I take it all of us are old timers. We all remember the Ritz Theater, right? Marble front, marble bathrooms, mosaic tile, plush crimson carpet and Johnny Mack Brown. A victim of urban renewal. Take heart, because the Ritz is alive and well! I've got a row of Ritz seats right here in my house. I traded for them a couple of years back. Leather seats with cotton and horse hair stuffing. Wooden arm rests and cast iron frame. The seat backs are charred at the bottom from the fire in 1932. I like to make popcorn and settle back in one of the seats and watch a video. It's 1949 again.

Who were some of the guest...I remember Lash LaRue, Chettah and know there were others but since I am at the stage I can not remember what I ate for breakfast, I was proud I could remember those two.
What fun with the talent shows....

Wow! I'm green with envy. I spent many Saturday mornings in that place. Remember the Kiddie Club where you could do some kind of skit or sing and get in the movie free? I remember Lash Larue coming there and the Bonnie and Clyde car being parked out front one weekend. The yo-yo guy with all his yo-yo tricks. Ed Cleveland said he met Don 'Red' Barry when he came there once. And how about those Saturday serials: Rocket Man, Nyoka the jungle girl, Flash Gorden, Tarzan, Jungle Jim, etc. I remember seeing "The Thing" there and being scared out of my wits walking home.

First job I ever had was taking up tickets at the Sylacauga Theatre..I was still in school and worked after school, some nights and on week-ends...After a few months, Doug Cayson, the relief operator, was drafted and I moved up to relief projectionist for both the Sylacauga and the Ritz..I'm glad the walls there were never able to talk as we had several real parties there. I kinda breathed a sigh of relief when the building was torn down to build the new library..Just kidding, I hated to see it go..

I was there for the Lash Larue show. One of his guys held a cigarette in his mouth and Lash popped it in two with his whip. Then he opened a bottle of coke with his whip. Did a fast draw demonstration then sung, "Remember me." Wow. You don't get entertainment like that anymore. Red Ryder was there once. Little Beaver was with him. Was Little Beaver the same Robert Blake that's been in so much trouble?

I remember Johnny Mack Brown was a chain smoker and had one in his hand the entire show. We used to gather up at my Uncle Grady's store before dinner on Saturday and the Hickman boys would tell us how the hero got out of certain death the week before. They went to the morning show and we had to wait till the afternoon show to go. Kinda ruint the suspense but we had the ups on the rest of the kids. MVB ES

I use to get 50 cents a week and I paid my bus fare from the quarry there and back, paid my way in the Sylacauga and the ritz and bought some little refreshments. I don't remember all the discriptions about the theaters because I had to take my nephew with me. His feet would just clear the floor when I carried him and his diper bag. It was an all day trip and both of us would be give out when we got back home. When I played with the other kids I was always Nyoka the jungle girl. I had a shinny piece of material that I wrapped around myself (over my other clothes of course)with one shoulder bare and it was the only time I was allowed to wear lipstick. I poured it on. My oldest brother Rex Stewart's middle name was Gorden so when his first son was born his buddies started calling him (the baby)Flash Gorden and that nickname has stuck till today even tho his legal name is John Eddie Stewart named after his two grandfathers. It is amazing to me all the diffrent ways we all remember the theaters. It was a great time to be alive. The good ole days.
Zona

I worked with Rex and John at Kimberly-Clark. We were Millwrights. I wondered why John's nickname was Flash. He was always slow and easy and he never got in a hurry or got excited. "Flash" just didn't seem to fit as a nickname. Now I know where it came from.

