Ritz Theatre
1921 Hollywood Boulevard,
Hollywood,
FL
33020
1921 Hollywood Boulevard,
Hollywood,
FL
33020
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I have uploaded photos I took of a historical marker/plaque for the Hollywood Theatre/Ritz Theatre that is attached to the wall on the left end of the storefront at 1921 Hollywood Boulevard that has been the home of Mickey Byrne’s Irish Pub & Restaurant for several years. The plaque includes a description and an archival photo.
The spot where the plaque is placed against the wall painted orange is visible in the 2019 Google Street View image.
Click here for a map of downtown Hollywood’s historic landmark plaques, though the Hollywood/Ritz is the only former theatre so recognized probably because the others arrived later and the marker project is about the city’s earliest important businesses.
The Apple Maps image shows the location as being within ArtsPark at Young Circle but the correct location is west of there on the north side of Hollywood Boulevard, shown correctly on Google Maps.
Click here to see a nice photo of when this was the Hollywood Theatre from the blog “Florida’s Hollywood: History and People” by Joan Mickelson, Ph. D.
A different Google Books author, Bonnie Wilson, sites 1926 as the year in which the theater opened. She also mentions that ushers would spray patrons with mosquito repellent as they entered the theater. Nice. The former theater became a retail store after it closed sometime in the 1940s.
The house that later became the Ritz opened as the Hollywood Theatre in 1923 or 1924. It was located at 1921 Hollywood Boulevard. According to A Guide to Historic Hollywood: A Tour Through Place and Time, by Joan Mickelson (Google Books preview) it was renamed the Ritz in 1935. This was after a new Hollywood Theatre (later the Hollywood Cinema) was opened on Harrison Street. The Ritz operated at least into the 1940s. It has been demolished.