This Welsh based company was run by two confirmed film fanatics John Curtis & Ken Smith. John Curtis started with a Bing 35mm projector complete with oil lamp during world war 2 showing films to raise cash for Mrs Churchill’s Red Cross Appeal.
Similar to the late David Guest, Ken Smith came from a fairground background and formerly made his living travelling around the Midlands running a pair of dodgem cars and had also served an apprenticeship with B.T.H in Rugby where he spent time working on cinema equipment.
The firm started by selling some used cinema seats purchased at a local auction and sold the lot to fellow film collectors who had there own mini-home cinemas at home.
They then started a Super 8mm film library with the proceeds which after a slow start proved to be very popular and stocked all of the latest Derann Releases too.
Ritz Films made an appearance at several conventions including the Blackpool convention in 1988 (John Curtis acted as toastmaster for a number of years at the evening dinner) and also the British Film Collectors convention at the Watermans Arts Centre in London where they sold used Super 8 films and equipment at very reasonable prices. I remember purchasing a Super 8mm optical ex-airline print of ” The Burglars” starring Omar Sharif from them for a very cheap price.
ADMIN. adds: As you can see in their adverts there were two adresses and as yet I am unable to find out as to why.
© Mark Williams 2020
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