For decades, Newcastle Street in downtown Brunswick was book-ended by two movie theaters: the Ritz and the Bijou. The older of the pair—the Ritz— began not as a space for films, but for live performances. Built in 1899 as the Grand Opera House, the building shared its second floor with the general offices of the Brunswick and Birmingham Railroad. The structure replaced an earlier opera house and, like its predecessor, presented the community with live theatrical productions. By 1915, though, tastes in Brunswick began to change, and those at the Grand Opera House took notice. Another city theater, the Pastime, had started showing the newest in entertainment: movie reels. The Brunswick News advertised the Pastime’s offerings, with titles like Doctor Smith’s Baby and The Shadow of Tragedy, described as “a two-reel drama.”
Coastal Georgia Historical Society
Newcastle Street Looking North
A 1964 with the Bijou Theatre’s marquee visible on the left.
Just a year later, the Grand Opera House shortened its name: it was now known simply as the Grand. The rebranded theater showed a mix of vaudeville productions and silent movies. Excitement for movies was widespread in Brunswick, and not just in the newspaper’s entertainment pages. In March of 1916, a front-page Brunswick newspaper story told of local citizens clamoring to take part in a production filmed by Savannah’s Sunny South Moving Picture Company. In another issue published the same week, Kaiser’s, a Brunswick retailer, advertised a sale of “Charlie Chaplin play suits,” complete with “hat, cane and moustache.”
The Grand was not alone in its desire to capitalize on the popularity of movies. That same month, March 1916, a rival theater, the Bijou, opened just down Newcastle Street. Unlike the Grand, it exclusively showed films. The Brunswick News’ “Theatrical” column routinely highlighted the two theaters’ offerings, but the Bijou also took out its own splashy advertisements featuring extended descriptions of the week’s films. By 1925, the Grand decided to rebrand once again. Only the Bijou appeared in the pages of the newspaper until—just in time for the summer of 1927—it was joined by a new name: the Ritz.
Coastal Georgia Historical Society
Grand Opera House
By 1929, both theaters were under the direction of Arthur Lucas, a theater developer from Savannah, and William K. Jenkins, the founder of the Georgia Theatre Company. Despite their close location, the Ritz and the Bijou seem not to have operated as rivals, but as companions through the mid-twentieth century. The Bijou closed due to fire damage in the late 1970s, while the city of Brunswick acquired the Ritz in 1980. Today, the building that was once the Bijou, at 1313 Newcastle Street, is owned by Port City Partners. The Ritz is operated by Golden Isles Arts and Humanities and remains a space for live entertainment, exhibits, and, of course, movies.
The first of this month’s featured images from the Coastal Georgia Historical Society is a 1964 postcard titled “Newcastle Street, Looking North,” with the Bijou Theatre’s marquee visible on the left. The other is an undated image of the Grand Opera House that would later become the Ritz Theatre.
The Coastal Georgia Historical Society presents this article and images from our archives as part of our mission “to connect people to Coastal Georgia’s dynamic history.” The Society operates the iconic St. Simons Lighthouse Museum and the World War II Home Front Museum, housed in the Historic Coast Guard Station at East Beach. To learn more about the Society, its museums, diverse programs, and membership, please visit coastalgeorgiahistory.org.
