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Howard Street theater a hub for movies and music in early '50s
By Mark J. Price
Beacon Journal
Published on Monday, Feb 25, 2008
Film stars stepped off the screen into the auditorium. Recording artists stepped off the stage into music immortality.
The Ritz was Akron's first big theater designed to serve African-American audiences.
When Howard Street was the center of Akron's black community, the Ritz took its place beside local landmarks such as the Green Turtle Cafe, Cosmopolitan Club, Benny Rivers Cafe, Coney Island Diner, Rhythm Bar, Elite Cafe and Oscar's Bar-B-Q.
The theater's owner was Maryland Theaters Corp., a subsidiary of District Theaters Co. of Washington, D.C., and Bijou Amusement Co. of Nashville, Tenn. The two companies operated more than 100 black movie houses in the East and South.
In 1948, Akron architect M.M. Konarski designed the 800-seat theater at 70 N. Howard St. The Howe Construction Co. of Cuyahoga Falls was general contractor. The project cost $160,000 — or about $1.5 million today.
''Contracts already have been signed covering the use of films starring such actors as Louis Jordan, Cab Calloway, Lena Horne, Paul Robeson, Dusty Fletcher, Louis Armstrong and the King Cole Trio,'' the Beacon Journal explained during construction.
When the theater opened in 1949, neighbors flocked to see it.
Richard Curling, 73, of Akron, remembers walking from his home on Hickory Street to the Saturday matinees as a child.
''Back in those days, they ran two features,'' Curling said. ''Usually, one was a detective movie and the other was a cowboy flick. Then they would show the news and the sports reel and maybe a couple cartoons. All for one price.''
The Ritz advertised standard Hollywood fare, including the latest films starring John Wayne, Clark Gable, Barbara Stanwyck and Johnny Weissmuller.
However, the theater added features that weren't showing elsewhere. Some had all-black casts.
There was Sepia Cinderella, a romance starring Billy Daniels and Sheila Guyse; Killer Diller, a musical with Dusty Fletcher and Butterfly McQueen; Professor Creeps, a detective comedy with Mantan Moreland; Look Out Sister, a Western with Louis Jordan; and Fight That Ghost, a horror comedy with Pigmeat Markham.
The latest Tarzan and Jungle Jim movies occasionally shared the screen with older titles like Harlem Rides the Range and Harlem on the Prairie.
Cazzie Pryor, 75, of Akron, recalls being surprised when he went to the Ritz.
''They had a lot of cowboy movies,'' he said. ''A lot of the cowboy movies were black. I didn't know they made black cowboy movies.''
The theater showed All-American News, a series about African-Americans.
''They had true news,'' Pryor said. ''A black did this and a black did that. Black inventors, and all that kind of stuff.''
Sherman Roberts, 73, of Akron, remembers catching a bus with friends in West Akron and taking the long way to the Ritz. They went out Prospect Street to Federal Street, which put them in front of the theater.
''Howard Street had a reputation, and your parents didn't want you to go down there,'' he said.
So the young moviegoers took an indirect route to avoid detection from their elders.
''Grown-ups that knew you would see you,'' Roberts said. ''They'd tell your parents, 'I saw Junior down on Howard Street.' And you would just be walking to the movies.''
A big thrill for children was when comics such as Moreland or Moms Mabley appeared in person at the Ritz. Some attended film screenings, while others did vaudeville acts.
''I remember the comedians,'' Roberts said. ''They had a guy called Pigmeat Markham. I saw him down there.''
Curling remembers seeing Peg Leg Bates, a one-legged dancer who lost his limb in a childhood accident.
''With him and his peg leg, that was kind of awesome to us kids,'' Curling said. ''The guy was an excellent dancer. He was a remarkable performer.''
Live entertainment was a big draw for the Ritz. Concerts cost 50 cents for matinees, 65 cents for evenings and 75 cents for midnight shows.
''When they had something at the Ritz Theatre, when they had somebody good that we knew, you could hardly get in there,'' Pryor said.
Blues guitarists B.B. King and John Lee Hooker played at the Ritz. Jazz singer Della Reese performed there a few months after signing a record deal.
Blues singer Wynonie Harris, R&B vocalist Larry Darnell and saxophonist Bull Moose Jackson made frequent visits.
Other notables were Lloyd Price, the singer of Lawdy Miss Clawdy and Stagger Lee; Big Mama Thornton, the first to record Hound Dog; and Johnny Ace, a crooner who shot himself to death a year after his Ritz show.
Audiences witnessed the birth of a cultural revolution at the Ritz. Some of the groups that played there were the Orioles, the Flamingos, the Larks, the Cardinals and the Swallows.
Others were the Clovers, the Checkers, the Counts, the Five Royales and the Five Keys.
''Back then, rock 'n' roll was just kicking off,'' Roberts said. ''They had most of the groups that got to be headliners later on come through there.''
The Dominoes, which featured future superstars Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson, performed regularly at the Ritz.
Deejay Alan Freed, who worked at Akron's WAKR radio until 1950, raided some of the talent for his Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland in 1952. He lined up the Dominoes, Paul ''Hucklebuck'' Williams and Tiny Grimes, all Ritz veterans.
Akron's black community took pride in the theater. Seeing a movie or show hadn't always been convenient in town.
''It was one of the few movies that we could go into where we could sit downstairs,'' Curling said. ''The rest of theaters, generally the blacks had to sit up in the balcony.''
Roberts said the Ritz was a symbol of black empowerment.
''If you didn't have nothing else, if you had a black movie theater called the Ritz, then that was something to look forward to. . . . When you have something like the Ritz, you can say 'This is ours. This is mine.' ''
Unfortunately, the Ritz couldn't last.
Television was partially to blame. Movie attendance began to plunge across Akron as people stayed home to watch free entertainment. Neighborhood theaters began to fold all over town.
The Ritz, which relied on concerts, took an additional loss when rock went mainstream. Acts that used to appear on the small stage moved to the larger Akron Armory.
The Ritz shut down by 1955.
As ownership changed hands, the building reopened in fits and starts. It became a dance club, a roller rink, a tabernacle and a contractor's office. The Summit County Society of the Blind used it for a workshop.
Urban renewal erased most of the old theater's surroundings. Landmarks fell one by one in the 1960s and 1970s, making the block virtually unrecognizable. Construction of the Akron Innerbelt barely missed the Ritz.
The building still stands at Howard and Beech streets. Since 1988, it's been called the Interbelt Nite Club.
For those who went there in the 1940s and 1950s, it will always be the Ritz Theatre.
''Every time I go by there, I tell my wife, who came from Florida, 'Boy, did we have a good time down there,' '' Pryor said.
''People talk about the good old days,'' Curling said. ''I guess every generation had their good old days. But I feel like I grew up at the right time, and it was a lot of fun.''
Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send e-mail to mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
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