Ritz Theatre
523 Driftwood Street,
Correctionville,
IA
51016
523 Driftwood Street,
Correctionville,
IA
51016
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Also, this theater is not located at an intersection. This seems to be a common mistake by this contributor. It’s located well north of 5th.
The Ritz Theatre first appears in the FDY in 1928, which is also the first year in which two other theater names are not listed: the Scenic and the New Radio. Those two were listed 1926 through 1928. Correctionville does not appear in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. I’ve been unable to discover if the Ritz was an entirely new house or if it was either the Scenic or the Radio under a new name. As the Ritz first appears in the 1928 FDY it must have opened in 1927, and would have appeared on the 1927 Sanborn (kdavis' first comment above) whether it was a new building or an older one. The Ritz was first listed with 200 seats, but no seating capacities were listed for the Scenic or Radio.
The local belief that Eddie Osipowicz built and operated the Ritz is partly correct. Boxoffice of October 27, 1951 reported that R. P. DeVries had sold the Ritz Theatre at Correctionville to Edward Osipowicz. After that, Osipowicz is mentioned in connection wit the Ritz in many issue of Boxoffice, as late as the issue of May 11, 1964. The Ritz might not have been providing an adequate income for him by then, though, as the item noted that Osipowicz was busy painting a drive-in restaurant that was to be operated by his brother-in-law. Earlier items had noted the Ritz closing, or re-opening after being closed for extended periods of time, and often operating on a limited schedule.
Need to update the listing with the information provided. The building is still there. Until recently, the original entry was visible, but it has now been covered with insulation. I was within half a block of this, and didn’t take a picture. Gaaaah!
The Columbia Opera House (321 5th) showed movies for a time and the small building just to the east of it (323 5th) also was a movie theater in the 1910s.
The Ritz Theatre is still standing. I just drove by a few months ago. It is at 523 Driftwood, just north of 5th Street. It was constructed between 1917 and 1926 and appears on the 1927 Sanborn Fire Insurance map. According to local history sources, an Eddie Osipowicz was responsible for building/operating the theater.