Text of Introduction: When you enter Wellington, Texas, on Highway 83, about 100 miles from Amarillo, one of the first things you will see is a large billboard above the intersection of the highway and 15th Street. The text of that sign reads, "Welcome to Wellington: Great Past, Bright Future." The paint is chipped and the colors have faded, and the streets that lie behind--some paved, some dirt--are full of boarded storefronts and abandoned cars. But if you turn left at 15th Street, and then make a right onto East Avenue, three blocks down you will pass the house where I was born. And if you continue for one more block, you will see a large, green, neon marquee, attached to a 1928 brick building, lit up with the letters "R I T Z." This is the Ritz Theater. The story that follows is about that theater, and about the town that-- although I left as an infant-- I still consider in many ways to be my hometown. Winner of the 2008 Norman Holmes Pearson Prize, Yale University.

Text of Introduction: When you enter Wellington, Texas, on Highway 83, about 100 miles from Amarillo, one of the first things you will see is a large billboard above the intersection of the highway and 15th Street. The text of that sign reads, "Welcome to Wellington: Great Past, Bright Future." The paint is chipped and the colors have faded, and the streets that lie behind--some paved, some dirt--are full of boarded storefronts and abandoned cars. But if you turn left at 15th Street, and then make a right onto East Avenue, three blocks down you will pass the house where I was born. And if you continue for one more block, you will see a large, green, neon marquee, attached to a 1928 brick building, lit up with the letters "R I T Z." This is the Ritz Theater. The story that follows is about that theater, and about the town that-- although I left as an infant-- I still consider in many ways to be my hometown. Winner of the 2008 Norman Holmes Pearson Prize, Yale University.