What a small world we live in. My daddy was a very mild mannered man. Never got mad over most things. Rex took after my grandfather Dison. A slow walking man tall and slender with a red complection, but with a temper and a half. My mother took after him. She never got in a hurry about anything. she had a bad temper also. Rex took after her too. Did you ever notice how Rex just kind of glided along with a smooth gait? and how he would squat when standing around talking or standing hip shod. We are suppose to have a lot of Indian blood in us. Grandpa looked like an Indian but we never had any documentation on it. Flash took after my daddy more than he did his father. The nephew I carried to the movies was my sister Gertie Mae's son the same age of Flash. His name was Rusty and those two boys were a hoot. You just can't imagine all they got into. Rusty acted silly and Flash giggled at every thing he did. You couldn't get mad at them because they were soooooo funny.
Zona

Zona,

I remember your Dad well..(I think)...Didn't he do the maintenance work for the cleaners that Murray McCluskey owned on second street and Industrial Ave.?.Later I believe he did the boiler work for the cleaning shop that your neighbor, Mirian Heaton and her husband Jack owned on Norton..

I knew Rex and Grace when Flash was still a kid..We took our son out to see them when Flash owned a pony..
Rita, Flash's wife, always has been an exceptionaly pretty girl..Haven't seen her in years but she worked in the same office section that I did..Did work preparing bills of lading for shipments and also in raw materials control..

Somebody at work said that Rex could walk with a bucket of water on his head and never spill a drop.

You got it. That was my daddy. He also was a co-owner as well as Rex in the Heaton's Cleaning. He kept up all the boilers and other machinery at Sylacauga Hospital and the motel that Murry owned. The cleaning business kept them in the red. Just couldn't get the charge customers to pay up. That was the way my daddy was to let people get by without paying him. He worked on well pumps on the side and everything else you can think of. He and Rex had a lot of adventures together. They raised pigs together, had a corn pulling machine together, a cutter, sweeper and hay bailing machine, raised cows, had a well drill together and Flash helped with it. When they came in from work they usually had a job to go somewhere with the drill and when daddy started getting where it wasn't safe for him to climb on the drill Rex would come in early and slip off without him and daddy would drive all over the back roads until he found him so Rex finally had to sell the drill. He and Rex built the house in Oak Grove that we lived in. You name it and Rex and daddy has done it.
Zona

Pete I never saw him do that trick but I don't doubt that he could do it. When Flash was just a few months old he would hold him by his feet in one hand and start bouncing him up and down until Flash would get his balance and stiffen his legs then he would hold his arm straight out and Flash would just be standing in the plam of Rex's hand. Rex loved to play tricks on all of his family. he would take me to the ritz and tell me a love movie was playing but it would be Hong Cong and he would scare me all through the movie. He would reach behind and grab me at one of the most scarry parts and I would scream the house down. He had a car that had some kind of plastic seat covers on it and he took a necked wire and wove it all in the back seat and he could switch it on from the drivers seat. One time he had carried me and some more youg girls to the Quarry pond to swim and on the way home(in our wet bathing suits) he shocked the fire out of us. He thought it was so funny but we didn't. After he had shocked mother his wife wove every bit of the wire under the driver's seat and the next time he tried to shock someone it knocked the stew out of him. That was the last of that little trick.
Zona

Zona, this is the most entertaining page I've read since this thing started. No wonder ES married you, you're from crazy stock. It must have been a hoot when all of your family got together.

Horace

You better believe it. And that is not the half of it Horace.
Zona

Pete, is this you as one of the "street musicians"?

"Boom Town"

You know I loved the Ritz, the Sylacauga was kinda blah in comparison and the Martin was nice and new but it wasn't the Ritz. What a shame that it had? to go. I remember some great movies other than cowboys and Saturday morning serials. That's where I fell in love with Jane Powell, Deborah Kerr and others, but Jane Powell always was and still is my favorite, I just love and watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers every chance I get...you know who thinks it is a silly movie, but then Howard Keel ISN'T Jane Powell.

Horace

Yeah, that's me with the guitar. That's one of the few TV things I've done that I like. I've got a DVD of the show and I watch it every now and then. I really like the music at the end when they're rolling credits. The Bonnie and Clyde thing, I never did see. Brenda Thornton said she saw it on satellite. I don't have a TV and they didn't send me a tape, so I've never seen it.

I too, loved the ritz. The Grand Old Opry came there once. 1940s. I saw Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl and many more stars. I enjoyed movies there from 1939 thru 1950. Great times!