Where I’m Coming From
Compiled by Forrest Preece
Jim Ritts, CEO/Executive Director, Austin Theatre Alliance
- What’s something about you that not many people know?
Thirty-five years ago, I co-founded Channel One, a television network that gave Anderson Cooper his start in television news.
- What was your first job?
First way I made money - mowing lawns and playing poker before I could drive. Real job – ABC Sports as a statistician for Keith Jackson on NCAA Football & Frank Gifford on Monday Night Football telecasts
- If you could have dinner with three people – dead or alive, at any time in history—who would they be?
45-year-old John F. Kennedy to convince him not to go to Dallas, 38-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr. to convince him not to go to Memphis, and my almost 80-year-old father to say I love you, thank you, and good-bye.
- If you had to pick three musicians for a playlist, who would they be?
Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis and Jimmy LaFave
- Favorite book, TV show and Broadway show?
Favorite book(s) – Pat Conroy’s South of Broad and Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities or The Right Stuff
TV show - Ted Lasso because I am annoyingly optimistic
Favorite Broadway show – A Chorus Line in 1976 with the original cast including Donna McKechnie
- Most powerful movie you have seen?
Twelve Angry Men
- Favorite place in Austin?
The Paramount Theatre
- Favorite restaurant and watering hole
Bufalina on the Eastside & Donn’s Depot
- What did you want to be when you were growing up?
A professional baseball player. Specifically, I wanted to replace Brooks Robinson at third base for the Baltimore Orioles.
- Which living person do you most admire?
Michelle Obama. And anyone who runs in, when everyone else is running out.
- What makes you happy?
Early morning run around Lady Bird Lake with my wife, Lisa Jasper, and jumping into Barton Springs.
- Best advice you ever received?
Leave it better than you found it.
