First a multiscreen cinema opened in 2000 a few miles away, siphoning off much of the Ritz’s business. What brought the Ritz to its knees was a too-common story for independent cinemas across the United States. If you lingered after a film ended, you might hear a leaf blower kick into gear as an employee ushered spilled popcorn along the aisles. But as much as the Ritz wore its years nonchalantly on its sleeve, it also had its more contemporary idiosyncrasies. The male toilet has a decades-old stencil of a seated man leisurely smoking. The “cry room’s” dozen seats await nursing mothers so they can comfort squalling babies and watch the film without disturbing others. The early 1960s spray-painted mural that covers the auditorium’s side walls celebrates the dawn of the space race. So 60 years, that’s a long time.” His wife was more reluctant to turn her back on a theater and a building she felt was a part of their family’s emotional fabric.Īs time capsules go, the Ritz is a doozy. At 71, Alan Bradshaw was ready to call it quits. “People bring ghosts in with them all the time,” she added, her 9-year-old dog Bo Peep wandering around her feet.Īlan and Mickie Bradshaw have worked at the Ritz all their lives. “The ghosts don’t like to hear that,” she said, her sad smile tinged with irritation. Bradshaw stepped away from the chimney, brushing at her shoulder for a moment, as if dislodging an unwanted speck of dust. “We are going to have to decide this summer whether to close or not,” she said.Īs if in response, a deep, vibrant moan sounded within the wall. Ritz Cinema co-owner Mickie Bradshaw stood in front of a fireplace chimney to the side of the lobby, waving at the few familiar faces of longtime cinemagoers, before returning to her thoughts about the fate of the 84-year-old movie house.Īttendance at the theater had been dire since it had reopened 10 months after the pandemic began in Utah. On a late January evening in 2023, as the end titles for the 2022 summer rom-com “Ticket to Paradise” rolled down the movie screen, nine patrons made their way out of the 550-seat auditorium, doing up coats in preparation for braving Tooele’s snow-laden Main Street.
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