Rialto Theatre
1023 Fair Oaks Avenue,
South Pasadena,
CA
91030
1023 Fair Oaks Avenue,
South Pasadena,
CA
91030
36 people
favorited this theater
Showing 126 - 150 of 247 comments
Indeed. Just type “Rialto” in the theatre search section of Cinematour or Cinema Treasures and you’ll see how many there are/have been.
Justin: “Rialto” has been a common name for theatres for quite a while, and South Pasadena’s Rialto was not the first of that name. The name is of Italian origin, and dates back more than 900 years when the Rialto Market was established in the city of Venice. It also became the name of the city’s most important bridge across the Grand Canal.
In the 17th century, the area around the bridge and the market became the center of the city’s theatre district, and the home of the most important opera companies in Europe. The fame of the district was so great that, in the English speaking word at least, “The Rialto” became a generic term to describe the theatre district of any city. Eventually, impresarios began giving the name to individual theatres, especially in the United States.
Something similar happened with the name “Strand”, which was the name of the street along which London’s theatre district formed in the 19th century. After it became famous, owners of theatres in many places began naming their houses The Strand in order to associate them with the glamour of London’s theatre district.
The closest theater near me that has the same name of the theater is a sixplex in Westfield, N.J. How does that theater compare with this one? Was this the first movie theater named Rialto, and what was it named after?
Good Luck!
Be sure to have enough cash to fix it up as well!
I’m going to try and buy it. I’d like to put my animation studio upstairs. I heard from a friend of the fellow who had baseball card shop on the corner street level storefront that the owners wont consider selling at any price, but I’ll try.
Here’s the Riverview you mention:
/theaters/802/
makes me want to visit!
Sad to say, but I think Landmark has joined the “quick” buck club. Although I haven’t been in the Rialto for a number of years, I never lived in the neighborhood, if the ac wasing working, ticket sales will go south.
I was in Minneapolis recently. Landmark operates three cinemas there, including the Uptown. Uptown is a classic cinema built in the late 1930s.
Landmark is NOT maintaining the house. I talked with a number of regulars who said that Landmark just doesn’t put any money into the place. I shows.
Planned neglect is something theatre owners seem to use a lot. They let the building run down to the point where they don’t get any business. So they say “we’ve got to close, because we don’t get any business."
I remember back in the ‘80s in Boston, I went to a GCC cinema in March. They didn’t have any heat. Guess what the place closed.
Also while I was in Minneapolis I visited the Riverview. This is a single screen house built in the early 1950s. The indie owner keeps it in tip top shape. And he says he does great biz. The house was packed the night I was there.
So if an independent owner can do well with a single screen, I think Landmark could, if they had the leadership and vision.
I hope the city will take over the Rialto. As I remember it was a great house. It would be a shame to see it go.
The Rialto in happier days: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlalder/1185389096/ This is a photo from the 1968 American Theatre Organ Society convention brochure thanks to Bob Alder in Hilo.
I understand Landmark’s not being able to keep the Rialto open in the current market (especially with 5 multiplexes close by in Pasadena!) but I hope that Landmark’s forey into “upscale, highbrow moviegoing” (The Landmark in West LA) doesn’t detract from some of their more quirky venues (the Nuart and NuWilshire in LA, the Seven Gables, Harvard Exit, Egyptian etc, in Seattle) that some of us still like to see our foreign, art and restroed/reissue films in.
A lot of the older Fox houses had large air conditioning units mounted near the rear side of the stage houses. Over the years these units started costing more and more to repair. If the theatre was a money maker it got repaired. The chain that operated the Rialto Theatre before Landmark was Mann Theatres. They kept the State and the Academy Theatres as their Pasadena locations. When Mann Theatres dropped the Rialto, they as so dropped the Highland Theatre and the Fox Venice Theatre from the chain. All three of these house had been trying a budget admission of 99 cent. Up until the mid 90’s the Royal Theatre in West Los Angeles had a swamp cooler to keep the theatre cool. Till 1985 when the Picwood Theatre closed it only had 4 out of 8 full A/C units that worked. If the theatre is a money maker they will spend the money, but most of the times they let it go till it is totally broken.
