It was the "crown jewel" of a small town that had burned to the ground just one year before...

In 1878 just fifty-four citizens called Spokane home, including two young entrepreneurs who would leave a mark on the city. John Browne and Anthony Cannon made great fortunes in real estate and business and became Spokane's first millionaires. In 1889 they began construction on the magnificent Auditorium Theater, which would become the center of Spokane's civic and cultural life.

Located on the corner of Main and Post, where present day Riverpark Square now stands, the Auditorium Theater was still under construction when the Fire of 1889 left Spokane's central business district in ruins. When construction was complete in 1890, the immaculate five story red brick building became one of the finest theaters west of the Mississippi. Before construction began, Cannon and Browne visited Chicago to see what was then the largest theater in the country, the Chicago Auditorium. To rival Chicago, builders were instructed to go "one foot wider and one foot deeper" on the Spokane Auditorium. From 1890 until the construction of the Hippodrome Theater in New York in 1914, the Auditorium in Spokane was the largest theater in America.

No expense was spared in the construction. Granite was taken from the base of Mt. Spokane to complete the foundation. Inside, were 17 dressing rooms and a "box office vestibule (lit) by stained glass windows." Atop the building stood a large gold-plated statue of Thalia, Goddess of Music. The Auditorium drew acts from all over the world. Sarah Bernhardt, Alma Gluck, Anna Held and Al Jolson, performed on the stage. Jolson appeared in 1917 while a young Bing Crosby watched from his seat.

Several factors contributed to the demise of the Auditorium Theater. Browne and Cannon went bankrupt, World War I and the Great Depression happened, and the rise of motion pictures overshadowed the glory days of the live theater. In 1934, the building was sold and the new owners promptly had it razed. In its place stands a Payless Drug Store.

The "world's largest stage" remained a fond memory for many Spokanites who were alive to experience it during its time. Old Bill Wallace, who once managed the theater came by to see the "old stage ripped apart" on that fateful day in 1934. Unable to watch any longer, Old Bill simply "walked away" and "let her go."

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"The little theater charms and satisfies and makes an attractive addition to Spokane's Playhouse Row" (Spokesman-Review, 11 May 1924).

As motion pictures replaced stage shows in the 1920's, Spokane's Playhouse Row along Main Street saw the need to move forward with the times as well. One of the earliest film theaters to arrive in Spokane was The Ritz, built in 1924 by local architect J.W. Allender. For nearly a century, The Ritz theater was a "Main Avenue fixture" along the Falls City Block.

Theater was always a big deal in Spokane. Before the prohibition of alcohol in 1916, the local bar scene included risque, burlesque style theater. There were 11 live theaters between 1880 and 1889. By 1910, Spokane was ranked nationally as the most "show conscious community west of Chicago." When motion picture theater was introduced in the 1920's, The Ritz Theater played a very important role in bringing Spokane to a new era of entertainment.

The Spokesman-Review praised The Ritz as a "little theater (that) charms and satisfies and makes an attractive addition to Spokane's Playhouse Row." Indeed, the little theater was quite beautiful in its period details and Italian Renaissance-style architecture.

Like many early theaters, The Ritz suffered from complaints regarding its selection of films. In 1950, the film "Street Corners" caused such a stir that it was banned by the city's censor board on the grounds that it was "objectionable from the standpoint of it's psychological reaction among the general public." Walt Hefer, who ran the establishment as Cinema 66 in the 1960's contended with similar complaints from the public. He discovered he had to run "sleazier and sleazier" films just to make ends meet.

After nearly a century of new owners, including Walt Hefer, who reopened the theater in 1962 as Cinema 63 and the efforts of conservationists, the old Ritz Theater has been carefully preserved. In 2003, it was added to the National Register of Historic places and is now an important addition to the historic East Downtown neighborhood of Spokane.

It was a choice he had to make and one that kept his little theater in business until the present owners of Rocky Rococo turned it into a pizza parlor. You can still find remnants of the old theater virtually everywhere you look in the building today.

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In the 1970's the City Corporation Council warned Spokane to "clean up its ordinance" after receiving complaints from church groups that the old drive-in theater at the Y was playing pornographic films.

In 1952, Spokane opened its fourth drive-in movie theater at the North Division Y. It was just a few years after the first drive-in on East Sprague opened in 1949. In the 1950's business was good for drive-ins. At theaters like the Y, theater owners could cram up to 700 paying customers for each film.

The drive-in theater was the perfect past time for 1950's Americans, who were equally obsessed with automobiles and film. By 1960 there were more than 5,000 drive-ins in the United States. Notable films that played at The North Division Y Drive-In over the years included "Country Girl" with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly, "Heller in Pink Tights" with Sophia Loren. Attendance began to drop later that decade, with the rise of television and other competing entertainments.

Theater owners often tried to boost attendance with racy fare, and the drive-in at the Y soon had a reputation for specializing in movies such as "Atom Age Vampire" and "Sex Kittens Go to College."

Spokane City Councilwoman Marilyn M. Stanton referred to the drive-in as "the hottest place in town," and noted that many teenagers planted themselves on a nearby hillside to watch the racy films. Stanton lobbied to ban the films but little was done, aside from a warning issued by the City Corporation Council asking Spokane to "clean up its ordinance."

When church-sponsored court charges were brought against the theater for "corrupting the moral fiber of the youth," commission members shot it down. They had "no legal power to stop the films."

The drive-in theater as an American Institution eventually went "the way of the silent film" by the 1990s. Spokane's last drive-in closed in 1994.

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