Rialto Square Theatre

I went to movies here and it really became run down, but it sure is great now! WOW!

I became interested in the name TIVOLI when I worked at a Milwaukee area hotel which had a restaurant with this name; they had no idea where the name came from, so I did some research, especially since it had also become the name of a number of theatres. It was popularized in the 19th century by the famous Tivoli amusement park and gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark founded in 1843 in imitation of the famous gardens and palaces of the Italian ruling princes of the 16th century, the Estes, who built the famed Villa d'Este palace in the region of Tivoli, a popular tourist attraction to this day. Thus, the pleasure-assuring name was thought auspicious by the developers of theatres, theatres being the pleasure palaces of the masses of their day.

This is akin to the common theatre name: RIALTO, for the famous enclosed Rialto bridge of 1591 in Venice, Italy over the Grand Canal, which to this day contains many amusing boutiques and is at the heart of an entertainment district. The distinctive architecture of the Rialto bridge also inspired many latter day architects, and perhaps found its forms reproduced in some movie palaces. A monograph on the origin of theatre names was presented at the 1981 Conclave of the Theatre Historical Society of America then meeting at the PABST theater in Milwaukee, but the origins of the above names and others were not known by the author of that paper. Perhaps this will add a little bit to that quest.

The RIALTO THEATRE opened it's doors the day I was born,May 21st,1926.I was fortunate to be able to celebrate Rialto's 60th birthday party with an old fashion vaudeville show.My wife and I have attended many stage shows there.I'll always know how old that theatre is whenever I have a birthday.Thanks to everyone who renovated it.Let's have a party when it's 80 years old.

Here is a link to a photograph of the Rialto Square, dated the year it opened, 1926. From the Universtity of Minnesota Libraries Collection.

The "restoration" of the Rialto Theatre was a fortunate method of delaying the demise of the theatre, however the work performed was far from being faithful to the original color scheme of the theatre. Alas, most of the draperies were removed at that time. Many of the drapes, including the organ grille swags, swags on the balcony sidewalls and most of the arches on the orchestra floor were still intact before the restoration. The grand drape header was in place, and parts of its ornamentation were used in the bland red replacement that was hung in its place
A lot of the gold leaf, creme, red and muted green colors were replaced with a more pastel color pallette at this time as well.
Unfortunately the side lobby exit, which resembled an outdoor Italian Garden, complete with blue atmospheric ceiling, was demolished in the early 1970's to make room for a Navy recruitment center. It would have been great to see this element recreated at the time of the restoration.
There was a huge Gilt Clock in the lobby, right up until the time of the sale of the building from its original owners. There were also about six large Gold Leaf Throne chairs in the grand lobby also, which were sold to a Chicago Antiques dealer in the same time frame.
There was a "lobby organ" which consisted of several ranks (sets) of pipes, high above the Rotunda Lobby. This division of the organ was playable from the main organ console in the auditorium and was supposed to be used to entertain waiting patrons. The Lobby Organ pipe chamber was reached from the upper house left exit door hallway, through a plain wood door which opened onto the top of the lobby ceiling. The Blower for the pipes was situated here also.
The Rialto was, and still is, an absurdly beautiful theatre situated in a rural city, completely out of place in Joliet, as most theatres of this calibre were in larger metropolitan areas.

The opening of "The Sting" was filmed in and around the Rialto

My brothers and sisters and I saw a lot of movies at the Rialto (also at the Mode and at the Princess) in the 1960's and 1970's. I have two memories to share.

The first is, of course, it's size. It seemed like everything at the Rialto was gigantic. It was a large theatre, and I believe it had entrances on three different streets. The first lobby was about three stories high and had mirrors everywhere. There were also six or eight HUGE thrones along the walls. Four or five of us could sit (or stand) on one chair, and you could easily hide behind a chair's leg. The second lobby was the rotunda. It had a chandelier that must have been twenty feet from top to bottom. The third lobby, which had the doorways to the main floor of the theatre, was as long as the other two lobbies combined. Off of the third lobby, there was a kind of dining room or cafe.

The second memory is of a picture that was always hanging in the lobby. It was of a young woman, and looked like it was from the 1920's. Underneath, it said her name, and that she was from Joliet, and that she was the first Miss America. I don't know if that is so, but I am sure that is what it said. We would always stop and look at the picture, and make some weird mental note that the first Miss America was from Joliet, as if it were an important and useful fact. It sounds outrageous now, but it was so normal then.