Kinda low-class of Landmark, letting the Soda Machine run out in a Hot Theatre!
Around 200 in attendence seems to be right. Probably only a few, if any, didn’t know it was the final show.
I still can’t believe the Rialto has no air conditioning, or one that works. On a 95+ degree day it must be unbearable in there. No wonder people stopped going.
here’s the text of today’s LA Times article:
Rialto’s last picture show
The last picture show at South Pasadena’s Rialto Theater
By Francisco Vara-Orta
August 20, 2007
Tina Tsoutsas blew a kiss as she said goodbye to the Rialto theater, a longtime South Pasadena fixture that has showcased cinema from silent movies to this summer’s hit, “The Simpsons Movie.”
The beloved jazz-age institution, one of Southern California’s remaining single-screen theaters, closed Sunday evening after 81 years.
“Ask anybody who knows South Pasadena and they’ll know about the Rialto,” said Tsoutsas, 46.
The Arcadia native first came to the Rialto as a teenager in the 1980s to see a movie marathon on the Beatles. She liked the theater so much that she asked for a job there, working from 1984 to 1996 in various roles, including manning the ticket booth, doling out snacks at concession stands and ushering patrons to their seats.
One of her fondest memories, she said, was working the weekly midnight showing of the cult classic “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” which had a three-decade run at the theater.
“It really is beautiful and historic,” Tsoutsas said in the lobby after a final tour of the theater with her boyfriend, Gary. “It’s just always been here.”
The Rialto opened its doors to the public Oct. 17, 1925, with organist Ray Metcalfe at the Wurlitzer and the Rialto orchestra accompanying the world premiere of Universal Pictures' “What Happened to Jones?” Trapeze artists performed on a bill shared with vaudeville acts. Admission was 30 cents and searchlights sent from Hollywood shone outside, alerting people to the opening.
With 10 dressing rooms, a loft, a green room, an orchestra pit and a deep stage, the Rialto’s Spanish Baroque architecture and Egyptian-accented interior design bestowed a regal atmosphere that went beyond just catching a flick for those perched in its 1,200 seats.
But on Sunday, about 30 people showed up for the first showing at 12:30 p.m. of “The Simpsons Movie,” with the discounted matinee price of $6 for adults. About 200 people attended the last show. Among them: a group of 15 who graduated from South Pasadena High school in 1960. For them, the theater had been a hangout during their teen years. They had returned to it every few years for periodic reunions and had made a point of being there for the last screening.
“No one is here to see the Simpsons, they’re here to see the Rialto Theater,” said Andrew Noice, a manager. The Rialto’s operator, Landmark Theatres, shifted in recent years from showing more independent art-house films to mainstream movies to boost ticket sales, he said.
Noice reminisced throughout the day with nostalgic Rialto customers. “Business has been up since people found out it was shutting down,” he said.
The low-key closing seemed appropriately somber for the aging beauty’s last day. The seats were squeaky, carpets worn. The balcony was closed for repairs, the theater warmer than the covered lobby outside. It took the camera flashes of patrons — allowed after the movie on Sunday only — to brighten up the dimly lit theater, as many fixtures were broken and had not been replaced in years.
“What I really loved about the Rialto is how it’s all original and has the feeling like you’ve just walked into a place frozen in time,” said Maryam Hosseinzadeh, 29, a South Pasadena native and graduate student studying historical preservation at USC’s School of Architecture. “But it’s a Catch-22 because it’s dilapidated, and I can see where there’s water damage, paint chipping away and how it’s become a faded glory.”
The theater has survived through the death of vaudeville, two fires and threats of being converted into a parking lot or five-screen multiplex, finally succumbing to consistently low ticket sales that Landmark officials said couldn’t sustain its operation.
