The Ritz Theatre in Toccoa, Georgia. The theater was constructed in 1939 as a single-screen movie theater seating 500 patrons. It was operated by Fred T. McLendon, who built a chain of 36 theaters across the American Southeast. Of those, the only remaining Georgia theaters from the chain (as of May 2017) are Atlanta’s Buckhead Theatre and Toccoa’s Ritz Theatre. Over time, the Ritz has hosted many forms of entertainment. Photo by Carol Highsmith, 2017.