The RIALTO has a number of claims to fame, but it is the more unusual elements that remain in my memory, and while I bemoan the loss of the luxurious draperies (later somewhat replaced by lesser creations done by Mid-West Scenic in Milwaukee), it is that wonderful 'fountain' in stained glass forms centered in the rotunda lobby since opening day that is most memorable. Here a four foot high octagon of metal grillework upon a marble base rises to a bowl of glass fruits which are illuminated from below. The grilles are backed with sheets of stained glass and illuminated from within to silhouette the grillework. It is artistic touches such as this which lend grace to a theatre and distinguish it from all the others with only the basic features. Another theatre that employs such ornaments is the CORONADO in Rockford, Ill, which features 'vases' of stained glass flowers in niches in the sidewalls under the balcony to this day. Using flame shaped bulbs to illuminate them, these decorations also lend the more artistic air so little found in smaller scale in theatres; we all appreciate the large scale effects, but a good planner balances the theme by means of attention to ornaments on both ends of the size scale. One might also recall similar ornaments in the form of the dioramas of Chicago cityscapes that once graced the niches in the walls of Chicago's long-lost SOUTHTOWN (preserved at the Theatre Historical Soc. www.HistoricTheatres.org ), but people can increase the level of interest by using smaller 'jewels' to highlight the lobbies, as was done with antique figural lamps upon an imported mahogany back bar in the PABST in Milwaukee, for example.

The interior reminds me of the Michigan Theatre in Detroit.

Architects Rapp & Rapp of nearby Chicago repeated many of the same ornamental techniquews in their theatres, so similarity in some respects is to be expected among their theatres, but the closest relative to the RIALTO is its near duplicate in Buffalo, NY, the BUFFALO theatre, which is also on this site.

There is a website with the history and some nice photos of the Rialto Square Theater here:
http://www.chicagolandtravel.com/go_url.cfm?area=all&url=http://www.rialtosquare.com/

Jim - you consider the Buffalo Theatre to be a near duplicate of the Rialto Square? You lost me on that one. Don't they have completely different lobby designs? Is it the auditoriums you consider similar? Even those look pretty different to me. I agree with NEO that the auditoriums of the Rialto Square and the Michigan in Detroit are similar. The Buffalo and Rialto Square are both great theatres, but I don't see a lot of similarities between them. Just my opinion.

Yes, Scott, the lobbies are entirely different, but I still maintain that the auditoriums are more than casually similar; of course, you are entitled to your opinion. Frankly, I don't consider either of them to be the acme of R&R's works, but then that is just my opinion, a matter of taste, and as the old saying goes: there is no accounting for taste.

Jim, in my view R&R deserve more acclaim for their Rialto Square effort. I'd have to look at the exact timeline, but I believe the Rialto Square predated the Belmont in Chicago (barely) and certainly the legendary Roxy in NY. Based on that assumption, the lobby rotunda of the Rialto Square appears to have been the basis for Aschlager's Belmont and Roxy designs. There is certainly a strong similarity between the floorplans of the Rialto Square and Roxy. Regardless, the Rialto Square, particularly the rotunda, is a spectacular space. The rest of the building, while certainly grand, is for the most part boiler-plate R&R, and not overly imaginative. By the late 1920s, R&R weren't doing a whole lot of innovating.

Even though the RIALTO SQUARE is not my favorite R&R work, the fact remains that it is a wonderful and beautiful palace, and I certainly hope it long endures. I especially like the illuminated 'grape clusters' 'fountain' in the rotunda. That rotunda may have inspired Ahlschlager for it is certainly grand. I only wish the equally grand original drperies could have been reporduced for it, since the originals in photos are wonderfully done. It was the Milwaukee firm of the then Mid-West Scenic Co. which made the replacement decorative draperies, but I am not entirely pleased with their vacuum-formed plastic gilded to imitate the appliqued and embroidered pendants on the originals. Their achievement is innovative, and it is a lot better than the plain panels so often seen today --if they replace the draperies at all. Still, I feel that plastic is out of place in such forms and venues. As to R&R not being innovative in the late 20s, it is too bad that I cannot post on this site the opening day photos of their WARNER here in Milaukee (now called the GRAND). This was the finest of their medium scale works, if I may be forgiven some local bias.

Jim - I agree with your opinion of the Warner in Milwaukee. I had forgotten about that one. And the same could be said for the Paramount in Aurora, IL and the Warner in Erie, PA, both from 1931. They did get creative with their use of art deco. Though Rapp & Rapp were trailblazers in the teens and early 1920s, they became a little predictable in the late 20's when they were still using traditional styles, usually French in origin. But what they did they did well. They definitely became more creative in the early 1930s until the depression took hold.

