Seventy-seven Years of Magic at The Ritz

Ad from the October 4, 1928 edition of the McKinney Weekly Democrat-Gazette

On October 8, 1928, McKinney’s newest movie venue, The R & R Ritz Theater, opened with a nighttime-only screening of Our Dancing Daughters. The film starred Joan Crawford, Anita Page, and Johnny Mack Brown. Located on the Square at the corner of Virginia and Kentucky Streets, the facility boasted the most modern projectors, screen, and sound equipment available. It also included a fully appointed stage for live shows, as well as professional office space for lease behind the balcony on the second floor.

Howard Hughes of Humble, TX, later one of the wealthiest men in the world, was one of the original owners, along with Robb and Rowley of Dallas and two local businessmen, W.G. Underwood and Roy L. Brockman. Brockman, along with his brother, Tom, had owned the Queen Theater. Though no longer operating, the Queen Theater building remained intact and adjoined the elegant new movie house. Roy served as the theater’s managing partner.

In 1929, even though the building was still new, the partners agreed to upgrade the R & R Ritz by installing an air conditioning system. The move was a shrewd one, and insured a full house every weekend during the spring, summer, and much of the fall. Despite the Great Depression, the business thrived, and by the mid-1930’s, Brockman and Underwood had bought out the other partners’ interests. The two men worked together for the rest of their lives.

From a McKinney Courier Gazette article dated December 22, 1948

From its opening, Mr. Brockman made sure the Ritz gave back to the people who supported it. After a city-wide cleanup in 1930, local children were invited to use a recovered tin can to pay for admission to the afternoon show. Toys and canned goods also were used to purchase a movie ticket at different times throughout the theater’s history. It’s impossible to know how many people were helped over the years because of the offer of a free movie.

Another example of Mr. Brockman’s commitment to his community was his generosity toward U.S. military members during World War II. When the U.S. Army opened the Ashburn General Hospital on McDonald Street in May of 1943, Mr. Brockman jumped at the chance to contribute to the war effort. The hospital opened with five hundred beds, and the staff included hundreds of military personnel necessary to run a large hospital.

Unfortunately for the men and women in uniform, McKinney wasn’t famous for its nightlife in 1943, and, even if the distance was the same, Dallas seemed a lot further away in those days. That meant movies were about the only entertainment for a lot of folks who found themselves far from home with time on their hands. Brockman, a World War I veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart, refused to allow any military personnel to pay for movie tickets at the Ritz until Japan surrendered. The gesture couldn’t have been profitable, but it’s not hard to imagine what it meant to those men and women who served and recuperated here in McKinney.

Sometime during the 1950’s. The Great Sioux Uprisings was released in 1953.

When the war ended, an attorney and his secretary, Miss Edith Marie Scott, occupied the two offices next to Mr. Brockman’s at the rear of the balcony, which most theaters had back then. Just about everyone knows, either from stories or first-hand experience, what happened up there once the movie started. The Ritz’s balcony, it turned out, was special. Its magic wasn’t just for teen-aged couples anxious for the lights to go down.

Sometime after the end of World War II, Miss Scott and Mr. Brockman took a liking to each other. They began dating, and on August 15, 1947, they were married. The couple had a son, John, and a daughter, Ann Marie. Mr. Brockman also had three children from a previous marriage – Roy Edward, Jane, and Buddy. Both Jane and John still call North Texas home.

The lobby after it was remodeled in the mid 1960’s

The 1950’s saw many changes for the Ritz and for the Brockman family. They opened the McKinney Drive-In in 1950. In 1953, The Robe introduced moviegoers to the wide world of CinemaScope, and changes had to be made at the Ritz. The original movie screen, the most modern available in 1928, was small enough to fit against the back wall of the stage. However, movies filmed in the new format required a larger projection area. Because of its size, the new screen completely covered the stage, putting an end to live shows. The family’s biggest challenge came in 1956, when Mr. Brockman died. His oldest son, Roy Edward, took the reins and managed the company for another fourteen years.

The same area of the lobby today

John, Mr. Brockman’s youngest son, spent much of his childhood at the Ritz. He, like nearly everyone who saw a movie there, remembers the sticky floors. He also remembers the long-time custodian, Jessie Jackson. Free movies came with the job, and Mr. Jackson always watched from the balcony. What John Brockman remembers most about Mr. Jackson is his deep, loud laugh, which would bounce off the auditorium’s walls and ceiling throughout the show.

Bill Haynes remembers a bookstore located in the in the front corner of the building where Pumps is today. When the feature film was based on a novel, such as To Kill a Mockingbird or From Here to Eternity, the owner of the store would make a display of that book in the front window of her shop. Because movies rotated out every two or three days back then, she would sometimes have to change it out several times a week. Jim Bewley, a McKinney native, took a date to see Giant, based on the novel by Edna Ferber, at the Ritz. He must have been especially nervous that night since he doesn’t recall seeing that book in the store’s front window.

