Ritz Theatre
301 W. Pecan Street,
Celina,
TX
75009
301 W. Pecan Street,
Celina,
TX
75009
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Queen Theatre
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The Ritz Theatre in the town of Celina, TX was opened on September 2, 1932 with Richard Arlen in “Sky Bride”. It had a seating capacity of 250 until being destroyed by a fire on January 29, 1946. (It has its own page on Cinema Treasures)
Celina’s Queen Theatre which had opened by 1922 and closed in 1932 was remodeled as the new Ritz Theatre which would upgrade its capacity to 500 with upholstered seats, and reopened on June 18, 1946.
There was information involving the $35,000 Ritz Theatre, which contains walls and floor of the foyer covered with dark red tile. On entering the lobby is confronted with modern mantel topped by a large mirror and flanked by decorative ventilating louvres on each side. There is also a cry room which was equipped with a germicidal lamp which killed airborne bacteria with ultra-violet rays. There were two entrances separated in the lobby and the auditorium. The screen was indeed a bit larger and is flanked by murals done by artists from Dallas area. Lastly, the marquee is covered with neon strips and topped with a large neon sign.
The Ritz Theatre continued operating as a movie theatre until at least 1957, but right when the 1960’s rolled along, the Ritz Theatre added special events into their line-up. So it was unclear when the Ritz Theatre ended its film run.
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50sSNIPES
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
The opening of Celina’s first Ritz Theatre on September 2, 1932 (permalink) was announced in the previous day’s edition of The Celina Record. The opening feature was Paramount’s “Sky Bride” with Richard Arlen, Virginia Bruce, Jack Oakie, and child star Robert Coogan, younger brother of Jackie Coogan.
The destruction of the first Ritz by fire on January 29, 1946, was reported in the Record of January 31, (permalink) which said that theater owner J. T. McClure said that he would begin construction on a new Ritz in the former Queen Theatre building immediately. The opening of that house on June 15 was announced in the June 13 issue of the Record (permalink).
An article about McClure in the August 5, 1937 Record (permalink) said that “[f]or years, the last building on the street running across the north side of the square was the picture show building.” That building must have been the one at 301-303 West Pecan Street. From the article about the fire it appears that the intervening Ritz, from 1932 to 1946, was a couple of doors down the block from the Queen/second Ritz, probably at 307 or 309 West Pecan.
The permalinks in my previous comment are supposed to open directly to the parts of the pages with the articles on them, and be enlarged, but the links aren’t working properly, at least for me. All four articles are at the top of their respective pages, so you’ll have to scroll up and then enlarge using the bar at the upper left of the page (unless the scroll wheel on your mouse will enlarge it, as mine does.)
Uploaded a photo of a page from the Celina Texas Record from June 13, 1946 in which booster ads were placed for the soon to open Ritz.
The Queen/Ritz was not Celina’s first venue for movies. There is a November 20, 1913 item in the Celina Texas Record that Charley Ownsby, Manager of Celina’s Opera House, only presented clean vaudeville shows and moving pictures.