The WARNER in Milwaukee and its kissing cousin you mention in Erie PA, were both opened in May of 1931, and the PARAMOUNT in Aurora was a splendid example of R&R's ability to merge delicate French rococco influences with their Art Deco in a warm and wonderful way. Many architects made Deco hard and cold, and thereby lost its appeal in the setting of a theatre that is supposed to be warm and inviting. I have not seen any of R&R's court houses or other public buildings done in Art Deco, but I wonder if they were somehow able to continue the warmth in such venues. The reason R&R used "traditional styles, usually French in origin" is because that was their 'signature' style! Any survey of their theatres will reveal their trademark signature of the stylized sunburst of King Louis XIVth, the Sun King. They did work in other styles such as Spanish in the case of the Chicago UPTOWN, but they clearly prefered French -- and that is what their clients wanted too! After the death of the principals, the firm did move into the so-called International Style in such as the FISHER remodeling in Detroit, but they still maintained their signature opulent, yet light touch characteristic of the French influence. I am happy they did.

There are some interior photos of the Rialto Square Theater here and here and one more is here.

It should be noted that the photos that 'lostmemory' referrs to are Post-restoration, and therefore the lobby textiles (draperies, tapestries, gonfalons, etc.) were not replaced. The auditorium photo is also post-restoration and shows the new House Curtain and the Grande Drape designed and built by the now-defunct Mid-West Scenic and Stage Equipment Co. in Milwaukee. Those golden festoons upon the top of the Grand Drape are not the embroidered or padded passementerie (trapunto) that the originals would have been, but are actually hollow, vacuum formed plastic, gilded to resemble the originals and to avoid today's high cost of hand fabrication. The ersatz gloss of plastic can still be discerned, however, from the balcony rail. Still, at least they made an attempt here to return some of the glory of the originals, and the theatre is still with us.

Here is another link:
http://www.rialtosquare.com/elegance_main.htm

[url=http://snuffy.lib.umn.edu/image/srch/bin/Dispatcher?mode=600&id=atc3615c]Here[/ur;] is another exterior from UMinn

Whoops. Try again: here is another exterior from UMinn, and here is another

Wow, I was at the Rialto a few months ago to watch "Dora the Explorer" with my 4-year-old, and thought the theater was beautiful then! After looking at the old photographs, I wish I had been around to see the theater before it was restored. (We only moved to Joliet 5 years ago.) Thank you all for the pictures!

On the second-season finale of VH-1's "My Fair Brady", which aired July 23rd, Christopher Knight and Adrianne Curry's wedding reception was held in the lobby of the Rialto Square. Photos can be seen here, under the last photo gallery, "The Reception".

This link has a photo of the Rialto Square Theater and its Grande Barton theater organ.

Here is a recent photo of the Rialto Square Theater.

Russell Phillips Photos:

Rotunda
Auditorium
Rialto Auditorium, Wide

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978

Rubens Rialto Square Theater ** (added 1978 - Building - #78001199)
Also known as Rialto Theater
102 N. Chicago St., Joliet
Historic Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer: Rapp,George, Rapp,C.W.
Architectural Style: No Style Listed
Area of Significance: Architecture, Social History, Entertainment/Recreation
Period of Significance: 1925-1949
Owner: Private
Historic Function: Commerce/Trade, Recreation And Culture
Historic Sub-function: Auditorium, Theater
Current Function: Commerce/Trade, Recreation And Culture
Current Sub-function: Theater

The Rialto closed briefly or was planning to close in 1951:

JOLIET —(AP)—The closing of Joliet's Rialto theater, one of the most costly movie houses in downstate Illinois, was announced today. Roy Rogan, manager, told theater employees that the closing date will be June 9. The theater cost about $1,500,000 when it was built 25 years ago. Rogan did not state why the theater is closing.

This is a 2007 photo of the Rialto Square Theater.

Crain's Chicago Business is reporting on a $5 million project to bring the Rialto Square even closer to its original luster.
http://chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=27573

Here is an undated photo from a plumbing company that did some work on the theater:
http://tinyurl.com/6pblfs

This is a September 2008 photo.

A 1926 ad for the Rialto can be seen here.

There is a book series called Images of America, featuring one book titled "Joliet" by author & Joliet native Marianne Wolf. I bought the book in 2006 at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Pages 113-115 are dedicated to Rubens Rialto Square.
There are four pictures with descriptions of the building, lobby, Barton Grande Theatre Pipe Organ, and stage.
The book is/was printed by Arcadia Publishing.

1976 Photo

1982 Photo

Here are a couple of my pictures of the Rialto Square that I took this summer (on a rather rainy, dreary day):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bruce_theatres/3787286656/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bruce_theatres/3786476275/