On the Ritz

I failed to mention something when I was talking about the trip I made to Montoursville a few weeks ago: one of my main reasons for going out in that direction was to see The Ritz Theater, a 1923 one-screener located in Muncy, PA. I stumbled upon it in my research about a month ago, and was amazed that I hadn’t heard of it before! Their website revealed that, like most theaters of its kind, it is in danger of closing.

I got there at 6:30 and the sun was due to go down at 7, so I waited patiently for the darkness to fall on Muncy. It was quiet, and I figured they probably wouldn’t light it up on a weekday, so I snapped off a few shots in the meantime. The shot above was an easy one to get, but I wanted to get the other side. A little difficult because the marquee kept getting in the way. I rattled off a few, but the “Z” kept getting obscured.

In case you didn’t know, I’m part goat. If you see some nut standing on something while taking a picture, that will be me. I have a stool in my trunk for just such a purpose, but my car was across the road. There’s an old trash can just down the way from the theater, one of those old fortified-with-concrete guys, in the perfect position. Up I went.

Oh, he may be crazy…but he gets results…

Well, the upshot of it is, the lights never turned on. I guess I can hardly blame them if they’re having trouble. If you get a chance, help support this theater, because goodness knows there aren’t enough of these local gems around anymore.

I’ve put together a grouping of my favorite movie theaters here.