Macon Magazine

MANY WHO GREW UP IN MACON in the 1930s, '40s and '50s remember the old Ritz eater on Cherry Street as a childhood place to while away Saturday hours watching cowboy movies and short, cliff-hanger serials. And if lucky, it was the place to meet the Saturday film heroes in person as they traveled the country promoting their "brand." Tony Long remembers such things and watching stars like Lash LaRue, Tom Mix, Tex Ritter, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. LaRue was dubbed "Lash" because of his expert bullwhip skills and was the inspiration for Indiana Jones. Long said the Ritz and the Capitol theaters were the places families, kids and teenagers went week-in and week-out to see popular films and an occasional live presentation – like the movie star meet-and-greets and the Duncan Yo-Yo exhibitions. is is in contrast to the Grand Opera House and Douglass eater, where live entertainment was emphasized and showing movies was often the sidelight. It's also significantly in contrast to many Macon cinemas that came and went, closing for good. ough each closed, the buildings once occupied by the Ritz and the Capitol are still in use – albeit after deep restorations and for different entertainment purposes. e thoroughly reshaped Ritz is now home to eatre Macon's musical and dramatic productions and the Capitol is a premier live music venue. Long, now 81, has childhood memories of each, plus knows them inside and out since his family's company, A.T. Long & Son Painting Contractors, had a hand in their restoration along with other firms, notably Macon's Sheridan Construction. "As a kid, we'd spend hours watching movies while our parents did their downtown shopping," he said. "I also remember comedies like Ma and Pa Kettle and all the big hits of the day." Long remembers he and friends often got in using admission tokens found inside bags of Atlanta Milling Co.'s Capitola Flour. While his film-going recollections as a youngster are mainly of the Ritz, he said he remembers the Capitol – and its balcony – as the place for a good teenage date. e original Capitol eater opened in 1916 with a capitol-type building's dome on top purely for decoration. In its heyday, the theater boasted being the first and the only air-conditioned theater in Georgia, but Long said even before actual air conditioning there was an ingenious underground, turbine-style fan system that drew cool air inside unlike at any theater he was aware of. By 1975, the Capitol closed. It had lost too many customers to big, multi-screen, suburban cineplexes. In 2006, however, it re-opened after Long championed efforts to bring it back and convinced others to invest with him. e new theater was known as the Cox Capitol eater. "I just saw a really good-looking building that Macon did not need to lose," Long said. "And we needed a really nice music and movie venue. I didn't want it to always just be a warehouse or store. It was in bad shape when we got it and leaked really bad. ere was a hole in the roof in front of the stage you could drop a Volkswagen through. Pains were taken to make it what it once was. Not entirely, of course, but as much as possible." In 2013, it became part of Wes Griffith's Moonhanger Group and from 2018 on has been known as the Hargray Capitol eatre. "e Capitol eatre was one of the first restoration projects I was involved in more than a dozen years ago when Tony Long, David ompson and others led the charge to restore it," Moonhanger Group president and Macon native Griffith said. "We're honored now to be stewards of that big, beautiful historic landmark that's become an anchor for downtown revitalization and nightlife – a real economic engine for restaurants and bars when it's humming. I'm confident the Hargray Capitol eatre will continue to be an important cog in downtown Macon's economy and culture." Years earlier, it was Long who suggested that eater Macon move into the old Ritz building. ose familiar with the Ritz and involved with its restoration say it first opened in 1928 and closed in 1956. eater Macon bought the building in 1991, and its first production there was "So Long on Lonely Street" in 1995. For the most part, the building was thoroughly gutted and redesigned for eater Macon's use with a stage set to the side rather than at its end. "e building is of historic significance though you won't find it on the national register," said Jim Crisp, eater Macon's founding artistic director, now retired. "It opened as a mini-movie M 60 maconmagazine.com | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2020

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