First floor shops, restaurants, and salons today. This would have been the main viewing floor of the theater.

R.D. Foster, a local musician and writer, worked at the Ritz from 1963 until 1966, while he was a student at McKinney High School. He remembers getting a small paycheck, but big perks. Movies were free, as were popcorn and drinks. Even better, he got to see just about every high school girl in Collin County every weekend, and he always knew which girls had a boyfriend and which ones didn’t.

The Queen Theater, closed for nearly fifty years at the time, was attached to the Ritz, but sealed off. Mr. Foster remembers finding a hole in the wall behind the Ritz’s screen that led to the abandoned movie house. The auditorium still had chairs in it, though most were turned over or tossed on top of each other, and the floor was full of holes. From the Queen, another hole in another wall led to a courtyard enclosed on all four sides by multi-story buildings. Mr. Foster recalls a single door leading to one of the other businesses was the only access. The small area seemed abandoned and offered a private place for those teenagers who knew how to access it.

The Queen Theater was located in the area beyond the brick arch. This doorway was created during the 1997 renovation to open the space for development.

During his time at the Ritz, Mr. Foster saw nearly every film that was shown. He’d watch the ones he liked as many times as he could before something new came to town. He says he can still recite most of the dialogue from A Hard Day’s Night. The two movies he remembers having the longest lines were To Hell and Back, with Audie Murphy, and Ole Yeller. Also, the beach party movies of the early 1960’s and anything with Elvis in it guaranteed a long line and a full house.

The courtyard R.D. Foster and his friends discovered

One of Mr. Foster’s most powerful memories of the Ritz is something that happened in July of 1964. Until that time, only white people were allowed to sit on the main floor. Colored people, the preferred term at the time, were relegated to the balcony which, Mr. Foster says, was rarely crowded. However, on July 3, 1964, the day after the Civil Rights Act passed, people stood against the walls and in the aisles to be up there. At some point during the show, everyone filed down the stairs and took a seat on the main floor, most for the first time.

As the 1960’s came to an end, maintaining an independent movie theater became an expensive endeavor, and the Brockman family decided it was time to sell the Ritz. The change of ownership took place in January of 1972. The new owners continued operating the Ritz Theater for another two years before closing the doors and leaving the building empty. In the early 1990’s, the Ritz became home to the McKinney Eldorado Bible Church. George Bush (no, not that one), the building’s current owner, bought the property in 1997 after the church moved into a new facility.

The projection booth is still in place, even though it has served as an office for almost twenty years.

Mr. Bush completely remodeled the building, creating spaces for eleven professional offices, seven retail establishments, and twelve salon suites. As part of the renovation, he opened up the old Queen Theater and integrated that area into the rest of the building. He also installed twenty-eight new windows, making an open, welcoming environment for his tenants and their customers. Today, the Ritz is home to specialty shops, a wine bar, law offices, mortgage brokers, and salons. R.D. Foster’s courtyard, now a well-kept retreat, gives building employees a place to enjoy lunch or take a break from their work.

Most of us would cringe, or even leave, if we found ourselves in the R & R Ritz Theater on that October night when Joan Crawford made her first appearance on McKinney’s newest movie screen. We would quickly grow frustrated, squinting at the screen while the picture was brought into focus during the newsreel. The whir and click of the projector, fighting its way through a haze of cigarette smoke, would distract us from the Vitaphone soundtrack. We’d get impatient waiting for the reels to be changed, grumbling at the interruption. Maybe worst of all, we would have to sit still for almost two hours, with no air conditioning, in either a dress or a coat and tie.

View of the Square from a third floor office, where the projection booth used to be

Stadium seating, digital sound and pictures, and drink and meal service have spoiled us. Most moviegoers won’t tell stories about the theaters we frequent today. In fact, we’re usually glad to see them replaced by something with newer, more exciting technology. If we can’t make to the theater while the movies playing, we order the Blu-Ray or wait for it on Netflix.

One thing hasn’t changed, though, since The Great Train Robbery showed for the first time in 1904. Movies are still magical, taking us on adventures we could never have on our own. A theater is the portal – an enchanted mirror, perhaps, or a fantastical train station – that sends us on our journey and welcomes us back to reality a little happier, a little more relaxed for having spent a couple of hours away from our daily cares. The Ritz Theater filled that role for thirty-five years.Today, in addition to helping our downtown thrive with its unique shops and restaurants, the Ritz gives us a glimpse of McKinney’s past.

Mr. Roy L. Brockman

Seventy-seven years after opening its doors for the first time, Roy Brockman’s building is still giving back to the community he loved.

If you have memories of the Ritz Theater, please go to the What Do You Think box below and share them.

Many thanks to John Brockman, R.D. Foster, Jim Bewley, and Bill Haynes for their help in researching this post.