“I remember my mom bringing me here to see "Romeo and Juliet” in the 1970s,“ said David Wolf, 42, a South Pasadena resident. "South Pasadena is starting to look too generic, and this theater is part of the cultural landscape that I worry is dying here. The Rialto was never mainstream and that’s probably why it’s fading out.”
The theater on Fair Oaks Avenue at Oxley Street may come back to life as part of a proposed development project, but that plan, which would take three years, has not been approved. “It was worth the trip to see it,” said Ralph Ramirez, 56, who traveled from Torrance with his wife, Deborah, to visit and photograph the structure. “This was my first time, and I’m sad that it’ll be the last.”
Landmark controls the theater under a long-term lease, but has said it couldn’t commit the $1 million needed for restoration and ticket sales aren’t enough to keep it open. Landmark has declined to release the Rialto’s ticket sales figures, but Noice said that in the seven years he’s worked there, there have been days with not one person showing up to watch a film.
“It’s a heartbreaking ending for the theater,” Noice said. “I’m more sad that it’s closing down than losing my job. I can find another, but there’s only one Rialto.”
I read the LA Times story this morning. It was reported that on some days the total attendance at theater was zero. I can see why Landmark would be complaining.
Well, I just got back from the latest last show at the Rialto. There was a quite a few people there so I look forward to comments and stories.
All I have to say is I hope this historic theater reopens with it’s decor intact, new seats, a new screen, a new sound system, new paint, lighting that compliments the decor, and above all… AIR CONDITIONING. It was like a stuffy tomb in there.
Get well, Rialto. See you when you’re in better shape.
I’ll try to make the very last showing. Here’s hoping to better days for the Rialto.
I was just kidding, but it is small.
Everyone: The Nuart, when it initially opened, had 660 seats. I know it has less now as it has been re-seated a couple times, but I know it is not 150-175. More like 400 is my guess from my last visit.
I won’t speak for others but in the USA, it would be a great THEATER for plays, spelled that way as a noun. However, as a name, we can call it the Rialto Theatre if we like.
Its postage stamp sized. WE should have the Nuart…tiny movie houses should go with tiny towns.
I wonder why they cant just start by painting the exterior facade, its peeling badly, the wood is exposed to the elements. Did you see those huge water stains on the side….water damage. thats what they should fix first, like now, or else there will be nothing left to fix.
South Pasadena is the Safest City in LA!
Cool! Way to go HomeTown!
Of course, it is only 3.4 square miles in size…
Its unfair to compare the Rialto and the Nuart. The Nuart is much younger than the Rialto, and much tinier, whats the capacity? 150? 175?
Another one of the reasons that the Rialto not doing adequate business is that Landmark withold the reall good films from the Rialto that it shows at its other venues…the moneymakers, the foreign, the single auteur, the type of films that people queue around the block for. Landmark WANTS you drive out to the Westside to see THOSE films(ARGHHH…the traffic, the lack of parking, the insane drivers, the high crime!!!). Take a look at Landmark’s calendar handouts…there is a bigtime discrepancy when it comes to the Rialto.
As for live performances…..They use to allow local bands on stage late Sundau evening. I used to do harmonica jams there with Portnoise Complaint and Pagan Dream Salad back in ‘88. Great acoustics I must say.
One thing about sneaking in. if the nightwatchman sees you, the South Pas PD will be there in three seconds(the police deepo is only two blocks away), the downside of living in the safest city in L.A. County.
One more thing…is it spelled THEATRE or THEATER????
It would be a great Theatre for Plays too!
It is built for that!
The 110 ends a few blocks away but I guess it doesn’t matter.
From the various articles it does sound like there is an effort to get some money to repair and renovate the Rialto. Hopefully it’ll still be a theater that shows movies.
I may drive up for it myself, I just wish it was playing something else besides “the simpsons”