Ritz Theatre

Though destroyed in 1946, the Ritz appears in the 1948 Film Daily Yearbook in the “Negro Theaters” listings. Most likely FDY simply hadn’t kept its records up-to-date, which was not unusual.

A page citing a 1952 San Angelo Standard-Times article said that downtown Ballinger then had three theaters in operation, the Palace, the Texas, and the Ritz. The Ritz was rebuilt and reopened after the 1946 fire. A November 27, 1948 Boxoffice item mentioned H. Ford Taylor as “owner of the new Ritz” in Ballinger.

dorstar says the Ritz was on Hutchings (the correct spelling) Avenue. That opens the possibility that Ritz was an aka for the Princess/Maeroy Theatre, which we have listed on Eighth Street, but a 1936 edition of The Ballinger Ledger says was on Hutchings. I’m still trying to puzzle out the history of Ballinger’s theaters, much of which we have apparently gotten quite wrong so far. The pre-fire Ritz still might have been an entirely new house built in the 1930s, of course.

I haven’t been able to discover anything about the Rex/Ford Theatre, which I haven’t yet found mentioned by either name in any trade publications, but perhaps H. Ford Taylor had something to do with that house as well.

1. Ford Taylor was the owner of the Ritz. He mentioned in the 9 January 1947 issue of the Ballinger Ledger that the Ritz Theatre was a total loss.