Movie Theaters in North Manchester

Source: News-Journal, August 16, 1973, Centennial Section

Theaters Make Scene Early 1900s

The buildings which hold Harvey's on Main Street were once the site of two of the area's finest theaters. The Marshall and The Ritz. The Marshall was located in the west side of the store and The Ritz was located on the east side.

The Ritz evolved from the Gem Theater which was first operated by a lady known as "Ma" Sirk. The Gem showed silent films of the day with piano player accompanying. One of the area's finest motion picture piano players was Mary Rockwell who later became Mrs. Chet Ulrey.

"Ma" sold the Gem to Charles Walters in 1926 and he operated it for seven years. Two years after taking over the Gem, Walters converted the business for talking pictures and renamed it The Ritz.

The conversion to talking pictures was devised by a local electrician, Leo Lowrey. He built and bought the sound system components which was considered to be quite an accomplishment. The sound system resembled an oversized record player with oversized records. The record player and the film projector had to be timed just right to have the right character speaking at the right time.

Wayne Garman purchased the Ritz from Chares Walters in 1933. The first film Garman presented was "State Fair" starring Will Rogers, which was one of the great films of the day.

The Ritz had a seating capacity of 270 which was never enough to handle the movie goers.

Two years after Garman took over the Ritz, a brand new theater, called The Marshall, with a seating capacity of 250, was opened by Clarence Helvy right beside the Ritz. Garman took over operation of The Marshall in 1936 and area residents supported both theaters from 1935 to 1950.

In addition to showing the popular films of the day the theater provided local merchants an advertising source. Short film clips advertising their business were run with the popular cartoons before the main feature.

Area merchants would also donate games and prizes for special events such as Easter and Christmas. One of the merchants making such donations was Dewey Freeze a local jeweler. Free admission, popcorn and a great variety of toys and games were awarded to the kids of the community as their ticket stub numbers were called by Garman.

Another feature offered in the theaters was Bank Night. Movie goers would register for a prize which would grow at the rate of $25 a week. The money would accumulate until it reached as high as $500. In order to win, the person drawn had to be in the theater at the time of the drawing. If he wasn't in attendance, the money would continue to add up until a winner was present.

Even today the bank night prize would be significant but it meant even more when tickets were 35 cents for kids and 50 cents for adults.

New Year's was also a special feature of the Marshall and Ritz Theaters. After the regular feature was over hats and noise makers were distributed to the crowd. At midnight a great roar would let out from the people gathered for the occasion. Shortly after, a spook show was run but was seldom heard because kids kept yelling and playing with their noise makers.

While both theaters were in operation The Marshall featured action pictures such as cowboy and detective movies and The Ritz featured the popular feature movies of the day. It was not uncommon to find a mother in The Ritz and their kids in the Marshall.

In addition to Garman who operated the teaters, Mrs. Beatrice Brooks and Mrs. Marjorie Ward worked as cashiers, popcorn poppers, etc. Donald Sims, better known as "Simmy" was the projectionist.

The Ritz Theater was closed in 1950. At the same time The Marshall was remodeled and a cinemascope screen was added. The Marshall continued its operation until 1962, showing the latest films on its new screen.

The motion picture business died in North Manchester, and in many towns and cities with the coming of television and as teenagers began having money for their own cars and gasoline. Television kept mom and dad home while the teenagers went to the larger cities to see motion pictures and other forms of entertainment.