Rialto Theatre

The Rialto was demolished in the early 1970's. It was never a part of the now closed Church Street Station complex.

A Rialto Theatre in Orlando was mentioned in the May 6, 1930, issue of Motion Picture Times as being one of several Florida houses that had recently installed air conditioning. If it was the same Rialto then 1930 is the latest year it could have been opened, and it could easily date from the 1920s or earlier. Maybe it had a different name before becoming the Rialto.

Flickr user Roloff says that this photo depicts the former Rialto at 27 W. Church Street. If that's so then it isn't demolished. The building looks like it was originally built for retail use and not as a theater, probably in the late 19th or early 20th century, so if this was the actual location then the Rialto was probably a storefront conversion. The building doesn't look big enough to have held 450 seats, though.

The Rialto was a purpose built theater, not converted retail space. Had a chance to go in the building during it's demolition. The roof was off and the front of the booth was gone. The projectors had been unbolted, pushed out, and lay in a heap on the floor. Needless to say my buddy and me were asked to leave before we got killed by falling debris. Wish I had a camera with me. 54 West, a high rise condo project, now occupies the site. I have a photo in the book "Orlando. More Than a Memory" of the Rialto taken when "Knute Rockne, All American" had it's Orlando opening, complete with marching band and majorettes. Gone are the days of ballyhoo! I'll try to scan it in one of these days.

Forgot one more comment. When you go to street view on Google maps, go left until you see a black front building with a sign saying "Antigua". Left of that building, there is a construction site. That is where the Rialto was. BTW, the black front building was the J C Penny store. There was a lot of retail on Church St back in the day.

The listed address of 27 W. Church Street must be wrong, then, or maybe Orlando has renumbered the lots on that block. Mako's, the bar in the building in the Flickr photo, is listed at 27 W. Church, and Antigua is at 41 W. Church. If the Rialto was in the location where the high rise is now, then its address must have been in the high 40s or the 50s.

Of course it's also possible that the Rialto had two locations, starting out as a storefront theater in that old brick building at 27 W. Church and then moving down the street to a purpose-built theater building in the 1930s.

I found this 1938 map of Orlando which locates the Rialto just where Jeff D says it was, assuming that what looks like an entrance to underground parking on the south side of the street now is at the location of the short street that ends at Church Street on the map. The black building was apparently opposite the end of that street (I can't read the street's name on the map) and that would put the Rialto's location right where the high rise is now.

Can anybody confirm the address of the Rialto?

Per the book referenced by Jeff D. above (Orlando: More Than a Memory), the photo on page 151 shows the Rialto Theatre with the Orlando High School Band playing in front of it. The similiarity of the windows in the picture and the building currently standing at 27 W. Church Street leads me to believe that this was the location of the Rialto Theatre. The status should be changed to "closed." I attended the Rialto many times as a child. It was a very plain and cramped theatre, but the kids loved it because it played the double features they wanted to see. The Roxy, a couple of blocks west, was a much nicer and larger house, but class distinctions in place at the time made it unpopular.