RITZ THEATRE

Traces of Lost Sharpsville

Movie Theatres in Sharpsville

  The first motion picture to be shown in Sharpsville was exhibited in the storeroom of Burckhart’s Meat Market, though the exact date is not known, nor is the person who brought the movie to Sharpsville.    Harry Hamilton opened the first real nickelodeon April 8, 1907 in the storeroom of A.D. Palmer’s shop at 15 N. Walnut St. (A nickelodeon was the name of the first indoor spaces for projecting motion pictures; small and simple, they were usually converted storefronts.  Despite the song, it was not something you “put a nickel in.”)  Richard Patterson opened a competing venture shortly afterwards in a store on Shenango St., with Clyde Becker joining the field in a building near 6th Street.  Patterson and Becker soon closed their establishments, and E.W. Allen bought the Hamilton enterprise May 15, 1909.  Two years later, he moved his business over to Park Hall at the corner of Park Way & Shenango, remodeling a large store space in that building, and eventually naming it the Colonial Theatre.  Over the next decade, the movie house had four successive owners—Charles H. Ruggles, Edward A. Cattron,  J.R. Hazel, and Charles R. Blatt, who purchased it March 28, 1921.  Though it closed around 1929, the Colonial had been the second theatre opened by the Blatt Brothers, who would come to own a chain of two dozen movie houses and drive-ins in Western Pennsylvania.    While details are unclear, the Pierce Opera House is also thought to have shown motion pictures in addition to stage performances.  An intriguing clue is found in its old ticket booth—long closed up and forgotten until the building’s remodeling during the past decade.  Much like a time capsule, the walls of the booth are plastered with posters from such stage plays as “The Runaway Wife,” “Missouri Girl,” and “The Black Diamond Express.”  There are also, however, three undated posters from “Howard & Garing’s Moving Pictures.”    The Ritz Theatre opened June 1924, in time for Sharpsville’s Golden Anniversary.  It was then described as modern, up-to-date in every way, and absolutely fireproof.  The building included two storefronts, initially occupied by Harry Solomon’s confectionary and Mrs. Carnes’ millinery.  The owner was Charles Gable, noted locally as the uncle of Clark Gable; he also owned the Gable Theater in Sharon.   Remembered for “his diamond rings and a powerful hoarse voice,” Gable operated the theatre until 1940 when ill health forced him to turn over management to Andy Seamon.  Seamon then purchased the movie house from Gable’s estate in 1950 and ran it until the about 1965.  The Ritz was fondly remembered for its Saturday matinee serials.   The long-vacant building collapsed July 11, 1995. Its foundation stands next to Jerry’s Tavern (the former Glen-Rose) on Main Street.