Club Ritz

“*Top Drawer Entertainment. We have a big party waiting for you every night!*”
―Poster slogan

The **Club Ritz** is a fictional nightclub from the film *Dick Tracy* (1990).

## Description

The Club Ritz was a nightclub located at 38th street and Grand in the city of Homeville, U.S.A. and which operated in the 1930s. The club was operated by the city's prolific gangsters, and had mechanisms used to hide illegal gambling which the club's guests partook in. The upper-levels of the club also featured a conference-room used for gangster meetings.

The main club area had a floor-level stage where singers and dancers would perform (namely the resident singer "Breathless" Mahoney) and a curtained alcove behind where a pianist would operate (namely the murderous "88" Keyes). Posters advertised having, "The Finest Orchestra" and, "Dancing Every Night".

## History

### Background

#### Lips Manlis

The Club Ritz was a nightclub in Homeville, U.S.A. which served as the base of operations for 1930s crime-lord, "Lips" Manlis, nicknamed for his grotesque downwards stretching mouth. In 1938, Manlis' former protégée Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice returned to the city and had his enforcers pose as police-officers to arrest Manlis, only to kidnap him and his lover Breathless Mahoney to take to Caprice at the South Side Warehouse. Here, Big Boy forced Lips to sign over the Club Ritz, took Breathless Mahoney as his own girlfriend, and then disposed of Lips via a, "Bath", forcing him in a crate to be filled with wet cement and dumped into the waters below.

#### Big Boy Caprice

Big Boy turned the Club Ritz into his headquarters for taking over the city to in an empire of racketeering, political bribery, and illegal gambling. Throughout this, his primary adversary was police-detective Dick Tracy who planted police-officer Bug Bailey in the crawl-space of the Club Ritz to listen in-on and transmit to Tracy Big Boys' schemes before they occur. Throughout this, Tracy also received anonymous assistance from a seemingly faceless vigilante called, "The Blank", who was actually Breathless Mahoney in a plastic mask.

Big Boy used the Club Ritz to hold a meeting of the city's various gang leaders to all work under him. When one of these gangsters refused, he had his car rigged with a bomb as a show to the other mobsters. At some point in time, the Club Ritz hosted the Silver Lake Sisters as part of their show.

On New Year's Eve, Big Boy teamed-up with the Blank to have the Blank remove Dick Tracy as an opponent, not knowing this was a pretence for Mahoney to betray him. The Blank framed Dick Tracy for murder but also kidnapped his girlfriend Tess Truehart to plant in the Club Ritz before anonymously informing the police of the crime, pinned on Big Boy. The police used this as a pretence to raid the Club Ritz where a gun-fight occurred which had the police gunned down countless attendees of the Club Ritz. In this event, Mahoney was mortally injured and died in Dick Tracy's arms. Big Boy escaped, taking Tess as a hostage only to be confronted by Tracy and knocked off a bridge into massive gears which crushed him to death.

#### Later history

The later history of the Club Ritz is unknown.

## Tower of Terror connections

### Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe

There is a poster for the Club Ritz hanging in the Silver Lake Sisters' cafe. The poster shows the silhouettes of various gangsters from the film attending the club.

### Other connections

#### Sunset Boulevard

The *Theatre of the Stars* show, "Dick Tracy Starring in Diamond Double Cross" took place in the Club Ritz.

## Trivia

* Dick Tracy is connected to Tower of Terror history due to it having been planned for attractions and theming throughout Disney's Hollywood Studios and Sunset Boulevard.
* As the raid on the Club Ritz occurred on New Year's Eve, it would mark the 39th anniversary of Harrison Hightower III's death.
* The Club Ritz and South Seas Club from the Rocketeer are both fictional 1930s nightclubs from 1990s films based on comics which the Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe has posters identifying the Silver Lake Sisters as having performed in.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.shyguysworld.com/index.php?topic=20947.0