The Ritz opened on Christmas Day 1929. Courtesy photo
The 1,200-seat Ritz Theatre opened its doors in downtown Corpus Christi on Christmas Day 1929. Its debut show was the 1909 silent picture “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The Ritz soon became one of the first movie houses in the United States to show talkies before morphing a few decades later into the Ritz Music Hall, where Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jimmy Buffett, Bob Dylan, Blue Oyster Cult, Def Leppard and others played.
Now suffering from decades of neglect, the Ritz could be making a comeback as part of downtown’s continuing revitalization — if the money can be found.
“The Ritz was an epicenter for culture back in its day,” said Monica Sawyer at a presentation given at the theater during a TEDx Corpus Christi talk in 2012, the year the building was declared a Most Endangered Place by Preservation Texas. “From vaudeville shows, first-run movies, USO shows and tons of music … We can have that once again. The Ritz has so much to offer.”
Sawyer is a co-founder of PATCH — Positive Action Toward Cultural Heritage — a nonprofit started in 2006 dedicated to reviving the Ritz Theatre.
“When it opened Christmas Day, the stock market had just crashed two months before,” Sawyer said. “It was the start of the Great Depression. Despite the trouble and turmoil outside of its walls, the Ritz was successful.”
Sawyer is set on reviving the Ritz and maintaining its existing infrastructure to ensure preservation of the 1920s classical movie palace. At a Ritz Theatre Action meeting July 6, she described all the work that had to be done to reopen the building after 20 years of it sitting empty. It ended its music career and closed in 1989.
“Over the past 10 years, we’ve gutted all the trash out of this building,” Sawyer said. “We’ve had this place treated for mold and asbestos. We secured the roof to keep birds from coming in. We had water established, power restored throughout the building.”
Standing on the theater’s storied stage, she talked proudly of the progress PATCH has made, declaring her confidence in future restoration plans.
“We’re not just a theater,” she said. “We’re an integral part of the community.”
Currently, the Ritz hosts Food Truck Fridays in its parking lot and opens its doors during the monthly ArtWalk. It hosts open mic nights and raffles to raise money. It is also the spiritual center of the annual Dia de los Muertos festival, housing the community and individual shrines on its stage.
Future plans are to operate the theater as a performance and presentation facility, making it a cultural hub in downtown Corpus Christi.
To get there, the Ritz has a long way to go. It needs $12 million to fully restore electricity and plumbing, retile the roof, install an elevator system and meet ADA demands. It also needs a new air-conditioning system. While $12 million is a lot of money, PATCH sees it as an investment for the future of the historic building and the city.
Raising money hasn’t been easy. While the city allows PATCH to operate without a certificate of occupancy to keep the doors open, it provides no financial support. And, though supportive of its cause, the Downtown Management District has many other projects vying for the same pot of limited funds.
PATCH fundraising projects have included benefit concerts, online crowdfunding and a poster project selling reprints of vintage gig posters for Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffet and Bo Diddley.
Although originally formed 10 years ago, PATCH is restarting from scratch with a new board of directors and key stakeholders. Sawyer stressed the importance of community involvement to show the city that locals care about reviving the Ritz.
“We have to look to the community to change the face of downtown, to change the voice of Corpus Christi,” she said.
If you’re interested in helping revive the Ritz, join the “Ritz Rock Stars,” a volunteer group that actively helps in restoration efforts. You can also attend the next Ritz Action Planning Meeting at 5:20 p.m., Monday, Nov. 14, at House of Rock, 511 Starr St.
The Ritz Theatre is located at 715 N. Chaparral St. in Corpus Christi. Visit the website at ccritz.com or follow the Ritz at facebook.com/CCRitzTheatre for updates.
