021
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Chris McGuire Cinemas, Martin Theatres
Functions: Movies, Performing Arts
Previous Names: Ritz Theatre, Theatre Dublin, Martin Theatre
Phone Numbers:
Box Office:
478.277.5074
Nearby Theaters
The Ritz Theatre was opened on March 5, 1934. It only lasted for 13 days as it was gutted by an arson fire on March 18, 1934. It was operated by the John W. Peck company owned by Martin Theatres (aka Roy Martin Enterprises).
The arson attack was carried out by four men, all part of the John W. Peck Inc. company:John W. Peck Jr of Sylacauga, Alabama, projectionist Ralph ‘Sparky’ Dominy, Cecil Sapp & Edward Underwood operators of the theatre. The loss of the fire was estimated by company officials at $50,000, which was the exact cost of restoring what was later to become the Dublin Theatre. Peck was the only man to be arrested in Dublin. The three remaining men escaped Dublin before being taken into custody in both Macon & Atlanta. The trials were attended by Roy L. Martin himself. The four men agreed to plead guilty that May and were sentenced to five to ten years in state prison.
The Ritz Theatre building was restored and reopened later in 1934. In 1949 it was renamed Dublin Theatre, operated by the Martin Theatres chain. It is currently a performing arts center with movies.
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
There are some interior photos and general information about the theater on this site:
http://tinyurl.com/2h4nj8
I think it gives the current seating as 620.
They have a Facebook page called Theatre Dublin. It says they will have a website soon: www.theatredublinga.com but it is not active yet. Elvis impersonator Ben Portsmouth recently played there.
Correction, Ben Portsmouth will be playing there August 8th.
I did enjoy going to the movies at the Martin Theater in 1957, when I would spend time in the summer with my aunt and uncle in Dublin. I would walk from their house out by the old hospital to town, times were different then. The theater had separate entrances, one for downstairs and one for the balcony. I have seen the theater sense it has been restored and now is known as the Dublin Theater, it looks great, good job in saving a treasure.
1949 photo added courtesy of the Fifties Fun Facebook page.
I passed through Dublin this week and was surprised to see that this old Martin location is once again a full time operation. They still do live shows, but at all other times it is a full time, small town, single screen movie theater. According to the employees who were nice enough to let me look around, it has been this way since November 2017. On the day of my visit they were showing Jurassic World. Here’s hoping they can compete with the Carmike / AMC west of town.
I have posted some pictures from my visit in the photo section.
Once operated by Chris McGuire Cinemas.
The Dublin Theatre was most likely the replacement of the extremely short-lived Ritz Theatre, also operated by Martin Theatres, that got destroyed in an arson on March 18, 1934, exactly thirteen days after it opened.
I’ve come across something a bit puzzling. The September 28, 1935 issue of Motion Picture Herald has an item headed “Hightower Dresses entire staff for ‘Public Hero’” and the item says: “For ‘Public Hero,’ R. H. Hightower, Ritz Theatre, Dublin, Ga., had a man dressed in guard uniform carrying rifle walking his post between two lookout towers on either side of theatre. On each side of entrance and exit doors, guards paced back and forth. Usherettes were dressed as convicts with the number one on their backs. For foyer display, Hightower had a display of submarine guns, pistols, etc., taken from city and county criminals.”
The “submarine” guns were obviously meant to read submachine guns, but the point is that Dublin had a Ritz Theatre operating more than a year after the original Ritz burned. I doubt that Mr. Hightower would have sent the magazine the wrong name for his theater, so the logical conclusion is that the rebuilt house that is now the Dublin Theatre opened as the Ritz, just as its predecessor had. Indeed, the 1935 FDY lists the 400-seat Rose Theatre and the 900-seat Ritz. In later editions the Ritz is listed through the 1940s. In 1945, a Dublin Theatre appears, with 850 seats, but both the Rose and the Ritz continue to be listed along with it. In 1949, the Ritz finally vanishes, and the Dublin is suddenly listed with an astonishing 1,650 seats. Obviously that was extraordinarily unlikely for town of little more than 7000 population.
I suspect that the continued listing of the Ritz after 1945 was a mistake, and this house was called the Dublin Theatre from then until the early 1950s. I don’t have access to FDYs from the 1950s, so I don’t know when it became the Martin Theatre, but it might be that Martin took over the house in 1949, when a brief item datelined Dublin in the July 23 issue of Boxoffice said “Theatre sold to Martin Theatres by Jack Powell.”
Given the information that has come to light, I suspect that the Ritz was not destroyed by the 1934 fire, but was probably just gutted and soon restored, and reopened later that same year.