Tuesday, April 7, 2009

The Ritz Theatre--A Sheffield Treasure


We hope many of you were able to attend the latest Ritz presentation, Rejoice, Dear Hearts. If you did, you saw that the theatre's facade and adjacent sidewalks are in the middle of a massive renovation. Much of the funding for these improvements comes from the semi-annual Ritz yard sale.

The sale will again be open the first Saturday in June, with merchandise featured at half-price. Located in the Foodland Shopping Center, the sale will be open from 9:00 until 1:00.

While in Sheffield, be sure to detour past the theatre itself, located on West 3rd Street just off Montgomery Avenue. With the exception of the marquee, the building again looks much as it did in the above 1939 photo.

During its grand days, the theatre was owned by Louis Rosenbaum. Rosenbaum's grandson Jonathan showcased many of the Shoals' early movie houses in his book Moving Places, now available to read online at: http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft3s2005n8&brand=ucpress

Now, if we could just bring Sparky back to the Shoals Theatre, we'd be in business...


What's up with this: Anyone know what happened to the new twin theatres announced two years ago for Sheffield's Hatch Boulevard?