By John Cofield

 

In the 1920s, The Lyric on Van Buren moved from live performances to early motion pictures. 

By 1936, “talkies” were exploding onto the entertainment scene and The Ritz Theater opened on Van Buren within a stone’s throw of The Lyric. 

So for decades, the two competed for local and student dollars. In time, The Lyric’s interior declined and the nickname “two sticks” (one stick to hold up your seat and another to beat off the rats) entered the local lingo. 

But then came Cinema 6 and we knew we were uptown now! 

The big comfortable seats were a pleasant discovery. Once again, big groups of teenage friends piled in for silver-screen thrills and then smiled our way back home. 

I would not say our Oxford childhoods were perfect, but we got pretty close.