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RIDGE CINEMA
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| The Ridge Cinema is pretty old. It was built sometime
around the 60's I think, and closed it's doors on Thursday, September 5th,
2002, due to competition from larger theatres in town. It had gone from 4
theatres to 7 in the early 80's I believe, with a couple remodelings, but
the theatre still couldn't keep up, so it was closed. "Signs" was the last
movie I saw there. It was a Sunday afternoon as the ticket shows. The
theater was pretty deserted, and here I was, by myself, watching a movie
about alien invasion. Pretty creepy. The movie was pretty good. It was
kind of reminiscent of those cheesy 50's alien invasion movies, but this
was scarier.
Some memories of the Ridge include seeing "Star Wars" for the first time in 1977, which seemed to stay there for close to a year. "Battlestar Galactica" was shown in groundbreaking Sensurround (lots of bass speakers all over the place). I remember when the fighters took off from the main ship in one scene, and this kid sitting beside me told his grandma he was going to be sick and they left. Ridge was host to many midnight movies as well. Before the video market kicked in, the Ridge was the place to be. Unfortunately, I was too young to see most of these, but I did manage to catch "Nightmare On Elm Street" with some intoxicated friends at a midnight showing. |
CLICK ON ANY PIC TO ENLARGE
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A view from the street. |
The left side of the building with the checkered area is the box office as seen from the street. When "Batman" the 1989 version premiered, the line to get tickets that night was from the box office to halfway around the back of the building.
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Somewhere around the right corner, videogames upstairs I remember playing included "Dig Dug," and everybody's favorite, including mine, "Kangaroo," similar to "Donkey Kong." |
Up ahead is the box office and entrance. |
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A closer view of the box office. The main entrance is to the left of those doors. The concession stand was straight ahead, and to the left, I remember playing a "Twilight Zone" pin. |
Click on the pic to read the "closed" sign. |
Here's a nice bit of reflection, but if you look closely, you can see on the right, the concession stand across the lobby and a tiny bit of the second story. I think they lost a good bit of money on ticket sales, because it was so easy for people to hop between floors and watch movies all day.
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Mostly handicapped spaces in this covered area. The lights stayed on 24/7. You could drive by the building at night, and the ceiling lights could all be seen on inside the building, like they could reopen any time. Just move the equipment back in, but of course that didn't happen. This entire piece of history was demolished, and a Kroger was built in it's place. No idea what happened to the original entrance sign around the corner, but I'm guessing it went in a dumpster. |
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The infamous back door. Great for sneaking your buddies in after they give you the secret knock. Yes, people actually did that, especially during midnight movies. |
Here's a shot of the back of the building. This whole section was an add on in the early 80's, if memory serves me correctly, when they went from 4 to 7 theatres.
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The left half of the back of the building.
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